Larry D.
Head Chef
I got my Stoker today, and haven't yet installed it on my WSM, but I thought I'd post some "first impressions". The Naked Whiz did such a great job on the review of this unit that I don't think I could add much, if anything, to what is posted on his site.
The only difference between my Stoker and the one TNW reviewed is that mine came with the adaptor for a WSM. The best description I can give you is that it looks like a small stainless steel doggie water bowl.
The blower is mounted to the bottom, and the open "top" end sits against the body of the WSM. It is held on by a mounting bolt that goes into one of the three holes in the WSM vent. I haven't tried it to see how well it fits, and I wonder whether a gasket might be needed to prevent air leaks. Probably not, as the whole setup appears well thought-out, and if a gasket was needed, I'm sure there would be one.
As The Whiz noted, you have to mount the blower with the cable side up, so that the small, gravity operated damper can close when the blower isn't running.
The Stoker came with two short pieces of copper (or brass?) tubing that are designed to replace two of the WSM's grate mounting bolts, a la the Guru's "eyelets", so that you can run the probe wires into the WSM instead of routing them under the lid. Each piece of tubing is flared on one end, and comes with two stainless steel collars that attach to it via set-screws (one collar inside the WSM, and the other outside).
The Guru eyelet, in my opinion, is a more elegant approach, but the Stoker's gadget can easily be removed at any time, just by using an Allen wrench (which they thoughtfully provide). Since I've already installed two Guru eyelets in my WSM, I won't need to install the Stoker ones.
As you can see from The Whiz's photo of the temperature probes,
the "fire probe" is attached to a metal clip. You have to detach the clip from the probe, and remove the silicone sleeve, to route the probe through the eyelet; this is easy to do. NOTE: the silicone sleeve that covers the attachment between the probe and its cable DOES NOT appear to be removable. Because of this sleeve, I could only get one probe through each Guru eyelet. Since there are two eyelets, and two probes, that isn't a problem. If I decide to add more probes later on, I still have the Stoker eyelets in reserve.
Setting up the unit isn't really difficult, but it did take some time to get used to moving through the menus. The Whiz mentions that the temperature probes are calibrated at the factory, which is true. But as far as I could tell, the controller does not automatically "read" the calibration data for the probe - that is one of the entries you make when you set up the unit. The unique ID numbers for the two probes were listed in the back of my user's manual, along with the calibration value (which happened to be 38 for both probes). I had to change the value in the controller (which was 37) manually.
I'm looking forward to using the Stoker - probably for my first overnight cook - in the next week or so. :happyd:
The only difference between my Stoker and the one TNW reviewed is that mine came with the adaptor for a WSM. The best description I can give you is that it looks like a small stainless steel doggie water bowl.
The blower is mounted to the bottom, and the open "top" end sits against the body of the WSM. It is held on by a mounting bolt that goes into one of the three holes in the WSM vent. I haven't tried it to see how well it fits, and I wonder whether a gasket might be needed to prevent air leaks. Probably not, as the whole setup appears well thought-out, and if a gasket was needed, I'm sure there would be one.
As The Whiz noted, you have to mount the blower with the cable side up, so that the small, gravity operated damper can close when the blower isn't running.
The Stoker came with two short pieces of copper (or brass?) tubing that are designed to replace two of the WSM's grate mounting bolts, a la the Guru's "eyelets", so that you can run the probe wires into the WSM instead of routing them under the lid. Each piece of tubing is flared on one end, and comes with two stainless steel collars that attach to it via set-screws (one collar inside the WSM, and the other outside).
The Guru eyelet, in my opinion, is a more elegant approach, but the Stoker's gadget can easily be removed at any time, just by using an Allen wrench (which they thoughtfully provide). Since I've already installed two Guru eyelets in my WSM, I won't need to install the Stoker ones.
As you can see from The Whiz's photo of the temperature probes,
the "fire probe" is attached to a metal clip. You have to detach the clip from the probe, and remove the silicone sleeve, to route the probe through the eyelet; this is easy to do. NOTE: the silicone sleeve that covers the attachment between the probe and its cable DOES NOT appear to be removable. Because of this sleeve, I could only get one probe through each Guru eyelet. Since there are two eyelets, and two probes, that isn't a problem. If I decide to add more probes later on, I still have the Stoker eyelets in reserve.
Setting up the unit isn't really difficult, but it did take some time to get used to moving through the menus. The Whiz mentions that the temperature probes are calibrated at the factory, which is true. But as far as I could tell, the controller does not automatically "read" the calibration data for the probe - that is one of the entries you make when you set up the unit. The unique ID numbers for the two probes were listed in the back of my user's manual, along with the calibration value (which happened to be 38 for both probes). I had to change the value in the controller (which was 37) manually.
I'm looking forward to using the Stoker - probably for my first overnight cook - in the next week or so. :happyd: