PartyQ struggles at an end
Posted: 01 Jun 2013, 19:41
I bought a BBQ Guru Party Q to help with overnight cooks as I have three small kids and no wish to monitor the temp through the night. I was tired of setting everything up perfectly and watching it (by the Redi-Chek) until midnight, going to bed and then waking at six to find my nicely managed 225-240f has dwindled to ~140f and take hours to get everything back on track. This normally also meant major delays in serving and once or twice a ruined attempt (one brisket in particular annoyed me so much I started looking for an automated approach).
Loving my gadgets as I do the PartyQ looked like a perfect option but being battery powered I found that by following the instructions the fan was working too hard through the night and ended up running out of batteries by about 4am and then not allowing enough air through = waking up to low temps again.
Finally on yesterday I had a change of plan. I re-calibrated the PartyQ to match the Redi-Chek and then set one of the WSM bottom vents to 1/3 open (so that if the PartyQ failed at least the temp wouldn't fall too much.
The result was an unbelievably steady 225f through the night and a 4.7Kg Pork shoulder perfectly cooked in about 20hrs.
From this;

to this

to this

Loving my gadgets as I do the PartyQ looked like a perfect option but being battery powered I found that by following the instructions the fan was working too hard through the night and ended up running out of batteries by about 4am and then not allowing enough air through = waking up to low temps again.
Finally on yesterday I had a change of plan. I re-calibrated the PartyQ to match the Redi-Chek and then set one of the WSM bottom vents to 1/3 open (so that if the PartyQ failed at least the temp wouldn't fall too much.
The result was an unbelievably steady 225f through the night and a 4.7Kg Pork shoulder perfectly cooked in about 20hrs.
From this;

to this

to this
