Charlie Posted November 7, 2019 Share Posted November 7, 2019 Hi All, got my Christmas present early this year. I have installed the smartfire on my Fornetto Basso, I am planning to use the smartfire to run cook through the night, I like doing some of the low and slow stuff. The install went ok, but I find the cake tin to be very flimsy and also it sits well on top of the wheel, it doesnot fasten well (it still moves when I fit the fan on the connector), I am not sure people have had the same issue, any tips would be appreciated 🙂 I first tried to use charcoal, I have used it before and works well for grilling but as you can see through the graph, the temperature stability was not great. was trying to run at 110'C I then started the following day with another trial with Weber briquettes, the result was quite impressive, it was raining on and off, very cold through the day but the stability was much better. I loaded a full basket of briquettes, started with a minion but let the smartfire take the temperature up. It ran stable for 9 hours, had to stop it to go to bed, there was quite a few briquettes left, see below (sorry for the quality) I also checked the probes in a bowl of hot water, the food probe were all quite close but the pit temperature was a bit off, have you guys noticed similar differences. Overall I am happy with this first couple of runs, there should be some low and slow on the menu for Christmas. Cheers Charlie 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skagg2000 Posted November 7, 2019 Share Posted November 7, 2019 I always find when using the DigiQ or Party that it's hard to get an even burn with charcoal in the Razzo or ProQ. The forced air always encourages the charcoal to burn nearest the inlet with the fan. As the other two vents are shut, a balanced burn seems difficult to achieve (for me at least) I therefore have to load the fire basket accordingly Cheers n Gone Nick 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phlashster Posted November 8, 2019 Share Posted November 8, 2019 7 hours ago, Charlie said: The install went ok, but I find the cake tin to be very flimsy and also it sits well on top of the wheel, it doesnot fasten well (it still moves when I fit the fan on the connector), I am not sure people have had the same issue, any tips would be appreciated 🙂 Hi Charlie, I have the cake tin adaptor on a Pro Q and i find it fits well and is solid. Definitely worth seeing if you can tighten this up. If its loose, it might affect your results. (loose = extra air = harder to keep temps low) That second graph looks perfect. It looks like you have some epic cooks ahead! I normally use briquettes for these low and slow controlled cooks also. As @Skagg2000 said above, the minion always tracks towards the air input from the Smartfire so i start my minion 'offset' away from the Smartfire rather than in the centre. 👍 Phil. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sotv Posted November 8, 2019 Share Posted November 8, 2019 (edited) I have had issues as well, but getting there. I have an old version of the ProQ at the moment and found the cake adaptor slips and needs re-tightening quite often. Looking to replace mine with another bullet smoker of some description and will be looking to buy one that allows the daisy wheel to be removed by undoing a nut rather than the rivet on mine currently. Which I am hoping is the cause of the slipping, as I haven't removed the daisy wheel on mine. Have you removed or is the daisy wheel easily removed on your Basso? After a lot of trial and error, found different types of charcoal do work, some better than others, especially with regards to outside temperature. Found the ProQ cocoshell work best for me overall, in all conditions but lumpwood works well in warmer outside temperatures also. If a warm day I tend to light on the opposite side of the smartfire. If colder I leave a hole in the centre of a full basket of charcoal and pouring half a lit chimney of white coals into the hole. and a few unlit ones on top of it, I find that works better for me with lumpwood or generally colder outside conditions. If some unlit or half used coals remain after a cook, i tend to use them in my next cook as starter coals for my chimney. That 2nd chart looks good and hopefully you will get many more of them, in your coming cooks. I noticed a slight difference with my pit and meat probes, but 10F difference isn't huge, in your case when it comes to pit temps if it is. But it maybe the shorter pit probe is being affected by steam/moisture from the water than the longer pit probes when you tested them perhaps? If you are convinced the probe is running 10F hotter than it actually is, you can always set the temp for 235F to get a 225F cook for example Edited November 8, 2019 by sotv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Posted November 8, 2019 Author Share Posted November 8, 2019 Hi Guys, thank you for the advice. I was able to take the wheel off, and after having a closer look the cake tin I could see the actual issue comes from the fact that there is a slight joggle for the wheel, that was slightly smaller than the tin (prevented the tin to sit in properly). I was looking for a solution, thinking of buying a hole cutter or even enlarging slightly one the hole to fit the 3/4 inch adapter. But came across one of my daughter's kitchen toy pan, and thought she would love for me to borrow it permanently. Now sits solidly. I will also try to start the minion on the opposite side next time, makes perfect sense. Cheers. Charlie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skagg2000 Posted November 9, 2019 Share Posted November 9, 2019 Now thats what you call improvisation! Good job Cheers n Gone Nick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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