# first imp. & a ? Pitmaster IQ



## one eyed jack (Jun 8, 2019)

I resisted getting a smoker tender for many years but the older I get the harder it is to sit idle and watch a smoker, so I broke down and bought a Pitmaster IQ 110,  (The basic model), for my WSM 18.

Put together a pot of beans and a rack of Baby Backs for my first run with it.

The IQ worked really good for the first hour and a half.  (Minion start up, temp came up predictably to the 250* I had set on the IQ).  








At 1 1/2 hours in I opened the smoker, removed the top rack, and added the vegetables to my pot of beans.



















All was good, to this point, but when I shut the smoker back up, the temp came back up to 250* in good time but the IQ's fan kept cycling on,  (IQ was still set at 250* intake at 1), and the smoke chamber temp went up to 265* and still climbing.  At this point I re-set the IQ to 225* and the smoker started to cool off.

I am not completely dissatisfied with the IQ.  It was a stress, reliever and I didn't have to hover over the smoker constantly, but I was surprised and a bit disappointed that it didn't control the temp better following my opening up the smoker.

I wound up thinking that the IQ probably would have kept my temps more constant if i hadn't opened the smoker up, but, I was hoping for more from this piece of equipment.

I haven't studied the videos, as Pitmaster suggests in their info, but I feel like the equipment is pretty much self explanatory.

The smoke turned out fine, in the end, just took more attention than I was hoping, going into it.

Anyone know what I did wrong or have similar experiences with the IQ?

Thanks in advance.

John


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## tropics (Jun 9, 2019)

John I don't have the IQ, but my Gurus' fan cycles a lot.Only thing I can think of is when you opened the top,it allowed enough air in to fuel the fire.
Food looks great bye the way.
Richie


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## one eyed jack (Jun 9, 2019)

Thanks for your response Richie.  It makes sense.  P-master includes a cap for the intake tube to "snuff" your fire, post cook.  Maybe I should have disconnected the air supply hose and used that snuffer cap, before opening the smoker.

I need to spend some more time with the IQ, I guess, to get a handle on it.

The chow did turn out pretty good.


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## SmokinAl (Jun 9, 2019)

If the IQ is like a Guru, it learns your smoker & after a few smokes it will control the fire better. The guru also has a sensor that detects when the lid is opened so it won't stoke the fire. At any rate your food looks real good!!
Al


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## one eyed jack (Jun 9, 2019)

SmokinAl said:


> If the IQ is like a Guru, it learns your smoker & after a few smokes it will control the fire better. The guru also has a sensor that detects when the lid is opened so it won't stoke the fire. At any rate your food looks real good!!
> Al



Thank's Al.  That's good news about the unit learning the smoker.  Hope it works that way with my IQ.  I'll try it again next weekend.

The IQ also has the "open lid" function, and it did seam to kick in when I opened the smoker.

Thank's for the compliment on my chow.  It was pretty tasty.


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