Great review! I've been a Thermoworks customer for many years using Thermapen's, and the original Smoke, along with the Dot Thermometer, and various other goodies. Absolutely awesome products! I own Weber grills exclusively! And, upon givng my son his first Weber 22 kettle for Christmas last year, I gave him my second generation Thermapen. 👍 Yesterday, I finally ordered the Smoke X (4 channel) & Billows. It was high time to add a fan system to my Smokey Mountain 22!! My son will now become the recipient of my Smoke with the Smoke Gateway. 🙂 We smoked a 3 lb. beef brisket on Monday. 7.25 hours total. It turned out fantastic!! But; I was having to keep adjusting the vents to stay around 250. I am super excited about getting the Smoke X and Billows!! 🍻
How did you connect the billows to the Pit Barrel Cooker since you’re putting a rectangular peg in a round hole? Also what do you connect the ambient probe to? I just got the same exact setup. PBC and the Smoke X4 with the Billows. Thanks
I have the smoke x 4 and billows. Billows installed just fine in a 1 inch hole on my 30 gallon UDS... No Leaks and works fantastic at keeping desired temp.
Actually, we installed the Fireboard fan by drilling a hole into the Pit Barrel Cooker, however we only did this for testing various fan controllers in a separate testing. The Pit Barrel doesn't benefit from a thermostatic controller as it holds pit temps steadily on its own right around 255F. Personally, I don't recommend installing a fan on it in most cases.
Question- Once you connected the billows unit I no longer saw the Alarm for the high and low on the number 4 slot containing temp probe. Does connecting the billows take away the cook chambers high/low temp alarm setting ?? Many thanks..Mark Y.
Hey Mark, missed your comment sorry for the delayed reply. Once you plug in Billows alarms become auto set to ±25 degrees from whatever your target temperature is, you are not able to edit it at this time.
Did you keep track of the temperature over the entire cook time? I am interested to know how closely it kept the temperature of the Pit Barrel Cooker to your desired temp of 230 deg. F?
Started at 7:40 it was about 250 to start out, was about 235 by 9:00 and then jumped up to about 260 by around 11:40 which is right before we opened up the lid to capture some footage and such; so then it shot up to about 350 as we had the lid off for a while. With that being said, it was done by about 12:40. The Pit Barrel is designed to run at about 280 naturally. Which is part of the reason why you can yield an amazing brisket in under 8 hours (maybe even a little less). The Pit Barrel is more of a convection cooker than it is a smoker.
There's a spring clip at the end of the Billows that you squeeze together as you shove it through and then it opens just like a wall anchor. In this video we show us hooking it up to a standard Weber grill: ua-cam.com/video/k1Y2bfYpFR8/v-deo.html. ThermoWorks also sells mounting plates that fit certain smokers like the Kamados, Smoky Mountain Bullet, etc; here's a link for them: www.thermoworks.com/TX-1607X-M1?tw=THERMOSMOKE
Suggest you do not attach Smoke X tp the side of the smoker. The heat of the smoker will probably damage the circuitry of the Smoke X.
Great review! I've been a Thermoworks customer for many years using Thermapen's, and the original Smoke, along with the Dot Thermometer, and various other goodies. Absolutely awesome products! I own Weber grills exclusively! And, upon givng my son his first Weber 22 kettle for Christmas last year, I gave him my second generation Thermapen. 👍
Yesterday, I finally ordered the Smoke X (4 channel) & Billows. It was high time to add a fan system to my Smokey Mountain 22!! My son will now become the recipient of my Smoke with the Smoke Gateway. 🙂
We smoked a 3 lb. beef brisket on Monday. 7.25 hours total. It turned out fantastic!! But; I was having to keep adjusting the vents to stay around 250.
I am super excited about getting the Smoke X and Billows!! 🍻
Something to be said for tradition. Themoworks + Weber is a solid combo. You're gonna love the Smoke X.
like my inkbird but this looks promising also... been looking for a second thermometer may have to pick this one up !
How did you connect the billows to the Pit Barrel Cooker since you’re putting a rectangular peg in a round hole? Also what do you connect the ambient probe to? I just got the same exact setup. PBC and the Smoke X4 with the Billows. Thanks
I have the smoke x 4 and billows. Billows installed just fine in a 1 inch hole on my 30 gallon UDS... No Leaks and works fantastic at keeping desired temp.
Did you drill the 1 inch hole to install the billows?
So is this preferred over the Signals product? I'm thinking the X4 is the way to go.
I have the same smoker you do in the video. Did you cover up the factory air inlet and cut or drill a new hole to install the billows ?
Actually, we installed the Fireboard fan by drilling a hole into the Pit Barrel Cooker, however we only did this for testing various fan controllers in a separate testing. The Pit Barrel doesn't benefit from a thermostatic controller as it holds pit temps steadily on its own right around 255F. Personally, I don't recommend installing a fan on it in most cases.
Question- Once you connected the billows unit I no longer saw the Alarm for the high and low on the number 4 slot containing temp probe. Does connecting the billows take away the cook chambers high/low temp alarm setting ?? Many thanks..Mark Y.
Hey Mark, missed your comment sorry for the delayed reply. Once you plug in Billows alarms become auto set to ±25 degrees from whatever your target temperature is, you are not able to edit it at this time.
Did you keep track of the temperature over the entire cook time? I am interested to know how closely it kept the temperature of the Pit Barrel Cooker to your desired temp of 230 deg. F?
Started at 7:40 it was about 250 to start out, was about 235 by 9:00 and then jumped up to about 260 by around 11:40 which is right before we opened up the lid to capture some footage and such; so then it shot up to about 350 as we had the lid off for a while. With that being said, it was done by about 12:40. The Pit Barrel is designed to run at about 280 naturally. Which is part of the reason why you can yield an amazing brisket in under 8 hours (maybe even a little less). The Pit Barrel is more of a convection cooker than it is a smoker.
Does the receiver somehow let you know if you are out of range/lost your signal?
Yes, as soon as the receiver fetches and doesn't get a signal back from the transmitter it will indicate it is out of range.
If you pair this with willows fan , good or still flame boos 500 it is the way to go in accuracy?
Yeah, I like Fireboard's setup. But both Flame Boss and Fireboard are ideal for accuracy.
@@SmokingMeatGeeksMeatGeeks and the X4 is not? I'm trying to decide which one to get.
Nobody cooks at 32 degrees. Maybe a better test to check accuracy is a boiling water test.
Nice job. What kind of connection did you have to have to hook the billows up to the smoker? Thx
There's a spring clip at the end of the Billows that you squeeze together as you shove it through and then it opens just like a wall anchor. In this video we show us hooking it up to a standard Weber grill: ua-cam.com/video/k1Y2bfYpFR8/v-deo.html.
ThermoWorks also sells mounting plates that fit certain smokers like the Kamados, Smoky Mountain Bullet, etc; here's a link for them: www.thermoworks.com/TX-1607X-M1?tw=THERMOSMOKE
@@SmokingMeatGeeksMeatGeeks Thank you
You spend all that money on a temperature system but not cabinet handles? haha. Great review. Thank you.