Stoker Power Draft System

A while back I heard of an electronic device that operates a blower attached to your charcoal or wood-fired smoker in order to maintain a certain temperature level. I contacted the company and they promptly sent me a test model to try out on my 22½-inch Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker.

This thing is serious geek candy; it comes with all the bells and whistles you would expect. You can connect it to your home computer network and use it to monitor online both the temperature of your smoker and the internal temperature of your meat. What’s more, you can control the temperature of your smoker online! For my first test, I set up my smoker for about 225°F, then set the Stoker to maintain that temperature. I watched intently for over an hour as the fan cycled on and off, on and off, and maintained the temperature within mere degrees. I finally went to take care of other things, returning five hours later to some of the best ribs I have ever eaten. The only thing on my mind at that moment was, “I could sure get used to this!”