I got the news from my wife that the smoker was at the house. I couldn't wait to get home and season it. We had guests coming over for smoked meatloaf last weekend so I knew I needed to get it seasoned. They knew they were our test run before I smoked turkey for Thanksgiving. We had about 12 people coming over, very anxious to try my smoked turkey as it has always been a hit with my other smokers.
I set the smoker up and plugged it in. The first thing I noticed was that it turned on right away from plugging it in. Also, it was showing 126 degrees on the display. Seeing as my house is at 70, and it was in the mid 50's, that had me confused. I filled up a pan of water, turned it to 275 with some wood and let it go. Half hour in, I noticed it had dropped to 121, yet was smoking good. I called tech support and got Tony on the phone, who was eager to help. He mentioned that there has been occasions where the wires have been crossed. He told me to give it a 1/2 hour and call back, which I did. At that point, the temp had come back up some, but not up to the start temp. Tony had me pull the display off and we checked out the wires, which appeared correct. He had me reverse two, just to make sure they weren't wrong on the connector end, and try again. I also had put my instant read thermometer in the smoke hole and it was over 200. I knew he was leaving for the day and this was a Friday. So, after quickly realizing that it wasn't working, I shut it down and put it away, to my dismay. I called our friends and told them meatloaf wasn't happening in the smoker so we did it in the oven. It wasn't anywhere near as good...and we all were disappointed.
The following Monday I called and found out Tony was out all week, but Bill could help. Once again, very friendly, and told me it had to be the temp probe and that he would have one to me the next day. I told him that the only other part that could be bad would be the dash, so why not just send that as well. I told him I had people coming over for Thanksgiving and had to have this running. He said he pretty much guaranteed that would be the problem. The next day I came home for lunch, and there it was on my kitchen table. I was amazed that he really did overnight it. I then installed it, but had to get back to work. I got home that afternoon and tested it, same problem. I called Bill and told him it was at 130 after 1/2 hour and it was reading 200 from the vent hole. He apologized and said he would send out the new Dash as that must be the problem. Unfortunately, even over nighting, due to the holiday, I wouldn't get it until Friday.
I told the wife this, and she was livid and went off. "I paid a lot of money for a great smoker, to have it not work out of the box? And a week later it may work?" Basically, this ruined 2 bbq cookouts for her. She wanted me to send it back and go another brand.
Friday comes, and sure as can be, 11am I have the new part from Bill. I put it on, and plugged it in, inside. I noticed right away that the display didn't light up until I pushed the button. When I did, it read 70 degrees. So, now I am hopeful we are good to go. It was bad weather and windy out so I waited until today. I fired it up, and it has been steady at 273-276 degrees for 4 hours now, smoking like a champ.
Point of this post is to let anyone that is on the fence about this or another brand....go cookshack. Yes, I was pissed it took a week to get it right, but you cannot argue that the customer service alone made the difference. Instead of making a call, getting a call center in India, then having someone walk it across the country and then mail a letter to Asia for someone to call me...I got a live person who wanted to help.
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