Thoughts on my Savannah Stoker V3 Controller

Jul 05 2015

It was late December and cold weather here in Ohio, when I got my new Savannah Stoker V3 controller from Billy Merril to install in my Traeger 07E. When I did cook it was in the 40’s and it worked great with the default parameters. I was getting good smoke below 225 deg. and higher temps were holding well. I very seldom cook over 300 deg. at grill level. I monitor my grill level temperatures with a Maverick ET 732 in the center front of the grates. I was getting 15 to 20 deg. hotter at grill level than my set temperature.

When it started warming up I was getting larger temp swings and was running hotter than the set temp. most of the time. I started changing The OtH and OtL and was finally down to OtH 70 and OtL 10. It was acting better but with the OtL down to 10 I had a flame out. I tried doing an Auto Tune but that didn’t work too well for me so I went back to my old parameters.

I sent Billy Merril an e-mail explaining my problem and the next day he sent me some new parameters to try. I have cooked on it four times since then and I am really happy with it.

My first cook was 2 hours smoking some peanuts. One hour at 190 deg. and one hour at 200 deg. I was getting 8 to 10 deg. temp swings above and below my set point and some great blue smoke. The swings were nice and steady.

My second cook was just 45 minutes at 190 deg. to smoke some chicken breasts before grilling on my gas grill.

For my third cook I did a stuffed sausage fatty at 180 deg. for one hour and then went to 235 deg. for an hour and the fatty was done. At 180 deg. I was still getting the nice 10 deg. +- for some great blue smoke. I was surprised when I went to 235 deg. it held within 5 deg. it never got out of the 230 range for that hour. I was getting 250 to 255 deg. at grill level.

My fourth cook I did a 7.75 pound pork butt for pulled pork. The total cook time was 9 ½ hours. I was watching it pretty close for most of that time. For the lower smoke times I was still getting the swings that gave me some good blue smoke. At the higher temps; 235 to 250 deg. it was holding within 5 deg.+-

At the higher temps I was running about 20 to 25 deg. hotter at grill level.

I am really satisfied with the way this controller is working with my Traeger 07E. I still get some higher temps. above set point on startup and when I have the lid open for a while. I think you will get this with any smoker. I can control this by waiting until the temp is above set point before I open the lid. When I do get the higher temps it does not take long for it to settle down.

My Traeger is pretty much stock, the one thing I have changed is when my heat shield warped I bolted ¼ inch steel to it and that straightened it out. It also acts as a heat sink so if you do not have this in your Traeger yours may not get the same results with these settings. If you have any problems just contact Billy and he will help you.

Savannah controller default parameters        

IGN = 130                            Sn = Pt

HY = 5                                    Pb = 0

At = 3                                    otl = 17

I = 140                                   otH = 100

P = 25                                    C-F = of

D = 35                                    Fan5 = 3

t = 20

Setting changes from Billy

set outl to 14
Set I =141
P=53

New settings

IGN = 130                            Sn = Pt

HY = 5                                    Pb = 0

At = 3                                    otl =14

I = 141                                   otH =70

P = 53                                    C-F = of

D = 35                                    Fan5 = 3

t = 20