Here's a list of some things we'll point out about using the UltraQ controller. It's a longer list than normal, but the UltraQ has some new considerations and we encountered more things than usual that we felt should be pointed out:

1. You don't get a printed user manual in the box, but you can print off your own copy from the BBQ Guru knowledgebase. We recommend at least reading it online because you will probably learn a few things you didn't know. We did. Here's a link to the Knowledgebase article that contains the User Guide.
2. We addressed this in the section on temperature probe accuracy, but we will repeat it here. The UltraQ needs to warm up for 5-10 minutes before the temperature probes will give accurate readings. The probes will be off by 4-5°F at first, but then will slowly approach an accurate reading. This should only be of concern if you are testing your probes. You shouldn't need accurate readings during the first few minutes of your cook, and it won't affect the UltraQ's ability to control your cooker.
3. Because of the heat that is generated by the LEDs in the light ring, turning the LEDs off causes the interior of the unit to cool down and turning the LEDs on causes the interior of the unit to heat up. The firmware in the UltraQ takes this into account and you will see the indicated probe temperatures either increase or drop about 3-4°F as the firmware adjusts for the change. However, while the firmware adjustment is instantaneous, the interior of the unit takes about 30 seconds to heat up or 90 seconds to cool down. So the indicated temperature will rise or fall back to an accurate value as the interior of the unit either heats up or cools down.
4. There is an indication on the BBQ Guru App Grilling Dashboard of the status of communications between the App and the UltraQ. However, it is quirky and it isn't clear what it is actually supposed to represent, so there doesn't appear to be a foolproof way to know that the connection between your smart device and the UltraQ has been dropped other than noticing a lack of updates.
5. In retrospect this is painfully obvious but in practice, well, it tripped us up for a while. If you go into the Controller Settings and click on "Restore Factory Settings", you will reset the Wi-Fi settings and disable Wi-Fi. There really is no obvious indication that Wi-Fi is disabled, so as long as you are within BlueTooth range, all is well. However, once you move out of BlueTooth range, eventually you just have to notice that temperatures are not updating. As we noted in the previous item, there isn't a clear indication that you have lost communications with the UltraQ.
6. Although the BBQ Guru App warns you that "The factory restore of your device can take some time," it happens instantaneously and there really is no indication that it has completed successfully other than the display returning to the Grilling Dashboard. You may notice that all the target temperatures on the probes have returned to the default values, but that's it.
7. Alarms are communicated either via the controller display and beeps, emails or text messages. Alarm conditions do not show up on Share My Cook.

8. You do not need to be connected to Wi-Fi or use your smart device to use the UltraQ controller. You have access to all the basic functions needed to use the UltraQ on the unit itself in Manual Mode. While you can't do some functions like toggling Open Lid Detect or Ramp Mode, you can accomplish a cook.
9. The frequency of updates that you see depends on how you are connected and if you are using the App or ShareMyCook.com.
   • Updates are nearly intantaneous when you are using the App and connected to the UltraQ via Bluetooth.
   • When using the App and connected to the UltraQ via Wi-Fi, it appears that updates occur at about 20-second intervals.
   • Updates on ShareMyCook.com appear to also occur at about 20-second intervals.
10. If you start display scanning, you can stop the scanning function either by using the BBQ Guru App or by pressing one of the three buttons on the side of the unit. When you do stop scanning, the UltraQ will stop scanning and display whichever probe was being displayed when you sent the command from the App or pressed the side button. If you need to display a different probe, you can press the middle button on the left side of the UltraQ to move to the next probe. Repeat single presses of the center button until you get to the desired probe.
11. If you start or stop recording a cook using the BBQ Guru App, you may notice a delay between the time that the little spinning "busy" indicator stops spinning, and the time that the button changes from Start to Stop or vice versa. It can take an additional 5-6 seconds for the button to update, so don't go pressing it again because you think it didn't work.
12. A frequently asked question about temperature controllers is whether or not you should leave the adapter installed all the time and if so, how do you control air flow when you aren't using the unit. In the case of the UltraQ, you probably don't want to leave the blower installed all the time. Installing it on your cooker is relatively simple, as is removing it.

13. Placement of the pit probe can be important. There are two schools of thought. One is that you want it located near the meat so that the controller is controlling the temperature at the location of the meat, not somewhere else. However, the probe must not touch the meat and should be at least an inch or two from the meat. If the meat influences the temperature of the probe (especially when the meat is first placed in the cooker and is cold), obviously the controller will be sensing a false low pit temperature and will therefore compensate by overstoking the fire. The other school of thought is that if you are used to cooking by dome temperature (meaning as measured by the thermometer sticking through your dome), then you may wish to place the pit probe on the stem of your thermometer to control the temperature measured at that location.

UltraQ Open Lid Control Results

How well does the UltraQ handle opening the lid of your cooker? We conducted two tests, one with Open Lid Detect turned off and one with Open Lid Detect turned on. We let the cooker get stable at 350°F and then opened the lid for 60 seconds before closing it. Here's how the two tests compared:

Graph of recovery with OLD off.

Graph of recovery with OLD on.

The temperature spiked at 41°F above the target temperature and took 5 minutes 40 seconds to recover with the OLD function turned off. When the OLD function was turned on, the temperature spike was only 9°F and the recovery time was 4 minutes 50 seconds. As you can see, the UltraQ's Open Lid Detect does a great job of detecting and recovering from open lid conditions so it is worthwhile to leave this function turned on all the time to get the better results.

UltraQ Control Results

How well does the UltraQ actually control the temperature of your cooker? Here are the results that we obtained when allowing the UltraQ to control a large Big Green Egg at low, medium and high temperatures:

Target  Accuracy   Swing  Low -2.7° F ±7.5° F Medium -3.2° F ±8.0° F High -0.1° F ±1.5° F

UltraQ Control Results

As you can see, the UltraQ is quite good at keeping your cooker close to the target temperature. At low and medium temperatures there is more oscillation than we would like to see; however, this is still well within any reasonable requirement for keeping your cooker near a target temperature. And at high temperatures, the UltraQ is about as good as it gets with this type of device.

Problems Encountered

We did almost all of our testing on an iOS device (an Apple iPhone XS) running the latest firmware. Here is a list of problems we encountered during our testing:

• The Bluetooth connection was lost and wouldn't reeonnect. We had to use the "Disconnect From Bluetooth" function and then go through the "Add A Device:" sequence again. This only happened once and was at an earlier firmware level.

Summary

So to try to sum all this up, here is our list of Pro's and Con's for the BBQ Guru UltraQ:

Pros: More than adequate temperature control. Feature-rich. Contains most every feature you could ask for in a temperature controller. Open Lid Detect, Ramp Mode, Timer-based actions, Adaptive Control, Text/Email alerts, up to 3 food probes, Amazon Alexa/Echo enabled, cook graphing. Top notch blower available with a huge number of mounting adapters for every cooker. ShareMyCook.com website has both remote monitoring/control as well as recipe/cook history archiving and sharing. Most basic control functions available on the controller itself. No need for internet/cloud to do a basic cook. More accurate Type-T thermocouple probes. BBQ Guru devices have always been of high quality, backed by first class customer support.

Cons: It isn't apparent when communications drop between your smart device and the UltraQ. Graphing functions only have 1 minute resolution. No blower data available for graphing. No alarms on ShareMyCook.com. You MUST enable text or email alerts to receive alarms if you are remotely monitoring your cooker from the web. Light ring is difficult to see in bright sunlight.

Now that a few firmware levels have been released and the few problems that we experienced have been fixed, the UltraQ is a first rate temperature controller. Like we said, we tested with an iOS device and we realize that Android users have had some teething pains, but we fully expect BBQ Guru to resolve every problem. The UltraQ is rich with features and does its main job of controlling the temperature of your cooker quite well. While we did experience more temperature oscillation at low to medium temperatures than we would like, the UltraQ's control is still far more than sufficient for BBQ cookers. We wouldn't hesitate to recommend the UltraQ, just as we have recommended every other BBQ Guru temperature controller that we have ever reviewed over the years.

Availability

BBQ Guru products are available for sale at their web site and in many BBQ stores. They are also available on Amazon and can be seen using the following links. (We receive a small percentage of any items sold through by Amazon through our web site.)

Contact Information

The BBQ Guru
353 Ivyland Road
Warminster, PA 18974

215-674-9992
800-288-GURU (4878)

Web: www.thebbqguru.com
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Email: customerservice@thebbqguru.com