It's buried pretty deeply, but the product page does say:
> Monitor and Control your BBQ Smoker from your phone, anywhere!
> Smartfire regulates the BBQ temperature on your behalf by automatically controlling the smoker airflow supply so you aren't up all night adjusting vents.
It does feel like the kind of product where everyone involved in the company and most of their potential customers know what it is, why they want it, and how it works.
The ad copy focuses on making it attractive to people who arrive by searching for "BBQ Controller" and aren't sure which one they want. There's no real reason to try to make it approachable to people who don't even own a smoker, it's not like someone's going to impulse buy a $400 gadget to improve their experience with an activity they've never done.
Truly a delightful read. Also after having seen the video, that is a really neat gadget! The knobs, the wires, the not having a (predictable) 3d printed case you’d kinda mentally intertwine with the idea of DIYing electronics like this nowadays.
This is cool but I just wanna say as an avid bbq-er this sounds like one of those cases of optimizing the fun out of something. babying a grill for 6 hours in the sun as a tired dad getting an excuse to drink a modelo and nurse a crappy cigar getting away from the stresses of raising a family is a feature, not a bug - but also as a fan of perfectly smoked meats, I get it. This piece speaks to me.
You can drink your beer while avoiding your family just as easily with a controller. Also, egg (kamado) style grills are very good at holding a specific temperature if you get the inlet/outlet airflow dialed in
You dont use wood in the Egg, you use charcoal, and not the petroleum infused stuff. Natural hardwood lump charcoal. You can smoke stuff for 6 hours not really touching it once it is dialed in.
https://github.com/CapnBry/HeaterMeter/wiki
I have one and it’s incredible.
> Monitor and Control your BBQ Smoker from your phone, anywhere!
> Smartfire regulates the BBQ temperature on your behalf by automatically controlling the smoker airflow supply so you aren't up all night adjusting vents.
It does feel like the kind of product where everyone involved in the company and most of their potential customers know what it is, why they want it, and how it works.
The ad copy focuses on making it attractive to people who arrive by searching for "BBQ Controller" and aren't sure which one they want. There's no real reason to try to make it approachable to people who don't even own a smoker, it's not like someone's going to impulse buy a $400 gadget to improve their experience with an activity they've never done.
Dad and the Egg Controller - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18710205 - Dec 2018 (49 comments)
Chef’s kiss
And perhaps where you see alone time while grilling, OP's dad saw alone time for hours in his workshop tinkering with things like this.