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First and foremost, we are “BBQ Fanatics”!
The BBQ Guru™ is manufactured by Therm-Omega-Tech, Inc., an industry
leader in industrial temperature control. TOT was founded in 1982 by Shotgun Fred Pirkle.
Over the course of 21 years, Fred has patented 18 products and has 5 patent pending
products. We consider ourselves specialty manufacturers and have extensive research &
development capabilities that include the latest in temperature measurement, control
instrumentation, and testing facilities.
At our factory in Warminster, Pennsylvania, we develop and manufacture control devices for
fuel cells, medical equipment, the process industry and personal cooling apparel for hospital
operating rooms and other high heat situations.
While in the midst of maturing our EMPC (Electronically Modulated Position Control) project,
we realized that the circuitry of this control resembled what would be needed to control a
charcoal fire. By this time, the Pitminder™ (an all mechanical smoker control) had already
been built and tested in our facilities and we came to the conclusion that an electronic
microprocessor based control would be versatile enough to provide temperature control
for everything from “low & slow” barbequing to jerky making, pepper drying and cold smoking.
The thought of manufacturing a BBQ device that could work like a crockpot (slow cooker)
was just too tempting.
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Shotgun Fred with ceramic grill & BBQ Guru
Development of The BBQ Guru
Imagine putting a large brisket or pork shoulder on your charcoal grill before you go to work in
the morning, and after work, as the guests are arriving, your meal is cooked to perfection.
To make this a reality, we took on the challenge of interfacing two controls, one for the meat and
the other for the pit or grill. We needed this control to ramp the pit temperature down and hold it,
as the meat temperature approached the desired “done” temperature. We knew this would be
AWESOME!
Next, we needed a probe that sensed the meat temperature as well as the surrounding pit
temperature. It needed to withstand the heat at peak cooking temperatures as well.
All of this had to be incorporated into a control, which could provide the user with 4 full time
displays to indicate both set temperatures and actual temperatures.
The BIG Question: “ How could both high and low temperatures be selected on the control so that
the fire would never go out at low temps., and higher temps. could be achieved without a raging
fire”?
The Answer: A small but powerful turbo power blower system that is intelligently turned on and off
by the microprocessor’s embedded control algorithm.
BBQ Bob serving Brisket to family & friends
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