Hey legends,
Just stumbled across this while meandering round the net and looking at random stuff, feeding my BBQ addiction.
https://www.matadorbbqs.com.au/barbecue ... kettle-bbq
Now, I'll preface this by saying I have no affiliation with anyone. I'm a hack backyard Q'er. I'm, unapologetically, firmly a Weber man (I have a Q320, a WSM, a kettle and a rotisserie kit...and also a Weber chimney and grill brush) but, unless it's a copy from another manufacturer, someone's a smart cookie there at Matador combining a kettle, fan control and temp monitor in the one unit. Obviously you can buy all these things separately but certainly not for the price of that unit all up. If, and it's a big if, it's decent quality electronics and hardware, it could be a popular little unit for your BBQ'ing needs.
The only thing I would think might be a pain in the arse, and I've never owned a fan control unit, is how hard they blow and would they blow ash and shit all over your food? Do they have to blow directly onto the charcoal baskets or just introduce air into the chamber. Being a fireman by trade, I think I already know the answer to this, in which I would assume just introducing more oxygen into the chamber would increase the heat but I would think it would at least need to more the air at least somewhat gently over or past the lit beads. Blowing directly onto the charcoal basket would, quite obviously, increase the fire quicker, but also probably blow more ash and stuff everywhere. I dunno, never used one and they're too expensive to buy one for an experiment. I also, as has been expressed by others on here as well, like to keep bbq'ing as basic as I can, metal, meat and fire. Although on an overnight WSM cook, it would be nice to just set and forget.
Anyway, I'm getting off track. Thoughts, opinions, reviews on the Matador?
Happy BBQ'ing
Flippo