keith157 wrote:ConorD having both is better as should anything go wrong with the forced air system, the pit probe will recognise the drop in temp and you can check at a glance what is going on.
True and this is how I set it up but if you had to choose one which would you go for (genuine question no sarcasm);
1 - Forced air systems and keep the faith that it is working. My PartyQ is battery driven and the first few times I did over night cooks it ran out of batteries at about 4-5am. A decent set of rechargeables and swapping in a new set of batteries before I go to bed, on long cooks, sorted that out.
2 - a Probe which relies on you working vents as the temp both internally and externally fluctuates through the night - which led to a number of sleepless nights and some longer than anticipated cooks in the past.
I used to think that forced air systems were a form of cheating but now I put it down as my BBQ best buy.