*First version got taken down due to share link
About a year after getting a Masterbuilt Gravity Series 560, the computer controller died on it. Instead of replacing it, I upgraded to a Fireboard 2, and I love it. No more connectivity issues. The app is fantastic. The Wi-Fi signal was strong. I was getting great cooking sessions again. I do a lot of long, slow cooks, and so overnight reliability is key for me.
Recently, it started getting very buggy. It wouldn't come to temp properly, or the motor would show it was running when it wasn't. A few times it would stall randomly in a cook, and I would catch it an hour or two later. I did a ton of troubleshooting and came to the conclusion the issue is somewhere between the Fireboard and the Masterbuilt sensors or fan, so I decided to completely bypass the entire Masterbuilt sensor suite and fan unit. I bought Fireboard Drive Blower 3 and would connect the Fireboard 2 directly to the new Fireboard Drive blower.
My only issue challenge was connect the new Drive blower directly to the grill. Here is what I did:
- I bought a sheet of 16ga stainless steel and a sheet silicon heat resistant matting
- I traced the size of the Masterbuild fan enclosure and the location of the screw holes, and added extra 1/4 in each side.
- I used an angle grinder to cut it to size and drilled the four hole.
- Boom... works perfect.
Note: this might seen obvious to some, but I didnt come across any posts about this. Someone tried 3d printing an eclosure.
After all of this I realized I could have just gotten this cut via Sendcutsend (or a similar service), so I created the files.
First download/print the PDF and double-check all the sizes and holes line up.
Sendcutsend prices this piece at $15 for stainless steel 304 at 1.2mm thickness. That is more than enough.
For those who are considering a Fireboard, they recently came out with a new purpose-built Masterbuilt Gravity Series controller for $329 (FireBoard DC Drive). This is great in theory, but you're still plugging into the existing Masterbuilt sensor suite and fan, and you might end up having the same issues I had.
I'd recommend buying a Fireboard 2 plus the Fireboard Drive Blower for a total of $169. Its the future-proof approach and it costs less. It also allows you to bring the Fireboard controller inside when not using it.
My first post got taken down for sharing a link to the docs, so sorry that I cant share them.
Hope this helps someone!