Hunsacker Vortex Drum Smoker w/ Fireboard 2 Drive 

Here are my thoughts on that. I bought the barrel so I could smoke summer sausage in addition to doing other things like grilling and slow cooking. What I found is to hold 180°-200°F temps I was constantly moving the damper on the stack and because his smoker really likes the 250°-325°F temperature range, I had a hard time with all the babysitting. Whenever I target the higher temperatures when grilling and fluctuations including 25°F of temp doesn't matter so much, I don't use the blower attachment but when I want to truly not worry about holding the lower temps, I go to the blower. Once it levels off, its golden. I would buy the blower again for sure. Hope this helps.

So what your saying it won’t on its own 250? It will jump around? But the fan keep it set it and forget it.

I'd trust it to stay steady down to 225-250°F but below that it's got a hard time because it's such a large fire box. The fire box can go @ 275°F for 12-16 hours easy depending on the outside weather. When I smoke summer sausage I like to get it down to 170°F or so so that is why I like the fan. I also like to set and forget so having the automated controls was a good choice for me. If you have the time to keep an eye on it and think you'll be cooking at or above 225°F I think you'd be impressed with the product. Good luck!

I used stainless steel 1" pipe including a few nipples, a coupler, two elbows, and a ball valve. Whatever I needed to have it fit right. Then I had to get the Hunsacker modified bottom piece as well. For the fan, I have the Fireboard 2 with the fan attachment and the 1" pipe adapter. Hope that helps.