New FEC120

The FECs will swing quite a bit when they are new and shiny. Give it a few cooks to get the walls all black and it will hold better temps.

I'd throw those butts in and not worry about it, just me though!

Throw em in... cook em up...

Nordy

I still get temp swings in mine - it's over a year old. I have found a trick though, seems to work.

1. put in a water pan on the top (8.5 by 6 inches two inch deep)
2. cook on the racks below the water pan
3. once it hits the desired temp or some degrees over, I hit the reset button, and re enter the cook temp/time - if I want it at 200F I will bring it to 210, hit the reset, then program it for 198F - never fails from there on for any of my cooks.

hope that helps

I have a few cooks under my belt with my FEC120. As Nordy and Cal suggested, throw em in. You are in for a good treat. I always set my initial temp somewhat lower than my intended cook temp to avoid a large temp swing and then increase once the pit has stabilized. Once you have even a small meat load, and the pit becomes seasoned the swings will diminish. I have also done quite a few low temp jerky sessions and in my opinion you should be happy once she settles in. Let us know how the butts turn out.

I expect temp swings, but 50º above set temp is absurd for a machine of this expense. So the comments of throw them in and cook them isn't really advice on how to iron out the cooker issues. Thanks.

I would have expected the algorithms of the controller to be more in-tune to the cabinet environment, small or large product load. I totally agree that some additional seasoning and experience is needed. But the set it and forget it convenience that I thought I would have certainly is not there for the moment.

MooOink – that sounds like sound advice to try. Do you have problems with the water in the cabinet causing too much moisture for your product or does this actually aid in your product finish? That’s the same advice Cookshack gave me, but again, seems like a Band-Aid for a controller issue. If it’s thermal mass we’re after I may just wrap bricks, maybe 4, in HD aluminum foil and place on the top shelf. Why do you think hitting the reset button and reprogramming your temperature is necessary? Do you find it continues to spike if you do not?

BD in KS – you say you always set your initial temp lower. Is that based on product load? How much lower? In my case for my initial observations I would have to set at least 20º lower than my set temp to average out to the desired temperature. But, again this was an empty cabinet and during seasoning.

So… I’ll get some additional products cooking and work on getting this thing figured out.

Thank you everyone for your responses thus far!

People that have used them suggest things will get better after a few smokes. Give that a try and see if that works.

You may want to call Cookshack and talk to them so they are aware of your concerns.

I'll throw some chicken halves on this evening and see what I can do with that.

I really hate tossing on a long cook when the temperature instability is so bad. I need to be around to monitor that.

quote:

Originally posted by Imabadman:
I expect temp swings, but 50º above set temp is absurd for a machine of this expense. So the comments of throw them in and cook them isn't really advice on how to iron out the cooker issues. Thanks.

Your welcome!...Nordy and I was just trying to help you get the wall greasy to fill up any voids in the seams and also get the walls black so it will hold temps within 10-20*. Besides we both have been known to cook a little on weekends with the big boys and heck some of them cook pork well over 325*, so if you put it in at say 250*, really can't see where the problem is.....but like I pointed out, that's just me!

Good luck with the yard birds and let us know how it worked out.

I just cooked up a small batch:

5 chicken thighs and cooked them for about 20 minutes at 250F then got impatient and cooked them at 350F for 30 minutes (internal temp chicken thigh temp was 180F).

I used a cookie pan - 1/2 full with water then on top of this was a cooking rack with my 5 chicken thighs. The result: moist, juicy, crispy skin, good smoke flavor.
* the chicken spice that comes with your purchase was all I used. Stuck some in a plastic bag, did the ol' shakenbake. Flavor was nice, really spicey though!

Second time I ever used the machine, I tried chicken. The unit shot up to over 400F - scared the hell out of me, I was like you thinking the controller should be smarter than a fifth grader. After a few cooks, like the guys said above, the variance came down.

I went through pretty much what you are going through. What I found:
- small batches (like five chicken thighs) will have the greatest temp fluctuations (this is one reason why I always use the water pan, some reason, it works. It keeps the temp where I need it)
- the reset button. I don't know - kinda like the old school Nintendo fix when you take the game out of the console and blow out the dust - it just seems to work. I speculate the control panel intentionally overshoots, then tries to maintain heat at/near your programmed temp. Problem with a greater than 50F overshoot, is lack of temp control.

For low temp cooks (<225F) I always hit the reset button once temp hits, reprogram the unit, works fine.
For high temp cooks - my machine is well seasoned, temp holds just fine.

One other thing, if you live in an "wintery" area - temp variance can be a big problem, and some control panels don't work in the cold winter. Cookshack did however address this concern, and had the control panel corrected - so the new machines should have the new panel - if however you do have that problem - a blow dryer for 5 minutes on the control panel will get your machine working - but do call Bill for a replacement control panel if that happens.

Best of luck, upload some pics/vids. The FEC 120 is awesome. You are correct, it is a set it and forget type of BBQ, but I still run out there every 20-30 minutes to make sure the temp is ideal; bad/good habit I suppose.

Oh - another thing - make sure you vacuum out your fire-box ashes when they are cool - the ash build up can cause a flame out, pellets will continue to poor in - meat won't cook - another reason why set it and forget is not suggested.

annnddd.... one last thing - the cookshack forum is full of great guys - we do a sauce exchange all around the country - should be seeing a post from Pags soon about it. It's tough to beat!

Well the last couple days I’ve done 3 cooks running items through; chicken, sausages, and a couple pork butts. I did not put a pan of water in with any of cooks. I preheated with the chicken and with the sausages. With the butts I tossed them in cold, right into a cold cabinet.

My observations; In each case of a preheat to 180 and again at 160 the machine shot to 240-250 and leveled out at 206-210 after aprox 30 min. Even at a setting of 160, hoping to get a steady 180, with the 12 lbs of butts in the cabinet it held right in that 206-210 steadily for almost 2 hours. I had let the controller hold at 224 for the next 7 hours. What I’m seeing is once the machine is operated at or above 224 it holds fairly steady and true to temperature only hitting 245 a few times. Right in line with MooOink comments.

I’ll try the water pan trick this weekend to see if I can actually achieve the low temperature cooks, 160-180. I’ll also try the reset trick too.

Thank you everyone. I’ll keep you posted.

Just cooked 95 lbs of butts last night. Loaded them into cold unit punched temp to 250 and hit start. Went to bed and slept all night. Came out to find incredible pork shoulder that is super juicy and literally pulled itself when I dropped it into the cooler. I let the FEC worry about the cookin'. I just take the credit My unit seems to know what to do.

If you're not satisfied with the next smoke, contact Cookshack to let them know and register your experience. They've got a 30 day money back guarantee. They will do everything to make it correct.

I've bought my Fec 100 a little over a year ago. I noticed a huge instability in temperature for the first several cooks. Rarely do I use more than 1 or 2 shelves for product and it's never filled to capacity. Often just 1 brisket or 6 chicken breasts.
It wasn't until the walls inside were heavily coated in black that I noticed I could achieve and keep it within a few degrees of where initially I set it. I just wonder if you won't notice a huge difference as it seasons a little more.

I've probably got 96 hours logged now with seasoning and several cooks. The cabinet has taken on a fairly dark finish. It holds pretty steady with temperatures above 224°. Anything below 224° it settles in at 208-210°. Thus far, the guys at Cookshack, and the dealer for that matter, have been very helpful. They suggested several techniques but I haven't gotten it to hang below 200°. Even the 140° hold sits at that 208-210° zone. I have yet to the thermo mass, the infamous water pan, in the cabinet. They've asked me to swap out a few things so well see how that goes.

So it’s been requested that I change out my auger and auger motor in order to get the lower temps. My concern is that I’ll no longer be able to hit the higher temps, 400º +. I shall see.

Are there diagrams/drawings for the repair & replacement of components on the FEC120? I haven't been able to find any. While I don't anticipate this being an arduous task, schematics are generally very helpful.

It looks a little fuzzy, but I think there is one towards the end of the on-line manual?.... LINK


If you need walked through the process, just call CS and Bill or Tony is very knowledgeable and ALWAYS willing to help.

Good luck.

Thanks Cal. I had seen that 'fuzzy' electrical diagram in the manual.

I'm sure I'll get through it. But yes, Bill & Tony are always helpful with questions or issues.

Quick update…

Well the new auger (no center rod) and motor were installed. Set the controller at 160º and 30 min. it was at 212º. At 60 min it was at 196º. I opened the door for roughly 90 seconds to load 2 split chickens, temp dropped to 176º. Shortly thereafter rose to 196º and hung there for an hour until I increased the temp to 400º to finish off the birds. Came right up to 400º and hung right in there, ± 5º. The controller temp readings are right on with my reference K-type thermocouples.

Granted that’s the initial outing of this motor/auger combination but as of right now, this fix didn’t seem to provide much help. While the auger motor turns slower this new auger seems to push a lot more pellets. On the positive side I can hit the high temps as I wanted but anything low temp, such as jerky, is out of the question for the moment.

I’ll probably give Bill @ CS a call this afternoon and discuss.

So anyone install the slower RPM motor? If so, are you running an auger with the center rod or not?