I am sure at this point you are tiring of my questions about the Amerique I am trying to get my arms around.... after 8+years with a 55 that operated flawlessly.
The Amerique I have was built on 11-14-2006 so it is a very early model. As far as I can tell it was used very little by the original owner and he indicated he made no upgrades to the unit at all. It was garage kept and like new.
I was using the unit yesterday to smoke some ribs and the outside temp was 88F. I placed the unit where I had my old 55.. on the patio on a wood stand in the sun. About an hour into the cook the screen went blank and began to flicker with the constant chatter of a relay.... 30-40 times a minute. I turned the unit off and about a minute later turned it back on... again I got the chatter from the relay with the "OFF" message blinking off and on on the screen. I turned it off again for about 5 minutes and covered the screen with a towel to keep the sun off of it. At this point the top of the unit was too hot to hold my hand on from being in the sun... same as my 55 used to get.
The unit came back on and seemed to work well for about 20 minutes and then the chatter started again. Once again I turned it off. I moved the ribs to the BGE to finish.
This AM I fired the Amerique up again and it has been running fine. No direct sun this time of day and about 75 degrees.
Several questions... is this situation common with the Amerique? Do they have to be out of the sun and heat to operate properly or is their just something wrong with my unit? I understand the issue with the screen going blind in the sun but in my case the unit stops functioning.
I have to do a big cook next week and am at the point where I may drag out the trusty 55. Any help would be appreciated to help me get my arms around this cooker.... Thanks!!!
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