quote:Originally posted by cowbungus:
I have a model 20 with 750 watt element.
well last night I did a preseason at 200.. perfect never went over that.. Put unit outside to do a first smoke...set unit at 225 the temp kept going up until it was 270.. un pluged the unit let cool down.. started all over with meat now on. set it at 140 just to see whats going on.. its at 175 and climbing.. its on a GFI that shouldnt make any differenct should it?
I'm just getting used to my new 025.
My seasoning went fine. My first smoke (@225), went fine too. My second real smoke, the wood wouldn't smoke (even though it was again at 225).
I called cookshack, and and talked to service. I was told me to bend up the element so that it was touching the bottom of the smoke box, and to keep the wood chunks towards the front (The heat generated discolouration now tells me where the hot spots are, and it's been perfect ever since). Anyways, during the conversation, I mentioned how on one smoke, the temperature skyrocketed. I was concerned, but read on these forums that it can happen. Bill explained that with the electronic controls on the new SM020/025 models, they are actually set to go to 270 for the first 20 minutes (no matter what) to get the smoke going. I have a feeling that this wasn't what mine was doing, since mine went way higher well into the event.
It WOULD explain what you were seeing,(although I haven't seen mine go initially to 270).