another fire

Look close at the board. It's small, but it's there. I had to reset mine two weeks ago, but for the life of me, I can't remember exactly where it is on the circuit board.

Remove the 4 screws on the side of the panel box. Remove the metal plate. IIRC, the wires run to the upper right. Look in that space with a flashlight. you'll see the reset button.

My FEC is 5 miles away or I'd verify this right now.

SmokinO...how bout a pic of the reset "sticky'd" to one of the FEC forums?

So, I'm not clear about the fire details (it's early and I'm trying to read between the lines.

When did it occur?

Step 3 or Step 5.

Sounds like after Step 5. Did he clean the firepot of pellets before he relit? If he didn't and the pot was full of pellets, that would be a BAD thing.

Let me know when it happened.

The ONLY time I've had a fire, was when my unit wasn't level and the grease pooled in one spot and then overflowed.

quote:

Originally posted by MaxQue:
SmokinO...how bout a pic of the reset "sticky'd" to one of the FEC forums?

Well might two IQ's are 10 miles away and in the trailer. Next time I see them I'll take one.

If someone wants to take one before then (Max, with your new camera) just email it to me for posting.

I'll try to get a pic to you sometime today....with the "old" camera

Here's an older thread with a picture. Depending on the type of controller it might be located differently.

http://forum.cookshack.com/eve...261053364#6261053364

Yup...that's what mine looks like. Great work EZ...you added 30 more minutes to Mrs MaxQues honey-do list

been a long day, made longer by me making this long reply post and having it go into space and having to retype it.

First of all, thanks for the comments and replies...now as Paul Harvey said- the rest of the story.

It appears the shut down initially was caused by an auger pin shearing. The attempted re-lights were ultimately to no avail but the ignitor must have started some dripping/pooled grease to go and it from the look of the damage it must have gotten pretty hot.

I spent the better part of the day driving around Louisville, KY looking for a fan blade and door seal. I had a part number from Grainger from the last time that I had a fan blade need but they didn't have it stock. They sent me down the street to a motor store and they had a 4" 3/16 bore fan but it was CCW instead of CW and has about 12 blades instead of 5. I installed it backwards with the included set screw and it works. I think it is causing me some temp fluctuations though because of the extra draft it creates.

I then tried numerous resources for a door seal- I struck out at every turn and got a Big Green Egg (x2) large egg felt kit. It works, but barely and is not a long term solution....might go with the smoke rope and epoxy set up soon.

Finally, after putting her all back together no power. I pushed what appeared to be the reset button (although it doesnt look exactly like the pic- think mine is older still) but it didn't help. Took the whole hopper off to check the wires, they were discolored but intact. Called Bill, he suggested bypassing the switch and that worked. So my controller works and were in business but I am not sure it is going to be very consistent temp wise.

Our bigger long term problem is that the floor in our box truck must be giving way as we have a definate, few degrees lean backwards on the cooker, not sure what to do about that this weekend but it's gonna need to be fixed soon.

See you after the contest...hope we don't make the news

Wow!...almost reads like a a MacGyver episode. Good luck at the comp.

Yeah, good luck at the comp.

What's happening to you isn't normal, so when you get back, let us help out.

Russ

well we made it through the contest with very little to show. I have a theory...the better we think our food is the worse we do. We were real happy with everything we turned in today but the judges thought otherwise. In retrospect, our tast and tenderness scores were respectable but our appearance scores sucked all the way around. I am chalking that up to only doing one contest per year. There was a time we were doing between 6-8 contests a season but now with four kids under 8 and two mortgages that's just not in the cards.

We didn't have any issues with the cooker all weekend but I would still like some suggestions on a seal as the felt did very little to hold the smoke into place.

I ordered four complete sets of seals from Cookshack shortly after I bought my smokers. I burned out the bottom seal doing an office fund raiser when I let 40 lbs of chicken get away from me. I cooked on it for over a year after that before I finally replaced it.

Yep, I can order them. I was looking for alternatives to the OEM options....

Commish,

I noticed your comment about the floor on your truck and the cooker leaning, and it made me think about all the grease fires caused by unlevel cookers. Was your cooker on the the truck when the fire started?
If so, Maybe the auger pin sheared after the high heat fire and the unlevel cooker caused the fire?

Just a thought from what I read....

Good luck getting things back on track.

SJ

well I am certainly thinking that the lean caused the fire...I am not sure the order of the problem though.

My thinking is that the auger pin sheared first and subsequent restarts with no pellets allowed grease to drop onto the hot rod and eventuall get a pool started up.

Is it possible that a fire inside the cooker (and eventuall outside in the drip pan) could cause a sheared pin?

Given the location of the shear pin, I don't think a fire caused it directly.

Usually the pin shears because pellets become trapped in a way that the auger gets struck trying to turn and to prevent the torque from damaging something, it shears.

You did say something else. ".grease drop onto the hot rod". Don't know how this could happen unless you have the drip pan removed. Now the smoker not being level, then grease pooling somewhere is where a lot of the fires seem to come from.

Really had to pin down and I know that's frustrating.