Another Temperature Issue

First of all, the fans on the FE 100s from 2004 were all fixed-speed fans to my recollection. They did not have a variable rate fan as the new IQ4s have.

Second, when I fire up my straight auger FE 100 and I am going to take it to a higher temp, such as 325, I will take it up in increments. I turn the fe100 on and set the initial temp to 180. Once it reaches that, I raise it up to 240 or 275. Once it reaches that, I then take it to 325.

Keep in mind that the first two temps on the old Traeger controller are fixed time settings. In other words, on 140 0r 180, it knows to feed pellets for so many seconds and then stop. This is why if I am going to open the fe100 and it is cooking at 240 or higher, I turn the temp knob down to 180 before I open the door so the fe100 is not dumping lots of pellets into the firepot while the door is open.

Above 180, the controller just keeps dumping pellets until the probe tells the controller it has reached the desired temp. So if you just turn it on to 325, it is just going to run full bore until it gets there. I just always felt it was more prudent and easier on the fe100 to take it a little slower getting there.

You could have a problem with the probe and/or controller. Since the probe is the least expensive of the two parts to replace, you might want to do that first and retry your scenario. I'm pretty sure CS has these probes for the older fe100s in stock. I remember replacing the probe on my fe100 one time since I got it back in 2004.

BTW, have you tested your remote therm's probe lately to make sure it is showing correct temps?

Hope this helps.

Hi John, thanks for the reply.

I believe this does have a variable rate fan on it, at least I can hear a fan in the unit that winds up and down in the unit. When it gets close to temperature it slows and when it needs to heat again you can hear it get faster.

I did try to bring it up in steps yesterday the second time I tried it. It still did the same thing once it reach 310 degrees.

I assume this unit has been upgraded and didn't originaly come with the IQ4 controller, so the fan and temp probe may have been upgraded as well, I ordered a backup probe from Cookshack and it looks the same.

Yes I did test my thermometer, I have three of them and they all read within a few degrees of each other.

I'm going to go give it another try now, going to give it a good cleaning first, if it does the same thing i'll replace the temp probe. really hope it's not the controller.

My mistake, I misread your original message.

Yes, it would have a variable rate fan if it has the IQ controller. Talk with tech support at CS on Monday and see if they can help.

BTW, be careful if you replace the probe. I seem to remember that the IQ probe has a positive and a negative wire. Unlike the pre-IQ probes which did not.

Thanks for the help John, I've had it on for about three hours now and I've had no issues. I'm sure as soon as I hit "Post Now" the temp will shoot to 500 degrees and the controller will read 120 degrees.

quote:

Originally posted by mclancey:
... only ran it once before. That was last weekend ...

So, how's it doing now? What I would do is plug it in, turn it on and let it run a couple of hours. Don't chase the temps but see where it stabilizes.

Not sure why the display dropped like it did, but run it for a while and see how it behaves.

Russ

I did a turkey in it today at 325, looks like it came out good, I'm letting it cool overnight before I slice it. The controller seems like it lets it drop quite a bit before it starts heating up again, it would drop down to as low as 290 and then heat up to 335 and back down to 325, It didn't take a long time to do that. to get from the low to the high only took a minute or 2. I can live with it, I'm getting a new FEC 100 delivered on Monday, I'll be curious to see the difference between the 2. I should have had the new one on Friday, but the freight company, R&L Carriers "lost it". ("it's here, we just don't know where")