Skip to main content

4 replies

FEC Reliability

FM Former Member
Hi. I'm planning to open a small barbecue joint and am trying to decide on a pit. I have been cooking on a Klose 36 x 10 with upright for three years and really like the product cooked entirely with wood. It seems most of the commercial pits use wood to flavor their product and then rely on gas. At least that's what I have been told. The notable exception are the FEC's.

When I asked for opinions on another forum on FEC vs. Ole Hickory the most common concern regarding the FEC was reliability. Any of the big cookers can fail because of bad controlers, but the FEC also has moving parts, the auger, that can get into trouble. I understand that Cookshack has excellent customer service, but if your pit craps out Friday afternoon just before the rush...

I really like the FECs but I'm troubled. So my question to all of you folks is: Are these pits reliable enough to bet your income?? And if they crap out is there a work around??
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

T tomMember
Well,speaking as comp cooks,we couldn't be happier.

A different bet,but when you have a couple thousand mile round trip ahead of you and up to a couple thousand in costs,you don't want to get caught short by unreliable equipment-or top quality product.

We've hauled them to comps and caters for several years and have yet to experience a blip.

I would think in a commercial kitchen that you would want to allow short trained operators,and go get sleep yourself.

Those would be keys to an FEC.

Just a couple of thoughts.

Tom-Fl
FF Fast Freddie/Love Shack BBQ (Guest)
I have had my FEC100 since November 2003. It was one of the first ones built by Eddy and Cookshack.
I had one bad controller. I called and was sent one right away and at no charge. I run it about five days a week. I also owned a FEC500 on a trailer. I never had any operating problems. All the cookers you mentioned have the moving parts. If you have a restaurant, you should have a FEC100 as back-up if something happened to your pit, just to keep you going. But this is advice for any of the pits you mentioned. The Klose is a great rig, but do you want to have to tend the fire all night? I am sure you would like to sleep and have the finished product ready when you get to work. You will have other jobs that need to be done. Another plus is that pellets don't take up much room. Firewood takes up a lot of space.
FM Former Member
Ole Hickory, SP, CS all have rotisseries and electronic controls of some sort so if you're worried about electronics, etc, they'll all have that. Best thing for all of them is preventive maintenance.

I can say you won't find better Customer Service with CS.

Best thing to do is call CS and talk to them, they can probably give you some references to check with if you need some info.

Also, post down in the Pro's Forum for some info from them too.
Last edited by Former Member

Add Reply

Post

Membership Required

We're sorry. You must be signed in to continue. Sign In or Register
×
Are you sure you want to remove from your Block List?
×
Loading...
×
When you block a person, they can no longer invite you to a private message or post to your profile wall. Replies and comments they make will be collapsed/hidden by default. Finally, you'll never receive email notifications about content they create or likes they designate for your content.
Note: if you proceed, you will no longer be following .
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×