Everytime I smoke, I will set the Smoke for 180 and it starts out of the gate going up to 250 and then slowly trickles down to 180 over the next two hours. For something that is over $5,000, it seems like this is unreasonable.
What is the remedy?
Replies sorted oldest to newest
How long have you had the smoker? Did you buy new or used? Is this a first time issue or has it operated like this from day one? How many cooks on it? I ask because more info is needed. If new, Call Cook Shack if FEC owners do not chime in. If you have had it for several years or you bought it used, the units controller may need an out of warranty repair.
It is new. I have probably ten cooks on it. I have talked with tech support and they just said that can happen.
On a typical electric smoker, like my Amerique, If you ran it empty to sort of pre-heat, the temp could go way up as measured by a secondary box probe during the initial heat cycle. I can honestly say my Ameique has never gone more than a degree or two above the set temp as displayed on the controller. I am confident that if I placed a separate probe down next to the box probe, I would see a much higher temp coming off the element which would be normal and not being regulated by some sort of algorithm as is programmed into the controller. I hope that makes some sense. This link might be of some help:
Thank you. I will set to 180 and it will preheat up to 250+. I will put the meat in and then slowly over two hours it will settle back down to 180.
This made a three hour smoke of some back straps and tenderloins difficult.
And over a 10 hour smoke, it isn't as bad, but I get a lot of bad smoke. It doesn't just get to the target temperatures, settle down and give me clean smoke.
Try adding a 90 degree elbow to the flue and turning it down. Also, try adding a pan of water on the bottom rack of the smoker.
Thank you. The pan of water I get, but the elbow... please explain how this will help.
So, the FEC100 was designed for cooking bbq competitions. And the flue was left straight out the side so that you could place chicken on the bottom rack and then spray them with a spray bottle without opening the door. Because of this wind can blow into the flue or push more up through the flue depending on how the wind is blowing. By putting a 90 degree elbow on it, it resolves most of the issue. I like to turn it down so no air coming off a roof or other down draft can effect it. Hope that helps.
My FEC100 does that every now & then. Open the door for a minute or so, instant drop in temperature.
