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59 replies

Got ripped off buying a used FEC100 on ebay.

FM Former Member
Very obvious there has been a fire...........he should have disclosed that. But as someone said earlier all is not lost, we had a fire in one of ours also and thought it was a goner. Called the factory and they told us what to do and we relaced the seal and it runs just fine. Doesn't look as pretty but everything cooks like it never happened.
FM Former Member
Yeah, Ebay will give me a full refund plus original shipping if I want to send it back, but I'd be out the $250 it would cost me to ship it back, plus about 10 hours of my time and a few hundreds dollars for cleaners and parts.

So here's the next thing I found, looks like when the unit started to warp from the heat, they tried to get the seal to stay down by throwing double screws throughout the side rails that hold the seal in, should I fill these extra holes with something or do you think it will be OK to leave them open?, I think some of the original holes may not hold the screws anymore as well. Any Ideas?
FM Former Member
I can't visualize where the holes are, more info please.

There a "bracket" that holds the seal in place, is it still there (they run the full length of the side, top to bottom, across the top and on the door)?

I don't think it's a big deal on the holes but I'm not positive until I knew exactly where the holes are. If you see insulation through, you could fill them with some simple high temp caulk.
FM Former Member
Russ, they are extra holes they drilled through the bracket that holds the seal in, right now I have all the brackets and seals off the unit.

Normally there are 5 holes in each side bracket, for examples sake, we'll say each hole is 4 inches apart. Now what they did was add extra screws in the bracket so they are 10 holes and they are every 2 inches.
FM Former Member
Hey I saw a CS smoker on eBay last night. No pictures and a one line description about how it did not fit his business only used 3 or 4 times. Should I buy it? It sucks to be ripped off. I had an eBay thing this lst week. Bought an item, shipping to be $4. After the item ended he tried to charge me $12. I didn’t go for that. I have my item and paid $4 shipping! I hate it that people are like that.
FM Former Member
Was in Rocky Mount this week and will be back in a couple of weeks. Will run by and check this restaurant out to see what cooker is being abused these days.

Maybe I will invite my lunch companions from 331 S. Franklin Street to join me on that ride out there and share your horror story with them.
FM Former Member
Here's an updated picture.

So, if anyone needs to clean one of these after a fire, I recommend using the standard Easy-Off in the yellow can. I tried the Force 3000 and Carbon Off as well. they just didn't seem to work as well as the Easy Off. I also noticed that the Easy Off seems to be the most toxic of them all.

Also, Thanks to KAPN for the rack rails.

I replaced the temperature probe, that wasn't too bad of a job, but I had to remove the hopper/controller to access the panel behind the probe.

I also replaced the ignitor and I'm having some issues with that, I put the new ignitor in and resoldered the wires to the existing wires and placed shrink tube over the wires. I started the unit up, put a temp of 350 on and a cook time of 12 hours, after a few minutes smoke started coming out of the exhaust. (and unfortunately, the door. Looks like it's not going to seal 100%) then the circuit breaker that it was plugged into tripped. I also had a 300 watt spot light attached to the same circuit, so I unplugged that and restarted the smoker, after a few seconds an orange flash and slight pop came out of the bottom of the hopper/control box and it wouldn't re-ignite.

At that point I was cold and tired of dealing with it so I threw the cover on and went inside. I'm wondering if the solder joint and shrink tube just got too hot. there are no markings on the ignitor wires for +/- and I wouldn't think it would make a differece, does it? Any ideas?

Also on my other smoker (an FE100) the fire decided to go out about 9 hours into a smoke, i was running it at 250 and I thought it would restart itself, but it got down to 170ish and I had to hit the reset button to get it to restart. Is this normal?, I have a 48 inch 5 inch exhaust coming off the smoke, just as recommended in the manual.

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FM Former Member
Normally, the new ignitor has enough length to just run it to the back of the controller board, no soldering. Depending on year/model, you might have to tape it to the old one and pull it through the tiny spaces, but I would go for a direct connection/replacement, no soldering.

The door will "create" a seal after a few smokes. This is true on brand new or clean smokers. It's by design, as it's next to impossible to create a perfect fit. As it seasons, it will seal and you'll have less smoke.

If the fire is going "out" then it's because it's not staying lit. Could be a fan isn't blowing enough air or the pellets aren't dropping for some reason. Look at the firepot, is it full of unlit pellets or is it empty.

And call CS Cust Service, they can walk you through. I've never worried about +/- on the ignitor when I replaced and they always worked.
S smokinmaineiacMember
quote:
Originally posted by mclancey:
Here's an updated picture.

So, if anyone needs to clean one of these after a fire, I recommend using the standard Easy-Off in the yellow can. I tried the Force 3000 and Carbon Off as well. they just didn't seem to work as well as the Easy Off. I also noticed that the Easy Off seems to be the most toxic of them all.

Also, Thanks to KAPN for the rack rails.

I replaced the temperature probe, that wasn't too bad of a job, but I had to remove the hopper/controller to access the panel behind the probe.

I also replaced the ignitor and I'm having some issues with that, I put the new ignitor in and resoldered the wires to the existing wires and placed shrink tube over the wires. I started the unit up, put a temp of 350 on and a cook time of 12 hours, after a few minutes smoke started coming out of the exhaust. (and unfortunately, the door. Looks like it's not going to seal 100%) then the circuit breaker that it was plugged into tripped. I also had a 300 watt spot light attached to the same circuit, so I unplugged that and restarted the smoker, after a few seconds an orange flash and slight pop came out of the bottom of the hopper/control box and it wouldn't re-ignite.

At that point I was cold and tired of dealing with it so I threw the cover on and went inside. I'm wondering if the solder joint and shrink tube just got too hot. there are no markings on the ignitor wires for +/- and I wouldn't think it would make a differece, does it? Any ideas?

Also on my other smoker (an FE100) the fire decided to go out about 9 hours into a smoke, i was running it at 250 and I thought it would restart itself, but it got down to 170ish and I had to hit the reset button to get it to restart. Is this normal?, I have a 48 inch 5 inch exhaust coming off the smoke, just as recommended in the manual.


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