Help with reaching cook temp

Stacy If you are not getting to temp it is either an air issue which could be inlet or exhaust or a fuel issue.  I would time your auger to see if the timing is correct. If you have it set on 40 it should be on for 4 sec then off for around 11 sec. Check your flue cap to make sure it is not to high and it lets the heat out. Give us a call here at cookshack if you would like assistance trouble shooting the unit. (800) 423-0698

I called tech support this morning and left a message. Waiting for a return call. I cleaned the hopper and auger of dust again this morning. Sifted the pellets thinking dust may be preventing pellets from loading the auger. I tried to repeat the initial burn in at 400 degrees. The LHT is 10 HHT 150. The auger turns 10 seconds off 5 seconds. This is confusing because it should turn 15 seconds, right? The auger does this for 4 cycles then the auger stops. Doesn’t turn again. I waited a few minutes then turned it off.

Timed the auger with temp at 275 LHT 10 HHT 40. Auger runs 4 seconds off 11 seconds for 5 cycles then the auger shuts down and does not turn again.

@Stacy - Give it at least 5-10 minutes after those first 5 cycles before you give up and shut the unit off.  I think there is an initial startup period then a delay before the LHT/HHT logic kicks in.

Is the ignitor light staying on?

Thanks for the reply. I’ll give that a shot. The ignitor light is staying on.

Jobiewan gave good advice.  When starting, my PG1000 auger will feed pellets a number of times to the fire pot, then stop feeding for a a couple of minutes while the pellets start to burn.  Then the cycles begin again and won't stop.  Look in your fire pot while this happens and you should see a red hot ignitor during the non-feeding minutes.  This will assure you that you are still in business.

I assume you are closing your hood.  What temp does your PG tell you?  To obtain the temperature you desire at the grill, you may have to set the temp higher on the PG to get to the digital thermo temp.   Do you have any difficulty getting to 500-600 degrees?  Set you LLT to 30 and HHT to 100 and it should be easy.  If not, give a call to Cookshack.  Good luck!

Thanks for the reply and yes the hood is closed. I spoke with Bill at Cookshack. He recommended raising the LHT to 30. The main issue is once i get up to temp it falls off and never recovers the temp. Raising the LHT didn’t seem to help. I let it run for an hour and it steadily dropped temp.

I’m trying your suggestion now. Set to 550 with LHT at 30 and HHT at 150. It gets up to about 360 then drops off to about 335. And continues this cycle. Auger is running 100% but isn’t dropping many pellets. I let it run for about an hour and it never topped 360 degrees.

Wow.   Was that high of 360 on your digital thermo?  If so, what did the PG read?

Try putting a small handful of pellets right on top of the ignitor.  Then, on the same settings 30/100, with the hood left OPEN, you should be able to produce a rip-roaring fire on the grill side in 25 minutes or less from a cold start.  If you can't do this,  you're not feeding enough pellets and that's your problem.

Bill is right about the LHT.  I never set mine below 30, and rarely above.   Settings lower than 30 always result in large temp swings for me.

Finally, have you tried a different thermometer and verified that your digital one is working correctly?

When i referred to digital thermometer I’m referring to the built in gauge on the control panel. The problem may have been the flue was too low. I adjusted it again to about 1/2 way up and get the following results.

Test 400 Degrees

i personally think your HHT is too high for 400F and you get too much momentum and thus the overshoot.  since you go so far over, LHT is in control for too long and then you go way under setpoint.  With your flue adjusted to a better spot, have you gone back to trying factory settings of 10/100?

here is the other thing that I try when I start having these kind of problems...  i set my LHT and HHT at the same value.  Theoretically this should produce a constant feed rate.  for high temp cooking, this will define your HHT, for low temp cooking this will define your LHT.  Then tweak the other value to provide your buffer.  The LHT on high temp cooking is your "pilot light" the HHT on low temp cooking is your safety net if ambient conditions or other variables change and you need to kick things in the butt.

That makes sense. I’ll adjust the HHT back down to defaults and try it. I’ll also try the other method  

I really appreciate all the input. I was getting a little frustrated.

I must apologize, Stacy.  I had brain fog yesterday re: LHT.   I typically use 10, not 30.  As for a low temperature smoke, anywhere from 200-275 degrees, I'm happy with a 10/30 setting.  But others may have success with different settings, depending on variables.  Mine is an older PG1000 and I understand some changes have been made since mine came out of the factory, so take my advice with a grain of salt.  Best thing is not to get frustrated.  Once you get yours dialed in, you're going to love it.

Understood. Thanks for all the input..

Sorry to be so late in posting.

It sounds like you have read about temp settings and pellet feeds but if not look here:

https://forum.cookshack.com/to...ontrol-on-the-pg1000

I had a similar problem as described here:

https://forum.cookshack.com/to...king-temps-on-pg1000

After talking with Cookshack I also readjusted my flue cap and all has been well since.

Lastly if you haven't, a search for LHt/HHt Temp Control on the PG1000 will yield a LOT of information....

Hope this further helps  with your journey and you come to love your pellet grill as much as the rest of us do.

mm

Great Info! Since raising the cap on the flue it's running much smoother. I appreciate the reply.

Glad to hear things are improving!

Smoker worked great for a few times after initial issues. Now I’m having issues getting about 280 degrees with HHT set to 150. I started out with temp set to 300 then jacked it up to 450. I think i may have intermittent igniter issues. The auger and fan seem to be working as they should. Removed all pellets and shopvac’d the auger and fire pot prior to starting smoker. It’s been running for about 3.5 hours. Poppers turned out great and the steaks have plenty of smoke but won’t get the sear they deserve. I’ll be calling cookshack tomorrow. Anyone had this issue?

Hello again, Stacy.  I haven't had your problem, but I'm wondering about your flue cap.  Mine sits about 1.25 inches above the pipe.  Where's yours?

Once the pellets fire up, the igniter can't be your issue unless the fire smothers out from too many pellets - as in HHT 150.  That's a lot of pellets and it can certainly happen.  Make your HHT 100 and temp 500 which is plenty to get a great sear over the fire pot.

A final point if you're trying to sear steaks, let your fire build up to a roaring blaze with the lid open.  Then put on the steaks and close the lid.  When the temperature rises to around 550, raise the lid for 10 seconds or so to cool off the interior so the pellets keep feeding at a HHT 100 pace.  If you don't, your pellets will feed very slowing once it hits and slightly exceeds temp and you'll lose some of the ability to sear until the temp drops sufficiently for the PG1000 to kick in with the faster pellet feed again, but you'll be waiting for the fire to build back up with your steaks sitting there cooking and not searing.

Good luck!

Thanks for the help. That makes sense. I’ll try setting the HHT to 100 and set it to 500 degrees and see what happens. My flue cap was raised nearly as high as possible in the beginning but i tried several different positions.

It appears after trying every possible LHT/HHT combination known to man and not being able to maintain temp that my pellet feeder is dropping the pellets to the opposite side of the pot from the igniter. When i move the pellets the temp rises for a bit. Then falls back off. That’s the only reason i can figure the temps continue to drop. I’m about ready to send it back to Cookshack.

Continuing to drop

My buddy that recommend Cookshack came over and ran my smoker. He recognized that there was an issue with mine. We tried several different things then we took the control board from his PG500 and put it in my PG1000 and BAM! Works as it should. I’ll be calling Cookshack tomorrow to replace the control board.

Called Cookshack and spoke with Bill. I explained the situation and he agreed to send a new control board out same day. Great customer service!

On my PG500 I have issues with the pellets partly bridging and hit a fist of the side of the hopper and hear them fall.  an incompletely filled auger will cause your problems and does mine on the 500.  Yes, My pellets are nice and dry and stored in the house in the AC not even in the garage.  Competition blend quality pellets to start with.