Info on FE100

Mark,

I have no restaurant experience. I own three of these units. One is for home and two on my competition trailer. Mine have been very reliable. The only repairs I've made are to replace the pin that connects the auger motor to the auger, and just recently I had to replace the auto start in one of them. The cookers can be light manually, so this was simply a matter of convenience. My cookers have many hours on them. I've lost track of the pellets I've burned through them, but I'm sure I'm past 2 tons, on my way to 3.

I am in Kansas City. Better yet, Ed Maurin (Fast Eddy) is here in Kansas City. He is the original designer and fabricator of this pit, hence the "FE." He would be your best bet to see new FE/CS 100 and discuss your potential needs and questions. Well, if he happens to have one on hand. There were two new ones in his shop Wednesday, but they were waiting to be picked up. His e-mail is heim20@aol.com

Rod

Rodney,
Thanks for the info. When you replace these items are you diagnosing and making all repairs yourself? Are you obtaining replacement parts from Cookshack?
Mark

Mark,

Yes and no. Eddy has given me enough advice on some problems that can occur and what causes them, that the self diagnoses is usually easy. I have replaced that pin. I watched Eddy replace my igniter. I could have done it, but it would have taken me more time. I can definitely do it easy enough, now that I've seen it done. The pins are a hardware store stock item, the new igniter came from Traeger.

Rod

My primary concerns are that when you put any piece of equipment into daily use it will naturally wear out sooner regardless of the quality workmanship. What I have found that is important is whether the thing that usually breaks first/most often is a $.50 part or a $100 part. In addition I worry about my employees abusing the equipment in my absence. You may know a couple of my employees they're "I don't know" and "Not me". LOL
Thanks for the help
Mark

Mark,

I'm surprised nobody else has jumped in here. The pin I replaced was less than $.50. The igniter was $30. However, it's not a mandatory part. You can manually light your pit. Other than that, there are three main parts to the pit, the circuit board, the auger motor, and the fan motor. You'd have to ask Eddy or Cookshack about replacement parts. The good news is that you're right here in town and Eddy is VERY accessible. You should really shoot him an e-mail.

Rod

Rodney,
Will do that. It's just that when you design and build something you're naturally kind of biased. I was just looking for some comments from people like yourself who don't have an interest in the company (I don't think anyway).

One other question (My parents always told me I ask too many questions!). I have read numerous posts regarding batteries, inverters, etc. I assume that the FE100's auger and igniter normally plug into 110/120VAC and you all have to use inverters and batteries because you are at competition sights w/o access to AC Current. Is that right? I would think that with using inverters and batteries with their tendency to spike and drag it would wreak havoc on the circuit boards but I haven't seen any posts to that effect, just erratic behavior.
As always thanks for the education
Mark

Mark,

You are correct. Folks are inquiring about alternate power sources for competition. I've been to two competitions in three years that didn't have power. More importantly though, I guess sometimes the power is poor, creating the need for a better power source.

Ask all the questions you like. We'll do our best to answer them. I just thought you'd prefer to hear it from the horse's mouth. I understand your point. If you'd like to see an FE/BC (before cookshack), you're welcome to take a look at mine. I'm in south Johnson county though.

Rod

I don't use my FE-100 in a restaurant, but I'd think it would be good for that - you're probably not hiring pitmasters, so you can tell them "Cook the chicken 2 hours at 250�" or whatever you figure out is right. All they have to do is make sure it has pellets in it and the dial is right. I use the battery, etc. for when there is no electricity - otherwise it just plugs into a standard outlet.

It's built very solidly.

I used mine in my take out and nly had 1 problem. That was the fire went out and I found a pile of unburned pellets in it. It was no big problem to clean out the pellets and fire it back up but it was in the middle of the night and I had remote thermometers that I used to watch when I would wake up to go to the bathroom. I noticed the meat temp wasn't as high as it should be...since then I use a probe with the remote for the air temp and set a low temp with the alarm.

The problem was that the controller was set wrong at the factory. I made the simple change that took less than a minute and never had a problem again.

Ortech, Ind., the orginal designer and builderof the control board charges a flat fee of $60 to replace or repair the controller when it is out of warranty. I shorted mine out once taking it out and didn't have the ac cord unplugged...and I knew I should have unplugged it! There is a 3 amp fuse on the card but it is only for the hot rod.
Changing the controller is also very simple and can be done in a couple of minutes or less! A new contoller I think is $289 retail from Treager. You can check that out on their web site.

Other than the above mine has run flawlessly and consistently all this time!

Cap'n Pete
Thanks for the info. Eddy e-mailed and said he had a new unit that had just arrived. I will try to get by and see it soon.

Don't mean to sound paranoid but I've had my fill of restaurant equipment that breaks down and costs an arm and a leg to replace (usually because the manufacturer is the only place to get the part). I like the idea of being able to field repair the unit yourself. Especially with trip charges from the repair company topping over $100.

Thanks
Mark

mark
in the professional section of the forum i got a lot of good advice on generators from a lot of caterers. seems the honda eu3000is inverter generator is working well. also i have seen where any inverter gen that is certified for electonics use is pretty safe bet. any way i made my $1800.00 bet with honda
hope this helps
jack