Is this Normal?

Wow, that's technical as hell for me. Don't get me wrong I understand it perfectly, but I think I'm back at work. Don't get me wrong either I think that your approach is outstanding as far as a technical point of view. But I'm just a weekend smoker and my SM025 is just technical enough for me. Load it and forget it, but in your quest to find your answer I'm sure an expert FEC operator will kick in. I'm sure they might be surprised by your fluctuation or maybe not, I will be watching!!!

I only ask because I can get a stickburner to maintain about a 5f range.. I would have thought the cookshack would at least have done 10-15f

Here is my stickburner for reference:

Is this an IQ4 FEC100 or a Traeger controller FEC100? I would venture a guess that is is an IQ4 model but thought I should ask to be sure.

Yup, IQ4

Okay, where are you putting the probe inside the FEC?

A rack up, almost directly above the stock one.

Another thing or two that have a great effects are how many cooks have been done in the unit and what if anything has been done to the exhaust?

More than I can count, and it is a 5" elbow, and there was no wind.

Can you resize the 2nd picture, it's pretty huge.

I'm a pretty technical guy and I'm trying to follow the graph.

Is this normal? No, no one has ever charted an FE and provided the graph.

I KNOW my two IQ4's don't have that variation.

So if the left is start, and at 17:30 something you set the temp, the average (after the startup) around 15:50 starts looking pretty normal, Looks like the spikes are close and the median would be fine. The graph at the bottom is skewed because you're including all the temps from startup, not when it reaches it's set temps.

Remove those jumps when it's trying to rise to a new temp. how does it hold the set temp.

What pellets are you using?

Open the door any?

Try it with the vent off?

I will resize the picture tonight (on my phone right now).

Ok so we are talking about the first graph, the smoker was started at 3:00ish (15:30 on the graph) and set to 224. Meat was placed on at 15:45 (where the graph gets erratic right at the beginning, a 12# turkey). You can see the smoker recover right before 16:00( then it was in hold mode until the bump to 300). It then starts the falling and raising very linearly. Which will spike at about 280, the fall to about 200 over 20-30 minutes. Thats roughly an 80 degree swing, thats just not acceptable in my book..
The graph then goes into another wierd cycle when the temperature is bumped to 300 at about 17:30.
The constant raise of temp on the bottom is the meat probe.

Door was never opened, pellets are "perfect mix" from cookinpellets.com, I doubt the elbow has anything to do with it.

Did I miss anything?

How did the turkey turn out?

The elbow CAN have something to do with it, it's about airflow. I've seen issue with some people and their temps and depending on the vent, they've had some challenges. That's why I say try it without out it just to make sure.

That is messed up!
I will be watching for an answer!!

How did the turkey turn out?

Pags,

I'm guessing a little dry, cause by my reading and if the graph is correct, it was cooked a little shy of 200*?

If it was truely swinging that much your FEC probe should have been swinging along with it. I got one of the Maverick probes and it was within 5 to 8 degrees of the smokers temp probe any time I checked it through the cook regardless of where I positioned the mavericks probe.

Just curious if you noticed anything on the FEC display that confirmed the swings?

quote:

Originally posted by cal:
Pags,

I'm guessing a little dry, cause by my reading and if the graph is correct, it was cooked a little shy of 200*?

Actually it was a brined bird, and I was doing pulled turkey, it was good and not dry.

I don't know, if the FEC itself was swinging, I wasn't really watching it at the time.

I did the same thing with my stoker and attached the probe to the hood on the FEC probe. Got the same swings but if you look at the time line you will see they are about 15-20 minute swings but the overall average should be about what you have it set to but it is off becuase you have the stoker probe a rack higher and only one cold Basketball of meat absorbing heat asymetrical.

A stoker with a stick burner will control the fan much much much.... more subtly and thus smaller rises and declines in the temprature tolerance until there is not enough fuel to keep the swing that sensitive.

What I do know is that regardless of what the stoker says and you must have the probes within an inch of each other and check their variance,
is that the FEC Cooks as advertised! I have had two kingfishers and run a stoker and while I've said before on another post that the IQ4 lacks the intelligance for split second adjustments like the stoker fan setup it does cook more championship BBQ pound for pound that stoker controlled stick burners.

I now use my stoker to lay in bed at night and check my meat/fire temps for the peace of mind that there's no other mechanical issue affecting me as well as being a gadget man.

I even went to the carwash during my rib cook this weekend becuase I could pull up the stoker on my phone's browser to be sure I was still cooking.

I trust my butcher when it comes to Injection and rub and now I trust Fast Eddy when it comes to cooking temps...

Good Luck.

As to leaving the FEC 100 unattended,this is how Eddy taught us to do comps,many years ago.

We start the cooker about 8PM and let it get warm and stable.About 8:30 PM we put on the big meats and clean up ,as we watch it come to temp.

We start at a lower smoke temp and set the cooker to kick up the temp about 4:30 AM.

We then go to the motel and get a decent nights rest.

We come back over about 6AM to start getting the ribs ready to go on the cooker and then go see what they are serving for breakfast.

It is tough fire management,but somebody has to do it.

Thats what we normally see on ours. Customer service said they are working on it and will get back to me.

Several have graphed FEC's in the past because of the temp fluctuations. I know of several teams that have quit using them in contests.

quote:

Originally posted by Smokers Purgatory:
... I know of several teams that have quit using them in contests.

Really? Haven't heard that one. I have heard people giving up their FEC because they want more of a stickburner type smoke.

Never heard someone giving one up for temp spikes until your statement. Not that's it's not true, just never heard it.

Given the 100's out there and people still winning with them a lot, it's fair to say they work just fine.

the spikes above are because of start up and kicking the temp up. After that they level out.

Do you graph yours as well?

Until this one, I haven't seen a published graph on an FEC and think it's great to see so we can discuss it.

I'm getting a recorder so I can graph mine, but regardless of the swings (won't know until I graph) I have zero issues on 4 different FEC's and the swings.

russ

Don’t get me wrong Okie, I didn’t post to bash, just respond to the question. I love the smoker and will be keeping it even if we quit using it in comps.

Yes I do graph my FEC and have posted graphs here before. You responded to one of the graphs/post. I also forwarded one graph, as have others to Cookshack. They agreed that the swings were excessive. (100 degrees in my graph above) I’m told they are working on it.

My biggest problem with the temp swings is timing. If I’m cooking chick at a contest and have 100 or even 50 degree swings. I need to be checking the meat quite often. Or in other words opening the door, which creates bigger temp swings.

Again I’m not dumping on the smoker just answering the guy’s question. Is it normal? Yes in some units. But Cookshack thinks it’s excessive and is working on it.

Oh, dodn't take it as bashing (I didn't want it to sound that way if it did).

It's good to post because if someone else sees the same thing, hopefully yours will help them know what gets resolved.

I just like to stay on top of what we're all hearing. I play rumor manager a lot.

Posting things like this are great, gets us all informed about what's happening.

For me, if I'm worried about temps jumping when it "ramps up" then I stand by the cooker and open the door and dump the heat to keep it from going 50 degrees over.

I agree with CS, 50 degrees seems high

But once it achieves a set temp, my temp variations typically are +/- 10 degrees (and even less most times). Only varation is if I open the door.

Wanna trade smokers?

quote:

Originally posted by Smokers Purgatory:
Wanna trade smokers?

Ow, that's tough. I feel the pain now.

But now, I'm sentimental on the ones that have helped me win. When I get my next FEC, I'll let you know.

Russ

I'm envisioning a Cookshack museum exhibit... the evolution of the FEC100.

Featuring 37 FEC100's donated by SmokinOkie

Too Funny.

You make it sound like a bad thing.

I have two models. The Traeger controller
Only model I don't have is an original pre-CS F and the only two Powder OU Red coated, L/R matching FEC IQ4 ramp models.

The pre-ramp models seem to be particular high on the wanted list for collecters I hear...

quote:

Originally posted by Nordy:
I'm envisioning a Cookshack museum exhibit... the evolution of the FEC100.

Featuring 37 FEC100's donated by SmokinOkie

A rarely seen photo of Smokin's FEC100 storage area

Ok, so back on topic to my original question... So its NOT normal, and I should be contacting cookshack?

I would. I've never graphed mine but can safely say that swings that high/low have never been observed.

Let me guess ... smoked fish in Wisconsin?

quote:

Originally posted by MaxQue:

quote:

Originally posted by Nordy:
I'm envisioning a Cookshack museum exhibit... the evolution of the FEC100.

Featuring 37 FEC100's donated by SmokinOkie

A rarely seen photo of Smokin's FEC100 storage area

quote:

Originally posted by Bryan Rabe:
Ok, so back on topic to my original question... So its NOT normal, and I should be contacting cookshack?

Yes, and send a graph.

Be sure and check everything first.

Using good name brand pellets.

Smoker is well seasoned (good and black inside)

No pipes on the exhaust

exhaust is pointed away from any wind.

Lastly be sure the fan is running at different speeds.

If the fan does not run at different speeds. Check all wires inside the unit, specificly ground wires, that is how the fan is regulated.

quote:

Originally posted by Bryan Rabe:
Ok, so back on topic to my original question... So its NOT normal, and I should be contacting cookshack?

Sorry for the threadjacking.

I would contact CS.

For me, as I said, the initial bumps to get up to temp aren't a problem. If you could remove that (your median is off because of that) and see what the average, to me, don't look so bad but could still be a little high.

But KEY is you think it's a problem? Sounds like you do, so I'd call CS regardless of what we say here.

CS wants you to contact them direct with any service issues. The forum is great for info, but they don't normally take Customer Service issues in here.

How much meat was in the FEC 100 when you graphed it?

mine had a whole brisket and two flats. Then added two half loins the second half of the cook.

I will run Stokerlog on my next cook and see what I get, but I have never noticed mine overshoot the temp. My temp swing seems to be about 20 degrees - more than the stickburner it replaced, but still acceptable.

Spot checks show the FEC with the IQ4 either idling at temp, or cooled off to about 20 below and running to catch back up. I haven't seen it overshoot yet.

I normally put my temp probe on the same shelf as the IQ4 probe.

Ok, I finally got around to doing another cook. This cook was 2 packer biskets. I set the FEC up for 6hrs at 180, then hold at 224. Probe is right next to the FEC probe, and interestingly enough sometimes the FEC read the right temp, and sometime it read high...wierd. Elbow was off, no wind, 66 outside. Cook lasted about 9 hours (due to the temp overshoots).Smoker was NEVER opened.

Here the graph, once again, it was all over the place.

that looks like one of my graphs ... set at 180 and hit 300!
Was the door ever open or any thing changed between 17:00 and 21:00 hours?

Door was NEVER opened during the entire cook.