Long Cook - Pellet Burn

If your smoker is new, put your hand underneath the hopper and see if it has small holes in it. If it does what you need to do is layed down underneath it and mark the center of the fan on the bottom. Take a jig saw and cut a 4.5 inch hole out. This will solve your problem.

Hey Joe,

Are you talking about the bottom of the control box on the outside of the unit??

RandyE

Hey RandyE,

A little update....I spoke to Tony in Cookshack C/S today about my igniter, and brought up this topic and what Tn.Joe's suggestion was. Tony asked me to take the cover off the hopper on the side on my next cook and see if that helps. If it does he said he would send me a new cover with that portion "knocked" out where the slits/holes were. He said they were actually looking at a redesign to improve the flow of air.

I am going to do a 12+ hour cook one day this week and I will report my results.

Thanks Scott


RandyE

Also, what helped me was using high temperature "Form A Gasket" sealer (auto parts store) seal off the openings that air escapes from on its way to the fire pot. Around the muffin fan, the hole where wires enter the duct, around the firepot lid (notice the picture how th the sheet metal is warped up.)

Randy,

If you look under your smoker and it has 3/8 holes punched all over it, you need to mark the center of where your fan is and then take the side cover off and mark a 4.5 inch hole and jig saw it out with a metal blade or use a metal hole saw. This will give the smoker more air for the fan to push into the fire pot. Which in return will keep your pot from overflowing with pellets.

Thanks Joe. May have to try that on my IQ4.

John it will solve your problem if you are having one.

I had the same problem. My fec100 is in a small building behind my restaurant. Since the smoker is out of the weather, I removed the side panel and left it off, have not had a problem since. I did speak to Bill at CS about leaving the panel off, and he said that was not a problem.

I spoke to soon. I'm also having the pellet build up on a long cook. I cooked 10 hours last night and this morning I had a pellet build up on the ramp almost to the auger. I'm calling cookshack Monday morning. Hopefully they can solve the problem. My fec100 was tripping the gfi breaker every 15 minutes last week. I replaced the gfi with a standard plug and have not had that happen again. Bad thing about all these problems, I'm trying to open my BBQ joint Monday morning, and I can not cook over night like I need to do. Very stressful and frustrating!!

Hey Hill Top,
Were are you located??

Always need a good place to eat.

RandyE

We are located in Springtown, Texas which is about 35 miles northwest of Fort Worth.

Have you called customer service yet? We are always willing to do whatever it takes to get you up and running smoothly. Give us a call if you haven't already 800.423.0698

Bill with customer service overnighted a new fan and I received and installed it this morning. Smoker has been going for 6 hours now with no problem. Hopefully that fan has solved my problem. Thanks Bill for the excellent customer service.

Hilltop- Was the tripping of the gfci outlet related to your bad fan? I had a gfci outlet trip 4 times this weekend all within about 1/2 hr and ended up switching to a different outlet. Never had this problem before with my FEC100. Thanks.

GFI's are designed to a UL requirement to trip when a difference of 5 ma or more exists between the hot and neutral wires. This difference can be caused by a human creating an alternate path to ground (electrocution) or leakage in motors or capacitors to ground causing the imbalance. At all contests the plugs are GFI.

Sounds like there may be an issue with the fan motors of the FEC having leakage. CS should be investigating the number of GFI reports that are on the forum that may have been solved with new fans.

Not sure Trucky. I had already replaced the gfi with a standard plug before I replaced the fan. Bill at cookshack told me the fec100's don't work well on gfi's.

ScottR:
Have you solved the pellet problem you were having. Cookshack sent me a new fan which I installed Tuesday. Now the fec100 is performing like it was intended.

I never did try and cook with the cover off, My unit is 3 weeks old. I am still trying to replace the ignitor as well after 2 shipments that were wrong. I got what I need now, I will replace this weekend.

When you look at the picture at the beginning of the post does that look normal to all the other people that have FEC-100's?

If CS is reading this and I know they do, have they wondered why a user has to use High Temp RTV or drill holes in the cover to resolve the issues? Or is this all how its supposed to work. If CS says normal than I am fine with it.

Scottr:
That is not normal at all. You should not have a pellet build up like the pic. I had the same problem, solved by a new fan cookshack sent me.

I am going to keep this thread alive, and maybe some of you can answer a question for me. I cooked without the side panel off (CS advice) and it really had some increased airflow, in fact blew a lot of ashes on the bottom of the cooker. So I notified CS my findings and they determined they would send a different style side panel. This one has two round circles cut out that look like fan style vents. I installed it, and cooked this weekend. I still have a lot of pellets mounding up in the pot. I have attached a picture of my fire pot where it meets the box. I see where people have used Ultra Copper RTV (can't see how that is food safe) or RED High Temp RTV. OK, finally to the question. Is this the size gap you have on your model? I feel quite a bit of air escaping from this area.

Hi Scott
Mine was like that when I first got it, didnt have the pellet burn problem. there are 2 screws on the front of pot housing, and the part you pictured will come off. Bend it a little more to 45 (slight overbend) and it will sit a lot better. I experimented with mine for the last 6 months, used foil tape in different areas to seal air flow etc Its easier to remove than rv gasket sealer. Slide your side panel back enough to clear the fan and try it, keep notes!

Doc