I recently had two separate issues in my FEC100 and am looking for some input and ideas as to why this may have happened.
1. I ran a load of pork butts the other day only to follow the butt cook with some boneless/skinless chicken thighs (12lbs). Butts cooked up fine, but when I ran the chicken I got a fire in the pit. I was running the pit at 375 for the chix and noticed about 30 mins into the cook that there was an awful black/grey smoke pouring out the exhaust. As I approached the pit I could see small flames coming out the bottom. When I went to shut it off, it turned off by itself (assuming it was the limit switch). Unfortunately, it ended up melting off most of the seal, and I had to get another.
Things that I noted from this cook;
*It rained like h3ll during the butt cook. I didn't realize until after the fire that it rained soo much that the drip pan was almost completely full with rain water and had grease floating on top.
*There were charred marks on the side of the drip pan and the path that the grease follows down to the drip pan was glowing orange.
*Even though the limit switch kicked off the pit, the internal thermometer was not ever reading anywhere near 450+. In fact it wasn't even reading 375, so I would say that it's safe to assume that it was still feeding pellets.
Second round;
2. After replacing the seal, I ran another load of chicken thighs (same amount/same brand). I only cooked these at 325 and after about 35 mins went out to sauce them. When I opened the pit I noticed that the bottom seal was charred again! No fire this time, but I dropped the temp immediately down to 225 just to be sure. It should be noted that this cook was NOT preceded by a butt cook, and the pit had clean foil down.
*Pit thermometer temp never registered above the 325-335 range during this cook. But it was still hot enough inside the pit to melt the seal closest to the fire pot.
Couple of things to note with my FEC100; It's a ramp model, with the Traeger controller. I worked with tech support after I started having temp control issues; new internal thermometer. However, because of design changes to the 100, the new thermometer does not have a cover that extends over it inside of the pit. Leaving it exposed to whatever product is cooking above it.
I'm curious if anyone else has had to replace the thermometer with an older unit and now has the same sort of exposed configuration. As consistently great as the Cookshack support is, it seems that I may have stumped them on this one. Bill and I have spent some time on calls in the past, and he has been nothing short of great. But it's just my luck to have something that no one can seem to figure out.
I've yet to try this same cook with something on the rack above the thermometer covering it. But the couple of people that I've spoke to, really don't think that this is the problem?
Any input or just flat out guesses would be greatly appreciated. I'm going to run a cook this weekend, but it won't be to the scale of the last two chicken cooks (2lbs VS 12lbs). And I would love to have some more ideas prior to my next catering event only to find a charred seal and/or another fire in the pit.
Thanks in advance... a still very pleased FEC100 owner!
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