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10 replies

New FEC Shutting Down in Hot Weather???

B bacchus2bMember
Since I can't call Cookshack until Monday....

Just received a new FEC-100 with the IQ-5 controller yesterday. It will eventually live in the shade of my covered patio in back, but yesterday I decided to fire it up on my driveway to start seasoning it and ran it at 300 degrees for about three hours with no problems. Threw in a few chicken leg quarters and whole breasts on one rack only, then cranked the heat up to 400 degrees. Within minutes it shut down and I had to reset the switch on the back of the hopper. Same thing happened once I got it going again.

It was 104 degrees in Dallas yesterday and the FEC-100 was in full afternoon sun for four or five hours so could that be why it's shutting itself down??? I hope not, but that's all I can come up with.

Any advice would be appreciated!

David Miller
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andyjandyjMember
Only time I've had my FEC trip the breaker was when I was doing a very high heat cook with chicken.

Do you have a remote thermometer you can stick in there? The FECs temp sensor is on the left side about half way up.

Not sure how sensitive the electronics are to heat, you can maybe try covering the controller so it's not in the direct sun to see if it makes a difference. I've cooked in direct sun in the mid to upper 90s without any trouble.

But definitely give Bill or Tony a call on Monday.
andyjandyjMember
Actually now that I think about it, was the chicken already cooking and dripping down on the deflector? Could have been hot grease splashing up on the Hi temp sensor. That's what was causing mine to trip. It's on the left side just below the lowest shelf and above the deflector.

Also when loading the racks, make sure the chicken doesn't extend over the deflector. Don't want to have a grease fire in a brand new smoker.
FM Former Member
quote:
Originally posted by Bacchus2b:
Think it was the 104 degree day in direct sunlight causing the problems. I got it moved onto my covered patio today and smoked ribs all day with the only issue being tripping the breaker on a GFCI
Thanks, David


Positive it's not the sun. It's filled with 800 degree insulation which works to keep the heat out as well as in. I cooked for years in the Oklahoma sun with no issues. It worked on ribs because of the lower temp.

I would look into the GFCI problem.

You can get higher temps like 400 if you ramp up slowly. If you try oofast it throws lots of pellets, overshoots and hits the high limit.
B bacchus2bMember
I was running it at 350 and tried to go straight to 400 when it shut down. I like the idea of ramping up to high heat, that makes sense to me. I was not experiencing much temperature flux (within 5 degrees of set temp) with my shiny new walls which are now a nice dark tan color.

After smoking Ribs, Chicken, and Brisket over the weekend I am super happy with the quality of my food. I pretty much mastered my Amerique after nine years, but the BBQ coming from my FEC-100 is just so much better! Can't wait to keep trying new things.

I won't say that the IQ-5 controller is as intuitive to use as the older models, but I am getting the hang of it and the various stages you can program.

Thanks for all of the replies!

David

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