new fec120

Welcome Munconu. The behavior of the controller makes me believe it has an issue. I've never had that problem with my FEC120. I'd contact American BBQ for advice and/or Cookshack here in the US.

BD

Welcome! I will leave the technical stuff to the good people at CS on this one.

The controller pads ARE that way. It takes a min or so to cycle through so I turn mine on, throw a hand full of pellets in the first pot to "get it ready" and by then the panel is ready for input.

New igniter fitted and working perfectly. I'll just have to be patient with the controller pad..........

Doug

Munchonu, Contact Cookshack and see what they say.

I got my FEC100 at end of August 2012 and it worked just fine until the weather got into the 50 degree and below range, then I could not get the control board to work. It would not let me set either time or temp, and pressing 'start' did nothing since time and temp must be set before it will start. A little warming-up with a hair dryer (per Cookshack's temporary solution suggestion) would solve the issue, but I did not like the idea of having to do that each time the temp went into the 50's and below. Turns out others were also having similar issue and Cookshack determined they now had a problem with their boards that were being manufactured by others for Cookshack. Evidently that mfr. had recently changed something when producing those control boards. Cookshack worked with their board mfr. to figure out which "thingy-dingy chip/part" needed to be tweeked and got new boards produced that now work just fine in the cooler temps. I have now started mine up at outside temps less than 30 degrees with no problems. (It does not often get real cold here in the great Pacific Northwest.) In colder temps, I know I may still have to warm the controler up a bit to get the LCD (liquid crystal display) panel to register, but I can live with that.

The folks at Cookshack are GREAT - they found they had an issue and they got it corrected, all at no cost to me. I have nothing but praise for Cookshack when I talk to others about them or the two different Cookshack smokers that I own.

Any company can have a problem with one of their products - nothing is ever perfect all of the time. It is how that company fixes their problems that matters. Cookshack passes that test with an A+ rating in my opinion.

quote:

Originally posted by Nodrog:
Munchonu, Contact Cookshack and see what they say.

I got my FEC100 at end of August 2012 and it worked just fine until the weather got into the 50 degree and below range, then I could not get the control board to work. It would not let me set either time or temp, and pressing 'start' did nothing since time and temp must be set before it will start. A little warming-up with a hair dryer (per Cookshack's temporary solution suggestion) would solve the issue, but I did not like the idea of having to do that each time the temp went into the 50's and below. Turns out others were also having similar issue and Cookshack determined they now had a problem with their boards that were being manufactured by others for Cookshack. Evidently that mfr. had recently changed something when producing those control boards. Cookshack worked with their board mfr. to figure out which "thingy-dingy chip/part" needed to be tweeked and got new boards produced that now work just fine in the cooler temps. I have now started mine up at outside temps less than 30 degrees with no problems. (It does not often get real cold here in the great Pacific Northwest.) In colder temps, I know I may still have to warm the controler up a bit to get the LCD (liquid crystal display) panel to register, but I can live with that.

The folks at Cookshack are GREAT - they found they had an issue and they got it corrected, all at no cost to me. I have nothing but praise for Cookshack when I talk to others about them or the two different Cookshack smokers that I own.

Any company can have a problem with one of their products - nothing is ever perfect all of the time. It is how that company fixes their problems that matters. Cookshack passes that test with an A+ rating in my opinion.

Thank you for posting this. It's getting a little old having to use the hair dryer on the panel and I've noticed condensation gathers underneath when I have to warm it that way. I hadn't wanted to bother Cookshack to see if they'd resolved the problem but I think I'll give them a call Monday. Is the board difficult to install?

Iceblue,
No, it is easy, a new board is pretty easy to install. One thing is pay attention to how tight those 6 little nuts are that hold the board to the controller box. Be sure to discuss this with Tony or Bill at Cookshack when you call them. If you tighten those nuts too much, it then presses the switches on the face of the control board too close to the buttons of your control box and holds them constantly "on" as if you were holding your finger down on the buttons outside. Just tighten nuts evenly and slowly until control board is just held into place. Again Tony or Bill can give you some tips for knowing just how much to tighten those nuts. You can then test switch operation by pressing on the buttons on outside of controller with power then turned on. If pressing buttons does not change the display reading on your LCD panel, tighten (or losen) as need be the nuts another 1/4 turn or so each time. Repeat process until all your buttons work fine. I used a nut driver (similar to a screw driver but with an end that fits a nut rather than a screw head) to get control board off/on.

Also pay attention to how the wires plug-in and how they attach to the terminal blocks. Most connections are pretty easy, but the ones for the temperature probe terminal (the two small wires on right side that must be unscrewed with very small screwdriver) have a positive/negative side to them so do not reverse these or your temp probe won't work right. Put a small piece of tape around one wire before disconnecting and then remember to which side of the terminal it goes to.

By the way, when I used the hair dryer to warm up the controller, I opened it up each time so I could gently apply some heat directly on the board rather than blasting the outside of the contol box with heat. Opening up your controller when warming it up might help with the condensation issue inside it. A thought though, maybe your condensation issue is caused with how/where your unit is stored. Again discuss this with tech guys at Cookshack - they are great - they know everything and all the tricks to use with their smokers. Good luck!!

Just put a replacement board in mine a couple weeks ago it was easy but I didn't have the one plug all the way on and had no pellet auger.

I fired it up at -6º F last weekend. was able to adjust the time and temp right away.