OK so now I am worried

Relax. I just think there are some people who worry WAY too much about various settings, etc. It's easy to read one post and worry about it, but realize with the internet, everyone talks about everything.

Wait until you get your units and use them and all will be fine.

Don't read all the posta and think this thing doesn't work. It works great.

Plenty of people have them and they work just fine. Know that CS stands behind them and will work with you IF, and I say IF you have a problem.

Some new users complain that they can't get it down below XXX temp. But if you watch it, it starts out, shoots up in temp. Hey you're burning wood, with an auger that is spitting them out so that it can get up to temp.

Just open the door, let some of the heat out and it stabilizes.

In comps, once it gets to the temp I have on the dial (say 245) then I watch it and don't let it climb above that by opening the door.

i don't have any problems with my temps.
friday my temps on smoke stayed 145-165 for the 4 hours that i had that setting set.
this morning my temps at 400 stayed within 10 degrees of the set temp.
all in all the fec holds temps as good or better than any commercial oven i have ever used
jack

Quigley - I dont own an FEC yet (but will soon), but have played with a couple. The opportunities are limitless......you'll be OK....and better once you turn in on!

I just got mine on Tuesday and had a devil of a time getting the venting and seasoning done. I was about to thorw in the towel and use the traeger for the 100 person catering event at 6p Saturday 2 hr drive away. Finally at 7p Friday night it all came together the butts went on at smoke setting stayed between 150-170 for 2 or 3 hours. Cranked it 180 and it never moved more than 10 degrees either direction for 12 hours. I put the ribs and chiken halves on at 6:30...5 1/2 hours later they came off cranked up the cooker to 245 for 1 1/2 to finish off the butts. Wrapped them all up, put them in the cambro and hit the road.....best sleep I ever got while cooking and some very full and happy people in Indy Saturday night.

Chris

Commish, glad it went well. I'm sure you were sweating that first event, but now you can have a few more nights with a lot more sleep.

Smokin'

Quigley, don't sweat the FE, its an awesome cooker. I've had mine a couple months now, I've cooked everything imaginable on it, hauled it around with less care than i give my old lawn mower and it works exactly like its supposed to.
You'll love them.

Quigley,
I use the 400 setting for my chicken. If we want to lower the temp for other things once it's done, we cut the FEC off and vent it a few times. When we reach the temperature we're after, we start it back up. Or I should say, Jack does all this stuff, I just watched him fiddling around with all the dials today!
Peggy

ok, I'm still reading about grease fires, burnt gaskets, controller problems and you people are STILL recommending I buy this thing?

Quigley,
please don't take this the wrong way as it is certainly not meant in a bad way.
after re-reading this thread and everyone's responses to you i have (rightly or wrongly) come to the conclusion that the fec just might not be a cooker you are ever going to be happy with.
i have based my conclusion off of this and i quote "you people are STILL recommending that I buy this thing?"
from that i recommend that if it is at all possible you go ahead and cancel your order as i truly believe that you would be happier with some other unit based off of your posts.
just my 2 cents and again please do not take my post in the wrong manner.
i only offered it as a response to your latest question
jack

Quigley,
You remember the saying "nothing is ever as good as it seems, and nothing is ever as bad as it seems". Have I taken them a part so I know how to fix one? YES..Would I take one to a contest without a backup controller, auger motor, and fuses? NO...Do I take one to contests? YES.. It is an electro-mechanical device. With any such device, the possibility of breakdown exists. I spent six monthes in FE hell with my first one. Flameouts, two controller failures plus an auger motor failure.
The replacement has worked flawlessly. Much better than what most feel is ok. Is it Perfect? NO... Does it need a better controller? I think yes... Is this is the cooker for you? I have no idea.

quote:

Originally posted by Quigley:
[qb] ok, I'm still reading about grease fires, burnt gaskets, controller problems and you people are STILL recommending I buy this thing? [/qb]

That's the problem with the Internet. Everyone posts every little thing. Do most types of smokers have forums, nope, or you'd be reading about their problems.

Just my thoughts, and this is NOT directed towards anyone in this or another forum, but some people who post really worrry about the wrong stuff and try to overenginer and change the way the thing operates.

I don't work for CS so don't think I'm biased. I've cooked on most everything out there.

Controller problems, don't think so, you don't see the many owners posting that they DON'T have problems, just people when they do. And there aren't any problems with the controllers, just people who want it to work different than it does right now.

Burned gaskets? Put enough grease in it and it will be a problem, but you don't see a lot of posts about burned gaskets, just a recent one. Or when someone has a grease fire. Again not a common occurrence.

Prisonchef is problem right, if you're that worried about it you have a decision to make.

Know this, Negative news is reported more often than positive news.

And, most importantly, CS stands by it's smokers. If you're really having a problem deciding, don't ask the forum, pick up the phone and call the people you ordered it from and talk to them. They're great people and they'll help you out.

Yup, it's mechanical and yup, parts break, but in the 18 months I've had one, I had one igniter burn out because a wind blew the fire up the auger -- my fault, not the smokers. I've replaced controllers on my own, not broken, but because I wanted to see if there were any differences in controller lots, didn't really find any difference.

Just my opinion, I know it's a lot of money for two smokers, so we can't make that decision for you, you'll have to.

Russ

How can you say that there are no problems with this controller?

Okay, let's pull out one statement, I was trying to GENERALIZE that there isn't a massive problem with controllers, let me stand correction, yup there have been problems. How many? Not many.

But not massive. It's not like everyone has bad controllers. My point is that they work. Do they work to the tolerances some people want, no. But they work. Would we like better, yup.

As we've discussed, I think some people get a bad one (and since they come via Trager there's not much to do) but if you have the problem early enough, in warranty, I believe that CS will readily send out another one. They've probably even sent one out after warranty to keep the customer happy.

And that's a KEY POINT to remember Quigley, that CS stands by it's products, unlike many others that don't.

The point of the whole post would be that you don't hear people posting about the ones that work, just the ones that don't. Negative is a lot easier to publish than the positive.

Hopefully you've gotten enough information Quigley between this post and the one at BBQ Search to get some good info.

Russ

What are you worried about you have 30 days. Cook the #@(! out of it and if you don't like it. Send it back. I just order my first one last week.


Craig

thanks for the feedback, I actually asked a similar question on the "other" forum. I specifically asked are there hundreds of happy users and just a few unhappy ones.Over there I have seen many happy users.But when I read that someone here is going to try and design his own controller because the ones that come with it don't work, or people leaving contests because of temp control problems or fires in the pit because they didnt dry off the marinade from the chicken (I don't dry mine off by the way). well you can see that I might be a bit concerned. I am an experience pellet head, I'm spoiled and want a shinny new toy just like everyone else here. I just was getting concerned if I was spending my IRS refund wisely.

Smokin',
Let me get this straight. Only people who have had proplems post on the site? Or the few who have had problems post here? The truth will set you free..

Ask Stumps smokers how many fire's they have had in their pits that ruined their chances. I have seen two that I know of.


P.S Are you the same "Smoking Guns" in KC and KCBS?


Craig

I have caused a lot more fires in my Jed than I have in my CS, and I marinade in ital dressing and am fairly lazy and do not dry them off so good, HOWEVER, I do use a new sheet of foil covering the drip tray every time, and if I notice it gets cruddy from the night before I jusy change it in the AM before ribs and chicken. I also clean out the drip runner every time I use it, and the only time I had a fire it was 100% my fault for being lazy and I had 2 racks of wings and 2 racks of ABT's so I had a fairly flamable combo, (chicken and bacon fat) and I did not clean it so well after the last cook. have I had a problem, YES, has CS taken care of it YES, would I buy another, well my Jed is for sale, so that ought to say it all, I am selling my Jed and trailer, and keeping the FEC.

If you have any qualms, call CS, talk to the powers that be, and they will make sure that by the time you hang up, you will either be 110% satisfied, or they will refund your $$$, it is in your court, but I will gamble that in 30 days you will be posting how much you love your FEC and wonder what the hell took you so long to buy one

Christian

first let me clarify who I am, there is another team called Smokin' (NO G) Guns from KC. That is not me. I started and still use the name Smoking Guns (with the G).I am in Florida. We both started in 1996 and KCBS had no problem with the closeness in names .Since the odds of being at the same competition are slim and I don't vend, sell or cater I decided to keep my old team name.Second, I have been cooking on Traegers for years. Only changed out one board in nine years. I had at one point three of their 200 units, those are the big trailer units. They had a very simple thermostat on it. No fancy electronics, just a dial. To be honest, it worked perfect. If I set it to 225 that thermometer always read 225. So, now they have one with fancy leds and electronics, seems to me they should just go back to the old style.I know I can learn to cook on the fec.And yes when I compete I always carry spare parts. The order is still in.I will give them a valid try. And at the end of the month I will post my opinions based on my actual experience. good, bad or indifferent.Thanks for the replies, and hope to see some of you out on the circuit.

Now Craig,you know that is Linda & Phil Hopkins,the top comp team and restaurant owners from KCMO.

They do cook on pellet munchers and Phil does build custom cookers. Smokin' Guns

Mornin' Fred

I think that when one of us has an unexpected occurence ,we want to be sure it is a problem,see if anyone else experiences the same,and is there a ready fix.

My example would be, that I really like my personal car,but I never comment on it.

Once a year I get a bug,and that causes me to grumble about it for awhile.

Just a thought.

Are you coming up for Birmingham?


Tom-Fl

Tom,
Can't make it to B'ham, but we are signned up to judge at Plant City.

As for the controllers, I'm the one who has been posting that for over a year, my controller has worked as advertised. You and Okie among others have been posting that your controllers don't work right, but you can live with it. My feeling is that the quality of these controllers is far to inconsistant for a cooker of this quality..

I can't say we disagree much,or that Cookshack does,either.

Glad to see you got in Plant City.

Good location and a bunch of top teams.

Tom-Fl

Doing research on this forum, almost convinced me not to purchase the FE. But, I am glad that I went ahead and did it. No such thing as a perfect smoker. And, there is a learning curve with the FE as well as anything else you might buy. Yes, I have had a small problem, that was readily explained to me by Cookshack. It's no longer a problem, and I have a much better idea of how the FE works after talking to Cookshack, which is a good thing. I'm glad that I bought the FE and would not hesitate to purchase another one.(which I hope to do again some day)

ok.
someone enlighten me.
i keep seeing references to the "other forum"
can someone please send me a link to this "other" forum??
thanks
jack

The BBQ Forum

It's ironic. I onced made refrence to this forum over there no link, just the name. and the thread was immediately removed by Ray. But here it's ok to give a direct link let alone just mention a name.Guess he is worried about competition.

References to other forums is expressly forbidden in the rules of use for the BBQ Forum. That is his choice since he covered all the costs and time to build and run it. His one source of income is from advertising. And if you go to another forum, his advertisers don't get looked at. The rule seems okay to me.

It is highly unlikely that someone on the other forum dosen't know about this forum. I think most of us flip back and forth routinely. When the Cookshack forum was down a few weeks ago i didnt know if it was them or my computer. I asked a simple question, Was it them or me. In under five minutes it was gone. I didnt see it as a threat of mass exodus from his site. Your right, it is his forum and his rules. It's one thing to actively promote shifting your interests to another site ,but mearly mentioning a name seems a bit petty.

Okay enough talk about other forums or I'll have to delete all references...

...he said laughing.

Sorry, silly Forum Moderator humor.

We're pretty friendly here and as long as we don't trash 'em, it's okay to talk about 'em.

Quigley,
I think the reason you see so much discussion in here about problems with the FEC, is that we feel it's the best place to get answers to our questions. I wouldn't go to Frigidaire with a question about my GE range. So, I come to Cookshack when I have a question about the FEC or the SM150. We had a grease fire in ours, but it was our fault. Cookshack sent us a replacement gasket, it was super easy to replace. They sent us great directions. If you are careful to keep your equipment clean, and you should if you are preparing food for others, either judges or the public, you'll have no problem with grease fires.
Also, since you're in Florida, don't let your pellets sit unsealed either in the bags or in the feeder!
Use common sense, I think you'll love the smoker.
But if you don't like the idea of it, I'd buy something else. You have to do what you're comfortable with.
Maybe big logs are better for you.
Peggy