What are people doing for the hopper? Do you use a power inverter or a generator?
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At contests and remote cooking locations, we use inverters and deep-cycle marine batteries. Works great. On a fully charged battery, the FEC will run for at least 20 hours.
Same here, but I always bring my Honda EU2000 with an axillary tank, just to be on the safe side.
not to be an idiot,, but can't you just plug it into the provided electricity
Yes, you can. But if you have ever tried to use the electric hookups at contests, you will know that they are prone to popping the breakers. One of the reasons I have an FEC 100 is so I can sleep at night. I don't want to get up the next morning and find the electric off.
This is why we use invertors and batteries.
This is why we use invertors and batteries.
Thank you, I was in no way trying to be a smart ass, and appreciate the advice.
And I did not take it that way. If I had taken it that way, Smokin would probably have to delete my response. 
I will also say that the circuit board prefers "clean" power. If you run a search on this above under the "Find" button, there are some excellent threads in the archives on it.
But please, keep asking the questions. That is how we learned also.
I will also say that the circuit board prefers "clean" power. If you run a search on this above under the "Find" button, there are some excellent threads in the archives on it.
But please, keep asking the questions. That is how we learned also.
I haven't even seen mine yet, had it sent straight to my friend who builds custom trailers . He is adding it to our competition trailer. very excited to start cooking
quote:Originally posted by dsimons:
not to be an idiot,, but can't you just plug it into the provided electricity
At my last contest of the year at Imperial Beach, CA, we were down at the end of the power line. There was only one generator. When they plugged in more cord's downstream, the gang boxes were popping left and right. I was lucky it happened during the day. Just fired up the generator for the rest of the cook, and everything came out OK!!
I keep reading about peple's inverters. Anyone care to state a brand or model? Last time I was at sams they had 6 sitting there and I couldn't decide.
I have a cheapie 400w, but it won't run both my 100 and my trailer lights for some reason.
I have a cheapie 400w, but it won't run both my 100 and my trailer lights for some reason.
I have a Vector MaxxSST 400w/800w model that I picked up at Lowe's. But I only use it for my FEC at contests. It was recommended to me to have the 400w/800w.
My older FEC100 does not like modified sine wave inverters. I could not get it to run correctly on two different inverters. One was a Coleman and I can't remember the brand of the other one. I currently have a Samlex 600 watt true sine wave inverter. It runs both of my FE's at contests and with two Sam's Club deep cycle batteries I cooked both the Royal Invite and Open without needing to charge.
I went this route when at the Durango, CO contest two years ago some of the volunteers at the event unplugged my cookers and took my extension cord to power a PA system. The timing couldn't have been worse as it was 1 hour before the first turn in. I've been on batteries ever since.
Mark
I went this route when at the Durango, CO contest two years ago some of the volunteers at the event unplugged my cookers and took my extension cord to power a PA system. The timing couldn't have been worse as it was 1 hour before the first turn in. I've been on batteries ever since.
Mark