Temp changes

I own a Cookshack, but I've read others that have the temperature swing on the FEC. I get small ones on the Cookshack.

This is very normal. Understanding how a thermostat works is helpful. For any heating/cooling device, a thermostat will only turn a unit on or off. When the device reaches temp, off it goes until the temperature falls enough (or rises enough when cooling) to where the thermostat turns the element (or cooling) on again. Your house heating/cooling, car heating/cooling, oven, smoker, refrigerator, etc. all work the same way.

Ever notice sometimes when your house heater is set to, say, 72*, it feels cooler or warmer at different times. That's the heater cycling on and off. I believe the FEC will have wider temperature swings because it's heated with pellets. When the unit falls below temp, more pellets are added. When the unit gets to temp less pellets are added. The reaction to the number of pellets heating is slower than simply turning an element or motor on or off so the swings are naturally going to be wider IMO.

Important thing to remember is a lot of people are making fine briskets with their units. Hope you smoked your brisket to temp and not time. If you're going by time, you may have overcooked it. Others on this forum will help you to where your satisfied with your results.

Hope this helped some.

Thanks for the info. I would have assumed that the Temperature swing would be a little less since it is being controlled by an internal chip (plus or minus less than 5%).. I only did this one by time because I wanted to observe the unit's operation in the "auto Brisket" mode. Won't make that mistake again. Will try again this weekend. Smoke flavor was good, but way overdone.. Thanks

G,

Welcome and we'll try to help.

Keep in mind the Electric CS that there rest of the forum users are very different than the FEC's. Pags, sorry, but the FEC controller operates quit a bit different and I don't think most users get that variance. Pellets or not, both my contest units hold +/- 5 degrees (many times within 2)

There is a recent post in the FEC Open forum, about "brisket help" that should give you some info specifically about briskets.

You said it was new. Keep in mind any new item, may have some period of break in.

I would not use the "brisket setting" (I've had this discussion with CS, I don't think anyone uses it), but it' a great brisket cooker. Lot of contest winners use it.

Also, a variance of 32 degrees, it the median is 220, is only plus or mins about 12 to 20 degrees, few if any stick burners do that well.

Run a test. Set it for 225 or 250, which ever is your normal temp and just let it run. Don't open the door, make sure the wind isn't blowing straight into the vent and see what temps you get each hour.

Also, keep in mind where the temp probe is. You don't want to have meat on/immediately next to it, there would be false readings.

Good Idea. I'll run it for about 8 hours and log the Temps every 30-45 minutes. The main thing that I found weird was in the "Brisket mode" the manual stated that it was preset for 224 degrees, but the monitor showed 228 as the baseline. I'll post again after I log 8 hours of test. I must have been lucky with my offset, I'am able to keep it to about 5-10 degrees, but way to much babysitting. I really appreciate this forum, good responses and everyone seems to want to acomplish one goal. "The Best"

With bright,shiny walls,first cook,no grease in it-yes,I'm shocked that you had that small of temp swings.

This is why we try hard to get folks to read the forums,and use the FIND feature-before it arrives.

It will settle down ,after a number of cooks,to less swing than a pro oven-whatever that is worth.

I bet that stickburner didn't run within 5* on an all night cook,the day you broke it in-or yes you were lucky.

You'll see that if cookshack tells you something-take it to the bank.

Good Day G's Q,

I've posted similar problems with my FEC 100. I have found out that using this machine more as time goes on the temperature swings are a lot less than they were when I first purchased the unit new. The biggest tip that I've got using the FEC 100 is that when I preheat the oven for at least one hour not open the door and vacume out the fire pot each time, the temperature swings were about less than 10° on average. I have probably about 25 or more cooks on my unit now, and then seeing a lot less temperature swings which makes me very happy Cook. Good luck with your new unit and learn to use the advance find button in the search menu for this forum and you'll find a lot of great answers. Good luck.