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- 6,609
- Grill(s) owned
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- Bullseye
- RT-680
Fellow Bullseye owners I owe some of you an apology. Some have described crazy temperature swings which I have never seen before........till tonight. I feel pretty comfortable to say that the grill may even be unsafe due to excessive pellets being dumped into the firepot. I typically use the Bullseye for fast (grilling) cooks and didn't have any problems, even the original burn-in at 400 was stable.
I was attempting to cook a pork butt at 225 and sleep throughout the night, that didn't happen. I eventually noticed the smoke bellowing from the grill and HUGE temperature swings. I suggested to others it appears that the grill is "flaming out" and relighting. I thought perhaps some of you were experiencing an auger stall but evidently not. How do I know?? That's a good question. If you have ever noticed when starting the Bullseye the "decimals" at the lower part of the screen will flash when in ignition mode, that's how I know.
I have adjusted the minimum feed rate thinking it's is actually not getting enough fuel. I tried 3.0 (my default), 6.0, and ended at 12.0 without any real difference in operation. It's now 06:30 hours and I have been playing with this since 00:00 hours and tired. If I didn't have the RECTEC controller on Frankenstein I'd probably never buy another or suggest a Recteq product.
Final Notes: I now seem to be relatively stable at 250 with a setpoint of 225. With the auger feed rate of 12.0 at "LO" setpoint I'm stable at 200. I'll edit if it doesn't remain steady for the rest of the cook. I'm sure I'll have plenty of that down home smoked flavor due to all the relights and hope it's not over smoked or bitter tasting. I don't suggest using this product for long slow cooks. Is it a firmware issue, who knows? Did increasing minimum feed rate help? The short answer is "that setting is to prevent flame-outs."
Here is my follow-up:
I suspect that there's a problem with the Bullseye as others have mentioned. My situation pretty much mirrors what others have said about the wild temperature swings. I personally think it was worse then was described by others. I have the "Bull" controller on "Frankenstein" and know what should be expected from RT. I didn't go with another controller and chose RT based on their stellar reputation.
I have been in the temperature control industry for about 3 decades and familiar with PID controllers, I deal with them everyday. I don't claim to know everything and typically learn everyday in this industry. But this isn't a good situation by any means.
I contacted RT and spoke with "Bobby" who was very nice and polite. Bobby had me pretty much return all the parameters to default including the temp offset and auger minimum feed rate. Bobby stated that the minimum feed rate would affect all cooks 250 and below??? Bobby wants me to try another cook but I don't think I'm up to this and may sell the Bullseye.
I will cross post this on my original post.
I was attempting to cook a pork butt at 225 and sleep throughout the night, that didn't happen. I eventually noticed the smoke bellowing from the grill and HUGE temperature swings. I suggested to others it appears that the grill is "flaming out" and relighting. I thought perhaps some of you were experiencing an auger stall but evidently not. How do I know?? That's a good question. If you have ever noticed when starting the Bullseye the "decimals" at the lower part of the screen will flash when in ignition mode, that's how I know.
I have adjusted the minimum feed rate thinking it's is actually not getting enough fuel. I tried 3.0 (my default), 6.0, and ended at 12.0 without any real difference in operation. It's now 06:30 hours and I have been playing with this since 00:00 hours and tired. If I didn't have the RECTEC controller on Frankenstein I'd probably never buy another or suggest a Recteq product.
Final Notes: I now seem to be relatively stable at 250 with a setpoint of 225. With the auger feed rate of 12.0 at "LO" setpoint I'm stable at 200. I'll edit if it doesn't remain steady for the rest of the cook. I'm sure I'll have plenty of that down home smoked flavor due to all the relights and hope it's not over smoked or bitter tasting. I don't suggest using this product for long slow cooks. Is it a firmware issue, who knows? Did increasing minimum feed rate help? The short answer is "that setting is to prevent flame-outs."
Here is my follow-up:
I suspect that there's a problem with the Bullseye as others have mentioned. My situation pretty much mirrors what others have said about the wild temperature swings. I personally think it was worse then was described by others. I have the "Bull" controller on "Frankenstein" and know what should be expected from RT. I didn't go with another controller and chose RT based on their stellar reputation.
I have been in the temperature control industry for about 3 decades and familiar with PID controllers, I deal with them everyday. I don't claim to know everything and typically learn everyday in this industry. But this isn't a good situation by any means.
I contacted RT and spoke with "Bobby" who was very nice and polite. Bobby had me pretty much return all the parameters to default including the temp offset and auger minimum feed rate. Bobby stated that the minimum feed rate would affect all cooks 250 and below??? Bobby wants me to try another cook but I don't think I'm up to this and may sell the Bullseye.
I will cross post this on my original post.
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