Bullseye Bullseye Temperature control issues

[usncmc]

Six months ago I replaced the auger in my RT380. Since then the temperature control has been all over the map. I have no fewer than 30 emails with Support at a dozen troubleshooting calls and 20 pounds of pellets with no resolution. Prior to changing the auger I would grill at 475. The temperature may dip 5 or 10 degrees when I would flip the meat but that's it. Now, when I set for 475, the grill will heat to 483 and jump to 535, then slowly drop back down to around 475. When I flip the meat it will drop to around 400 then crawl back up. I can't find the sweet shot and things are a crap shoot. I have videos and sent same to support. Support just tells me it's weather or old pellets or not a big deal. I am about ready to trash the grill and drop another $400 since these are $100 off. I am just so disappointed in the excellent customer support and lack of what I feel to be a care or concern. So before I give up I thought I would see if anyone has encountered a similar issue.

 

[C. Keeper]

Six months ago I replaced the auger in my RT380. Since then the temperature control has been all over the map. I have no fewer than 30 emails with Support at a dozen troubleshooting calls and 20 pounds of pellets with no resolution. Prior to changing the auger I would grill at 475. The temperature may dip 5 or 10 degrees when I would flip the meat but that's it. Now, when I set for 475, the grill will heat to 483 and jump to 535, then slowly drop back down to around 475. When I flip the meat it will drop to around 400 then crawl back up. I can't find the sweet shot and things are a crap shoot. I have videos and sent same to support. Support just tells me it's weather or old pellets or not a big deal. I am about ready to trash the grill and drop another $400 since these are $100 off. I am just so disappointed in the excellent customer support and lack of what I feel to be a care or concern. So before I give up I thought I would see if anyone has encountered a similar issue.

Why did you replace the auger?

 

[Ruslan124]

Six months ago I replaced the auger in my RT380. Since then the temperature control has been all over the map. I have no fewer than 30 emails with Support at a dozen troubleshooting calls and 20 pounds of pellets with no resolution. Prior to changing the auger I would grill at 475. The temperature may dip 5 or 10 degrees when I would flip the meat but that's it. Now, when I set for 475, the grill will heat to 483 and jump to 535, then slowly drop back down to around 475. When I flip the meat it will drop to around 400 then crawl back up. I can't find the sweet shot and things are a crap shoot. I have videos and sent same to support. Support just tells me it's weather or old pellets or not a big deal. I am about ready to trash the grill and drop another $400 since these are $100 off. I am just so disappointed in the excellent customer support and lack of what I feel to be a care or concern. So before I give up I thought I would see if anyone has encountered a similar issue.

I have posted lengthy answers in a couple of other posts, here is a short version. First the temperature drops seem nirmal. If course it will fall when you open the grill. Your minimum feed rate is too high. Your settings have the auger unable to dump a small enough amount of pellets to maintain temps. When the feed rate dumps a lot of pellets you get a big fire that once started the controller cannot stop.

Set the minimum feed at 5 (or .5% in the app) and run it for an hour. You will reduce the swings but you may get a flame out. If you do flame out, set it to ten and do it again. Keep increasing until flame ours do not occur and that will be your best setting.

Once you find the lowest setting you may still initially get swings but it will improve after several cooks

What RPM is the new motor?

 

[usncmc]

Why did you replace the auger?

The unit was left partially exposed during the rain that was worst than expected. The pellets got wet and dried which prevented the auger from operating. So a new auger was sent with directions to swap out. Prior to this incident the grill worked perfectly and now, with the temperature drastic fluctuations, the food is often over cooked or we try to catch it before the drastic changes in temperature and it's undercooked.

 

[usncmc]

I have posted lengthy answers in a couple of other posts, here is a short version. First the temperature drops seem nirmal. If course it will fall when you open the grill. Your minimum feed rate is too high. Your settings have the auger unable to dump a small enough amount of pellets to maintain temps. When the feed rate dumps a lot of pellets you get a big fire that once started the controller cannot stop.

Set the minimum feed at 5 (or .5% in the app) and run it for an hour. You will reduce the swings but you may get a flame out. If you do flame out, set it to ten and do it again. Keep increasing until flame ours do not occur and that will be your best setting.

Once you find the lowest setting you may still initially get swings but it will improve after several cooks

What RPM is the new motor?

Thank you for the feed rate information. I will tackle this on Sunday. For RPM, I do not know. Is there a way I could find out?

 

[Ruslan124]

Thank you for the feed rate information. I will tackle this on Sunday. For RPM, I do not know. Is there a way I could find out?

Not without opening it up. The best guide is the rate of climb and max temps. If you can get to 500 degrees in 10 minutes you are probably fine.

 

[C. Keeper]

The unit was left partially exposed during the rain that was worst than expected. The pellets got wet and dried which prevented the auger from operating. So a new auger was sent with directions to swap out. Prior to this incident the grill worked perfectly and now, with the temperature drastic fluctuations, the food is often over cooked or we try to catch it before the drastic changes in temperature and it's undercooked.

I wonder if the twists count is the same on both augers?

 

[Ruslan124]

I wonder if the twists count is the same on both augers?

I did not spot that. The OP did mention an auger change. The Auger is indeed different than the Auger motor. If I had to guess, it was the motor that was changed given my earlier interaction.