Bullseye temperature issues

Thanks for responding. To be clear, I don’t have a Bullseye yet. I’m ready to buy now, but I’m hoping to hear some success stories for low/slow smoking.
380 arrived new today and I ran some tests. The temp swing was a little more than I would like to see but I am not sure how long the controller takes to settle in. On the third session today, I ran the grill for 3 hours at 300 just to see what it would do. The internal probe reached temp pretty quickly and only overshot by 5 degrees before settling back to 300. I also had an external probe mounted to the grates a few inches away from the internal probe. What I saw initially were temps 30-60 degrees higher than the internal temp. I put in the +17 that everyone has reported. I will run some additional tests and report back with what I see. It would be interesting to know what others are getting for temp stability towards the center of the grill.
 
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I just checked the temp of my Bullseye. The external thermometer reads the same as the Bullseye thermometer. I replaced the Bullseye RTD but not sure if that makes any difference.
EDIT: I did the above temp test at 225 without issue. I increased the temperature to 350 and now have an actual reading of 355 and external temp of 401. At 500 actual temp the external temp is low at 480. This is interesting???The temps seem to be all over the place with no particular offset.
View attachment 7660
I saw almost the same thing as you tonight running at 300 with the grill running much higher. Seems it swings around a lot even though I am not opening the lid and we are sitting at 40 with no wind today. I am not sure how long the PID controller takes to settle down. I will post back with my findings.
 
Where are these instructions, I missed it.
When I did my temp comparison it wasn't linear so not sure of temp to adjust offset??
Chris, I think you are on to something. There seems to be a linearity problem. I suspect the offset is just to force the internal reading up or down to make it more accurate. But I have had some experience with temp controllers in the past and there were somethings we had to do to adjust the extremes of the temp range. Not sure if they have that in these controllers. More testing to come! I really don't care about the higher temps when doing steaks and burgers, etc, but low and slow I would like to know that it is at least close to what I am calling for.
 
Fan Operation - Hi All, has anyone noticed a large amount of air escaping from the fan assembly where you can feel the air blowing out of the bottom of the hopper area? I am wondering if too much air is escaping, could that be affecting temp control???
 
Fan Operation - Hi All, has anyone noticed a large amount of air escaping from the fan assembly where you can feel the air blowing out of the bottom of the hopper area? I am wondering if too much air is escaping, could that be affecting temp control???
Haven't checked on mine, but the thing that has stabilized temps swings (but not improved accuracy) on mine has been switching to cast iron grates.
 
Haven't checked on mine, but the thing that has stabilized temps swings (but not improved accuracy) on mine has been switching to cast iron grates.
I'm a fan of the iron grate as well.
 
Fan Operation - Hi All, has anyone noticed a large amount of air escaping from the fan assembly where you can feel the air blowing out of the bottom of the hopper area? I am wondering if too much air is escaping, could that be affecting temp control???
There are two fans on the Bullseye, a larger one that supplies air to the fire pot via the air box and a smaller fan that I assume is to keep the electronics cool. I expect you are feeling the air from the smaller fan.
50AEED8F-EB06-40D0-98E7-BA392AD6BCDE.jpeg
 
Help. I’ve read in a few places about issues with the Bullseye running much hotter than the setting. I really want to use it for low/slow cooks. I reached out to Rec Tec, and they assured the grills run at 225. That’s conflicting with what I’ve read from a few users. Anyone have success with low/slow cooks on theirs?
Ive had mine flame out twice while set at 225, I’m going to try again with new pellets, my trying anything.
 
Ive had mine flame out twice while set at 225, I’m going to try again with new pellets, my trying anything.
Try new pellets I'd suggest Kingsford make all settings are at factory defaults. If you're still having issues contact RT.
 
Hi All,
If anyone can find this useful, here is some data from the hot/fast cook I did tonight. It was good to know how fast the unit would heat up and to get an idea on how high it would go.

Ambient outdoor Temp: 50F
Wind - None
Pellets: Bear Mountain Gourmet Blend
Temp Setpoint - Riot
500F - 10 minutes
600F - 11.5 minutes
700F - 13 minutes
877F - 15 minutes (this seemed as high as it would go)

It seems the temp gain on the high end is around 100F change in 1.5 minutes, once it is above 500. This is faster than my Weber Genesis Gas grill.

Note: I am running 18 RTD offset like many others and compared to my external meter, at nearly the same location as the built in probe, I am getting within 10 degrees difference between the two. It seems the accuracy is nearly there, good enough for most cooks. Now I am working on getting to know what the temperature stability is.
 
There are two fans on the Bullseye, a larger one that supplies air to the fire pot via the air box and a smaller fan that I assume is to keep the electronics cool. I expect you are feeling the air from the smaller fan.
View attachment 8702
Thanks for the great info. Where I feel air blowing out would be directly at the bottom of your picture, where the two white wires loop down. Normally there is the cover over the bottom of that section and I feel air blowing out between the gap in the panel. It would seem that given the mounting position of the main fan, that a lot of air is escaping sideways instead of blowing down the plenum. Maybe this is by design. Attached pic of where I feel lots of air blowing out.
20210223_185534963_iOS.jpg
 
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Finally been warm enough to use mine last few days. Damn thing is Jekyll and Hyde. Ran Ok yesterday on chicken, +/- 15 degrees of set point. Today noe even closer ran 30 to 60 degrees over set point at 350 first then at 325. Was trying to be around 350 things was over 400 for 20 minutes. Frustrating.
 
Finally been warm enough to use mine last few days. Damn thing is Jekyll and Hyde. Ran Ok yesterday on chicken, +/- 15 degrees of set point. Today noe even closer ran 30 to 60 degrees over set point at 350 first then at 325. Was trying to be around 350 things was over 400 for 20 minutes. Frustrating.
If you haven't already adjust the offset. At +17 (+18?) I'm around +-15 degrees between the set Bullseye probe and multiple Thermoworks probes.
 
If you haven't already adjust the offset. At +17 (+18?) I'm around +-15 degrees between the set Bullseye probe and multiple Thermoworks probes.
IMHO, I'd suggest only making these offset adjustments after being advised to do so by RT.
 
+17 offset works for me for low and slow. Not sure why anyone would advise you against using a feature of the grill.
 
hi. i just pulled the trigger on the bulls before seeing this thread; now i'm most concerned. i only cook for 2-4 people, so the size was perfect. however, reading about the temp issues, i'm considering going w/ the 590. instead... my idea was to have something i could set and forget. any thoughts? thanks in advance.
 
Are you going for high heat cooks or low-medium heat cooks primarily? The Bullseye is aimed squarely at high heat in place of a gas or charcoal kettle grill. It can do low-medium temp cooks but that isn't it's forte and I personally wouldn't trust it's built in temp probe for such.

But I've successfully done a 9-10 hour chuck roast and baked a cake in mine; just use a ThermoWorks Signals setup to monitor temps and adjust the set temp as needed.
 
Are you going for high heat cooks or low-medium heat cooks primarily? The Bullseye is aimed squarely at high heat in place of a gas or charcoal kettle grill. It can do low-medium temp cooks but that isn't it's forte and I personally wouldn't trust it's built in temp probe for such.

But I've successfully done a 9-10 hour chuck roast and baked a cake in mine; just use a ThermoWorks Signals setup to monitor temps and adjust the set temp as needed.
The way others have described the Bullseye is the "sports car of pellet grills", and I agree. I have used the Bullseye for long and slow cooks and the food was fine but I won't do it again.
 
Hello together!

I have to ask. You write that you get temperaturn in riot mode up to 749 °F and more. Unfortunately, this does not happen at all for me. Maximum temperature is around 520 °F. The bullseye is clean, the vents are always cleaned from dirt before the start.

I have the firmware version 1.03 in the controller, the device was delivered in february 2021. Nothing has been changed in the settings.

Do you have any idea what i can do? Actually, I would not like to change anything in the settings, because I am not the expert in this. Can this also be due to something else? Pellets I have those of RT (Kingsford).

Greetings
t3dfx
 

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