Bull Controller problem? Not so sure.

[jfrosty27]

Mine is parked in the garage during the winter months and gets rolled outside to grill. Twice it's reignited the pellets dropped in at the end of the shut down cycle due to,I guess coals left over, filling the garage with smoke. Now I leave it outside for 1/2 hr before rolling it back inside. I think I'll find out if I can lengthen the fan duration in the shutdown cycle.

I keep my Bull in the garage year round and roll it out to cook. I have the competition cart so easy peasy. I always leave it sit out until fully cooled down. Usually that takes about 60/90 min depending on cook temp and outside air temp. Worth the wait.

 

[Bama BBQ]

Hopefully the controller resolves the issue.. the main point of the RecTeq is consistency.. if that is gone honestly it is just like the others. I have had minor temp swings and one start up issue 9overfill) following cleaning the pot and I'm almost convinced the pot should not be touched and will self clean. Not sure how long I want to test this theory but on more than one occasion I have seen others with the same. I know yours was not this situation since it was mid cook. I have also never done anything other than turn it on and use it for settings. Never adjusted anything.

Turn it ON & forget it (within reason) is exactly what I was hoping for. I have no doubt RT will get this worked out & I'll end up with a Bull that can be trusted.

 

[Bama BBQ]

I’ve experienced it twice now, but only when shutting down after a hot cook. Now if I’ve been cooking at 375* or above, when I’m done I turn the grill down to low and then let it run another 5-10 minutes. After that, a regular shutdown has always worked.

That makes perfect sense to let the PID settle in steps "before" hitting OFF". Maybe after a HOT cook the auger puts in to many pellets for the next start-up compared to a low & slow ? Might pay off to check & compare how the firebox looks for pellet refill on start up between those type of cooks.

 

[Bama BBQ]

RT to the rescue, the replacement PID controller just arrived. That was QUICK ... off to the Bull to install

 

[sdynak]

I just had for a 2nd time tonight where from cold it did not ignite and the pot was filling up.. first time it happened I had just cleaned the pot and it was the first startup. This time a few cooks on since it was cleaned so no rhyme or reason to cleanings. I took screen shots of the temp charts.. after 10 min of no change is when I finally intervened and removed some pellets to get it to fire. Once it did... the cook was fine. I have never made any adjustments and everything is factory. Might be time to knock on RecTeq's door.

Hopefully your controller resolves the issues. What I wonder is what goes wrong if that is it. Should be a pretty straight forward unit programmed to function as designed.

Keep us posted

 

[Greg Jones]

I just had for a 2nd time tonight where from cold it did not ignite and the pot was filling up.. first time it happened I had just cleaned the pot and it was the first startup. This time a few cooks on since it was cleaned so no rhyme or reason to cleanings. I took screen shots of the temp charts.. after 10 min of no change is when I finally intervened and removed some pellets to get it to fire. Once it did... the cook was fine. I have never made any adjustments and everything is factory. Might be time to knock on RecTeq's door.

Hopefully your controller resolves the issues. What I wonder is what goes wrong if that is it. Should be a pretty straight forward unit programmed to function as designed.

Keep us posted

The Bullseye I received in December (my second) had an igniter that was recessed about ¼ “ into the tube. The recommendation is that i should be flush or very slightly proud of the mouth by about 1/16”. I had ignition problems first, just as you describe, but once I adjusted it flush its been igniting 100%.

As a temporary test, if this happens again, remove the grate and take a butter knife and press the pellets against the igniter rod for 10-20 seconds while the grill is on. If it lights, then you know that need to adjust the rod.

 

[sdynak]

The Bullseye I received in December (my second) had an igniter that was recessed about ¼ “ into the tube. The recommendation is that i should be flush or very slightly proud of the mouth by about 1/16”. I had ignition problems first, just as you describe, but once I adjusted it flush its been igniting 100%.

As a temporary test, if this happens again, remove the grate and take a butter knife and press the pellets against the igniter rod for 10-20 seconds while the grill is on. If it lights, then you know that need to adjust the rod.

Thanks Greg.. that sounds logical. Funny thing is is does work like 98% of the time. I'll check this though. Simple enough.

 

[Bama BBQ]

I just had for a 2nd time tonight where from cold it did not ignite and the pot was filling up.. first time it happened I had just cleaned the pot and it was the first startup. This time a few cooks on since it was cleaned so no rhyme or reason to cleanings. I took screen shots of the temp charts.. after 10 min of no change is when I finally intervened and removed some pellets to get it to fire. Once it did... the cook was fine. I have never made any adjustments and everything is factory. Might be time to knock on RecTeq's door.

Hopefully your controller resolves the issues. What I wonder is what goes wrong if that is it. Should be a pretty straight forward unit programmed to function as designed.

Keep us posted

Sometimes there will be no defining rhyme or reason for something like this to happen & that makes it hard to pin down unless it gathers history. It could be a mixture of weather, a tiny voltage change during a cycle etc. ; although I'm sure something mechanical could get in the mix as well like Greg was stating about the igniter, or maybe a probe or fan going out. Really BAD weather stopped me from testing after assembly yesterday, we even lost all power here for a short while, will put on a rack of ribs here shortly & report back

 

[sdynak]

Sometimes there will be no defining rhyme or reason for something like this to happen & that makes it hard to pin down unless it gathers history. It could be a mixture of weather, a tiny voltage change during a cycle etc. ; although I'm sure something mechanical could get in the mix as well like Greg was stating about the igniter, or maybe a probe or fan going out. Really BAD weather stopped me from testing after assembly yesterday, we even lost all power here for a short while, will put on a rack of ribs here shortly & report back

Yeah.. at the moment I am building some history and taking screen shots to build the data. Have not gotten back in there to inspect the ignitor location and although the events have been minimal it leave me with a lack of trust to just turn on and forget (which is never a good idea anyway). We'll see if it continues and if inspection uncovers anything. Weather is not so nice here either.

Hopefully you are able to get fired up and give her a test run.

 

[Bama BBQ]

First cook with the new PID controller went perfect yesterday !
The fan & auger seemed to be cycling normally, It fired up & made a steady climb to 225 within 14 minutes for a huge rack of ribs.
Placed the ribs in the middle of grate, thick side towards smoke stack, lost 3 degrees with lid open but it recovered in under 5 minutes.
Ran @ 225 degrees for 3 1/2 hours with no more than 2 degrees plus or minus including popping lid open every 45 minutes to spritz, pulled & wrapped ribs, ran solid all the way to the finish line for another 3 hours.
Bones were easy to pull away from the meat & made a delicious meal along with potato salad, skillet corn & BBQ bread.
Shutdown was normal, fan came ON & did it's count down, then the auger reloaded the firebox for the next startup. This new PID controller came with the auger rate set at 30 just like the 1st. one did. I left it there, only time will tell but so far it seems good to go. I plan on doing some "variable temps testing" with plenty of recovery time between to see how it does before I can say that I trust it though.
One thing I have noticed is the Bull uses what I would call a lot of pellets cooking @ 225 for 6.5 hours. must have burned close to 10 lbs. worth ... however, constant 10-14 mph. wind was blowing straight underneath the carport onto the Bull & temps dropped 12 degrees outside between start & finish times.
Mother nature has lost her mind around here!

 

[sdynak]

First cook with the new PID controller went perfect yesterday !
The fan & auger seemed to be cycling normally, It fired up & made a steady climb to 225 within 14 minutes for a huge rack of ribs.
Placed the ribs in the middle of grate, thick side towards smoke stack, lost 3 degrees with lid open but it recovered in under 5 minutes.
Ran @ 225 degrees for 3 1/2 hours with no more than 2 degrees plus or minus including popping lid open every 45 minutes to spritz, pulled & wrapped ribs, ran solid all the way to the finish line for another 3 hours.
Bones were easy to pull away from the meat & made a delicious meal along with potato salad, skillet corn & BBQ bread.
Shutdown was normal, fan came ON & did it's count down, then the auger reloaded the firebox for the next startup. This new PID controller came with the auger rate set at 30 just like the 1st. one did. I left it there, only time will tell but so far it seems good to go. I plan on doing some "variable temps testing" with plenty of recovery time between to see how it does before I can say that I trust it though.
One thing I have noticed is the Bull uses what I would call a lot of pellets cooking @ 225 for 6.5 hours. must have burned close to 10 lbs. worth ... however, constant 10-14 mph. wind was blowing straight underneath the carport onto the Bull & temps dropped 12 degrees outside between start & finish times.
Mother nature has lost her mind around here!

Awesome & good news! Glad to hear so far so good.

 

[Bama BBQ]

Yeah.. at the moment I am building some history and taking screen shots to build the data. Have not gotten back in there to inspect the ignitor location and although the events have been minimal it leave me with a lack of trust to just turn on and forget (which is never a good idea anyway). We'll see if it continues and if inspection uncovers anything. Weather is not so nice here either.

Hopefully you are able to get fired up and give her a test run.

History is important along with trusting your gut feeling on how something is performing.
Was late getting my update done, but it ran fine after changing the PID controller. It only takes one glitch to throw things out of whack, so keep track & maybe you'll find a pattern if it keeps doing weird things.

 

[fullhouse32]

That’s great news

 

[Buckeye smoker]

How long was it since the burn pot was last cleaned?
Did you just put a handful of pellets in the burn pot?
6.5 is stock feedrate, so I doubt that's the problem.
And this happened BEFORE you turned it off ? Let's narrow it down.

 

[Bama BBQ]

How long was it since the burn pot was last cleaned?
Did you just put a handful of pellets in the burn pot?
6.5 is stock feedrate, so I doubt that's the problem.
And this happened BEFORE you turned it off ? Let's narrow it down.

No offense & Thanks for reaching out but you must not have read all of he post ! The PID controller was the problem. Oh & by the way, just because the manual states 6.5 feed rate doesn't make it absolute. Mine came from the assembly line pre-set to 3.0 & so did the replacement part. I'm in a high humidity area & most of my cooks are low & slow so unless it gives me problems I doubt I'll change it.

 

[kstone113]

This sounds like a controller issue to me. Mine is rock solid on temps and starting up. Changing the feed rate should not cause issues like that and from the sounds of it, your pit is clean so getting high temps shouldn't be an issue either. Hope the controller fixes it. I believe it will.

 

[kstone113]

Should of read the whole thread lol....but good to hear your problem is resolved! Smoke on!

 

[sdynak]

The Bullseye I received in December (my second) had an igniter that was recessed about ¼ “ into the tube. The recommendation is that i should be flush or very slightly proud of the mouth by about 1/16”. I had ignition problems first, just as you describe, but once I adjusted it flush its been igniting 100%.

As a temporary test, if this happens again, remove the grate and take a butter knife and press the pellets against the igniter rod for 10-20 seconds while the grill is on. If it lights, then you know that need to adjust the rod.

So I went through this today & cleaned everything.. mine is definitely recessed a bit. So this is not normal?

 

[Greg Jones]

My second one was recessed the same, and ignition was very inconsistent. I’ve since brought the igniter tip flush with the shroud it’s in closed in, and ignition has been 100% since. Adjusting it is not really difficult, but yet it can be time consuming and frustrating at the same time. The fire pot bolts take a 10mm wrench, although an adjustable wrench may work fine. You will absolutely need a 2.5mm hex wrench. I can give you other pointers if/when you decide to tackle this. recteq also has a YouTube video on replacing the igniter-doesn’t matter which grill is in the video as the fire pot and igniter is the same on all of them, although the fire pot on the RT-2500 may be larger?

 

[sdynak]

My second one was recessed the same, and ignition was very inconsistent. I’ve since brought the igniter tip flush with the shroud it’s in closed in, and ignition has been 100% since. Adjusting it is not really difficult, but yet it can be time consuming and frustrating at the same time. The fire pot bolts take a 10mm wrench, although an adjustable wrench may work fine. You will absolutely need a 2.5mm hex wrench. I can give you other pointers if/when you decide to tackle this. recteq also has a YouTube video on replacing the igniter-doesn’t matter which grill is in the video as the fire pot and igniter is the same on all of them, although the fire pot on the RT-2500 may be larger?

Thanks Greg.. I'll check some videos and give it a try. I'd rather make this adjustment knowing it is in a better position than continue to wait for more issues.