RT-1250 First Time RecTeq Owner (My Experience - RT1250)

[Greg Jones]

As a suggestion, put a strip of black tape over the temp display on the controller, put down your phone, and let your grill burn in for a couple of hours. Then cook something, anything. You have people advising you here that don’t even own a recteq. Cook something, perhaps a couple of cooks, and then let everyone know how it went. Too many people want to overthink this and screw around with the igniter or the feed rate or the pellets used or what phase the moon is in. All those (other than the moon phase) may be something to address on the future, but at a minimum cook something, anything first before throwing up your hands and you start to wrench on the darn grill.

 

[instantregret]

As a suggestion, put a strip of black tape over the temp display on the controller, put down your phone, and let your grill burn in for a couple of hours. Then cook something, anything. You have people advising you here that don’t even own a recteq. Cook something, perhaps a couple of cooks, and then let everyone know how it went. Too many people want to overthink this and screw around with the igniter or the feed rate or the pellets used or what phase the moon is in. All those (other than the moon phase) may be something to address on the future, but at a minimum cook something, anything first before throwing up your hands and you start to wrench on the darn grill.

I understand your point. My biggest concern right now is that if I go to do smash burger, steak, or whatever on my sear kit. It would be really unfortunate if I get hit with those low temp swings during that high temp cook.

 

[Greg Jones]

I understand your point. My biggest concern right now is that if I go to do smash burger, steak, or whatever on my sear kit. It would be really unfortunate if I get hit with those low temp swings during that high temp cook.

Or you could just cook a smash burger, or a steak, or whatever and see how it turns out. My experience with sear kits, and I’ve been using GrillGrates brand since it first came out over 10 years ago, is that they retain heat very well. You are not going to ruin a burger or a steak from a temp swing on your recteq. Try it first with a burger or two if you don’t yet feel comfortable with cooking a pricey steak.

 

[kstone113]

I think it's a bad controller or bad software on the controller. It looks good and sounds ok. I would check the igniter to see if recessed as it did appear to light kind of slowly but that's not your issue. If you had your controller set at 400 and it got to 490, that is not normal by any means. If anything, even if it overshoots 400, it should self-adjust itself back to 400 and stay locked in. Temperature swings(especially on a Bull/1250) are not normal at all. I would call RecTeq CS and explain. I would try new pellets(though I seriously dobut that is cause) just to cover your bases before calling b/c YOU KNOW they will blame on that.

 

[Greg Jones]

Temperature swings(especially on a Bull/1250) are not normal at all.

Temperature swings on all new recteqs are not uncommon. There are many, many posts here over the years suggesting that the controllers ‘learn’ or ‘settle in’ during the initial burn-in/cooks. My recommendation remains the same. Before changing pellets or anything else cook something, anything. If it goes well, what difference does it make? Why are people opposed about throwing one piece of protein on the grill before recommending spending time/money on other options? The OP has called support already-time to cook something!

BTW, for this not reading all the posts in this thread-the pellets used are new recteq pellets that shipped with the grill. I highly doubt that recteq CS is going to blame the pellets on anything.

 

[kstone113]

If by "new", you mean the last year or two, then I can not disagree with that. I got my bull in 2019 and back then, they had the slower auger motors so just by simple feeding, it would difficult for huge temp swings so that is definitely a factor.

He did mention he heard a weird noise when the temperature started to drop. Maybe it is a bad fan but I still think this could be a bad controller.

To me and from what I've seen from others, temperature swings around 5 to 10 degrees can be the grill learning or even over shooting by around 50 degrees but not overshooting, undershooting by 100's of degrees which what sounds like is at play.

I do think in reality, most people's burn-in process goes flawlessly. Perhaps not now a days though? My only ear to the ground on RecTeq is this forum. If you are on fb and with all the posts and what not, you can see what others are experiencing b/c those groups are very very active(or at least when I was on them).

If you have facebook, join some of those groups and see what others are saying. If you aren't(which I'm not so I won't blame you and never suggest to join fb), then I would call CS.

 

[Greg Jones]

If you have facebook, join some of those groups and see what others are saying. If you aren't(which I'm not so I won't blame you and never suggest to join fb), then I would call CS.

The OP has already called recteq CS. I don’t understand the position that someone should browse FB for advice or call recteq again before trying to cook a burger on their grill? I am inherently curious, so before I would call recteq the first time or get on FB I would want to first cook some meat!

 

[Greg Jones]

All theses pellet grills (from multiple brands) appear to overshoot the target temps on startup, then over compensate by reducing the flow of pellets so that temps can drop below the set point. Eventually it evens out. Here is the startup sequence from another brand of pellet grill that demonstrates this. This manufacturer says to start the grill at the default set point at startup (350°) then lower/raise the dial to the desired cooking temp once the default setpoint has been reached. Just sharing a graphic from another grill, not because they do it ’better’ but more because they do something similar. BTW, set point=T for this cook was 225°.

 

[Nerdygrrl]

Is there a guide somewhere on how to adjust the igniter rod? Also - can firmware upgrades only be applied by RecTeq or is this a function in the app? I work in IT so I very familiar with the technical components, but I have not been able to get it to connect to my WiFi where I could use the app yet. I appreciate the info!

So you have two separate things going on here. It looks as though your heating element is recessed not not making proper contact. That is causing delayed ignition, but not your temp swings.

The heating element should look like the attached picture. It is a super easy fix and takes about five minutes. This is the RT video on how to do it (sort of). It's for a full replacement. You don't need to cut the wires or disconnect the molex.

First Step: Vacuum your fire pot completely out.

Second Step: Remove the four bolts (I can't remember what ratchet size you will need)

Third Step: Turn the fire pot clockwise and then gently remove it. You should have enough slack in the heating rod wiring to be able to pulpit out enough to make the adjustment.

Fourth Step: Loosen the Allen bolts (again can't remember the sizing) and adjust accordingly.

All of that being said, I think you have a bad controller. These temp swings are not within the normal range. These smokers hold their temp extremely well. They are pretty rock solid in that area. Those swings are very abnormal.

The firmware updates can be done once you connect your controller to wifi.

 

[Nerdygrrl]

All theses pellet grills (from multiple brands) appear to overshoot the target temps on startup, then over compensate by reducing the flow of pellets so that temps can drop below the set point. Eventually it evens out. Here is the startup sequence from another brand of pellet grill that demonstrates this. This manufacturer says to start the grill at the default set point at startup (350°) then lower/raise the dial to the desired cooking temp once the default setpoint has been reached. Just sharing a graphic from another grill, not because they do it ’better’ but more because they do something similar. BTW, set point=T for this cook was 225°.

View attachment 20164

100%, which is why a readout of these swing(s) would be so helpful. Is it a constant up and down or one big up and down? That would definitely help to ID the issue.

When my feed rate was too high for the heat here the controller was just cycling up and down: feeding (overshooting) and then starving to try and get to/maintain set temp. Crazy swings.

That being said, my 1250 was pretty dang rock solid about hitting temp and maintaining it. I never saw big highs or lows. I do appreciate that about this brand. I know temp "control" is a lot of data manipulation, but I never saw swings once the feed rate was dialed in for our summer here. Even out of the box it was able to hit the temps it needed to without issue.

 

[instantregret]

Thank you for this. Once I figured out the temp swings I will commit to the improve ignition positioning.

So you have two separate things going on here. It looks as though your heating element is recessed not not making proper contact. That is causing delayed ignition, but not your temp swings.

The heating element should look like the attached picture. It is a super easy fix and takes about five minutes. This is the RT video on how to do it (sort of). It's for a full replacement. You don't need to cut the wires or disconnect the molex.

First Step: Vacuum your fire pot completely out.

Second Step: Remove the four bolts (I can't remember what ratchet size you will need)

Third Step: Turn the fire pot clockwise and then gently remove it. You should have enough slack in the heating rod wiring to be able to pulpit out enough to make the adjustment.

Fourth Step: Loosen the Allen bolts (again can't remember the sizing) and adjust accordingly.

All of that being said, I think you have a bad controller. These temp swings are not within the normal range. These smokers hold their temp extremely well. They are pretty rock solid in that area. Those swings are very abnormal.

The firmware updates can be done once you connect your controller to wifi.

View attachment 20165

.

 

[instantregret]

100%, which is why a readout of these swing(s) would be so helpful. Is it a constant up and down or one big up and down? That would definitely help to ID the issue.

When my feed rate was too high for the heat here the controller was just cycling up and down: feeding (overshooting) and then starving to try and get to/maintain set temp. Crazy swings.

That being said, my 1250 was pretty dang rock solid about hitting temp and maintaining it. I never saw big highs or lows. I do appreciate that about this brand. I know temp "control" is a lot of data manipulation, but I never saw swings once the feed rate was dialed in for our summer here. Even out of the box it was able to hit the temps it needed to without issue.

Hey there! Here is the latest from this evenings troubleshooting. Here is exactly what I just submitted to RecTeq support:

"
Good evening,

The last two days I have been troubleshooting massive temperature swings on multiple burn-in attempts. I called support twice and the first time we put the unit in test mode and tested each component individually. Nothing stood out as not working as intended. We then proceeded to discuss pellets (using new recteq ultimate blends pellets that were ordered with the new smoker - same time). At this told I was advised to let it run longer and call back if it continued having issues (it did). After additional run time I called again was advised to let it run longer and call back later if it continued (I did - did not self correct - was hoping maybe something with the controller?). Up until this point I could not get the unit to connect to my WiFi and my SSID supported 2.4 and 5Ghz bands. After some additional troubleshooting I disabled band steering on the SSID and it started working. So up until this point I was tracking the temp swings manually. After fixing that a few hours ago I upgraded my controller firmware from 2.0.9 to 2.1.2 and cleaned out the firepot in hopes I could prime it again and attempt stable burn-in. I powered the unit back on and set it to 400 degrees. As you can see in the attached screenshot it eventually made it up to 400 degrees and after a short period of maintaining, it dropped dramatically in temperature. Once I realized it was continuing to do the same thing, I set the "Set-Point" (pictured in the screenshot) back down to 200 to let it cool off a bit before I ran the shutdown process (letting it finish the timer of course). So, at this point I can understand a slight variance in temperature, but these massive swings dropping well below the set temperature is a bit disappointing. The ambient temperature during these test has been 90~ degrees with low wind. One other thing I also noticed, is that when the temperature started dropping, the unit was noticeably quieter. Not completely quiet, but much quieter then when it was heating up. I am unable to tell if the noise reduction is in the auger or fan at this point. What do you think I should try to resolve this issue? If we think it is the pellets can RecTeq send me a new fresh pack as this pack was newly and recently ordered with the new unit. I have seen online many people recommending different pellet brands, but I would have to assume RecTeq pellets would cooperate with the units. Anyway - I am new to all this and just hoping to get my unit stable so I can start enjoying it. Let me know what you think! Thank y'all!

Here is an Imgur link of all my pictures because it would not let me attach them all:

https://imgur.com/a/B7KXSj4

"

 

[Waterboy]

You’ll get a faster response by calling than emailing. If you don’t get an answer call them but refer to your email so they can see the chart. If you don’t get a better answer than “let it burn longer“ then ask to speak to the customer service manager. Let him know you’ve gotten the same non-helpful answer three times and want someone who can actually help you. Escalating when you aren’t being helped is sometimes the only way you get resolution. Overall I’ve had very good customer service interactions but have had a couple of real clunkers. Escalating (politely) has worked in those cases.

 

[Nerdygrrl]

Hey there! Here is the latest from this evenings troubleshooting. Here is exactly what I just submitted to RecTeq support:

"
Good evening,

The last two days I have been troubleshooting massive temperature swings on multiple burn-in attempts. I called support twice and the first time we put the unit in test mode and tested each component individually. Nothing stood out as not working as intended. We then proceeded to discuss pellets (using new recteq ultimate blends pellets that were ordered with the new smoker - same time). At this told I was advised to let it run longer and call back if it continued having issues (it did). After additional run time I called again was advised to let it run longer and call back later if it continued (I did - did not self correct - was hoping maybe something with the controller?). Up until this point I could not get the unit to connect to my WiFi and my SSID supported 2.4 and 5Ghz bands. After some additional troubleshooting I disabled band steering on the SSID and it started working. So up until this point I was tracking the temp swings manually. After fixing that a few hours ago I upgraded my controller firmware from 2.0.9 to 2.1.2 and cleaned out the firepot in hopes I could prime it again and attempt stable burn-in. I powered the unit back on and set it to 400 degrees. As you can see in the attached screenshot it eventually made it up to 400 degrees and after a short period of maintaining, it dropped dramatically in temperature. Once I realized it was continuing to do the same thing, I set the "Set-Point" (pictured in the screenshot) back down to 200 to let it cool off a bit before I ran the shutdown process (letting it finish the timer of course). So, at this point I can understand a slight variance in temperature, but these massive swings dropping well below the set temperature is a bit disappointing. The ambient temperature during these test has been 90~ degrees with low wind. One other thing I also noticed, is that when the temperature started dropping, the unit was noticeably quieter. Not completely quiet, but much quieter then when it was heating up. I am unable to tell if the noise reduction is in the auger or fan at this point. What do you think I should try to resolve this issue? If we think it is the pellets can RecTeq send me a new fresh pack as this pack was newly and recently ordered with the new unit. I have seen online many people recommending different pellet brands, but I would have to assume RecTeq pellets would cooperate with the units. Anyway - I am new to all this and just hoping to get my unit stable so I can start enjoying it. Let me know what you think! Thank y'all!

Here is an Imgur link of all my pictures because it would not let me attach them all:

https://imgur.com/a/B7KXSj4

"

They will probably have you cycle through a bit longer to see if it will come out and stabilize or just keep overshooting and dropping like this. As noted above many smokers overshoot at startup and then drop down. If it continues to cycle like that you are looking at a bad feed rate or a bad controller. Out of curiosity, what is your feed rate set at?

You should probably add some more pellets to the hopper as well. The "weight" of the pellets helps to push the pellets down into the tube. You could be getting voids as a result of not having enough pellets in the hopper which can mess with the temps.

The smoker makes a lot more noise at startup than when it's running. You have a bunch of components working in tandem to get the fire ignited and then for the heat up period.

When the machine is running you should only hear the fan cycling on occasion and the pellets being fed when needed. When that temp is dropping you shouldn't hear the fan too much unless you are in the shut down cycle.

As you noted the response from RT will be a cut and pasted reply. They basically have a script that they go through. It can be super frustrating when you are dealing with something like this.

If you don't hear back from anybody today drop Ashley a line 706-414-8752 and let him know what's going on. He seems to be a higher ranking team member than the reply guys. Or heck, just drop Ashley a line and skip the headache of the lower rank and file.

 

[Motodad1776]

Didn't see where the OP mentioned where/what the feed rate is currently set at? I am at 2% currently, and where I have been most the year with zero feed issues and temp swings. Yes the igniter rod likely needs adjusted to be even with the end of the igniter rod tube, not a big deal and I made that adjustment along with others here as well.....it does help with proper and quick ignition. I have found over the years with many appliances or devices I have bought, that they need a "few tweaks" in order to work as advertised or better for the user. As for tech support with RT and literally almost any other company "these days", they are understaffed/overwhelmed/lacking training etc. A phone call will always be the best way to converse and troubleshoot, but alas that is becoming harder and harder to get with practically any business or company. Do the burn in completely if not done yet, then put some food in there "like big bone in chicken breasts" and see what happens, also let us know what your feed rate is currently set at unless I have somehow missed that. Pellets can do some weird things and I have encountered that, for giggles I'd go buy a small bag of something else other than RT pellets and see what happens.

 

[kstone113]

The feed rate is a good question. I don't know the stock feed rate for 1250's but for my Bull, it was 6.5% and that did need to be adjusted when summer came but I got mine in April so it was fine when I first started. That can came temp swings but seems that isn't the case here.

I would show them the charts now that you got your wi fi works. Funny, their let it run longer was esstenially what I said when I said try the burn-in again.

You could try a different bag of pellets you got with your grill but I am still thinking it is the controller. Them replacing the controller is probably the last resort on their troubleshooting.

I would take that number from Nerdygrrrl and try to work with the same person. I think you may have gotten a lemon.

 

[PRC]

The recommended feed rate for the 1250 is 1% if set in the app or 10, which equals 1%, if set in the PID.

 

[RHEINLEIN]

So you have two separate things going on here. It looks as though your heating element is recessed not not making proper contact. That is causing delayed ignition, but not your temp swings.

The heating element should look like the attached picture. It is a super easy fix and takes about five minutes. This is the RT video on how to do it (sort of). It's for a full replacement. You don't need to cut the wires or disconnect the molex.

First Step: Vacuum your fire pot completely out.

Second Step: Remove the four bolts (I can't remember what ratchet size you will need)

Third Step: Turn the fire pot clockwise and then gently remove it. You should have enough slack in the heating rod wiring to be able to pulpit out enough to make the adjustment.

Fourth Step: Loosen the Allen bolts (again can't remember the sizing) and adjust accordingly.

All of that being said, I think you have a bad controller. These temp swings are not within the normal range. These smokers hold their temp extremely well. They are pretty rock solid in that area. Those swings are very abnormal.

The firmware updates can be done once you connect your controller to wifi.

View attachment 20165

 

[RHEINLEIN]

So you have two separate things going on here. It looks as though your heating element is recessed not not making proper contact. That is causing delayed ignition, but not your temp swings.

The heating element should look like the attached picture. It is a super easy fix and takes about five minutes. This is the RT video on how to do it (sort of). It's for a full replacement. You don't need to cut the wires or disconnect the molex.

First Step: Vacuum your fire pot completely out.

Second Step: Remove the four bolts (I can't remember what ratchet size you will need)

Third Step: Turn the fire pot clockwise and then gently remove it. You should have enough slack in the heating rod wiring to be able to pulpit out enough to make the adjustment.

Fourth Step: Loosen the Allen bolts (again can't remember the sizing) and adjust accordingly.

All of that being said, I think you have a bad controller. These temp swings are not within the normal range. These smokers hold their temp extremely well. They are pretty rock solid in that area. Those swings are very abnormal.

The firmware updates can be done once you connect your controller to wifi.

View attachment 20165

These are the sizes on my new 590 rod/ pot

 

[kennethk]

instantregret​

What have you cooked so far?
How did it taste?