Bullseye My Apology, Don't Ruin Your Food

[C. Keeper]

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.

 

[sdynak]

And I really wanted to consider the Bullseye.. guess I'll wait to see if they make any changes and maybe a wifi version. Thanks for letting us know your experience. It helps others like me who are on the fence make the right decision.

 

[Buckeye1]

Sorry to here that. I hope you get some sleep. I was wondering what pellets you were using. I think the Bullseye is more sensitive to pellet brand. Right now I am using Rectec pellets. Bear mountain seemed to have wider swings. My theory on that is the pellet lengths on the BM vary more and are much longer. The RT pellet size is much more consistent and relatively small. The bad part is I only have two bags of RT pellets left. The BM run just fine on the trailblazer.

 

[C. Keeper]

And I really wanted to consider the Bullseye.. guess I'll wait to see if they make any changes and maybe a wifi version. Thanks for letting us know your experience. It helps others like me who are on the fence make the right decision.

I didn't purchase the Bullseye for the "low and slow" cooks but as a Weber kettle replacement. It does okay in that role most of the time.

I didn't get any feedback here on long cooks and decided to try it myself, now I know what others were dealing with.

 

[C. Keeper]

Sorry to here that. I hope you get some sleep. I was wondering what pellets you were using. I think the Bullseye is more sensitive to pellet brand. Right now I am using Rectec pellets. Bear mountain seemed to have wider swings. My theory on that is the pellet lengths on the BM vary more and are much longer. The RT pellet size is much more consistent and relatively small. The bad part is I only have two bags of RT pellets left. The BM run just fine on the trailblazer.

I had some Pit Boss charcoal pellets in the hopper and topped it off with Pit Boss Classic.

To be honest, I can't really tell too much of a difference in taste with Pellets or burn. But then I drink Guinness so maybe my taste buds have been damaged. Back to the Jack I guess

 

[Buckeye1]

I have not noticed much difference taste either on both grills. I have tried 3 brands and several flavors. I just look for sales on pellets and try to pick them up when I can. For reference I have used RT, Bear Mountain and Smokehouse.

Right now I use RT on the Bullseye and Bear mountain on the Trailblazer. I am trying to milk the last two bags of RT.

I do want to settle on a brand and type for the bullseye for consistency on the temp control.

That being said the swings on the Bullseye do impart more smoke flavor in my opinion.

 

[Greg Jones]

My theory on that is the pellet lengths on the BM vary more and are much longer.

I had the same problem with LJ CharHickory pellets on the Bullseye, and the same pellets worked fine in the Bull. recteq support advised me to drop the unopened bags on the pavement a couple of times to help break up longer pellets. That does seem to help, but then it can break up the smaller pellets in the bag that were fine to begin with.

 

[C. Keeper]

I have not noticed much difference taste either on both grills. I have tried 3 brands and several flavors. I just look for sales on pellets and try to pick them up when I can. For reference I have used RT, Bear Mountain and Smokehouse.

Right now I use RT on the Bullseye and Bear mountain on the Trailblazer. I am trying to milk the last two bags of RT.

I do want to settle on a brand and type for the bullseye for consistency on the temp control.

That being said the swings on the Bullseye do impart more smoke flavor in my opinion.

You're right, the swings do provide more smoke. That's why the pre-PID controllers may have the advantage.

I'm getting the PB pellets at a big box store for about $16 for 40 pounds which I feel is a bargain, cleaner than charcoal too

 

[Buckeye1]

Greg, you probably use the Bullseye more than anyone in the country. Which pellets are you using on it.

 

[Greg Jones]

Greg, you probably use the Bullseye more than anyone in the country. Which pellets are you using on it.

TLDR: Lumber Jack Competition Blend or 100% Hickory

I have a pellet inventory that is way out of control, and recently I decided that is going to change in 2021. I haven’t bought pellets in two months and I still have around 720#. What I like in my Bullseye also works great in everything else. My favorites in all the grills are the recteq pellets, the CookinPellets that recteq used to sell, the Lumber Jack Competition Blend, and the Lumber Jack 100% Hickory. The Bear Mountain Gourmet Blend shows promise also, but I haven’t used enough of them yet to decide for certain.

When I get the stack of inventory used up, I’ll probably switch to the two Lumber Jack pellets mentioned above, under $8.00 for 20#, or perhaps also sub the Bear Mountain Gourmet for the LJCB as it’s a steal at under $4 for 20# at Rural King. If I lived close to recteq, I’d probably stick with their pellets as they have a good local price ($20.00 for 40#, so I was told) and I’ve literally burned up hundreds and hundreds of pounds of them with not one complaint.