RT-700 won't get hot, looking for answers

[Cashman]

At the end of May I got a RT-700 in the mail. The highest temp I have gotten it to was 482 after running for at least 1.5 hours. I have been working with customer service @ Rec Tec and they have sent replacement pellets, Fan motor and Auger motor. Which I certainly appreciate.....but that hasn't fixed anything. In fact it's maybe gotten worse. The highest the temp would go last time I used the grill was 440 and it took forever to get there. Also I experience a fair amount temperature spikes when I'm cooking something low and slow. Just looking for a little more help. Rec Tec's response has slowed a bit and I would like to actually be able to experience grilling on this machine.

Any help would be great. Thanks!

 

[Mastertech59]

Welcome to the forums and sorry to here your having issues with your new Bull.
I would recommend trying some other pellets, Lumberjack, Pit Boss Competition Blend from Lowes, Kingsford ect something you can get locally. This past week I put in some Pit Boss Classic Blend they took for ever to build heat, kept on smoldering in the fire pot when the grill was shut down these were the first pellets I've ever had problems with. I swapped to the Lumberjack Competition Blend the grill was back to normal again got up to 225 degrees in about 5 minutes after lighting. What do you have your minimum feed rate set to I run 3.0 year round in Connecticut? This setting has nothing to do with the higher temperatures but could be causing the temperature fluctuations youe experiencing at your lower cooking temperatures

 

[bfletcher]

Hi Cash. What max temp are you expecting to achieve?

 

[Rt590127]

I’ve noticed that lumberjack 100% hickory gets hotter than the comp blend. Try some better pellets.

 

[SmokeyJoe]

Hey Cash, did you ever get this figured out?

 

[Cashman]

Sorry for the delayed response, life got a little crazy this summer and I basically just lived with the grill not working as advertised so far. Let me start by saying Rec Teq's customer service has been 2nd to none. Sadly my grill still doesn't want to get any hotter than 484°. Most recently it took about 40 minutes to get to 275° in 80° sunshine.

I started with rec tec pellets, than tried lumberjack with no luck. I replaced the auger motor and fan.... still no luck. Rec tec sent me new pellets, which actually got the grill over 500° twice with those 2 bags of pellets. But only twice. Now I'm using Kingsford hickory pellets and the grill continues to struggle.

Again the customer service was great and I need to call them again, but I spent so much time on the phone with them not really getting results, I kind of got burned out. If anybody has experienced this type of problem with your grill, I would love to hear your remedy.

Thanks in advance.

 

[mooncusser2k]

What temps are you trying to achieve?

 

[Cashman]

500 +

 

[mooncusser2k]

500 +

Respectfully I think 500-ish gets to be a stretch for pellet grills in general - even with what the Bulleye can do. I've heard the type/brand of pellets can be a factor. Not something folks would think of coming from a fuel like gas. I use my RT-700 almost exclusively for low & slow - kept the gasser for hot & fast.

 

[Cashman]

Moon, as much as I appreciate your opinion, it doesn't really help with my issue. I don't own a gasser. I own a pellet smoker grill. Which is supposed to be able to grill at 500 + degrees.

 

[Greg Jones]

You should be able to get 500+ with a Bull, keep working with the folks at recteq to see what suggestions they can offer you. I have no problem hitting 500+ with mine, even recording almost 600* earlier this summer.

https://www.recteqforum.com/threads/max-bull-temp.2342/#post-24267

 

[Cashman]

Thanks for the post Greg. The link made for a good read.

 

[Cashman]

Rec Teq worked with me and now I'm grilling @ 500+ degrees. After it was all said and done, by far the BEST customer service I've ever experienced with ANY purchase.

THANKS Rec Teq!!

 

[ricwoodard]

What was the issue?

 

[Cashman]

To be honest, I'm not sure. Rec Teq replaced everything and I ran 9 different bags of pellets through it with little to no improvement. The tech from the company said "enough" and sent me a new grill. My new grill is awesome!

It gets past 500° as advertised and the biggest improvement is if I open the lid to take a temp. This grill recovers SOOO much faster.

 

[Clm65]

That is great customer service! Just out of curiosity, did they have you return the old grill? I’ve had parts replaced and also received the wrong part on an order I placed, and they have never asked me to return any items. But they were all much less expensive than a whole grill.

 

[Cashman]

Yep. I took the legs off the old grill and put them inside, then tied it down to a pallet and UPS picked it up when they dropped off the new one.

Rec Tec even helped with some delivery issues I had with UPS. Incredible customer service at Rec Tec.