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[jgrayson]

Hello,

It's been about 18 months since I had to replace the controller in my FireCraft and I installed one of the RecTec WiFi controllers.  When I first did this repair, things were great.  Recently though I have been having temperature problems.  On my last few cooks the temperature has been way over the controller set point.  I had the controller set to 225 for the last cook, but the actual internal temperature was over 300. 

I did recently change the igniter, but I really don't think that could have caused this.  Even if the igniter doesn't go cold after the start up procedure I doubt it would create that much heat to keep the pit at such high temperatures.

I know some others here have swapped one of these RecTec controllers into their FireCraft pits.  Have you tried adjusting the pellet feed parameters?  Just wondering if this might help control the temperature if I can slow down the pellet feed rate.  I would need to be careful not to over compensate and lead to flame outs.

If there isn't much feedback here, I'll ask the same question in the RecTec forum.

[Canadian John]

 Not much help here - just interested. Sounds as if you are on the right track especially if the the ambient rose along with the higher grate over set temps.

[W6YJ]

I don't know anything about the Rec-Tec controllers, but am guessing it shows both the set point and measured pit temp.

If so, are you seeing the higher than expected temps on the controller readout, or on an external thermometer?

If only on an external thermometer, the RTD or whatever temp sensor Rec-Tec uses may be failing (or has a bad connection to the controller).

[Mikro]

Hello,

It's been about 18 months since I had to replace the controller in my FireCraft and I installed one of the RecTec WiFi controllers.  When I first did this repair, things were great.  Recently though I have been having temperature problems.  On my last few cooks the temperature has been way over the controller set point.  I had the controller set to 225 for the last cook, but the actual internal temperature was over 300. 

I did recently change the igniter, but I really don't think that could have caused this.  Even if the igniter doesn't go cold after the start up procedure I doubt it would create that much heat to keep the pit at such high temperatures.

I know some others here have swapped one of these RecTec controllers into their FireCraft pits.  Have you tried adjusting the pellet feed parameters?  Just wondering if this might help control the temperature if I can slow down the pellet feed rate.  I would need to be careful not to over compensate and lead to flame outs.

If there isn't much feedback here, I'll ask the same question in the RecTec forum.

I had the same experinence after about 3 months. My temp would rise about 2 degrees every few minutes and continue until it errored out. I spoke with RecTec and they would not give me any suggestions as to what was wrong since it was not on a RecTec grill other than swap it into my RecTec Grill (a Stampede) to test it. The same thing happened. RecTec Basically told me to go take a leap, that I screwed it up using it in the Firecraft. So I am rebuilding my firecraft controller so it will work and move on. I am still not happy about the RecTec Controller being useless and they won't warranty it.

The PIC they(RecTec) use is a 18f25k22 made byMicrochip. Someday I will connect to it and test/reprogram it. Not on my must do now list. They both use an PT1000 RTD type sensor.

MK

update: I checked the PIC controller chip on the FireCraft and it is the same PIC controller chip as used in the RecTec.
One of the problems most encountered by the Firecraft is the Membrane type buttons fail. The REcTec uses PCB mounted momentary micro switches which is a great improvement over the Roanoke style controller using the membrane type found on the Firecraft, Louisiana Grills and some others.

[jgrayson]

Hi Mikro,

Thanks for this information.  I remembered that you had installed a RecTec controller in your FireCraft, but I didn't realize you ran into a similar temperature control problem.  I'm going to test mine some more to see if changing the pellet feed rate will help.  I don't have the electronics skills that you have so I'm not going to try to rebuild the original controller (but I believe I never threw it in the trash). 

If adjusting the pellet feed rate doesn't produce better results, then I will look into a Louisiana controller as another member suggested.

[Mikro]

Hi Mikro,

Thanks for this information.  I remembered that you had installed a RecTec controller in your FireCraft, but I didn't realize you ran into a similar temperature control problem.  I'm going to test mine some more to see if changing the pellet feed rate will help.  I don't have the electronics skills that you have so I'm not going to try to rebuild the original controller (but I believe I never threw it in the trash). 

If adjusting the pellet feed rate doesn't produce better results, then I will look into a Louisiana controller as another member suggested.

sounds good, let us know what happens.
 BTW what did you set it up as? The Bull or the Stampede?
 This seems to be related to the size/area for the feed rates that are programed in the PIC controller chip.
The Stampede would be closer in actual size, but still slightly larger than the FireCraft. I suspect this may be part of the problem. So your thoughts of adjusting the the feed rate % down may be a worth while direction.

MK

[jgrayson]

Here's a quick update on my testing and progress.  I tracked down the manual that came with the RecTec WiFi controller to give me the steps to enter the settings to adjust the feed rate.  The feed rate setting is set to a default of 65.  I don't know what 65 represents.  I took this number down to 55, and then started up the FireCraft to let it run for a bit.  I had the controller set to Low which used to produce a temperature of about 180 after it settled in from start up.  During this test, the temperature settled into about 250.  I was happy that it didn't continue to climb, but I was hoping the temperature would have gone down further.  I shut it down for about 30 minutes, and then changed the feed rate setting to 45.  I turned it back on and again kept it set to Low.  Again, the FireCraft settled into a temperature of 250.

I had a brisket flat to cook for dinner, and my wife wanted me to smoke some beef bones that she wanted to use for soup.  I cooked these together.  The flat cooked for about 4 hours and reached 172, so I wrapped it in foil to finish it off.  The bones cooked for a total of 8 hours.  The temperature of the FireCraft held in the 150 degree area for the length of this cook.

I'm happy that the temperature didn't increase that way it had been, but I'm disappointed that it will not hold a low temperature anymore.  I also didn't turn the temperature up to see how the FireCraft would behave.  I'll try to test increased temperatures another time.  It was beastly hot and humid on the day I did this test, so I'm sure that skewed the result of my testing somewhat.  The FireCraft also was in full sunshine until it got dark and the bones were still cooking, so the sunshine didn't seem to alter the temperature much.

[Mikro]

>snip<   The feed rate setting is set to a default of 65.  I don't know what 65 represents. >snip<

Here is a video by RecTec sort of explaining the feed settings and what they represent.Also look at calibration offset
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=v88crzVjHco&feature=emb_logo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTH7SQhMDos

[jgrayson]

>snip<   The feed rate setting is set to a default of 65.  I don't know what 65 represents. >snip<

Here is a video by RecTec sort of explaining the feed settings and what they represent.Also look at calibration offset
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=v88crzVjHco&feature=emb_logo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTH7SQhMDos

Thanks for sharing these videos.  I was interested in what the offset setting would do, so I have run a test with an oven thermometer in the smoker.  It's an analog thermometer, and it had very similar readings to what I was seeing on the RecTec controller.  I also found that while I had the controller set to low, the temperature inside the smoker hovered around 280 degrees.  The day was even hotter then the last time I ran a test, but I was not happy to have the temperature stay that high.

The deeper I get into this testing, the closer I get to buying a new smoker.  I've priced over controllers, and considered the thought of when/how soon my next repair on this FireCraft will be.  It might just make sense to buy a whole new smoker then to spend a couple hundred on another controller that might or might not last a long time.

[W6YJ]

jgrayson,

The Louisiana Grills digital controller (50125) is $150 direxct from them.

Or, if you don't mind using a knockoff, Google the LG 50125 controller and you should see knockoffs for ~$80. No idea how well these work.