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[bucky919]

Pretty Straight Forward, Wires are all labeled on the boards move them from one board to the other, order is alittle different. Q450 controller on the top
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Fit isn't great, have some work to do there but did have much time to come up with anything yet. Just wanted to make sure every worked before I start cutting.
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Turned it on to 325 for an hour with no issues. Connected it to my wifi to calibrate it closer. So far so good.
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[Bentley]

Some great input right here!

[LowSlowJoe]

I'm surprised the fit isn't better.   I'd have thought for sure those would have been the exact same size. 

Since it works as it should, i don't think it would be too difficult to tweak the opening to make it fit a bit better, but then it is stainless and that stuff's not super easy to work with.

 By the way, at least on the Rec Tec grills, that antenna isn't even outside of the hopper assembly... they seem to work fine with the antenna inside.   That thing dangling out , is probably the main thing I'd not want if it was mine, it's very likely to get ripped off the way it is now.

Glad to hear it works, that's the main thing.

[glitchy]

From the pics on the back, it looks like the logic boards are the same size. If you fully committed, you might be able to move the RecTech stuff over to the Firecraft face plate and get a factory fit.

[bucky919]

Did some ribs yesterday and noticed, it has a hard time getting under 250 degrees, I had it set to 225 and it just stayed at ~250. Didn't have time to play with the minimum feed rate, to see if that would change anything. Other than that no major issues, this is the first time ive tried a cook under 300.

[LowSlowJoe]

Definitely tweak the minimum feed rate.    Let us know if it helps  and/or how much.     On my Stampede, it gets down to 180F pretty easily... but I've not seen any big changes related to adjustments to the minimum feed rate, but then I haven't played with it much either.

[jgrayson]

The controller I ordered from RecTech was shipped today.  I'll update when I get it installed.

[jgrayson]

Hello,

I received my RecTec controller on Wednesday, and the weather was good today so I got it installed in my FireCraft today.  The controller swap out was pretty easy, and to be honest, it got much easier when I removed the side panel.  I even wasted time emptying the pellets from the hopper.  I really should have tried those two large screws on the side panel first.

After connecting the new controller and sort of installing it into the FireCraft (the mounting holes don't line up well), I took it for a test drive.  It started up great, although it seemed like the fire took a bit long to get started.  That could be my fault for not getting the vacuum into the burn pot before starting it though. 

I then ran it at 225 for about 45 minutes.  It held that temperature very well. 
I dropped the temperature to 180.  Again, it settled into that temperature and then held it for about 45 minutes.
Then I took the temperature up to 275.  It came up to temperature and held it for about 10 minutes.  Then my wife was giving me that look that said, "we were supposed to be out of here already.  Quite fooling around with that."  So, I shut down.

I need to add that I made all of these temperature adjustments using the RecTec WiFi app.  Wow!  I have been missing out on supreme laziness!  I just need a robot now to actually vacuum out the machine and load pellets into the hopper, and I wouldn't need to go into the backyard again.  The app is extremely easy to setup and use.  I'm not sure if I have ever used any IT type of tool that was this well done (and this comment comes from an IT professional with 24 years of industry work).

Here is a screen shot of the operating temperatures.  You can see where I changed the temperature and how the smoker reacted.

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[Old Rhinebeck]

Which Rec Tec controller did you order?  There appear to be five different choices.

[jgrayson]

Which Rec Tec controller did you order?  There appear to be five different choices.

I bought the Wi-Pellet WiFi Controller with Dual Meat Probes.  The website asked me to confirm which model RecTec pit I had, so I figured a "white lie" was ok, and said I had the Bull.  The sale price tonight still says $99 (marked down from $199), and shipping looks like it could be as early as this week.

[Old Rhinebeck]

Which Rec Tec controller did you order?  There appear to be five different choices.

I bought the Wi-Pellet WiFi Controller with Dual Meat Probes.  The website asked me to confirm which model RecTec pit I had, so I figured a "white lie" was ok, and said I had the Bull.  The sale price tonight still says $99 (marked down from $199), and shipping looks like it could be as early as this week.

Great, Thanks!

[LowSlowJoe]

It's funny, for years GMG owners who had WiFi would sing it's praises, and others, like Rec Tec would suggest it's just a novelty..    Yet, nearly anyone I ever met who's actually used WiFi and/or had the ability to monitor and adjust their pellet grill remotely, has seen the value in it.     While, it may not be something that's a absolute necessity,  WiFi controllers, sure do make life easier..  and I know you thought pellet grilling was easy already.    WiFi, is really a wonderful thing on a pellet grill controller.

[jgrayson]

I would tend to agree that a WiFi controller is more of a novelty than a need.  I only have it because of a controller failure that is coupled with the inability to replace with the same controller.  I do like it now that I have gotten around to using it.

Back to the main subject of controlling a FireCraft machine with a RecTec controller.  I've never seen anything controller temperatures so tightly, and I'm somewhat skeptical.  One day this week (maybe Wednesday) I'll burn through some pellets in a test to verify that it holds temperature so closely.  I intend to let it run for several hours at different temperatures.  I will also use my iGrill temperature probe for a secondary temperature reading.  After several hours I'll compare the two temperature charts to see if my test on Saturday was accurate.

[bucky919]

I believe I ended up at 11% on a correction on the temp probe to get it close to grate temp. I still haven't had time to play with the minimum feed rate, to get my temps lower.

[ZCZ]

Pretty awesome you guys have found a work-around!  I would venture to say one can take a controller from any grill and put it on another grill and it will function just fine within reason.  Don't obsess too much about temps on an empty grill - once food is introduced everything changes anyway.  It basically comes down to put a heat source underneath food and it will get cooked.

Al