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[Free Mr. Tony]

I saw a close out z-grills today at Menards and figured I could use the hopper assembly for my AZ bbq outfitters Boothill cooker.  My smoker came with a pre-cut rectangle to accept a hopper assembly that was covered by a steel plate.  The Z-grills screw configuration matched the pre-drilled holes on my boothill so installation was very simple.  I have not played with it much, but I'm having a little trouble getting the cooker up to temp. I know it is not easy to trouble shoot from these pics, but I thought maybe someone would have some ideas. 

There was already a hole drilled for another reason so that is where I put the temp probe into the side of the cooker.  The temp probe that came with the pellet hopper may read around 260, and the grill thermometers may say around 215-220.  The pellet probe and the grill probes are essentially on the same plane, but the pellet probe is slightly closer in proximity to the heat source. 





The steel plate in the picture acts as the drip pan.  The plates in the cooker to the far left and right are vented, so I can completely close them or let them fully open.  You can see in the bottom that i have the diffuser that came with the grill in place over the firepot.  So aside from the vented steel plates, it is fairly close to a traditional pellet grill setup aside from all the 3/16 steel to heat up. 

I guess my dilemma is this:  If the temp probe as its placed is reading high and the grill is low, then I'll never get much smoke as I'm trying to keep the temp up in the chamber.  If I move the probe so that it reads hotter which will make it cycle on and off to produce more smoke, I still will never really be able to achieve the chamber temps.  Anyone see any obvious problems or solutions?

[Bentley]

Have you tried the probe vertically as opposed to horizontal?

[Free Mr. Tony]

Have you tried the probe vertically as opposed to horizontal?

Not yet. That is the way that it is positioned in the cooker it came in just like traeger does it. I just got it today and was messing around. The way my cooker is made would make it more difficult to do it vertically, but I'm sure I could figure something out.

[Canadian John]

 A couple of things: Looks to me  your pit is larger in volume than the Z-Grill.That would tell me the available BTU capacity is lower than it needs to  be. That would cause a slow warm up and lower max temps, not the problem you are having w/ different temperature reading.

As the RTD/temperature probe controls the heat source output, it must be strategically located. Unless you have a good 1/2 dozen calibrated heat probes to monitor and determine pit temps, I would go with the biscuit test and go from there as to where to  place the heat sensor. It will have to be find tuned once found. There are different lengths of heat sensors that may help in fine tuning if needed.

[dk117]

 A couple of things: Looks to me  your pit is larger in volume than the Z-Grill.That would tell me the available BTU capacity is lower than it needs to  be. That would cause a slow warm up and lower max temps, not the problem you are having w/ different temperature reading.

at significant risk to hijacking this thread, can you elaborate please?   I kind of assume my Gator Pit at 24x36 is among the largest of pellet grills without dual hoppers.   I've never considered that my pit was under powered BTU wise.

Aren't all fire pots the same size and thus same BTU potential?  Regardless of pit size? 

[smokin soon]

Traeger's use a 9 hole firepot on the larger models. Might be something to look at.

[BigDave83]

 A couple of things: Looks to me  your pit is larger in volume than the Z-Grill.That would tell me the available BTU capacity is lower than it needs to  be. That would cause a slow warm up and lower max temps, not the problem you are having w/ different temperature reading.

at significant risk to hijacking this thread, can you elaborate please?   I kind of assume my Gator Pit at 24x36 is among the largest of pellet grills without dual hoppers.   I've never considered that my pit was under powered BTU wise.

Aren't all fire pots the same size and thus same BTU potential?  Regardless of pit size?

I think the fire pot size has little to do with BTU I think the fan speed and auger motor speed/cycle time would have a large part in the out put.

[Free Mr. Tony]

I assumed I would have high temp issues based on size, mass, etc of the grill. I wouldn't really use the pellet function on this unit above 275, so I figured if I could get decent smoke output at that temp it would be good.

I haven't had a chance to do much with it. I would imagine I will be able to make it serviceable, I just have to figure out how.