Heat Control problem

goalieboy29 · August 25, 2007, 06:56:57 AM

Just my luck. We haven't had rain in Toronto for the past month and a half. Well, in the midst of my smoke last night, we had a rainstorm! My smoker sits on the patio uncovered so it got wet. Shortly after that the temp headed for the roof and would NOT come down...I had the slider all the way to the left and the box still got to 260!

All I could think to do (at 3:30 am) was unplug the box and just run the puck burner. Kinda held things in check until I go some sleep. Temp stayed at 140 so I think the food is still safe. Plugged the box back in this a.m. and control has returned. Something to do with temp control must have gotten wet?

All this fiddling around with the slider in the wee hours reminds me of how good an idea a PID is....
That and maybe a cabinet to cover the smoker but hey, I'm kinda lazy and none too handy.
I have seen some great threads from folks who built there own PID. Amazing! Is anyone out there building these for sale?

Anyone know why the box temp went nuts and could not be controlled? Any simple ways to avoid this? I was thinking of getting a plastic groundsheet to throw over the box when it rains.

Arcs_n_Sparks · August 25, 2007, 08:29:27 AM

Quote from: goalieboy29 on August 25, 2007, 06:56:57 AM
Plugged the box back in this a.m. and control has returned. Something to do with temp control must have gotten wet?

Yeah, electricity and water are not a good combination...

Quote from: goalieboy29 on August 25, 2007, 06:56:57 AM
All this fiddling around with the slider in the wee hours reminds me of how good an idea a PID is....
I have seen some great threads from folks who built there own PID. Amazing! Is anyone out there building these for sale?

Thought about building & selling, but the quantity is small and not worth it. With the threads here, easy to build your own, even with minimal skills.

Arcs_n_Sparks

goalieboy29 · August 25, 2007, 08:50:58 AM

Dunno Arcs. I read that thread by Artmiester (PID Help) and I couldn't follow word one...
I may be able to buy all the parts and maybe even get 'em assembled but that's where it would end!

Meanwhile, I draped the smoker cover around the bottom of the box thus protecting the slider. Handy eh?

goalieboy29 · August 25, 2007, 01:33:24 PM

Well, the butts finally reached 185 and are resting now. Hope to be able to pull 'em in a few hours.
Gotta say, that was the least favourite smoke I've done in the 3 years that I've had my rig. Just a constant hassle, rain, uncontrollable temp, no sleep etc. Butts went in at 10:30 last night and I just got them off at 3:00 (17 hours in all!) due to the power interruption.

Oh well, they can't all be winners...

Felt the overwhelming need to get back in control and "re-bond" with the smoker. Gave 'er (and all associated parts) a really good cleaning. I even took the plastic cover off the bottom and cleaned out the cobwebs and bugs from the heat controller/slider thingie. Scraped some of the black junk off the inside of the box, (not too much cuz that's Flavour Country, right?) cleaned up the grease etc and gave the outside a once over with stainless cleaner. Sprayed some PAM on the bowl, bottom tray, V-pan (?) and racks. I was just drying out the cover when it started raining again. Thank god I'm done!

There ya go. Maintenance via cleanliness. You know, like the way a car runs better after you get it washed...

Gizmo · August 25, 2007, 01:54:45 PM

Goalie,
It might have been time to go to the dark side and moved the butt to the oven. After the smoke was done, the house oven could have done the rest and no one would know the difference except you would have gotten more sleep. ;)

La Quinta · August 25, 2007, 02:08:09 PM

If I got up at 3am to smoke...my husband would have called the men in the "little white coats" to come and get me!!! I agree with Giz...put in the oven and sleep in man....

Arcs_n_Sparks · August 25, 2007, 03:07:19 PM

Quote from: goalieboy29 on August 25, 2007, 08:50:58 AM
Dunno Arcs. I read that thread by Artmiester (PID Help) and I couldn't follow word one...

Goalieboy29,

Did you look at this link? http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?t=315

A lot of info and step-by-step instructions.

Arcs_n_Sparks

Consiglieri · August 25, 2007, 11:05:02 PM

Giz: Once again, I see the wisdom in the "oven" but dammit! That mental block still gets in the way. Maybe if I were to move a picnic table into the kitchen...

Goalie: how'd the meat turn out? Love to hear that all turned out well in spite of the anxiety.

goalieboy29 · August 26, 2007, 02:17:04 PM

Thanks for the thoughts there fellas.

Oven would have been a great idea Gizmo, too bad I didn't think of it....

On a happier note, meat turned out great! The blade bones pulled out perfectly clean and the meat pulled apart like, well, like pulled pork! One of the neat things about doing smaller, mulitple "butletts" as I reported earlier, is that they produce more Mr. Brown becuase there is more surface area. Not a a bad thing.I will certainly do these again.

True to form, as my luck has been running lately, last night and today were both perfect days to smoke. Nice and warm, clear sky etc. Oh well. At least I gets to eat.

La Quinta · August 26, 2007, 04:17:58 PM

Glad you got to eat and all is well!!!

Tiny Tim · August 26, 2007, 06:42:10 PM

Hey Goalie...building a PID is nothing to be scared of. I wasn't too hip to the idea to begin with and now I'm helping others troubleshoot. :o What I'm really amazed with though, is the first 15 times I looked at the Instruction Manual for the PID Controller, I thought it could have just as well been written in Chinese, and now most of it makes perfect sense to me.

Artmiester · August 27, 2007, 01:17:24 PM

Amen Tiny, Amen,
Even after all the time wasted on stupid mistakes (like not checking the model number on the unit itself) a PID is still worth the effort and expense. The one thing I would really recommend, Goalieboy, is to have someone like Arcs or Tiny Tim help you through auto tune step by step. Seems like everybody who puts one together has some trouble with the auto tune feature. I'm still glad I did even after all the trouble. ;D

pensrock · January 12, 2008, 08:48:34 AM

Instead of using the autotune feature everytime, can't someone post the actual PID settings they got after autotuning? I do not have one of these controls but work with temperature controllers about every day and most allow you to manually select the PID settings. Since the Bradleys are pretty much all the same, I would think the settings one person got after autotuning would work fine for another unit. All you would have to do is put the numbers in manually rather than waiting for the unit to do an autotune. The equipment I work on is much different but I have always found that I still need to do some fine tuning on my own even after the autotune. Just a thought.

Mr Walleye · January 12, 2008, 09:05:58 AM

Although I think your idea would work as a starting point I still think you would have to run the auto tune for each persons setup. Some of the things that will effect the OBS/DBS's ability to recover heat are things like vent setting, puck burner on or off, circulation fan modification, size of typical load, temperature of typical cook and ambient temperatures. I think each persons setup would not necessarily be exactly the same and therefore would benefit by running the auto tune. For an example; my DBS is in a heated garage with a permanent cold smoke setup and a circulation fan installed. The response time for heating the tower could be totally different than someone else's setup.

Mike

pensrock · January 13, 2008, 12:36:19 PM

I see your point, Bradleys that have been modified would most likely require a different set of tuning constants than a stock unit. Also the location of the unit, outside vs inside, heated area vs unheated area would also effect the response times. But by the same reasoning, does one need to run another autotune in the summer vs the winter? I would hope not. I do not have a PID setup on my DBS, I wish I had known about this site before buying it, I most likely would have bought the OBS and made my own temperature controls for it. The DBS temperature control does not impress me at all. Measuring with a Maverick I can see +- 30 degrees from the setpoint. I would like to see +- 10 max. I can see why so many here have been making the modifications to thier units.