I installed a fan kit got from smokeandstuff. The fan is blowing like it should. I put a piece of tissue paper in front of it and it moves it good. While rolling smoke today I can tell that it is pushing air/smoke around.
Problem/question is that ive had a 20' temp difference from the top to bottom. I've interchanged the probes locations they will read what the other one was. So I know the probes are good. I'm monitoring with the PID and a maverick.
Any suggestions as to why such a temp difference. There is plenty of space between the stix, I have them on the racks. Didn't have time to make a contraption to hang them. Thanks
(http://img.tapatalk.com/4c1f4313-f859-affc.jpg)
They look like this on the rack. 7 to a rack in the smoker.
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Wish i could help but i dont have the fan yet. Did you get with Mike or Jim?
Quote from: NePaSmoKer on February 05, 2012, 01:47:56 PM
Wish i could help but i dont have the fan yet. Did you get with Mike or Jim?
Bad with names. Gimme their forum names :D
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Quote from: mikecorn.1 on February 05, 2012, 02:21:06 PM
Quote from: NePaSmoKer on February 05, 2012, 01:47:56 PM
Wish i could help but i dont have the fan yet. Did you get with Mike or Jim?
Bad with names. Gimme their forum names :D
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Which way is it blowing?
SamuelG
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Quote from: SamuelG on February 05, 2012, 02:42:13 PM
Quote from: mikecorn.1 on February 05, 2012, 02:21:06 PM
Quote from: NePaSmoKer on February 05, 2012, 01:47:56 PM
Wish i could help but i dont have the fan yet. Did you get with Mike or Jim?
Bad with names. Gimme their forum names :D
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Which way is it blowing?
SamuelG
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Towards the door.
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Quote from: mikecorn.1 on February 05, 2012, 02:46:04 PM
Quote from: SamuelG on February 05, 2012, 02:42:13 PM
Quote from: mikecorn.1 on February 05, 2012, 02:21:06 PM
Quote from: NePaSmoKer on February 05, 2012, 01:47:56 PM
Wish i could help but i dont have the fan yet. Did you get with Mike or Jim?
Bad with names. Gimme their forum names :D
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Which way is it blowing?
SamuelG
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Towards the door.
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Sent you a PM
SamuelG
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Mike
Just looking at your picture it looks like you are using frog mats under the sticks. I think between the small holes of the frog mats, the sticks blocking a certain amount, and add to that each level of sausage giving off moisture and influencing the temps in the higher part of the cabinet. I would try hanging them next time and see how you make out. I have always had better luck hanging them, although there certainly are a number on the forum that use the racks.
Just my 2 cents. ;)
Mike
Quote from: Mr Walleye on February 05, 2012, 06:48:00 PM
Mike
Just looking at your picture it looks like you are using frog mats under the sticks. I think between the small holes of the frog mats, the sticks blocking a certain amount, and add to that each level of sausage giving off moisture and influencing the temps in the higher part of the cabinet. I would try hanging them next time and see how you make out. I have always had better luck hanging them, although there certainly are a number on the forum that use the racks.
Just my 2 cents. ;)
Mike
Could be possible. I didn't have time to rig something up to hang them Will try next time without the mats along with some other good info I got from other members. Thanks all. Nice when member send their numbers to call them and discuss possible problems and solutions.
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I too have the fan mod installed and also have varying temps. Personally I don't think the fans are strong enough. I know some have done two or bigger units with good results. But I have yet to get this problem taken care of.
Quote from: viper125 on February 05, 2012, 08:08:03 PM
I too have the fan mod installed and also have varying temps. Personally I don't think the fans are strong enough. I know some have done two or bigger units with good results. But I have yet to get this problem taken care of.
I seem to have great results with my mod. I get even temps at top and bottom, front to back. Will send you a PM.
OK thanks Sailor always appreciate the help!
I have a 10 pound load of SS going right now. I am getting a 9 degree difference between the top and bottom. Smoke has been rolling for about 20 mins. I don't know what the meat temp is but I would guess it would be about 100 as that is where it usually is after an hr or so of drying. I had to move my cabinet probe to the bottom because the bottom was getting 20 degrees hotter than the top. Moved the meat probe to the top and temps are evening out. Still experimenting with probe placement. Bottom line is that I get more even temps using the fan mod than without it.
I have a smoke going so I could not measure the inside of the OBS. Measuring the outside using rough measurements I come up with about 2.6 cubic feet of inside space measuring from the V-tray to the top and width. I think I read that the fan kit has 34 cfm. If this is true, then the cabinet should be turning over 13 times every min. I think my math is right 34/2.6 = 13. I have my blade set with the set screw close to the door with the flat edge of the fan close to the back wall. I moved the blade about 1/16 to 1/8 inch away from the back wall. This is pushing air to the back wall and picking up the heat off the wall moving it to the outside walls. I don't get a big blast of air. I guess if the blade were reversed putting the set screw close to the wall and the edge of the blade to the end of the shaft one would get a blast of air blowing toward the door. I have not tried that set up so I can't comment on the effects of balancing the temps. I do know that the way I have mine set I can move the blade closer and it gives an entirely different air movement. I can pull it away 1/8 of an inch and it changes the air movement. When I set the fan up I used a piece of tissue paper to watch where the air was moving. It was sucking a lot of air into the fan from the front and blowing it against the back wall and moving the tissue toward the door when placing the tissue on the side walls. My thought was I wanted to get the heat off the back wall and move it to the front. Blowing to the back wall covers more area on the wall than sucking from the wall blowing out. That's about covers the way I have mine set up.
Jim
Thanks Sailor I'll give that a try! Thanks for all the help!
Jim
In order to reverse the "pull or Push" of the air flow coming off the fan you have to reverse the rotation of the motor. If you simply turn the fan around you will still have the same direction of air flow.
I originally had reversed my motor to pull the air towards the back of the cabinet. It helped but in my opinion the air flow continued to push the heat up the back of the cabinet which is the inherent problem on the Bradley with the heating element mounted at the back of the cabinet. I reversed mine back so the air flow is blowing towards the door and I feel I get a better balance front to back and top to bottom this way. Don't get me wrong, I feel having the circulation fan running in either direction provides a measurable improvement in balancing the temps in various parts of the cabinet.
Another thing I have always done is to tweak the vents in the V-pan. The vents in the back half I gently squeeze them closed a bit. The front ones I use a large screwdriver and gently twist, opening them a little more. This, in theory anyway, allows less heat to flow through the back half of the V-pan and more heat through the front half.
Also, depending what your smoking and how large the load is you may still have to rotate racks even with the circulation fan, however you would be rotating much more frequently with out it.
Just my 2 cents from my own personal experience.
Mike
Thanks for the feed back Mike. I have no earthly idea as to how to change the rotation on the fan :o Seems to be working the way I have it set up but would be interested in knowing how to change the rotation as I would like to tinker with it to see if I can improve what I have.
Thanks again for the input.
Dont understand why you think reversing fan wont change directions. I installed the fan blade backwards when I did my mod. Unaware of direction. Before I even used it I came on here and seen about pushing air forward to the door. So went out and took tissue and it was sucking to the rear. Reversed blade and it was blowing to the front. Another question I know you can reverse polarity on a dc volt motor to reverse it. But I didn't think that would work on AC.
Quote from: Sailor on February 11, 2012, 10:56:21 AM
Thanks for the feed back Mike. I have no earthly idea as to how to change the rotation on the fan :o Seems to be working the way I have it set up but would be interested in knowing how to change the rotation as I would like to tinker with it to see if I can improve what I have.
Thanks again for the input.
Here was the write up I did when I originally did it.
I will try to explain how I did it. I used this motor http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/itemDetailsRender.shtml?ItemId=1611772183
If you look at the picture of the motor in the link you will see the shaft is facing you. around the shaft is the bearing cap which is attached by long screws coming through the rear bearing cap. If you look and compare the two bearing caps the front one is thicker and it is threaded to accept the two screws and hold it all together. If the motor is being mounted from the back like it is on Old's site here; http://susan.rminor.com/forums/showthread.php?t=186 you want to remove both bearing caps, pull out the shaft which has the armature (I think that's what it's called) on it and reverse it. Now, if you are looking at the picture in my first link the shaft will now be sticking out the rear of the motor. When you reinstall the bearing caps make sure you put the deeper one (which used to be on the front) onto the back (opposite the shaft). I found the easiest way to remove the rear bearing cap was to gently tap the shaft at the rear of the motor with a small punch. This, of course after you have removed the two screws that hold it on. Now you should have the shaft with the armature and the front bearing cap still on it. To remove this I opened my vise and hung the armature by the bearing cap and gently tapped the bearing race. The race is the portion of the bearing right next to the shaft. This gently knocked the remaining bearing cap off. My motor was exactly as the photo in the first link. When I was done the mounting screws and bearing caps where still in the same position as in this picture. The only difference is the shaft is now sticking out the back (opposite side of the label facing you in the photo) and the motor runs counter clockwise.
I hope you can follow this... I guess I should have taken photos when I did mine.
Mike
OK I misunderstood. You are reversing the armature to do it. Hmm I wasnt even aware you could do that. Nice to know. Thanks!
Quote from: viper125 on February 11, 2012, 10:57:01 AM
Dont understand why you think reversing fan wont change directions. I installed the fan blade backwards when I did my mod. Unaware of direction. Before I even used it I came on here and seen about pushing air forward to the door. So went out and took tissue and it was sucking to the rear. Reversed blade and it was blowing to the front. Another question I know you can reverse polarity on a dc volt motor to reverse it. But I didn't think that would work on AC.
Your right, AC doesn't work that way.
Just for fun think of it this way, if you pretend you are looking down at the edge of your fan blade and note the angle of the blades. Take a piece of paper and draw a diagonal line the same direction. Next rotate the piece of paper 180 degrees. The result is the angle is the same and because you didn't reverse the direction of the motor the air flow will remain unchanged. This is why fan blades are made in both CW and CCW versions.
Mike
Hmmmm sounds correct t. Ill have to check that one out. Lol
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Hey MIke
I don't have a Protractor.....wheres 180 degrees?? (https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-9i_iCbY1BQI/TxcPgHcxfPI/AAAAAAAAB04/J8ls2gznKcI/s60/lol2.gif)(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-kEq5JWxv0Uw/TxcPk4UykXI/AAAAAAAAB1I/d69IZM6nWtQ/s71/bong.gif)(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-2Wqxfo3XIA0/Txd6cmEeuII/AAAAAAAAB2A/e-gl8ltNqkA/s93/In_the_head.gif)
Just kidding, good post
Quote from: Mr Walleye on February 11, 2012, 11:10:43 AMYour right, AC doesn't work that way.
Well, 3-phase does but I don't think anyone has a 480V 3-phase fan motor on their Bradley. ;D
Quote from: TedEbear on February 11, 2012, 02:43:40 PM
Quote from: Mr Walleye on February 11, 2012, 11:10:43 AMYour right, AC doesn't work that way.
Well, 3-phase does but I don't think anyone has a 480V 3-phase fan motor on their Bradley. ;D
That would be a beast! :D
Hey... wait a minute... I could... Oh never mind. ::) :D
Mike
Quote from: Mr Walleye on February 11, 2012, 02:49:07 PM
Quote from: TedEbear on February 11, 2012, 02:43:40 PM
Quote from: Mr Walleye on February 11, 2012, 11:10:43 AMYour right, AC doesn't work that way.
Well, 3-phase does but I don't think anyone has a 480V 3-phase fan motor on their Bradley. ;D
That would be a beast! :D
Hey... wait a minute... I could... Oh never mind. ::) :D
Mike
Oh Lord! Mike has got another idea!!! :)
Quote from: Habanero Smoker on February 12, 2012, 02:29:49 AM
Quote from: Mr Walleye on February 11, 2012, 02:49:07 PM
Quote from: TedEbear on February 11, 2012, 02:43:40 PM
Quote from: Mr Walleye on February 11, 2012, 11:10:43 AMYour right, AC doesn't work that way.
Well, 3-phase does but I don't think anyone has a 480V 3-phase fan motor on their Bradley. ;D
That would be a beast! :D
Hey... wait a minute... I could... Oh never mind. ::) :D
Mike
Oh Lord! Mike has got another idea!!! :)
I can see it now...
All the street lights diming as I fire up the smokers.
Hey... I could use the power meter for a circulation fan! ;D
Mike
And your smoker hovering above the city. ;D