My wife and I are pretty busy, so when our third kid was born about 21 months ago, the meat-smoking part of our life kind a faded to the back burner... but today we started up again with 6 humungous bone-in chicken breasts and 11 leg quarters. 2 hours of apple, cooking at a hi temp (high for a Bradley smoker, anyway) to a breast IT of 155 and a leg quarter IT of 165, then finish on the grill for crisper skin.
I keep my Auber dual probe PID attached all the time, as it makes everything easier, but just after we put the chicken in, my wife comes in and says the PID was making a high pitched noise, but then it stopped. I went out to check it, and it looked like my smoker was not heating. The smoker cabinet temp on the PID display was getting lower too. So I tried to turn the PID off, so I could turn it back on again... but I couldn't. The on/off switch felt squishy and didn't click when I turned it off... and when I let go of the switch, it popped back to the on position. I tried to turn it off again, and it sparked, and all the lights went out on the PID.
I reran the power cords to operate without the PID and finished the chicken, which tastes fantastic, but what do I do about a blown PID. I was fine without it for some quick chicken at a high temp, but I'm gonna need it for my long cooks at 225*, e.g., brisket, pork butt. Try to fix it? Replace it?
It's probably 5 or 6 years old, and if memory serves, I've had that power switched before on this same PID, and I believe Suyi said something about the power switch being more likely to go out if I have two heating elements in my OBS... which I do. Thoughts?
Sorry for you bad luck :'( This problem happended to me too a bit ago. I emailed him and he repaired it for a little price. Cheaper than buying a new one. Just contact him and I'm sure he will help you out.
Thanks, Toker. I'll try to contact him.
Bummer, hope you get it fixed without to much trouble or cost. Mine gets pretty warm sometimes but so far no problems