Never got up to temp

[EZ Smoker]

Saturday, I smoked an 11 pound (before trimming) packer cut brisket.   I started it Friday night at 12:35 after preheating the smoker for an hour or so, and changed the water about 4 am and went to bed right before the smoke finished.   Then a few hours later, at 7:30 am, my wife changed the water again, and we didn't open the smoker door again after 7:30 am.   But the cabinet temp never got up to 225.  There were consistent swings (which I've never had before -- usually I get consistent temp) the whole time from the high 180's into the high 210's, but never got to 225.

More accurately, the range seemed to move from a range of 180-212 up to a range from 192 to 218 over a period of hours. 

Ambient temperature was between hot and damn hot (East TX, the high Saturday was around 95), and the smoker is out of the wind and sun.  This is the first time I've used my new PID with a brisket.   Could that have been related to my issue?

 

[classicrockgriller]

EZ, usually the PID would hold temps in the + - 2*

Have you tried turning on the smoker w/o the PID and see if your temps come back up.

The PID is suppose to come pre-tuned to the Bradley but you can run an autotune on it.

Have you tried calling Suyi at Auber and see what he has to say?

You might have a PID problem.

[EZ Smoker]

WHOOO!!! This was a tough one.  Sorry to be slow to respond, but right after I opened this thread, a big, mean, evil sickness knocked me down and pounded the daylights outta me.   Needless to say, I put off dealing with the smoker problem until I could move around the house without feeling like I needed to lie down.   So...   tonight I figgered I'd check things out.   The Auber was still programmed with my brisket program:

260 for 1 hour w/smoke (which preheats the smoker and moves my pucks into place)
225 for 4 hours w/smoke (which smokes my brisket)
225 for 30 hours w/o smoke (which keeps it cooking until I pull it and turn off the Auber.  Yeah I know I could use IT of 190 as a target... I probably will next time.)

So I just turned it on and let it run the same program with no meat in the smoker.   It worked perfectly.   After the preheat, I opened the door to get the cabinet temp down to simulate my real smoke experience.   And after I did, it brought the temp right back up to 225.   Actually it fluctuated between 224 and 228 on the Auber readout.  My mav had a tighter range.   So it seems to be working perfectly.   And the first two smokes I did with my Auber (pork loin and chicken wings) went without a hitch.   Hmmm... kinda don't know what to do about it now.

(By the way, this was the first time I tried smoking a brisket for only 4 hours.   I've always done 7 hours of smoke in the past, but I wanted to see why everyone says 4 hours.   And I found out they're wrong.  I need more smoke than 4 hours.)

Thanks for your help,
Scott

[classicrockgriller]

I like more smoke too. ;D

I have smoked things for 12 hours!

I think the 4 hrs is a guide.

The more smoke may be a Texas Thing!

[Habanero Smoker]

Occasionally when an electronic device is acting nuts sometimes it just needs to be unplugged for a few minutes. I had a scanner that was driving me nuts for days. Tried every trouble shooting advice I could find, but nothing worked. Finally I unplugged it to move the cord to another outlet on the power strip. Once plugged back in everything was working fine.

[EZ Smoker]

Okay... I'm now trying to smoke some spareribs.   Using the Auber dual probe controller, I used the same program as my last brisket:

(Note: I'm only using the cabinet probes on my Maverick ET-73 and the Auber.  I'm not using the meat probes because I cooking ribs.)

250 w/smoke for 1 hour (to preheat smoker and move pucks into place)
225 w/smoke for 4 hours
225 w/o smoke for several hours after that, so it will just keep cooking until I deem my ribs ready.

The smoker preheated fine, then after I put 2 racks of spareribs in, obviously, the cabinet temp dropped significantly.   The temp started rising, as observed on my maverick, and confirmed by the readout on the PID and Bradley temp gauge, and I saw it at 199, but then I walked away, came back, and the cabinet temp was 181.   I watched as it rose into the high 190s, then got pulled away by a minor family crisis, came back and it was 186 and falling.  It fell to 181, then started rising again.    Continued....

[EZ Smoker]

Sorry for having to split the post.  I was having technical difficulties.

I decided to turn off the PID and unplug it, then replug it and turn it on.   This restarted the program, which should kick to temp up to 250.   I had to open the cabinet then to check the status of the last puck burned, and the temp dropped a bit.  Then it started rising and got to 203, before stopping and falling into the low 180s again.   

I noticed that the Bradley (OBS) light is on even when the temp is falling.   

CRG mentioned Suyi at Auber.   I suppose I can find a way to contact him from the website.   I just thought I'd update the thread to see if anybody has any thoughts.

[classicrockgriller]

On the OBS, you have to have the slide control full open and the Auber will take over.

Also If the dual is used with out the meat temp probe, all 6 steps have to be set to time,

even if you are not using anymore than one or two or three.

[EZ Smoker]

Thanks.  The slider on the bradley is at maximum. 

But I don't know what my settings are for steps 4, 5, and 6 in the Auber.   I'll check it right now.

[EZ Smoker]

All 6 steps were set to time (rather than temperature).   But for the last two steps, the specified temp was 0.   That wouldn't be a problem, would it?

[EZ Smoker]

Now... remembering that I'm gonna need these ribs ready by supper time, I decided to unplug everything, and replug it in the original Bradley setup, completely bypassing the Auber PID.   If that doesn't fix the problem, then the PID is in the clear.   If it does, then the PID is the problem. 
Temp rising currently.  We'll see.   

Thanks for being there for me.

[EZ Smoker]

Further testing...

Now that I'm not using the PID, the Bradley heated up to 204, then cooled down to 187, then heated up to 204 again, just like it did when I was using the PID.   So I guess the PID is not the problem.

One notable difference between the two scenarios:  When I was using the PID, the light on he Bradley would stay on, even whil the temp was dropping.   But without the PID, the light on the Bradley goes off when the temp is droppng, then comes back on when the temp starts heating up again.   

Whom should I talk to about this?

[TestRocket]

After reading through this 2-3 times my first thought was maybe the heating element was going bad. But after seeing your last post I'm wondering if maybe the high temperature sensor isn't failing. I'm thinking one of those two. You could check the resistance (ohms) of the element and see what Bradley says it should. That may tell you something? And as far as checking the high temperature sensor...I would guess again using an ohm meter and a heat source? Replacing both the element and sensor wouldn't be very costly so it may be a worthier try? Good luck and let us know!

[classicrockgriller]

I'm thinking TestRocket might be right.

That is the way the high temp sensor operates.

Call Bradley, they will fix you up.

You might try cleaning the sensor inside the cabinet.

[Mr Walleye]

I'm just curious, how and where were you measuring the cabinet temp and where was the load in the cabinet?

The heat element is either good or bad so I don't think it is the problem. You can check it a simple continuity test. If it has continuity it is fine.

The Thermal Cut Off is designed to cut power at a certain temp. Then it will cool down to a certain temp and re-in-gauge the circuit. Based on your description I would question the Thermal Cut Off as this seems to be the way they typically fail, they get weak and shut down at a lower temp than they are supposed to.

If the unit is still under warranty I would give Brian a call at Bradley. He'll get ya fixed up.

Mike