Puck advance system

[renoman]

Just how does the sequence for this go. When you turn on the smoker should it advance pucks until there is one on the burner or does it just advance one every 20 minutes until one hits the burner. I am trying to figure if mine is working or not.

[UncleAl]

it advances one every 20 minutes until 1 hits the burner

[rexster]

It'll take 40 minutes to get the puck on the element. I start everything at once and by the time the puck gets on the element, the oven has preheated to my desired temp. On the digital I add 40  mins  and don't advance the pucks manually anymore

[renoman]

Well then there is something wrong with mine. When I hit the smoker button it advances one puck. I haven't sat and watched if it does it again in 20 minutes though and I don't want to waste a bunch of pucks trying to fix this. I will have to look into this further but this puck advance problem is a real pain to figure out because you have to hang around and watch the dang thing for at least over and hour.

[rexster]

When I thought my SG was acting flaky, I put a piece of duct tape even with the top of the top bisquette. When I came back in an hour the level of the bisquettes were either 2-3 down from the tape or they weren't. That's when I realized I had a bad advance system. Since mine was out of warranty by 6 months, I bought a new one and now no problems

[Saber 4]

When you turn the digital on it automatically advances one time, then every twenty minutes thereafter, all things being equal and working. I usually warm everything up for about 20 minutes then add my pucks and use the manual advance 3 times to get the first puck on the burner, then I reset the time to how long I want to smoke plus one hour for the bubba pucks.

[renoman]

Excuse this big "I" on my forehead....... I just didn't want to sit for 2 hours to watch the puck advance every 20 minutes. If I had 10 dummy pucks I could figure this out for myself but I don't. So here is what I have done. 20 times exactly the same way. Plug the smoker in, (hear the little beep beeps). Turn on the SG.(watch the little lights come on). Watch for the puck advancer to work. Turn off the SG. Unplug the smoker. Do it again 19 more times.

Results....the puck advancer would advanced the puck on start up 9 times out of 20. I never watched to see if it would advance in the next 20 minutes I just don't have time right now. When I push the "wood" button sometimes it will advance and sometimes it won't.

[renoman]

When you turn the digital on it automatically advances one time, then every twenty minutes thereafter, all things being equal and working. I usually warm everything up for about 20 minutes then add my pucks and use the manual advance 3 times to get the first puck on the burner, then I reset the time to how long I want to smoke plus one hour for the bubba pucks.

I believe this is how mine worked for the first 8-10 smokes but now it has a mind of it's own.

[Tenpoint5]

I wonder if this could be the results of running a second element in the unit WITHOUT a PID? Maybe that is what shorted your system in some way and why your having issues with your puck advance?

[Habanero Smoker]

I never load my bisquettes until I load my food. After loading the food, I press the advance button three times to move the first bisquette to the burner. Loading the bisquettes when you load the food, will eliminates the issue as to whether or not the generator advances a bisquette on power up.

If you have the Bubba pucks, you can use them plus one or two bisquettes to do a test, and you shouldn't ruin any bisquettes.

When I had issues with my generator not advancing the bisquettes properly, I didn't have the time to sit and watch each bisquette cycle threw. What I did was set a timer for 18 minutes. I would hit the advance button, and start the timer. Then I would load my Bubba pucks and two bisquettes. Every 18 minutes I would return to the smoker and wait to see if the generator would cycle the next bisquette. When the bisquette cycled through, reset the timer. The reason for setting the timer for 18 minutes, is that I found the cycle is not always 20 minutes. It could be a little more or a little less.

Granted, the time doesn't free you up for long, but it is better then having to sit by the smoker the full time.

[renoman]

I wonder if this could be the results of running a second element in the unit WITHOUT a PID? Maybe that is what shorted your system in some way and why your having issues with your puck advance?

Oh really..... I first reported this puck advance problem on Dec 21. Long before the second element thread.

[renoman]

I never load my bisquettes until I load my food. After loading the food, I press the advance button three times to move the first bisquette to the burner. Loading the bisquettes when you load the food, will eliminates the issue as to whether or not the generator advances a bisquette on power up.

Habanero, That is exactly how I was doing it with the exception that once the SG and oven were warmed up I would load the pucks and then turn both the oven and the SG off momentarily then start them both from zero so I had a starting point on the readouts. Because I would advance the three pucks is why I didn't know if it advanced once off the get go and so my question. Now that I am playing with it in my shop I am trying to figure out why it stops advancing and then will go again after I push the "WOOD" button.

[devo]

For someone just reading this post you have me confused, when you say it starts advancing after hitting the wood button. Are you saying it starts working again every 20 minutes or so? Or do you mean it will advance the one puck onto the burner and that's it?? If its that it will only advance the one puck and than stops again it sounds like the circuit board is toast.   

[GusRobin]

I wonder if this could be the results of running a second element in the unit WITHOUT a PID? Maybe that is what shorted your system in some way and why your having issues with your puck advance?

Oh really..... I first reported this puck advance problem on Dec 21. Long before the second element thread.

Unless I am missing something, when you "first reported this" vs the timing of the 2nd element thread doesn't matter in regards to 10.5's comment. What matters is when you added the second element and when you started having puck advance problems.

[renoman]

I wonder if this could be the results of running a second element in the unit WITHOUT a PID? Maybe that is what shorted your system in some way and why your having issues with your puck advance?

Oh really..... I first reported this puck advance problem on Dec 21. Long before the second element thread.

Unless I am missing something, when you "first reported this" vs the timing of the 2nd element thread doesn't matter in regards to 10.5's comment. What matters is when you added the second element and when you started having puck advance problems.

I added the second element yesterday and started having the puck problems back in December. The two are not related. I also have not run the system with the two elements without the PID. Let me explain what happened as best as I can remember on my last smoke.

Warmed up the smoker and SG as I always have. Dried my chubs for about an hour loaded the pucks and then restarted the SG. I always make sure the first puck is on the burner and smoking before I leave it for any reason. I advanced the pucks till the first one was on and started smoking. Went to walk the dog for about an hour. When I got back only the first puck was on the burner and was burnt to dust. I pressed the WOOD button and nothing happened. Pressed it a few more times and finally got the puck to advance. It then seemed to be working fine for the next few pucks but after 3 or four more it stopped advancing them again. Pressed the WOOD button again (more than once) and got the pucks advancing until I was done smoking.

Now I am looking at it in my shop and it is doing the same sporadic thing. Some times when you turn on the SG it will advance the first puck and some times it won't. When pressing the WOOD button sometimes it will advance and sometimes it won't. I have listened to the sound it is making and it sounds like it is running and then shutting off like it should but it just won't restart on every try like it should.