Slow heating 900w mod

piedpiper69 · July 31, 2019, 08:37:32 AM

I just upgraded by smoker to the 900w tempco finned heating element. It is heating up very slowly, over an hour to get to 225. It was mid 60's yesterday with little breeze but it should heat up faster with the 900w unit, I thought.
I replaced the wiring with high temp 14ga wire to everything including ground. I rewired 14ga to the thermostat and inline fuse as well.

I have the unit connected to an auber pid. I am going to check a few connections tonight. I may even try to bypass the inline fuse and/or thermostat as well for testing. I would think if either was bad it would not even have power to the heating element.

I do not have a fan but would think, just testing without the v-tray installed the box would get to temp under 30 minutes.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Habanero Smoker · July 31, 2019, 01:38:46 PM

Hi piedpiper69;

Welcome to the forum.

Have you tried plugging the cabinet directly into an AC socket to see if the heater responds any better. When you do this, monitor the cabinet temperature closely, and don't allow the cabinet to go beyond 250°F before unplugging it. This will takes the PID out of play, and will test to see if the heater is functioning properly - which would be bringing the cabinet temperature up much faster.

If the 900w heater brings the cabinet temperature up quickly, then the problem may be with the PID settings, or how you hooked up the PID connections.

piedpiper69 · July 31, 2019, 02:03:17 PM

Good call I will try that. I also have a tp-link hs110 (wifi plugin) that I can monitor the load. I could plug this in to see how much load is being used with and without the pid in play.

piedpiper69 · July 31, 2019, 04:06:49 PM

Was still heating up slow by itself. Took 15 minutes to get to 150 without the v tray.
2nd test was the power monitor on the smoker. Plugged it in and was only using 230W which is about 1.92A with 120V.
I measured over the 900w and was getting 120V. I get 65ohms measuring over the 900w element as well.
I bypassed the thermostat and inline fuse and heated the same and measured at the same 230W.

Possibly bad heating element?

piedpiper69 · July 31, 2019, 05:19:17 PM

Found the problem. I accidentally ordered the 240vac element instead of the 120vac element. I ordered the right one. I am going to check tomorrow with my local Grainger store if they will take this as a return and refund my credit card.

Habanero Smoker · August 01, 2019, 01:53:39 AM

Great trouble shooting. Let us know if the new element resolves the problem.

piedpiper69 · August 02, 2019, 07:51:21 AM

120VAC 900W unit is out for delivery today. I will get it connected after work and tested.

I returned the 240V unit to Grainger this morning. I sent them an email about returning stating I ordered the wrong one and that the unit was in new condition. They sent me my customer number and return number and stated I can go to my local Grainger with this info and the original packaged invoice. Well I threw the original invoice away with the packaging but I had the email confirmation invoice when I ordered along with the part and plastic the part came in. They did not mention original package invoice and gladly took my email confirmation with account number and return number.
The guy at the shop was very friendly and an air force veteran. Just do some friendly bs'ing and everything went smooth.
I thought according to the email I would get Grainger credit only but he said it would be refunded back to my card and wanted to make sure I had everything I needed.

piedpiper69 · August 02, 2019, 03:10:33 PM

Connected the 120vac 900w up and powered her up. Took only 12 minutes to get to 225 from 70 degrees outside without the fan mod.

Habanero Smoker · August 03, 2019, 01:18:27 AM

Great news!! That extra heating power makes a big difference.