Heating Element Upgrade Options??? Original isn't cutting it....

[jeff_smoke]

Last week and for the first time; I smoked four chickens, each maybe 4.5 lbs.
The temperature never got above 200 and was mostly below 170 til the internal temp of the chickens got up some. It took probably six hours to get near 190 degrees. It took about seven and a half hours to cook to completion due to having to rotate the racks.  Nobody got sick eating the chickens, but I wonder about the meat sitting in a temperature below 140 for hours.
    Normally I would have moved the meat to the indoor oven to complete, but I've removed my indoor oven waiting for delivery of a new one. I didn't realize just how long four chickens would take. I've done two chickens many times, but I think any more than that I'll have to plan on moving to the indoor oven.

     

[aft53]

Well, I chickened out and did not modify my OBS yesterday, primarily because I haven't purchase a PID as yet and also did not have a second heat cutoff switch.  I replaced the heating element, reflector and front panel.  It's kind of funny though, the old element had less resistence and pulled 3.98 amps while the new one pulled 3.75 amps.  However, after replacement, the smoke temp went to 270 in about 15 minutes.  The last time I used it , about 3 weeks ago, I could only get it to about 175 over 9 hours with a full load of cold meat.  After reading the posts about pre-heating, meat temperature and a full load of meat, I understand where I might have gone wrong.

I probably will do the modifications in the future after I purchase a PID because I do want to be able to fill it up.

The interesting thing is that I did the repairs with my friend who is an electrical contractor.  I have been having a problem with GFI plugs blowing when I tried to plug the smoker in outside.  We had no problem, before or after repairs when only the heating element was turned on.  However, on 2 different GFI circuits, when the smoke generator was on, the circuits blew.  We opened the smoke generator, cleaned out any debris and inspected it.  It looked fine.   It appears that something in the smoke generator is causing the GFI circuits to blow.

Anyone have any thoughts on the cause or ideas on the solution to the GFI issue?

[jeff_smoke]

I wonder if rather than a gfi issue,it might just be the 500 watts it's rated at.
I had the same issue awhile back when I would plug a 19" tv into the socket on my sunporch; it would trip the gfi breaker every time. I could plug in a 32' hdtv, a frige and a space heater on that same socket and they'd run fine, simultaneously. It ended up being just some feedback issue with that small tv, so I chucked it.
    I wonder if you have some other appliance around that might draw that much juice, or several that you could plug in just to see if it's a total wattage issue rather than gfi problem. And, I'm not an electrician; I just do basic electrical stuff around the house.

[aft53]

I appreciate the input but my electrical contractor friend did the wiring for the outdoor kitchen and we checked the loads and what was on the circuits to make sure there wouldn't be a problem.  When I first got the smoker 3 years ago, it did work sometimes without blowing the GFI plugs.  When we tested yesterday, it seems that the only thing blowing the GFI's is the smoke generator but I don't know what in the generator could be causing it.

By the way, when I replaced the circuit board for the temperature slider, I put a spray on insulator all over the board to reduce the possibility of water getting into this area.

[Bradley (Head Office)]

Hi aft53

Have your electrical friend disconnect the bisquette burner and then test the unit on the same GFI and see if it trips.

Brian

[Mr Walleye]

If an appliance is working properly, all electricity that the appliance uses will flow from hot to neutral. A GFCI monitors the amount of current flowing from hot to neutral. If there is any imbalance, it trips the circuit. It is able to sense a mismatch as small as 4 or 5 milliamps, and it can react as quickly as one-thirtieth of a second.

I agree with Brian. Something in the generator is "leaking" some current. I would take the generator apart and unplug the puck burner and plug it back in to see if that resolves it.

Mike

[aft53]

Thanks.  I spoke to him and he agrees with this test.  He also suggested that I try doing the same with the timer.  What do you guys think?

[Bradley (Head Office)]

Thanks.  I spoke to him and he agrees with this test.  He also suggested that I try doing the same with the timer.  What do you guys think?

Hi Aft

I would do this in stages
1) Unplug the bisquette burner then test the generator on the same GFI plug. If it does not trip the circut then the burner is the problem.
If it still trips the circut then go to step two
2) Unplug the connection to the motor and do the same test on the GFI circut again.


have you checked all connections in the generator for loose or corroded connections

Brian

[aft53]

Thanks, I'll test it that way.  It's going to be a couple of weeks because I go on vacation tomorrow.  So I guess I shouldn't worry about testing the timer.