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March 13th, 2016, 10:34 pm
#1
* Abilene ** Abilene *
  • Joined: February 16th, 2016, 4:07 pm
  • Posts: 2
  • Location: Edmond, OK

Hi all!

I have a fairly new 480 (4 weeks old). This weekend I was smoking a brisket and it seemed like the temp on the display was fluctuating a lot. kicking up really high. So I put an internal probe at bottom grate level and that temp was even hotter and by as much as 40-50 degrees hotter. It was nearly impossible to get the smoker to stay close to 225 degrees. I made it through that smoke but it took way too much babysitting and not what I want to do with a smoker this nice.

SO, I had already purchased the upgraded heat diffuser with the reinforcement on it but hadn't installed it yet. The next morning I pulled out the original one and it was warped even though I hadn't smoked anything at hotter than 250 or at leas that was my intent but now I am not sure that the reading on the display was accurate. None the less, I also read this forum and moved my pellet tube away from the probe. Cleaned the ash and fire pot and made sure no foil was on the new diffuser. Set the panel to go to 225. When the smoker finally got to about that temp (always fluctuates +/- 10 degrees, I put the internal probe back at grate level in the middle of the grates and it was reading 260 pretty consistently and would spike every time pellets dropped in and started to burn. I finally got the smoker to stay at around 225-245 with the panel actually set to 210 degrees.

I just don't feel that this is working properly. I don't think that the temperature at grate level should fluctuate that much from the probe that is controlling the temp and digital controller. There is no way I can trust this thing right now without having to use a separate temperature probe in the cooker at the grate level. What could be wrong? I have R36 which I think is the latest. The pellets were bone dry and are kept in a sealed bucket when stored. The heat diffuser is brand new with the fix from your factory. The meat wasn't closer than 3" from the built in probe.

I was able to get it to stay close to the target temp but only by setting the cooker to 15 degrees lower (210 when trying to cook at 225) and still the temp varied from about 217-255 at times. That is way too much of a temperature swing as far as I know. I am new to smoking but I bought this cooker because I was told it would keep a very consistent temperature. Please help. I love the cooker, I just think something is wrong.

March 14th, 2016, 9:56 am
#2
Site AdminSite Admin
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  • Joined: April 18th, 2014, 3:12 pm
  • Posts: 2408

We will address your issue via the email you sent to Customer Service.

Yoder_Herb

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