My Beloved Fireboard Went Caput !!!

[T-bone]

I've had mine for about 9 months and use it on average 1-2 times a week. So far no issues at all. I've been very happy with mine. It's much better than the Tappacue that it replaced. A couple of weeks after getting it, I had a problem with a probe and FB sent a replacement ASAP. Very pleased with their customer service the one time I had to interact with them.

[leol2]

My FB might act fine 1 cook than be all over the place the next. Thought it was the probes but was fine in hot water.

[Troutman]

UPDATE : Finally got around to calling Fireboard. Since I'm still barely under my one year warranty I'm going to ship my unit to them for analysis. They did tell me that there may be a couple of problems that could affect performance;

1) If you go to Devices on your app, then click Advanced Settings, you should turn your Smart Temp Filter to the OFF position. That may be the issue causing probes to turn on and off. Mine was clicked off so that's not my problem, but others may try that.

2) Some of my probes are new. I use probes until they die so I have a mixture of both. I believe most, if not all of mine are RTD type, but in Probe Configuration in Device Settings it calls for the RTD type. If you have another type that may be the culprit. Again that's not my personal issue in this case.

I did make it a point to let them know that I was a AR Pit member and that several of us are experiencing similar issues. At the end of the day this needs to get resolved or the Fury of the Pit will be upon them (and believe me brothers that ain't no small thing !!).

I'll continue to update as things progress. I encourage anyone else having problems to give them a call.

[Troutman]

You either have RTD or thermistor. Look at the plug, if it has 3 rings it’s RTD if 4 it’s thermistor. Then do your setting from there. Got that out of FB.

[Randy-Phx]

I emailed support and then emailed pictures of a few probe plug ends. I was told to set my device at 100k thermistor. I guess they make different probe types.

[jlazar]

I have 4 rings on mine (if you count the one at the very top). My FB came set at 100K thermistor. Yesterday, six meat probes and one temp probe all registered within 0.5 degrees of 32. One temp probe was shot. All 7 good probes registered within 0.5 degrees of 209. Will have to rerun that test to see if I was doing something wrong or if I need a 3 degrees offset.

[Polarbear777]

They’ve been trying to figure out my issues for several weeks. They pushed some upgrades and new firmware and it seems like just the app is having connection problems now.
A hard app restart seems to get me back on and after their fixes, the fireboard does what it was supposed to do even if I lost connection.

[Troutman]

LATEST UPDATE - Well I shipped mine off about a week and a half ago and called them yesterday to find out the status. I guess mine was so shot that they are just replacing the unit. Polarbear777 if you still don't have yours that's what I would demand that they do. This of course brings up future concerns, are these units going to be reliable long term? I've been singing their praises for months now only to find out latent problems exist. Hope this is the end of my problems but fear the opposite.

I'll continue to keep this post active and report back from time to time on overall performance. Trout out.

[Polarbear777]

They replaced mine also. Wi-Fi connection issues are better. But I still have to hard kill the app and restart it to get anything to work each time or to force it to update during a cook.

[jlazar]

My issues seem to be related to probes going bad. 1 meat and 1 BBQ. Has anyone else had problems with their probes?

[realdocBBQ]

I burned out a couple of probes doing a heat test on my Yoder... when it got close to 600ºF, a couple of my probes went haywire and stayed that way. I didn't ask them to replace them. lol

[fzxdoc]

The RTD type probes are rated to 716°F. The thermistor probes are only rated to 572°F.

I often let mine go pretty high but never that high. All probes working just fine so far!

[Spinaker]

My issues seem to be related to probes going bad. 1 meat and 1 BBQ. Has anyone else had problems with their probes?

I have not, but contact FireBoard and they will get them replaced right away. They are very responsive and they will send them out to you ASAP. (I had an issue with the alarm on my Drive cable and it was replaced a couple days later.)

[Huskee]

Good to know they stand behind it when oopses come along.

[jlazar]

When I say a couple of probes went bad, this is what I mean. Plug into position 2 and it may not read at all. Move to position 5 and it may read in the 500s (just after being inserted into the cold meat).

[fzxdoc]

Gosh, I've been running my Fireboard pretty heavily for over a year now without a single problem. I even bought more probes (Competition probes) for it not too long ago, and they work great as well.

One thing, though, I always use the FB plugged in, never depending on the battery alone. I had the battery die (hadn't charged it) once in an early cook and had to plug it in to get the FB going again. The good thing was that no data was lost. I hope it still continues to work like a charm.

I haven't gone the fan route yet.

I'd be sad, like you, Troutman and others, if my FB ever went wonky. But it's good to know that they stand behind their product.

Kathryn

[jlazar]

Is there a big difference between the comp probes and the regular ones? I couldn't find much on their web page.

[fzxdoc]

jlazar, I bought the Competition short food probes to add to my collection. They work well for pork ribs, beef short ribs, small chicken pieces, etc. and are supposed to be good for fish too.

They're thinner in diameter and only 1 inch long. They're thermistor only, so make sure your FireBoard accepts that type of probe. On the product page you can type in your FB's S/N to verify.

The regular-sized Competition food probes are thinner and are straight without the bend.

Kathryn

[fzxdoc]

Mine is set for RTD, since I have 6 RTD probes shipped with the Extreme BBQ package over a year ago. I have to switch the setting to Thermistor when using any of my 4 thermistor probes.

K.

[Troutman]

What's irritating about the whole probe thing is until they physically told me the difference in probes I had no clue. They act like the consumer is just suppose to figure that out without instruction. Anyway, I suspect that may be one reason why my unit went on the fritz, it was set to the wrong probe setting

[fzxdoc]

Troutman, the first time I used my Thermistor Competition probes I didn't change the setting to Thermistor. Seemed to work fine but who knows. I also have 2 Thermistor Ambients and 2 RTD Ambients. Duh.

Wrong probe setting = inaccurate readings possibly. Didn't know it might cause damage to the unit. I'll be more careful.

I'll mark the Thermistor ones with red nail polish next to the plug.
K

[ColonialDawg]

My grate probe went bad about 3 months ago. Their support was nothing short of excellent. They sent me a new probe and the new one works fine.

[lonnie mac]

I'm gonna get the new probes for sure. Just haven't had the time. With a very small glitch here or there, still love my FB. It is a work horse, and I don't treat my tools kindly for sure.

[jlazar]

UPDATE: I contacted Fireboard today about my probes. Explained that I had one ambient probe and one meat probe that when plugged into a port either gave no indication of being installed or would register in the high 500s. Asked if it was a probe problem or a problem with the Fireboard. Their response was similar to what you find in their FAQ area. If you have an RTD probe plugged into a thermistor set Fireboard, you may experience high readings. No mention that there could be an issue with the Fireboard.

My probes are slightly less than a year old (4 meat and 2 ambient). Customer service reiterated that their probe warranty is only for 6 months. However, as a one time gesture of customer service, they are sending me two new probes.

I am impressed with the service I am receiving from Fireboard. I will continue to buy their probes in the future and recommend them to others. I mention this because too often we only hear about negative experiences with companies.