Mine has the same problem as Spinnaker. It is just making an annoying sound and will not stop regardless of the position of the toggle in the settings. But, it is still doing a fantastic job controlling the temperature in my WSM. I will be contacting Fireboard to see what they say.
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I went to their website and asked them what to do. I was very happy to see that Ted responded to me (on a Saturday!) and told me that they have seen this problem and told me that he was shipping me a new cable on Monday and that I can send the old one back when I get the new one. That is pretty awesome service. In the mean time he suggested either using a knife to destroy the speaker or just putting tape over it to silence it. In the meantime, the Drive did a great job controlling my cook. I am very happy with Fireboard, the drive and the company.
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I have beta tested some FireBoard stuff, so they must have sent me a good one! LOL. Have not had any issues that I know of. I am very deaf though. Completely deaf in the speaker tone range, so this might explain the neighbors!Comment
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I just got mine last week. I haven't used it yet. When I first connected it up our of the box the FB wouldn't detect the drive or fan. I emailed them. They told me to leave the FB in and the firmware would update. It didn't. So Ted asked me to power it back up and he would manually queue the update. He did and 20 minutes later all was well. This weekend I was busy sealing up the leaks in the fireboard of my Landmann offset to hope the drive and fan will work. The Landmann had a slide out ash drawer under the firebox that it's leaky as hell. So I covered the opening in the fireboard with Sherry metal which I settled with RTV 650 and sheet metal screws. The downside will be clearing the ash out.Comment
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Dewesq55, I Hope You Are As Happy As I Am With FireBoard the Product and Ted,, Owner, Steve, Customer Service and the Rest off Their Good Peopleâ€¼ï¸ I Spoke to Steve Yesterday at FireBoard Regarding A Temp & Fan Control Problems I Had on Sundayâ“ Due to Operater Ignorance and the FB's Defaulted #: 1 Probe for Temp & Fan Controlâ“ See My Post on the Show What You're Cooking Post Yesterday, Dan -
Danjohnston949 I am extremely happy with Fireboard the product as well as Ted and the team. I have had a few glitches in the year plus that I have had my FB but Ted has always gotten it fixed pretty much right away, even on weekends. I'm really looking forward to testing out my new attempts to seal the firebox and start learning how to control temps with the FB drive and fan. -
Wait, Probe #1 port is dedicated to fan & temp control? I did not know that. As it happens I always hook it up that way because the grate probe is the first thing I connect. That's really good information to know, I don't think they talk about that anywhere to my knowledge. Danjohnston949
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So I did a test burn (no food) using my FB Drive and fan to control the temps in my COS. This is what happened:
I put about 25 KBBs in my chimney and it them on my gasser side burner. When they were ready, i dumped them in a pile in the middle of my empty charcoal basket. I then dumped about a half a basket full of lump on top. I closed everything up, opened the stack vent wide, set the drive set point to 230° and walked away. In about 20 minutes out was up to heat, went slightly higher, then settled in. I then closed the stack vent down to any 25% or less. The drive and fan maintained a pretty even temp. Twice it cooled down course to 225°. The second time I opened the stack vent to about 40%, which seemed to work. The problem, however, is that about an hour after it first reached target temp, the fuel was mostly burned up and it could no longer maintain temp.
In actual use, I will probably top up the basket with lump once the target is reached. I suspect that I burned up a lot of fuel with the fan running at 100% for twenty minutes heating up. I will likely still have to add fuel during the cook. That said, if I could get 2 hours of steady temps (wishful?) during a cook, I will be thrilled.
An alternative might be to use all briquettes instead of lump to try to get a longer burn.
I liked the tool. I think any issues are with the smoker, although my every at sealing the firebox seen to have been pretty successful. I saw no smoke leaking out around the door like it did before.Comment
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Something I do with my offset to get longer burn times is treat the charcoal grate/basket like I would the SNS on my kettle. I will light about 1/4 to 1/2 a chimney, dump that in, rake it all to one side, then dump in 10 pounds or so unlit charcoal, and let it burn across the firebox. This will give me several hours unattended operation before I have to add more fuel.
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My understanding of how you are suppose to make this work (and trust me I'm relatively new to this as well) is that the fan and the control unit (in this case the Fireboard) are suppose to maintain an established fire. By that I mean you need to establish your fire first by opening your vents or whatever you normally do, let it get up to or exceed temp, then shut off the oxygen source and let the fan and controller do their thing. I have mine setup in a WSM and a kettle and that's how I approach it. Also bear in mind that the fan control does well with a large fire but struggles to control a small one. My fan generally only runs when the target temperature falls below say 5*. It then slowly kicks in to the percentage it needs to raise it back up that 5 or so degrees. It doesn't do it quickly but gently eases it up. If I dial in say 225 or 250*, my graph remains rock solid throughout the cook.
Again try establishing your fire as you normally would, then let the fan and controller do it's thing. That's my experience anyway. Others may have another way of doing it in other types of cookers.Comment
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I hear you. The issue I have with that is that i have to attach the fan to one opening of the intake vent with the other 2 holes closed up. I don't see how I can properly establish a fire with only one intake vent hole open. It actually worked well, it just burned out pretty fast.Comment
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I have been very unhappy with the temp controls using the fireboard fan. Love the fireboard itself, used it with my kettle a ton (on the kettle I have a seperate party-q) and stand alone (no fan, good old manual control!) for temps on my WSCG. But with the fan control on the WSCG, I get swings all over the place. Could be the fan is not strong enough for this big a cooker? Haven’t had time to mess about with it, but it has been extreamly inconsistent.
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Dont think it is leaks- this thing is super airtight, but I suspect Troutman and Dewesq55 are right, it is set up to support a small, hot fire. My party-q with SnS was different in that it would go from nothing to a slow, steady burn for 4 - 6 hours. I’m gonna drop some hints for father’s day and see if I cant follow lonnie mac and go for the pit viper set up. Maybe a weber thing? 😀
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pknj By Fireboard fan I assume you are talking about the Auber fan that you can get from Fireboard? I wish I had experience with that one brother but I don't so I can't say really. I know in general, the WSCGC is very tight for sure. The only inconsistency I have had was using lump on occasion. But that's understandable with such a wide varying, well, lumps! But not too bad. As you may have read, I have never used my Fireboard Drive with the SNS. On the WSCGC I use it's setup with the diverter plate and usually KBB. The thing will run rock solid this way. I just barely have my top vent cracked For reasons I have stated before. Here is 24 hours of a 36 hour run I did not long ago. It was delish. Me and my dang dang door opening...
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Rock steady! Very impressive - even with the door opening ‘problem!’ I actually prefer the the way you mentioned, with the diverter plate. I wonder if my top vent is too open, now that you mention it...do you light a full chimney’s worth, then crack the top? And yes, i am using the Auber fan. -
I always start with the minion method. I'll light 10 coals using the chimney, then load it up to the brim with the 10 bricks in the center, then immediately close it all down with the top vent maybe 1/8" open max and set the Fireboard to do it's thing. I don't get my pit up to my set point first, I let the Fireboard control the whole cook.
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I wanted to update my review of the Fireboard Drive and Fan. Yesterday (Mother's Day) I made baby backs on the offset and used the FB Drive and fan to control the temp. I made some changes in procedure from my first cook which had kind of mixed results. For fuel I used only lump charcoal in a basket with hickory chunks for smoke. This time I raised the charcoal basket up in the fire box by putting a 12" piece of steel angle stock along the front and back edges of the charcoal grate and sitting the basket on them. I inserted the fan springs into the bottom-most intake vent hole on the side of the fire box. Unlike last time, I did nothing to block off the other 3 holes. My smoker has lousy draw so I wanted to see what effect not sealing it up would have. This put the fan a good couple of inches below the fire which resulted in the forced air being able to circulate all around under the fire and let it burn much more evenly from side to side. Last time the fan was blowing nearly into the side of the basket which prevented the far end of the basket from burning evenly. I also didn't get any ash blowing around in the cook chamberthis time. I'm not sure if it was from raising the fire, or the fact I was using lump rather than briquettes. Even with the other 3 vent holes not closed off, the drive maintained the temp very well at much lower fan speeds than last time and I got pretty long burn times between charcoal reloads. On a 4 hour cook I had no problems with ash build up in the bottom interfering with circulation. I am very happy with how the drive and fan performed this time. Next time I might try closing off the unused vent holes again, but leaving the basket raised up above the grate.Comment
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Glad you were able to solve your fan/Fireboard issues. Also glad to see that a variety of cookers are getting benefit from this technology. I'm actually amazed at how well it really works. Here's yesterday's brisket cook, got it to 250* and it never wavered for 10 solid hours until the very end when I ramped up to 275* to finish the cook after I wrapped. 10 hours almost exactly I had the brisket in the cambro, was carving 2 hours later. My cooker was a WSM.
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