Controller replacement/upgrade

[Whiskeyman53]

I have a Camp Chef SmokePro DLX pellet grill that is 4 years old. Recently I've had issues with wildly fluctuating temps as well as flameouts. I contacted CC customer service and they sent a replacement RTD. I replaced the RTD in the grill which did not seem to fix the issue. Shortly afterwards the auger stopped, after determining that the auger was not jammed I replaced the auger motor and the temperature fluctuations and flameout continued. My next step in the progression is to replace the control panel and possibly upgrade to a wi-fi version. Any input for replacing the control panel would be appreciated.

[glitchy]

Usually most pellet controllers are 4-8 screws and plugging in RTD, auger, fan, and power connectors is all. Seems a little strange it would suddenly go bad and give the symptoms you describe. I wonder if the fan is going bad (maybe gets hot and bearing seizes or something)? Also, have you tried different pellets? Maybe they got damp or just a bad bag. The bag of pellets that came with my MAK caused a couple auger jams, dumped them and haven’t had a single problem since.

Not that a new controller wouldn’t be nice anyway, when I had a Woodwind, I liked the CampChef mobile app, it was one of the better apps and the Smoke setting is something you might like.

[smokenoob]

call them back and let them know it did not solve temp swings, may get a new pid controller

[willxfmr]

I'm with glitchy on this one. I really think some more troubleshooting is in order before spending any more money on parts. The fan sounds like a likely culprit, so I would start there. Not that I would ever try to talk you out if getting the new Wi-Fi controller, but it may not fix your problem.

[GolfGeezer]

If you are still not satisfied with CC's answers, SmokeDaddyInc.com makes alternative replacements for the controller, the fan, the auger and auger motor and a number of other parts.

[DaveE84]

I was starting to have these issues as well, right near the end of my warranty, and CC replaced my controller with the new PID controller.
It doesn't have wifi like the one you would buy, but otherwise it's the same exact thing but it was free so that worked out for me. It definitely seems to hold better temperatures now, but I do still get flameouts occasionally (though not nearly as often), and I wasn't getting those at all for the first couple years. So I haven't solved that one yet.

[DaveE84]

Infact, here is a graph of a recent cook I did with a chuck roast, cooked it similar to a small brisket. Green is the air temp, purple the meat temp. Blue bar is 195, the temp I wanted to reach on the roast.

When not in high smoke or using a high smoke level (new feature on the PID controller, which I love) the temps will fluctuate a lot less, but I haven't tested that much yet.