I'm just about ready to bite the bullet and purchase one of these bad boys. However does anyone own one and live in a hot climate have any issue holding lower temps like 225?
I have a Traeger and that setting goes anywhere from 205 to 305. It stays at the higher temps longer than the lower. It also does not get direct sunlight. All other temps work great.
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The thread shows up in the "Today's Posts" listing, so no one knows unless they realize what sub-forum it is in. I put Rec Tec in the title to help.. No biggee, ya done good. . I dream of owning a Rec Tec.
Hi, my name is Darrell. I'm an OTR truck driver for over 25 years. During my off time I love doing backyard cooks. I have a 48" Lang Deluxe smoker, Rec-Tec pellet smoker,1 Weber Genesis 330, 1 Weber Performer (blue), 2 Weber kettles (1 black and 1 Copper), 1 26" Weber kettle, a WSM, 8 Maverick Redi Chek thermometers, a PartyQ, 2 SnS, Grill Grates, Cast Iron grates, 1 ThermoPop (orange) and 2 ThermoPens (pink and orange) and planning on adding more cooking accessories. Now I have an Anova sous vide, the Dragon blower and 2 Chef alarms from Thermoworks.
Rod - I've had some issues like that with my RecTec Mini this summer. When it's really hot (over 90) the temperature got away from me, at times alomost 150 degrees over. Never came to a final answer with them on it but they tried. To be fair I could have spent more time with them but I did not. They had me lower the minimum feed rate for the pellets and that helped but my temps still crept up... just not as high.
The other thing they said was to ball up some foil in a one inch ball and prop the door open just a bit. This did help since it allowed more heat to vent out.
Now that we are in fall I have no issues at all. Did a brisket this weekend at 225 and stayed locked in. Just for reference I live in the Northern Virginia area.
I bought a new temperature probe thinking that might be the issue but this past weekend with the brisket made me think otherwise since temp was right on point. I'm also wondering if sunlight was an issue and might try to cover it better next year during these times.
i haven't seen anyone else note this as an issue though here. Maybe something more prone on the Mini?...... I'm not sure. Still love my RecTec and the foil seemed to do the trick along with the feed rate but wanted to note it for you just in case you see it too.
If I am cooking at low temperatures I definitely have to keep my 680 out of direct sunlight but otherwise no problems keeping temps down, better on that now than when new.
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I did Hawaiian Pipikaula Short Ribs on my Rec Tec. Pipikaula is basically jerky. The recipe required a temperature of 180° and it was over a 100° ambient temperature that day. I needed to do the foil-ball trick to create a gap but I was able to hold at 180° for the entire cook.
Just pulled the trigger. Even though we're out of the extreme heat weather wise, I'll advise how she performs for others who may have the same question. I'll do the same next summer (if I remember).
I have had issues keeping low temps in the warm summer on my rec tec. I tried to smoke some bacon this summer and even at the lowest temp setting(180) I couldn't keep it lower than 260. I've never tried to smoke this cool before in the summer until then but it makes sense that with an ambient air temp of 80 degrees at night that a computer trying to keep a fire at 100 degrees might have an issue.
Well I pulled the trigger and so glad I did! Ran it for over an hour with the outside temperature at 91F. Grill temps ranged from 221 to 232, but mostly stayed at 225-226. Even when it hit 221 or 232 it was only there for 10-20 seconds before it went back to 225 where it would stay for a couple minutes.
We'll see next summer when it's 110F outside, but this grill BLOWS away Traeger by a lot!
I haven't had any issues with temp control here in NC. However, I do position an umbrella to shield it on those hot summer days...it just seems a reasonable thing to do.
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