Smokefire4 temp spike

[wrgilb]

I'm doing a full packer on my Smokefire4. This is a first generation model, I haven't had any of the problems with this grill that others had when it first came out, until today. I set it on smoke boost (first time I used this feature) for 2 hours. Then I turned the boost off and set the temp. at 240. 10 minutes later I checked and it was showing 370, so I shut it down and will restart and see what happens. Has anyone else had this problem?

I'm cooking it on the top rack with a pot of pinquitos below. I did a dry run yesterday to see what the temp. was on the top rack with the dial set at 275. The temp. would climb to 335 when the pellet dump was fully ignited and then cool down to 275 until the next dump of pellets and then climb again as they where fully ignited. So I'm setting it at 240, figuring to get swings to 295-300 and then down to 240. Does this sound like anyone else's experience?

[glitchy]

I've tried to purge most of the headaches of owning a SmokeFire from my memory, but I don't remember drastic temp swings mid cook being one of the many issues that frustrated me. However, it does seem the initial overshoot on the SmokeFire was often huge then it would settle back into place. A lot of that was because or programming to get to high temps as quick as possible, but I feel like it often did it on temp changes made while already running too. In my experiences, 'rebooting' a pellet cooker mid cook hasn't done much for me, I'm not saying it can't in some situations, but often doesn't change things as the logic is pretty simple in terms of what it's trying to do. In this case, it's likely to repeat overshooting the set temp again before settling in.

Is the firmware up to date? My understanding is the grill has been running a lot more stable since the update late spring/early summer. You say Gen 1, but is it hardware wise exactly how it came out February 2020 or has the auger chute been updated to the welded model? If you have the welded chute (and the hopper ramp insert) and latest firmware yours is identical to a Gen 2. The welded auger chute was generally tied to issues getting to 500 degree plus temps.

Pellet grills don't open a door and dump a ton of pellets at once, they very slowly turn an auger that slowly drop just a few pellets at a time trying to ensure that drastic swings don't occur. However, if you're getting any pellet bridging or it's really windy and the temp drops too much below set temp, it's going to run the auger longer or on repeated short intervals trying to recover which could then overshoot. My SmokeFire was very sensitive to wind and a couple times it was acting goofy I realized just a 10-15 MPH breeze was blowing straight into the back and a 90 degree rotation of the grill would sometimes stabilize things.

[wrgilb]

glitchy It's exactly how it came out, but I've replaced the hopper ramp. I went through shut down, turned it off when it said to and then restarted and set to 240. It's been running fine for the last 3 hours. No wind issues. I'll check the firmware update. Thanks.

[bbqLuv]

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