Want to hook a Stoker up to a Pellet Grill? Help

Would like to hook up the Stoker to a pellet grill. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Rock does not support the Stoker connected to a pellet grill, though he has installed and they do work on pellet grills. Amir if you could chime in that will be great.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.
bmerrill1@suddenlink.net

I don't have any experience with Pellet grill. But as long as it works on the principal of how much air is added to it to control the temp, then it should work.

Thanks Amir.

To control a pellet grill the Stoker would have to:
1) At start up run an igniter for 4 minutes. This would have to be done by a relay as it is 120vAC. Also if the pit temp drops below say 140º (flame out) then the igniter would also have to run again.
2) Control the stock fan (120vAC). This would have to be done again by relay.

I beta tested a prototype Stoker controller for Traeger pellet cookers. The results weren't great and Rock's BBQ didn't move forward with it as far as I can tell.

Bill

Bill,

If you have some time I would like to talk with you about what worked and what didn't. I have talked with some else that tested a unit for Rock. We can do this be email.

Thanks,
Billy

I am interested in doing this as well.

Greg

Which Pellet Grill do you have?

I have a Traeger 070E (Lil Tex).

It looks like there would need to be logic for what is stated for above as well as a way to pulse the auger at different timing.

Greg,

I agree for the Stoker to properly control a pellet grill the firmware would need a few mods. I have done some testing where the Traeger Controller was used to control the Hot Rod and to run the background "pilot light" to maintain the fire.

See this thread. http://pelletheads.com/index.php?topic=2323.15

I made several post starting at #21 about some of my test. I also posted a Stokerlog graph in post 24. Take a look at these and let me know what you think.

Thanks Bill, sounds like you have been doing a lot of research in this area. I agree - to do it correctly would needed some mods in the Stoker firmware - how are the discussions going with Rock's? Would be cool if Traeger made an "enthusiast" version with Stoker for us that like to tweak things.

I have a traeger 70. I suspect the problem is that it's not desigend to be airtight. so the guru or stoker cannot be the air control.

Suggest you order a more precise temp gauge, one that starts at 180. I think that's what I am going to do.

I have the Traeger 180 controller, but I want the features of the stoker. My experiments of the stoker on the Traeger became very productive. Have a solution i'm going to provide to them for their consideration so everyone can benefit.

Looking forward to hearing more, B. My thoughts were that stoker or guru style controller, would have to drop the fan method and move to an auger speed method. First, the Treager's not airtight, which is what the stoker needs and second, it's got a fan inside constantly blowing outside air over the pellet coals to keep it going.

What I would love, would be a replacement of the noisy fan, with a silent one, and second, an auger speed control that gives full temp control. Why should we be limited to 180 or 225?

If Rocks BBQ agrees to make the firmware changes you will have all of the temp settings available on the Stoker down to about 160° and up to the max temp of the grill.

You are correct on your thoughts about controlling fuel feed. It is relatively easy to control just one part of the fire triangle, but controlling 2 parts (air & fuel) becomes very difficult. I have been successful using the Stoker to control just the fuel feed; +/- 20°. For tighter temp control of a pellet grill firmware additions are needed as the Stokers PID algorithms were written to control air supply not fuel feed. The Stoker also has to do a “fire maintenance” feed of pellets, what many call a “pilot light” or you will lose fire. I will add that dead on constant temps will not be the end result, but I feel 5-10° is very achievable. You kitchen oven doesn’t even keep temps this tight.

On some test I did of the Stoker running the Traeger Grill, I used the Traeger controller to start the grill and run the "pilot light" feature in the background, the Stoker handled the rest. Read this thread starting on page 2 for more details.
http://pelletheads.com/index.php?topic=2323.15

I have also tried controlling the auger motors speed. The thought was if the auger ran 15 seconds on and 90 seconds off to maintain 200 degrees why not do a constant feed. In this scenario the auger would have to turn at 18% of its speed. From my test when I got the speed slow enough the motor lost to much torque and would hang on pellets being caught between the hopper opening and the auger. I did find when the cycle time was cut in half (7.5 seconds on 45 off) the normal temp swing was reduced.

Concering the fan: Pellets burn differently than sticks or charcoal. If you compare the size of a typical fire in the WSM to the size (4” diameter) of the fire pot in a pellet grill and then compare the size of the fuel and it quickly becomes apparent we are not dealing with the same burn rates. Without proper and constant air flow soot and creosote will build-up in the cooking chamber and on the food; not "Good Eats". You can even lose fire. On "Smoke" or "180" you can slow down the fan to about 50% with a speed controller like this one. http://www.grainger.com/Graing...rol-1DGV1?Pid=search
I have done it with good success. Search pelletheads.com for Traeger speed control. http://pelletheads.com/index.php?topic=3817.0

BMerrill knows of what he speaks. I have designed and built a pellet cooker from scratch. Additionally, I have designed and am now marketing a low-end temperature controller for charcoal pits. I am intimately familiar with both challenges.

The Trager algorithms were developed and tested with their pit specific combustion air volumes. Only the pellet feed rate is controlled. Adding a Stoker to a Trager (at least without BMerrill’s modifications) is a bit like trying to adjust the speed of your car while under cruise control by pulsing a rocket motor on and off! The two controllers will be “butting heads” and will certainly find an unstable point somewhere in the operating region.

Call John and/or Kenny at Rock's BBQ. John made units for pellet cooker a couple of years ago. I know several people that have them and love them.

Here is a link to my water tank pellet smoker that includes a home built controller. (kind of Traeger-ish).

Gary's Pellet Drive

I use a 12v PID controller for closed loop temp control and a simple on/off timer to "gear down" the pellet auger drive during warmup and recovery as the PID is calling for maximum heat.

This is my first attempt at cooking with pellets, and I am looking to scale this up for a larger vertical cabinet smoker. It seems the trick is keeping the fan on constant and modulating the pellet delivery for the varying cook conditions without overloading the burn pot or getting a large overshoot which may allow the fire to go out.

Just an update:

Did some testing using a new setup with the Stoker controlling a Traeger Pellet Grill. With a target temp of 250° the temp range (high and low peak temps) after stablizing were 242-256. The temp was then raised to 275°; after stablizing it maintined a temp ranging of 268-283 for over 3.5 hours. Detailed test results are here. http://pelletheads.com/index.php?topic=8026.msg78827

Chris, I have on loan one of those controllers. It does work on some pits like the FEC-100, but on the smaller pits like the Traegers or uninsulated pits it doesn't work very well.

Bill, I assume that since pellet cookers have controllers and some like the MAK have user programable controllers, all the mods to be made to the Stoker and the pellet pit would be to gain remote control over the pellet pit and not much else?

The mods are an interface that allows the Stoker to control the temperture of a Traeger Pellet Grill. The fan, auger, and igniter are connected to the interface with mating molex connectors so it is a simple reversible rewire if the user decides to use the Traeger controller say for high temp grilling.
The Stoker is not modified or changed in anyway, though a program change/addition would simply the setup. All of the functions of the Stoker remain. This includes temp control of multiple grill, monitor food temps, have as many probes as one can afford, remote web access control including on a smartphone, and StokerLog for graphing.