Broke out Big Z this PM


 
LMichaels

LMichaels

TVWBB 2-Star Olympian
Broke Big Z out this afternoon. IDR what I cooked in there last but oh boy did I leave it a total mess. IIRC it may have been the Christmas brisket. Every intention to clean it up time got away what with my dad, and other family issues. So gave it a quick scrape down, brushed the grates, scraped the grease tray and vacuumed it all out. Gotta love how quick they clean up :D Spent 10 min?...................maybe 12.
Bought a pack of 2 organic chickens at the Costco, spatchcocked one, Took the wings off, on to the upper rack. with some Killer Hogs AP seasoning (mostly S,P &G) on to the upper rack over a drip pan. Ran smoke about 20-30 min, and boosted temp to 370. But sadly it's coming up VERY sloooowly. Not sure what is going on there. Only up to 340 right now and it's been up high for 45 min.
It came up to 235 for smoke run pretty quick but now it's taking it's sweet time. Temps are mild, no real wind to speak of. Not sure WTH is going on there
 
Would pellets I left in the hopper be damp if, the hopper was gasketed, and the overall grill was covered with a very water proof cover? Or should I ask this way? Would those pellets be any more damp than ones I store outside but in those large 5 gal paint buckets with the snap on lids?
If so, then that could have been and then perhaps I should drain the pellets after a cook?
 
Hello LMichaels. I hope all is well! I have my own theory my friend. I have a recently bought a Recteq 1100 and I don’t feel comfortable leaving the pellets in the metal hopper for that reason. For some reason I feel when the temperature outside goes up and down from freezing to a warmer temperature back to freezing..etc. The metal of the hopper might make condensation which will lead into wet pellet? So I will run my pellets out at the end of a cook. To me it’s not a big deal. Towards the end of the cook I start scooping out the pellet and then let them burn out hot to clean the grill.As that is going on, I will get my brush with some water on it to steam and scrub down the grates. Clean grill and pellets are used up for a purpose. I do this, of course when I know the grill will be sitting for a several days.
 
I had thought about that. May very well be the case as there has been a lot of up/down going on lately. So what about the large plastic buckets of them I have stored all over the place. In front garage, (attached to house), rear garage out back, or on my wood deck?
Or is plastic not as prone to this? I also have maybe 10 bags stored out in the back garage as well. Not on the ground though. They are elevated a little. I will be giving it a go sort of your way (though had thought of this independently), of only using enough pellets in hopper for my cook, and running the auger out each time at the end of cooking.
Not sure when I will be using Big Z again though. BTW it's only Big Z that has had this issue. Not the MM grill. Though that grill does not go through quite the extremes of temp/humidity change as it's in my (unheated) though insulated garage.
But, I will see what happens next time on Z as the last cook I did, last night just about emptied the hopper.
 
I think the amount of air in the container is key. As well as how sealed it is. The hopper will hold humidity for the most part. And the change in temp will cause condensation if drastic enough. Venting the hopper could (eh) help. The sealed plastic bins should be fine as long as there is little air in them. And it depends on the air temp and humidity, when they were sealed. (Yes, a little dry satchet would help, but maybe a bit too much to ask for.) As for the bags, sealed or not they may be okay since they are allowed to vent, or completely sealed and little air.
This is all supposing humidity has anything to do with it. Has anyone seen evidence of wet or weakened pellets?
 
So, doing an impromptu "inspection", I notice no difference in the feel, look, resistance to breakage or resistance to "crumbling" whether I am dealing with pellets removed from the hopper, stored in the big green Meanards buckets (either in the front or rear garage) or the specialty pellet storage containers in the garage (front garage), or the pellets in the Member's Mark hopper in the garage, or anywhere else as much as I can get to testing them.
So IDK, I am really reaching on this "issue?". IDK if it even is an issue. But I see people on the FB Z Grills groups (there are 2 one called Z Grills "Official" the other is a specified private group specific to the 750 2B and 1100 2B grills only. Though I dropped out of it because the admin is a total know it all obscene jerk. Constantly berating anyone who has a different experience than him. I.E., someone had noted they did not know how to set up the Bluetooth and WIFI. He told them they needed a separate router for 2.4ghz ONLY and or they needed to disable the 5ghs on their current router. Which could not be further from the truth. Modern routers (particularly the kind the poster said they had) are quite capable of doing both for both types of needs well with no need to go through this garbage. So I and another person explained there was no need to do that with the router the OP had. This guy jumped all over us, calling us stupid publicly and such. And sent us both PMs that were obnoxious to say the least.
So I PM'd the OP and explained the router, and dumped the group. I don't need that kind of negativity in my life.
Anyway many on the Z GRills "official" like me have the 1100 2B, use them in cold weather and report no such "issue" of not reaching or taking a long time to reach higher temps.
However what I "call" a long time may not be a long time to someone else. In any case. It did reach my temps and held. So IDK if its me, wind currents, my interpretations, my grill itself or my pellets.
I did put a new RTD in it as well.
 
LMichaels said:
So IDK if its me, wind currents, my interpretations, my grill itself or my pellets.
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Or a combination of the above. To my way of thinking, there is a lot of surface area on that grill and what you are seeing is heat loss because of the difference in temp between the grill and ambient. The greater the difference between the grill and ambient, the greater the heat loss. The greater the heat loss, the longer the grill will take to heat up. You are literally trying to heat up the great outdoors with your grill and it's going to take a longer time that if you have your grill in a garage or shed, or covered with an fireproof insulating blanket

When air molecules absorb heat, they get excited and start moving faster (don't we all?) Not all molecules heat up at the same time so swirling air currents develop. There are hot and cold pockets everywhere. The molecules of air surrounding your grill will heat up and create air movement around your grill (hot air rises) which will serve to carry heat away and increase the heat loss. A blanket will help prevent some of this.

Why can't you heat water up beyond the boiling point? Because the evaporating water given off as steam carries the heat away and cools the water. Same principle.
 
I get it Ed. But, like the Member's Mark we both own, it's fully double walled. Though I do realize there are physics involved. The burn pot is identical to the much smaller MM as well, so I can't help but wonder if I am also up against some other physical limitations. In any case I still love the thing. Love both of them actually.
 
Put your hand on the outside and count to ten. Can you do it? Does it get hot? If so, that is heat loss.
 
Ed P said:
Put your hand on the outside and count to ten. Can you do it? Does it get hot? If so, that is heat loss.
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Actually it does not. Except in blazing hot sun I can lay my hand on both grills with not much trouble. One thing I do notice on the Z unlike the MM or even the SmokeFires I have looked at. Big Z has an awful lot of venting in back. I can't help but wonder if perhaps building some louvers to cut back on the rear vent are would help it
 
Hmmm. Well, if the outer surface is at all hotter than ambient, that is heat lost, and the greater the diff between ambient and the outer surface, the faster it will be lost. The more moisture that is in the air, the higher the rate, too. But we are cooking with heated air...I wouldn't think you would be exhausting any more heated air at a lower ambient temp, do you?. I know that some of the grills have variable speed fans in them but I think that is for more accurate temp control.

It just seems self-evident to me that the colder the ambient temp is, the longer the grill will take to come up to temp, and the more it will appear to struggle. What would you do if your house wouldn't get hot enough in winter? Fix the leaks you can fix, add more insulation, then install a bigger heater, right?
 
Ed P said:
Hmmm. Well, if the outer surface is at all hotter than ambient, that is heat lost, and the greater the diff between ambient and the outer surface, the faster it will be lost. The more moisture that is in the air, the higher the rate, too. But we are cooking with heated air...I wouldn't think you would be exhausting any more heated air at a lower ambient temp, do you?. I know that some of the grills have variable speed fans in them but I think that is for more accurate temp control.

It just seems self-evident to me that the colder the ambient temp is, the longer the grill will take to come up to temp, and the more it will appear to struggle. What would you do if your house wouldn't get hot enough in winter? Fix the leaks you can fix, add more insulation, then install a bigger heater, right?
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This is exactly why a ceramic, Kamado style grill, uses less fuel with less moisture loss in the food.
 
The only other variable that I can think that might have an effect is that the wood pellets have taken on moisture and are burning slower, and it would be easy enough to weigh a small amount and then dry it in an oven or dehydrator and re-weigh. But my vote is for heat loss.
 
Ed P said:
The only other variable that I can think that might have an effect is that the wood pellets have taken on moisture and are burning slower, and it would be easy enough to weigh a small amount and then dry it in an oven or dehydrator and re-weigh. But my vote is for heat loss.
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That is a thought. Thing is I am sure there is always moisture present. I just wonder how much is normal and how much is an issue? I wonder if one of those sensors used for helping to water plants to sense when they're dry.
Next cook I am gonna put "fresh" ones in from one of my buckets. But, whether or not I can duplicate wind, and temps and relative humidity not sure.
Though I am still wondering about how much vent space per cu ft of interior space there is on the Z. The Member's Mark seems to have much less venting per sq in than the Z does. Also oriented differently. I may rig up a "curtain" type thing and try that as well to vary the venting per wind speed, direction and temps.
 
LMichaels said:
That is a thought. Thing is I am sure there is always moisture present. I just wonder how much is normal and how much is an issue?
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