Darn Near Had Meltdown


 
LMichaels

LMichaels

TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
As I reported elsewhere, I bought this item https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9GSP2W7?tag=tvwb-20 (a PID WIFI controller) in the hopes of upgrading my Member's Mark.
Now this should have been a "no brainer". (other than fitment). Waited for a nice day (today) and decided to hook it up, link up the WIFI and see how it works. Well, at first I thought all was good. But, seemed to want to run the grill hotter than I expected. (could have been like with Jay D) that is how this controller acts. But, I also noticed the fan speed had slowed down. Well, I wanted to investigate this more. So I put it into a shutdown cycle. Then noticed smoke pouring out of the hopper. I am unsure if this was all an error on my part or not. But, I was able to clear the auger burn back with no damage (other than to my nerves). So at this point I still do not know what happened to it. I will give it another go, BUT will only put enough pellets into it to fill the auger enough to make some fire. So, If I need to do another emergency shutdown I should be able to perform it safely.
Honestly IDK what happened here. THIS should have been an easy swap. It used the same resistance RTD (temp was dead accurate), all the same connectors and color codes. So this one really has me scratching my head and disappointed.
I will be double checking my work (maybe later today) and report back as I get my findings. It's made as a replacement for Pit Boss grills BUT, PB uses all the same components (fan, auger, hot rod and so on) as the Members Mark does. SMDH here
 
Hopper fires are not uncommon with pellet grills. That is one reason I went with the Smoke Fire pellet grill, I thought they addressed the hopper fire issue pretty good with it's pellet drop chute. It might not be the result of your controller, unless some how it circumvents safety features on the MB? Best of luck chasing down that gremlin, fires are no bueno
 
ChuckO said:
Hopper fires are not uncommon with pellet grills. That is one reason I went with the Smoke Fire pellet grill, I thought they addressed the hopper fire issue pretty good with it's pellet drop chute. It might not be the result of your controller, unless some how it circumvents safety features on the MB? Best of luck chasing down that gremlin, fires are no bueno
Click to expand...
Have never had an issue with either grill like this. I'm sure it was something with the controller. Not sure if it was something I caused perhaps by mistaking the color code of the wires or what. Because these grills typically all have the same color code and oddly every Molex connector is the exact same pins and such so it's VERY easy, to cross things up. Which is entirely possible
 
LMichaels said:
Have never had an issue with either grill like this. I'm sure it was something with the controller. Not sure if it was something I caused perhaps by mistaking the color code of the wires or what. Because these grills typically all have the same color code and oddly every Molex connector is the exact same pins and such so it's VERY easy, to cross things up. Which is entirely possible
Click to expand...
Molex connector as in a 4-pin to SATA power, or Molex as in 4-pin male to female? If the latter, could a 4-pin male to 2 4-pin females work? You could then have both controllers, one simply for bluetooth and the other for factory connection to the controller?
 
The connectors are 2 pin, one end sort of triangular. One end female other male. Other than wire colors which after being discolored by 18 mos of steady smoke and heat become a little "off" and hard to tell.
Put the stock controller back on, fired and primed it. Only enough pellets to see if it worked. (just in case). Ran like a champ. So verdict is one of 3 things. I messed up, the controller is messed up, or "something else" :D
 
Tony Coloma said:
How do you tackle a hopper fire! That sounds pretty scary. Like a vertical charcoal smoker gone berserk.
Click to expand...
I dumped the pellets, set the grill down to "smoke" with the original controller hooked up, and then did repeated "Prime" functions to purge the pellets in the auger. Luckily the auger had not burned all the way back to the hopper yet, Fully vacuumed out the auger, and the grill. Reinstalled OEM controller, put a few handfuls of pellets in and started the grill along with primed it. Made sure it functioned correctly and shut it down once more. No issues. The problem happed when I tried a shut down cycle on the WIFI controller.
Winter is back, and tomorrow buddy and I have to run wiring to a new outlet in my garage through the attic over to the where the new door operator is installed. Hopefully weather forecast is correct and back to 50 tomorrow
So maybe over the weekend I will play with it.
 
The wifi thing on these pellet grills is a brilliant idea overall but the execution, at least with Nexgrill's Nexfi, still has room for improvement...stronger signal, better, more intuitive app to start.
The only real advantage over a decent wifi thermometer is the ability to shut the grill off remotely...and realistically, how often, if ever, would one need to do that?
 
Jay D in Jersey said:
The wifi thing on these pellet grills is a brilliant idea overall but the execution, at least with Nexgrill's Nexfi, still has room for improvement...stronger signal, better, more intuitive app to start.
The only real advantage over a decent wifi thermometer is the ability to shut the grill off remotely...and realistically, how often, if ever, would one need to do that?
Click to expand...
Sadly this controller setup was as easy as falling off a rock, and fast. Controller and phone were in sync instantly. I make extensive use of actually "controlling" the grill with my Z grill. YMMV but I love being able to not be tied to it. Monitor temps of grill and food remotely and make changes on the fly while I am doing other things. On a short cook not so much a deal either way. But doing a brisket or butt. Trust me it's "da bomb". Which is why I am trying so hard to get the feature on the MM. My, Z Grill has a faulty display and they sent me a new controller. I may try the one with faulty display on the MM. I can live with that. It's only a couple numbers not showing correctly. They show fine on the app
 
OK, I gave the controller another go today. It's a good/bad news deal. The good news. I must have mixed up a connector. As the grill was working just fine on it. Startup and shut down were both flawless and gave no issue and no "burn back". WIFI and Bluetooth both work flawlessly and the app is simple and somewhat intuitive. So, you ask, what's the bad news? Well the temps are just not right. I tried running it with 2 different RTD sensors. If you set the control under 250 I am not sure what it is doing. Especially if you're trying to have it run "smoking temps" (160-200). No matter where you set it, it wants to climb to 220-230. But, set it to say 235 and it holds like a rock. Rock solid stable (confirmed with 2nd thermo BTW). IDK why it won't hold and stay at low temps.
So I have a disappointment in that I cannot run it in more of a "Smoke Mode".
I am not sure what is going on with it. It does not have a separate "P" setting but my assumption is that under say 225 it does not run in a PID mode but a simple timer type function
In any case the factory controller does
In any case I am disappointed but glad I did not spend a of coin on it
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top