Dave - Unixadm
TVWBB Super Fan
Lol. Weber has created an order to ship me a glow rod. I don't know why they went with a 12V DC glow rod, but I know I've never had a conventional 120V igniter fail me before. At least it's easy to swap.
Dave's Smokefire EX6 Experiences
- Thread starter Dave - Unixadm
- Start date
Lol. Weber has created an order to ship me a glow rod. I don't know why they went with a 12V DC glow rod, but I know I've never had a conventional 120V igniter fail me before. At least it's easy to swap.
Dave - Unixadm
TVWBB Super Fan
So you still have a Broke Fire? Sorry, I've been reading and watching videos on this thing since the beginning. Now I'm getting bored. Maybe one day this social distancing thing will pass and we can get together for that beer and BBQ. On that note, I've got some duck and bacon sausage from Swingle meat I've been very interested in trying. Time to get a fire going.
Broke BackFire. I don't have a ton of stuff to smoke. I've been order from Costco for delivery and they have prime briskets for like $3.59 lb. I may order one up. I'm with you. On Friday I actually broke the rules. I went down to my old hangout to pick up a takeout order and my buddy showed up. We social distanced, but I put down a few drinks. After waiting it out and getting home, another buddy came by with is wife and we hung out in the front yard and I enjoyed a few bud lights. It was the most human I've felt in the last month. Because I live alone, it was starting to really get to me. lol
Dave - Unixadm
TVWBB Super Fan
Back to the welded chute..
Other than sealing up the auger tube penetration into the main chamber with high temp RTV, I followed the instructions. I don't like that smoke leaks into the auger compartment. If you look at one of the pics of the pellet fuel sensor, you can see how smoke has discolored it from leaking through this penetration.
With the revised auger tube and chute, it did seem to come up to temp quicker. With that said, my glow plug failed, so I had to use a torch to light the pellets in the fire pot.
Looking at the design, it is much improved over the original one with much smoother feeding into the auger. I also swapped the auger, but I had received a replacement with the Rev F auger motor. I did not see any difference between the augers, but I swapped it again since it had to come off anyhow to install the new auger motor plate. The mounting design is improved as well and you can easily remove the auger motor with the new design.
Other than sealing up the auger tube penetration into the main chamber with high temp RTV, I followed the instructions. I don't like that smoke leaks into the auger compartment. If you look at one of the pics of the pellet fuel sensor, you can see how smoke has discolored it from leaking through this penetration.
With the revised auger tube and chute, it did seem to come up to temp quicker. With that said, my glow plug failed, so I had to use a torch to light the pellets in the fire pot.
Looking at the design, it is much improved over the original one with much smoother feeding into the auger. I also swapped the auger, but I had received a replacement with the Rev F auger motor. I did not see any difference between the augers, but I swapped it again since it had to come off anyhow to install the new auger motor plate. The mounting design is improved as well and you can easily remove the auger motor with the new design.
J Burke
New member
Looks better than my current solution. Where'd you get that?
Dave - Unixadm
TVWBB Super Fan
I received the glow plug today and before installing it, I wanted to check it out and measure the resistance just for reference. 9.5 ohms (at least I think it was ohms). I didn't look close at the display on my DVOM. The old one was 0.0 or 100% open (dead). I've got maybe 40-50 starts on my Smokefire, so the 150 cycle count they have wasn't achieved here. Glow Plugs typically don't run for a long duration of time in an automotive application. However, in this application they're being left energized for a while until the smoker starts up. If the smoker had a misfire and didn't ignite, my hunch is the glow plug would run even longer. None the less, it failed and by looking at the glow plug, it looks like a cheap off-brand. The replacement matched the original. I've tried digging through parts catalogs to find this particular glow plug application, but thus far I've not been successful. The numbers on it are TY24V 1941. Now, TY could stand for Toyota. 24 V = 24 Volts. If anyone finds an exact match, please let me know. It would be much cheaper to buy a pack of 4-6-8 of these just to have around. At least it's simple to change, but I see this as being a problematic part hence the cycle counter on the controller.
Dead:
Good:
I also am cleaning up my patio, reorganizing and pressure washing. I decided to give the SmokeFire it's first pressure washed bath.
I didn't fire it up after replacing the glow plug. When I confirmed the original was 100% open, I know it will work the next time I need it.
Dead:
Good:
I also am cleaning up my patio, reorganizing and pressure washing. I decided to give the SmokeFire it's first pressure washed bath.
I didn't fire it up after replacing the glow plug. When I confirmed the original was 100% open, I know it will work the next time I need it.
J Burke
New member
Thank you
Dave - Unixadm
TVWBB Super Fan
That looks pretty close. Weber is still trying to figure out why my controller freezes up on occasion. Since I was bored, I asked them yesterday what glow plug they're using. I thought I remember a marketing comment or video where they said it was something generic over the counter. I've hunted around for that glow plug but have not fund an exact match. It has to be a 24 volt glow plug. A military hummer glow plug is about the closest I've found, though it doesn't match. I'm hoping it's something stupid and that Weber will tell me.
John - Cactuspilot
TVWBB Member
Did you measure the voltage when it was glowing? Not many 24v glow plugs out there - there is an old Toyota brand but it seems unlikely.
Dave - Unixadm
TVWBB Super Fan
Yes I did (verifying 24 volts). I did that when verifying the glow plug was supposed to be energized but wasn't working. The entire platform in the Smokefire runs on 24 Volts. It has a 120V to 24V power supply feeding the control board. I suspected Toyota because of the "TY" on the glow plug.
John - Cactuspilot
TVWBB Member
Mine says TY 24V 1938
I spent all afternoon looking - found a few that looked close but voltage was always off.
I spent all afternoon looking - found a few that looked close but voltage was always off.
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Dave - Unixadm
TVWBB Super Fan
I switched internet providers and just want to see if my images in this thread are still visible to you nice folks? I host them from a server at my house, so I had to do some changes today as I moved from fiber to the home to Xfinity after 12 years. Xfinity 1 gigabit + YouTube TV for the win and I save $50+ per month. lol
Dave - Unixadm
TVWBB Super Fan
Thanks. Should be all good. Got the last of the pending items addressed this morning.
Dave - Unixadm
TVWBB Super Fan
Weber has let me know that they're working on a software fix for the freezing, so I guess they don't believe it's hardware related. I also asked them for specifics about the Glow Plug but they didn't provide me anything other than sending me another glow plug as a spare to have on hand. I thought that was pretty cool since that's not what I asked for.j
Update: Weber indicated the next update is due in the next few weeks.
Update: Weber indicated the next update is due in the next few weeks.
Dave - Unixadm
TVWBB Super Fan
Howdy everybody. It's been a while! With the corona going around and plenty of work from home, I've been focusing on some other things. That's not to say I'm not cooking because I am. 
Last weekend I made some ribs on the EX6 and they came out great.
The EX6 seems to be working pretty well for me these days or I just got tired of fighting with it. Regardless, it does produce some amazing BBQ.
So what else have I been up to besides work? Well I decided to replace my 2018 Miata RF Club with a 2020 Miata Club ST. The deals these days are pretty crazy, so I decided to take advantage of that, especially when I haggled the dealership into a very solid offer on my 2018. lol
Spent some time modding that car and swapping over the parts I removed from my 2018. After that I had to tackle a problem that I've been dealing with as summer set in and WFH. My home office is furthest from the air handler upstairs. To keep my office cool with all of my geeky computer equipment, I have to keep the house way cooler than it needs to be. I started hunting around for what's called mini-split heat/cool setups and found a 12k BTU unit for $550 shipped off of eBay. If you picked up anything from my threads, I'm handy. What you might not know is that I almost had two career changes during my life. One of those almost changes was getting into HVAC repair and to this day I find it VERY interesting for some stupid reason. I had all of the refrigeration tools to do the job, so I learned a bit about bending conduit for electrical, pulling wire underground and getting this unit up and running. I totally geeked out on it and am pretty satisfied with my installation. They sell DIY style mini-splits (not a fan), but this was a conventional install unit, meaning you have to do your own flares, pull a sub-500 micron vacuum and check for leaks. I've already got my neighbor asking me if I'd install one for them as well and for my first install, I think it came out pretty good. I did all the work, even bending conduit for the first time.
I'm like a kid at Christmas!
All that work has made me hungry. To BBQ or not tonight is the question but I know one thing, I'm sitting here nice and chilly in my office writing this post which is something I've not been able to say for almost two months! I've also picked up some new videography equipment and now that I can edit in my office without breaking a sweat, I may start producing some "rough" videos for the "YouTube". haha.
I hope everyone is well and that you're staying safe/healthy. Sorry for some office topic pics, but many of you seemed to like when I geeked out on stuff so what the heck.
Last weekend I made some ribs on the EX6 and they came out great.
The EX6 seems to be working pretty well for me these days or I just got tired of fighting with it. Regardless, it does produce some amazing BBQ.
So what else have I been up to besides work? Well I decided to replace my 2018 Miata RF Club with a 2020 Miata Club ST. The deals these days are pretty crazy, so I decided to take advantage of that, especially when I haggled the dealership into a very solid offer on my 2018. lol
Spent some time modding that car and swapping over the parts I removed from my 2018. After that I had to tackle a problem that I've been dealing with as summer set in and WFH. My home office is furthest from the air handler upstairs. To keep my office cool with all of my geeky computer equipment, I have to keep the house way cooler than it needs to be. I started hunting around for what's called mini-split heat/cool setups and found a 12k BTU unit for $550 shipped off of eBay. If you picked up anything from my threads, I'm handy. What you might not know is that I almost had two career changes during my life. One of those almost changes was getting into HVAC repair and to this day I find it VERY interesting for some stupid reason. I had all of the refrigeration tools to do the job, so I learned a bit about bending conduit for electrical, pulling wire underground and getting this unit up and running. I totally geeked out on it and am pretty satisfied with my installation. They sell DIY style mini-splits (not a fan), but this was a conventional install unit, meaning you have to do your own flares, pull a sub-500 micron vacuum and check for leaks. I've already got my neighbor asking me if I'd install one for them as well and for my first install, I think it came out pretty good. I did all the work, even bending conduit for the first time.
I'm like a kid at Christmas!
All that work has made me hungry. To BBQ or not tonight is the question but I know one thing, I'm sitting here nice and chilly in my office writing this post which is something I've not been able to say for almost two months! I've also picked up some new videography equipment and now that I can edit in my office without breaking a sweat, I may start producing some "rough" videos for the "YouTube". haha.
I hope everyone is well and that you're staying safe/healthy. Sorry for some office topic pics, but many of you seemed to like when I geeked out on stuff so what the heck.
BFletcher
TVWBB Platinum Member
Those are tasty-looking ribs, a spiffy car, and you saved yourself a ton of money installing your own ductless unit. And because I have a bad taste in my mouth, I'll add that you probably took the best-possible path at getting the install accurate. Beginning 8 months after moving into our new home we were plagued with major, annual repairs on our heat pump system. Eventually, enough was enough and I purchased the Refrigeration & AC Tech manual and little-by-little added my own equipment. Aside from replacing the indoor motor cap, the last time I touched our unit was 33 months ago when I did a repair inside the HP.
You are one crazy dude. I love it!I'm like a kid at Christmas!