Royal Oak Charcoal Pellet

[Ed P]

I have a few bags of Royal Oak Charcoal Pellets I got for $2.00 a bag on a close out at Walmart. I tried them in my camp chef without a PID controller about a year ago.
Really didn't notice a lot of difference, but I did notice a much greater swing on the temperature.
The flavor profile had just a hint of the charcoal smoke flavor.
My controller seems to be getting flaky after about 200+ cooks by running a lot hotter than the set temperature.
So, when Amazon had their super sale earlier this month, I picked up a CC gen 2 PID controller for $50.
The same exact one CC sells for $150. I'll try the Royal Oak again when I get it installed.

Don't overlook the probe. It has to be clean, of course, and probes fail often. A bad connection between the probe and the controller will wreak havoc on any system. If you have a plug-type connection between probe and controller, wiggle or tap the connection around and see if the controller changes temp.

 

[Ed P]

It seems like it would follow that if charcoal burns hotter than wood, wouldn't you assume that charcoal pellets would burn hotter than wood pellets? And RO swears those pellets are 100% charcoal, so....

 

[Rich Dahl]

Don't overlook the probe. It has to be clean, of course, and probes fail often. A bad connection between the probe and the controller will wreak havoc on any system. If you have a plug-type connection between probe and controller, wiggle or tap the connection around and see if the controller changes temp.

Thanks for the response. I do clean the probe when I clean the grill.
Just to be on the safe side I have a new probe also that I'll be installing when I change out the controller.