Troubleshooting With my Best Male Friend

[Lew Newby]

I have spent the last 2 days remotely troubleshooting my 57 yr. old son's RecTec RT-300. We work extremely well together. He put a cover on the grill for winter and the condensation killed the Wifi controller. He's in Wake Forest, N.C.. When I gave him the grill I included the non-Wifi PID controller that I had replaced. After installing that controller he was getting an error indicating that the RTD (thermocouple) was bad. Armed with that knowledge he checked out his connections and found a bad ground connection. His burn check started with this picture and a big temp overshoot. He's brilliant with computers and electronics but learning pellet grills. For some reason he got a build up of pellets in the fire pot and they smoked like crazy before total ignition and soaring temperature. I've seen a few Smokefire pics that look like this.

I just got a text that he had his auger and fan wires crossed and that would cause all the smoke and the overshoot. Happy New Year.

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

I think this is one of the main reasons I have no interest in electronic controls on my grills, I don’t speak the language of whatever it is and don’t really give a hoot about learning it. I have done quite well using the KISS method and will leave the need to troubleshoot an electronic food cooking unit to pretty much anyone else! You’re a good man Lew! Taking care of family dilemmas like that.

 

[BFletcher]

I'm happy for you two that you got it sorted out

 

[Lew Newby]

I think this is one of the main reasons I have no interest in electronic controls on my grills, I don’t speak the language of whatever it is and don’t really give a hoot about learning it. I have done quite well using the KISS method and will leave the need to troubleshoot an electronic food cooking unit to pretty much anyone else! You’re a good man Lew! Taking care of family dilemmas like that.

Thanks, I understand where you're coming from. I was a career Naval Officer and 9 years after commissioning I was thrust into the computer world. It was adapt or get out and I wasn't ready to give up my dream. It also gave me a feel for where the world was headed so we made sure our kids were tech savvy. All three work in the tech world. There definitely is a learning curve and a language barrier. Nothing wrong with KISS. If I had the strength and stamina I would love to be cooking on a 36" Lang.