Actual temps 100+ below set temps.

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

rprice54

Newbie
Original poster
Feb 10, 2021
7
0
Curious what you guys think. I’m having some issues with a new Broil King Pellet grill. I asked a few questions on a BK group and they seemed to think I was overthinking things.
Background: I’Ve been cooking on an XL BGE for 12 years, last summer I bought a used Traeger 22 to dip my toes in the pellet world. I enjoyed the simplicity but needed something bigger. But I’ve got years of tried and true cooking recipes, time and temps.

I was about to get a Recteq 590 but found a great deal on a Broil King Crown 500.

The thing is built like a tank compared to the T22. I like some of the features and the max temp of ‘600’ the T22 couldn’t get north of 400. Initial burn in at ‘500’ was easy. I was pleased and threw away the box...

Until i tried to cook some chicken thighs. My usual 375 for 45 minutes turned into 375 for 2+ hours. The next night was chicken wings, set the grill to ‘425’ and still took 90 minutes. Normally it’s an hour to crispy wings after a 15 min smoke and finished at 375.

So I ran some tests with my calibrated (boil test) Fireboard probes. The temp at the grate never gets within 80 degrees of the set temp. I will say it’s rock solid steady, just low. 350 is really 270. 450 is really 325. I have to set it to 550 to get above 375 I had 4 probes across the grate- none of them ever sniffed the set temp. At the higher temps the right side is 80+ hotter than the middle but I think that’s with a rolling fire.

I’d be happy +/-30 degrees- I get it, not going to get surgical precision. But I’m going to have to create some kind of graph/cheat sheet and adjust all my cooks. I’ll have to smoke at ‘325’ to get 225. I’m going to have to cook chicken/burgers at ‘550’. It obvious BK is using fuzzy math to get that 600 degree max.

Is 80-175 degree discrepancy acceptable? Granted, Amazon has offered a decent discount for me to keep it on top of the discount I already had...
 
That 100° difference is unacceptable. Amazon cant take it back but what about the manufacturer warranty. What does that cover? Repair? Replacement? Refund? Even discounted, at $500+ it should work better than you describe...JJ
 
I don't own a pellet grill, but for me, as long as I knew what I was dealing with, I'd keep it along with any other discounts that I could get from Amazon, Broil King, etc. But I always use an external digital thermometer just because I trust them way more than anything that comes pre-installed from the factory, regardless of brand of cooker. Yes, it may not directly control the cooker temp, but I at least have another source of info and can adjust accordingly even though the whole "set it and forget it" concept goes out the door, sort of.
 
....The temp at the grate never gets within 80 degrees of the set temp. I will say it’s rock solid steady, just low. ...
I'm not a pellet grill owner, but was wondering if there was some sort of calibration that needs to be done to the thermostat?

As long as it is "rock steady" as you say, I'd keep it as long as I knew what the temp offset is and could make the appropriate adjustments.
 
Like jj said, that would be completely unacceptable. If you need it set that high, that pretty much eliminates your high temp cooks.
 
100º difference is totally unacceptable! Call the manufacturer , hopefully they will take ownership of the problem and help to get it resolved.
 
There is a calibration procedure with the app, and I tried it, but from what I can tell it didn’t do anything. They have +/- buttons next to the temp to adjust it but despite setting it -50 the displayed temp is the same.

Broil King Tech support was very unhelpful. The woman on the phone wouldn’t even let me finish a sentence. She basically said “You’re doing it wrong” before I could even explain my problem. Then she said my other thermometer wasn’t properly calibrated- I tried to explain how I confirmed all the probes, even the Broil King meat probes in boiling water but she wouldn’t hear it. So then I explained that chicken took over 2 hours and she goes ‘you have to let it warm up first’. No kidding. I had to ask her to stop interrupting me so I could even explain the situation. I wouldn’t get off the phone until she agreed to send me a new temp probe- but the problem remains with the new probe. I wonder if it’s the controller. I tried email this time because I’d lose my mind talking to them again on the phone.

I’m going to see if they’ll send me a new controller and try that. If that doesn’t work I may have to figure out if the offset is consistent enough to make it usable. Or I’ll find someone who doesn’t mind the temp difference and sell it.

The whole point of these pellet grills is ‘set it and forget it,’ it’s the convenience factor. If I need to babysit something I might as well use my BGE.
 
I think you got a lemon, and they should replace it. Tell them you are a member of SMF & send them a copy of your thread. Do they want to loose business to over 100,000 people. I think not. Customer service is what makes a business grow, and a few bad comments on a site this big would hurt their business. I think you just need to talk to a manager, not just the CS rep that answers the phone.
Al
 
  • Like
Reactions: schlotz
Email tech support has been much easier to work with. New controller on the way, fingers crossed...
 
It sounds to me like your temp readout is calibrated for a Pt100 RTD while the RTD you have is a Pt1000 RTD. (This has to do with the internal resistance of the sensor--100 ohms or 1000 ohms at 0C.) If you got this used, the previous owner probably made a poor choice in replacing the sensor and $10-20 should get you the right probe. If you bought this new, there's probably a batch of wrong probes in production and this probably affects other customers as well...possibly most who haven't done the smart trouble-shooting you've done. BK may really appreciate you explaining this to them...but you'll need to talk to a technical person, not a marketing guy.
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Clicky