GMG Prime Ledge Temperature Issues

[LesPaul30]

Hi Everyone-

New Member here. I have recently purchased a GMG Prime Ledge pellet smoker and have been very excited to put it to use and start to learn everything, I’m sure I have a ways to go. My question to the forum is that I have done two long smokes- a beef rib, and a pork butt. These took around 9 hours for the rib, and close to 12 for the pork butt. The outcome was good, but not great. The pork was tougher than I wanted it, but folks all said it was very good. What I have witnessed during both cooks is that I will set the temperature to 225 and 250, but about every :30 mins the machine sounds like it is filling more pellets into the firebox, the smoke comes out like crazy. This all seems normal, but a few minutes after that the temperature will rise very quickly ~+75 degrees, say up to 325 when set to 250 and then slowly come back down. This is obviously not normal. and likely why the final product did not come out as great as i was hoping for.

As this was a new purchase as of July 2021, I did update the software for this as well.

Cold this issue be a problem with the heat spreader not being in the correct spot? I installed it as per the instructions but have not touched it since. I was going to to a ‘toast test’ with bread to see if there are major differences that could be causing this in the grill.

Or is this something more concerning?

Any ideas appreciated!

 

[mowin]

Are you going by the therm in the door of the pit? If so, it might be way off. Get a external therm with a pit probe to check temps in different areas at grate level. You mentioned ribs. What type? Saint Louis cut should only take 6 hrs at 225°. If the pulled pork was tuff after 12 hrs, I'm thinking your temps are lower than the lid therm is reading, and the pork but was under cooked. Did you check the IT of the pork but? Should have been around 201-205°.

 

[LesPaul30]

Are you going by the therm in the door of the pit? If so, it might be way off. Get a external therm with a pit probe to check temps in different areas at grate level. You mentioned ribs. What type? Saint Louis cut should only take 6 hrs at 225°. If the pulled pork was tuff after 12 hrs, I'm thinking your temps are lower than the lid therm is reading, and the pork but was under cooked. Did you check the IT of the pork but? Should have been around 201-205°.

Thanks! I am using the temp gauge on the door/app. I will look at the external term.
The ribs were beef rib.
I had probes in both the ribs and the pork. Ribs were pretty good and pulled them off at around 190 if I recall. Pork came off at 205 From the probes.

GMG is asking me to send them a few photos and measurements of where the spreader is, drip tray, and smoke stack. Sounds like standard from another post I was reading on here.

 

[mowin]

Beef ribs are cooked similar to brisket. Not done until probe tender, and can take just as long. At 190° they were under cooked. I don't use my GMG temp probe. I use digital instant read thermometer along with my aftermarket external probes.

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

While you getting a new thermometer make sure it has alarm for low temperature also. Can't tell you how many people have the smoker shutdown during a cook especially at night.

 

[HCW]

Hi Everyone-

New Member here. I have recently purchased a GMG Prime Ledge pellet smoker and have been very excited to put it to use and start to learn everything, I’m sure I have a ways to go. My question to the forum is that I have done two long smokes- a beef rib, and a pork butt. These took around 9 hours for the rib, and close to 12 for the pork butt. The outcome was good, but not great. The pork was tougher than I wanted it, but folks all said it was very good. What I have witnessed during both cooks is that I will set the temperature to 225 and 250, but about every :30 mins the machine sounds like it is filling more pellets into the firebox, the smoke comes out like crazy. This all seems normal, but a few minutes after that the temperature will rise very quickly ~+75 degrees, say up to 325 when set to 250 and then slowly come back down. This is obviously not normal. and likely why the final product did not come out as great as i was hoping for.

As this was a new purchase as of July 2021, I did update the software for this as well.

Cold this issue be a problem with the heat spreader not being in the correct spot? I installed it as per the instructions but have not touched it since. I was going to to a ‘toast test’ with bread to see if there are major differences that could be causing this in the grill.

Or is this something more concerning?

Any ideas appreciated!

I had similar problem with my GMG DB. Replaced board twice and problem continued. Problem solved by replacing temp probe. It holds set temp rock steady now, doesn't vary by more than 4-5 degrees.

 

[LesPaul30]

So what I found that wasn't in the instructions manual is that there is a "Climate Setting" buried in the App. This setting was set to "Icy" which would make sense that it was pushing more pellets into the hopper assuming icy conditions which would allow for large temperature spikes since I live in the warm area. I set this all the way to "Hot" (there are maybe 5 different settings ranging from Icy to Hot, and did another 12 hour pork butt smoke. From what I could tell I was not getting any spikes and it turned out great! Will look to do beef ribs soon. But who knew that this setting was in there!