Help please

[tiger74]

I am doing the pre-season on my 20020713 as I type this, and after 30 minutes with the temp set at 275 I'm getteing a reading of 300!

Could this be a bad controller, or something else?

 

[daveomak]

Did the temp come up slowly before it read 300....

Is it coming down slowly......

 

[chef jimmyj]

300°F or even 320, is not uncommon in an empty MES set at 275°F. If it keeps going up, the Controller or Sensor is defective. You should see the Heating indicator go off and the temp slowly fall. Do not leave it alone. There has been run away temps that caused fires...JJ

 

[tiger74]

It went from 0 to 300 in about 20 minutes, at 305 I turned it off.

 

[chef jimmyj]

 
It went from 0 to 300 in about 20 minutes, at 305 I turned it off.

That tells you nothing about how it is functioning. You need to see that is stops rising, the coil turns off, and watch it fall only to cycle up again...JJ

 

[tjdcorona]

Is there wood chips in there? Is there packaging materials that might have been left in there that caught fire? This will raise the temp higher then the setting.

If the Thermocouple isnt working it might need to be connected - its not shutting off at temp.

Is the red light on ? If it is on while at 300 and set at 250 then its a runaway thermocouple. If the light is off while it continues to climb to temp - somethings burning inside or something more serious with the heating element.

the light will only be on when it is heating to temp - it goes off when it reaches temp. Mine will rise when i introduce wood to the smoker, which is normal, but does go back down.

 

[tiger74]

It turns out the controller was bad, MB sent a new one and its now working fine. Thanks for all the replies!