Not happy with my GMG Danial Boone

[WWW2B]

I did my research and decided on the GMG or the Camp Chef. Well my son had two friends who love their GMG so we went with that. We got the Danial Boone with WIFI. I've never had a pellet grill but this grill has a mind of it's own. It would go thru the sequence on start up, It's supposed to stop at 150 and wait for me to set a temp. So I set it to 250 and it went all the way to 350 and stayed there. Took about 45 min to come down to about 300. It kept just doing whatever it wanted, so after many emails to customer service, they sent a new board. Popped the new board in and it went up to 150 and stayed there just like it's supposed to. Then after about 30 min, it shot up to 275 on it's own. We have emailed customer service over and over and they ask about where the fire box is located, the distance from the side, blah, blah, blah, I get it, this is important but they just keep asking the same things. Take a picture of this, take a picture of that and send it to us. My husband finally asked at what point can we return this thing and they have not addressed that question. For some reason, today he said it is maintaining a fairly constant temp. Is this the nature of pellet grills? We have blown thru 20 pounds of pellets just experimenting with the grill. I just want to get a refund and get the camp chef.

I have a Green Egg and I have no problem with that but for long cooks, it's just too much work.

 

[sandyut]

Welcome to SMF.

Is this the nature of pellet grills?

Absolutely not. I have never experienced anything like that. Mine starts up and goes to the set temp and stays there with minor swings of <5 degrees...sometimes. usually no "swings". When new I did a burn in and went right to cookin and never had any issues.

Sorry you are having problems.

 

[Rafter H BBQ]

I had a GMG DB, was great for a while… then started having issues! Got a Camp Chef on a Grand Opening of Al’s Sporting Goods…. Saved $250…. Have had zero issues with the Camp Chef! It’s the DLX model with a PID controller and has been flawless!

I personally would demand a refund from GMG and get a Camp Chef, get a model with the PID controller… I don’t think you’d be disappointed!

 

[WWW2B]

Welcome to SMF.

Absolutely not. I have never experienced anything like that. Mine starts up and goes to the set temp and stays there with minor swings of <5 degrees...sometimes. usually no "swings". When new I did a burn in and went right to cookin and never had any issues.

Sorry you are having problems.

Thanks for your reply. I cooked some thighs on it last night and it seemed ok. Kept close to 250 the whole time. I'm not sure what to do.

 

[mowin]

Love my GMG DB. It's the wifi model but I never use the feature. I've had a few issues when I first got it, but learned quickly to let it stabilize. Going on 7 yrs and threaten to replace it, but it still works great.

 

[bill1]

I did my research and decided on the GMG...

Just to verity...you're not frequently opening the lid, are you? These controllers can get to constant (within 20degF) temperature stability, but only if you keep the lid shut.

Most newer controllers (e.g. those with WiFi or BT remote controls) use a PID algorithm instead of a simple linear ("proportional") control around a setpoint. They're capable of excellent temp stability (considering you're burning wood!) but they can also "get lost" easier on their path to achieving that control.

Opening the lid causes heat loss a lot faster than just what goes op the stack or through the walls. Since the controller is using the variance from the setpoint as the control for auger motors and blower fans, open lids "confuse" it and it takes longer to "unlearn" bad inputs than to learn from good ones. (True in all education I guess.)

Additionally, a lot of PID controllers have board storage for these learned settings, even when unplugged. But that assumes they've already "learned" good settings. With a new unit, that probably hasn't happened yet.

So new units are particularly susceptible to lid-opening. As the old-timers here say: If you're lookin', y'ain't cookin'.

Some controllers are adding an "open lid" routine that basically puts the "learning" on hold when temp drops faster than "expected" (evidence of lid opening) and then restores it when the temp increases quickly. But I think that is still a rarity, esp for smaller companies like GMG.

 

[WWW2B]

Just to verity...you're not frequently opening the lid, are you? These controllers can get to constant (within 20degF) temperature stability, but only if you keep the lid shut.

Most newer controllers (e.g. those with WiFi or BT remote controls) use a PID algorithm instead of a simple linear ("proportional") control around a setpoint. They're capable of excellent temp stability (considering you're burning wood!) but they can also "get lost" easier on their path to achieving that control.

Opening the lid causes heat loss a lot faster than just what goes op the stack or through the walls. Since the controller is using the variance from the setpoint as the control for auger motors and blower fans, open lids "confuse" it and it takes longer to "unlearn" bad inputs than to learn from good ones. (True in all education I guess.)

Additionally, a lot of PID controllers have board storage for these learned settings, even when unplugged. But that assumes they've already "learned" good settings. With a new unit, that probably hasn't happened yet.

So new units are particularly susceptible to lid-opening. As the old-timers here say: If you're lookin', y'ain't cookin'.

Some controllers are adding an "open lid" routine that basically puts the "learning" on hold when temp drops faster than "expected" (evidence of lid opening) and then restores it when the temp increases quickly. But I think that is still a rarity, esp for smaller companies like GMG.

Just to verity...you're not frequently opening the lid, are you? These controllers can get to constant (within 20degF) temperature stability, but only if you keep the lid shut.

Most newer controllers (e.g. those with WiFi or BT remote controls) use a PID algorithm instead of a simple linear ("proportional") control around a setpoint. They're capable of excellent temp stability (considering you're burning wood!) but they can also "get lost" easier on their path to achieving that control.

Opening the lid causes heat loss a lot faster than just what goes op the stack or through the walls. Since the controller is using the variance from the setpoint as the control for auger motors and blower fans, open lids "confuse" it and it takes longer to "unlearn" bad inputs than to learn from good ones. (True in all education I guess.)

Additionally, a lot of PID controllers have board storage for these learned settings, even when unplugged. But that assumes they've already "learned" good settings. With a new unit, that probably hasn't happened yet.

So new units are particularly susceptible to lid-opening. As the old-timers here say: If you're lookin', y'ain't cookin'.

Some controllers are adding an "open lid" routine that basically puts the "learning" on hold when temp drops faster than "expected" (evidence of lid opening) and then restores it when the temp increases quickly. But I think that is still a rarity, esp for smaller companies like GMG.

No I keep the lid shut. I actually put a butt on it last weekend and didn’t open the lid till it was done. It actually kept a fairly stable temp. GMG had us go to a different firmware version. They call it a prototype and say it works best for some people. The version 6.8.something. The latest version is 6.9. Maybe the newer versions has some bugs in it???

 

[JWFokker]

Sounds like these PID controllers still need work and the primitive dial and timer based units were more predictable.

Regardless of what the manufacturer says, try this for a laugh. Start the cooker set to 300F with the cook chamber door open, wait for the first cloud of smoke to dissipate (you should be able to hear the fire roaring by this point), then close the door and wait 15 minutes. Now set it to your preferred cook temperature.

 

[bill1]

Good point. The other thing that confuses PIDs is the one-time energy investment you make into heating up all the mass inside of a pellet cooker at the start of a cook. But using JWF's technique (and there's nothing magic about 300, pick the hottest temp your controller offers) means everything is running flat-out. And doing it with the door open just ensures you won't reach your setpoint if you wander off to get/prepare your meat etc. 10-15 minutes is enough to heat up all the metal mass. Then choose your setpoint, close the lid and even a poorly programmed PID should "tune" itself to P, I, and D constants that work well for the job at hand.

 

[JWFokker]

Yeah, basically setting to 300F or higher is just to get the fan running high to stoke the initial fire and preheat the cooker a bit. If you go higher you just have to wait longer to get back down to cook temps. 300F is high enough to crank the fan without waiting forever for the temp to drop back down.

 

[LesPaul30]

Yeah, basically setting to 300F or higher is just to get the fan running high to stoke the initial fire and preheat the cooker a bit. If you go higher you just have to wait longer to get back down to cook temps. 300F is high enough to crank the fan without waiting forever for the temp to drop back down.

Let us know if this worked. My prime Ledge has temp swings +75 every hour. Very frustrating.