Bull Emergency workaround for Er3 rtd

[randman1]

On Father's Day weekend, I had plans to cook 6 pork tenderloins. All was prepped a day in advance and I was just waiting for the noon start time. Much to my dismay, when I powered up the smoker, the controller displayed Er3 rtd. After some quick Google searches and reaching out to a buddy, we determined that the internal probe was not doing it's job. Upon power up, the internal temp showed 133 then jumped suddenly to 697 degrees. This same behavior was seen with or without the internal probe connected to the controller. Pissed off, and getting hungry, I rolled the smoker back into the garage and wondered how best to cook the tenderloins in the oven (ugh!).

Wanting to get this cook underway, I began searching for an alternative. With multimeter in hand, I measured the resistance of both meat probes that come with the smoker. Each read 109k ohms at about 70 degrees ambient temperature. I thought to myself, well, I'll sacrifice one meat probe to see if it resolves my immediate problem. Much to my delight, cutting the end off the probe, crimping on female connectors and connecting to the controller seemed to work! A different error showed on the controller after connecting the modified meat probe though. Er1 PF. I thought this meant "probe failure" but my buddy advised that it simply meant improper power failure. Pressing the power button as instructed started the smoker. I was in business! The probe was clipped to the grate at center rear and the cook came out wonderful.

This emergency workaround allowed me to complete the cook and get to Monday to order not one, but two additional RTD probes to prevent this in the future. I hope no one has to go through this but this short write up may help in a pinch.

 

[Gonefishin]

Thanks for the tip and welcome to the forum.

 

[SmokeOCD]

Neat trick. Out of warranty? They sent me a replacement under warranty.

 

[C. Keeper]

On Father's Day weekend, I had plans to cook 6 pork tenderloins. All was prepped a day in advance and I was just waiting for the noon start time. Much to my dismay, when I powered up the smoker, the controller displayed Er3 rtd. After some quick Google searches and reaching out to a buddy, we determined that the internal probe was not doing it's job. Upon power up, the internal temp showed 133 then jumped suddenly to 697 degrees. This same behavior was seen with or without the internal probe connected to the controller. Pissed off, and getting hungry, I rolled the smoker back into the garage and wondered how best to cook the tenderloins in the oven (ugh!).

Wanting to get this cook underway, I began searching for an alternative. With multimeter in hand, I measured the resistance of both meat probes that come with the smoker. Each read 109k ohms at about 70 degrees ambient temperature. I thought to myself, well, I'll sacrifice one meat probe to see if it resolves my immediate problem. Much to my delight, cutting the end off the probe, crimping on female connectors and connecting to the controller seemed to work! A different error showed on the controller after connecting the modified meat probe though. Er1 PF. I thought this meant "probe failure" but my buddy advised that it simply meant improper power failure. Pressing the power button as instructed started the smoker. I was in business! The probe was clipped to the grate at center rear and the cook came out wonderful.

This emergency workaround allowed me to complete the cook and get to Monday to order not one, but two additional RTD probes to prevent this in the future. I hope no one has to go through this but this short write up may help in a pinch.

View attachment 19527

Welcome to the forum!
Great idea. I bet RT will replace probes if you ask. Hey, the worse thing to happen is nothing.

 

[randman1]

Thank you for the warm welcomes. I've been enjoying reading a bunch over the years and figured I'd share this bit of knowledge with the community.

My setup may well be within the warranty period as I purchased it around 10/2020. I wanted to order the folding shelf as well as the large interior shelf so this seemed like a good opportunity to get everything all at once. For $20 for the RTD probe, I'm just glad the issue is resolved. Perhaps if RT sees this, they can reimburse me with a meat probe since I had to sacrifice one. Nevertheless, I'm happy to be smoking again!

 

[Jim6820]

Welcome to the forum, @randman1 and nice recovery from a potential cooking disaster. Obviously, being handy with a multimeter and having some basic knowledge of electronics paid handsome dividends. That, and a stock of duct tape will fix most of the problems we encounter in life.