Bull New RT-700, massive temperature overshoot

[Mr. T]

Just got my new RT-700 last week, did the initial burn-in and a batch of chicken thighs with no problem.
Decided to do pizza last night so started the grill and set it on “full” - the temperature ran up to about 540 which seemed a bit hot so I lowered the set point to 480. But I couldn’t get the grill to hold that temp no matter what I did - opened the door, let the temp drop and it ran right back to 540 in spite of the set point. I ended up cooking my pizza at that temp and it came out fine. But something is clearly not right.

One thing I’ve noticed is that I never hear the fan on my grill fluctuate - it seems to run “full blast” all the time. My Green Mountain pellet grill would start “huffing” to maintain temp once it hit the set point. This seems like it might be a problem to me - or is this how the Rectec grills operate?

Any suggestions on what to look for or how to figure out why this thing is acting so strange? I’ve sent an email to support but don’t expect to hear much from them till after the holiday.

 

[Mastertech59]

Just got my new RT-700 last week, did the initial burn-in and a batch of chicken thighs with no problem.
Decided to do pizza last night so started the grill and set it on “full” - the temperature ran up to about 540 which seemed a bit hot so I lowered the set point to 480. But I couldn’t get the grill to hold that temp no matter what I did - opened the door, let the temp drop and it ran right back to 540 in spite of the set point. I ended up cooking my pizza at that temp and it came out fine. But something is clearly not right.

One thing I’ve noticed is that I never hear the fan on my grill fluctuate - it seems to run “full blast” all the time. My Green Mountain pellet grill would start “huffing” to maintain temp once it hit the set point. This seems like it might be a problem to me - or is this how the Rectec grills operate?

Any suggestions on what to look for or how to figure out why this thing is acting so strange? I’ve sent an email to support but don’t expect to hear much from them till after the holiday.

Best advice I can give you is to leave the lid shut, opening it will cause temperature over shooting issues due to the grill trying to maintain temperature by adding pellets, once the lid is shut the excessive amount of pellets will make the grill over shoot. As for the fan I only notice it cycling on the lower temperature settings on my Bull.

 

[sandyut]

what was the temperature outside?

 

[gwrace1]

I know Greg has mentioned that the auger motor and fan are either off or on. No speed variations. So if it's running hot too much fuel. I think Mastertech is correct. Everytime you open the lid the grill is going to try and compensate by running the auger to feed more pellets. Once they catch it will take some time for the grill to cool down.

 

[C. Keeper]

I have only heard the fan "huffing" in smoke mode.

 

[Mr. T]

what was the temperature outside?

It was in the mid 50’s with a little wind.

 

[Mr. T]

I talked to Recteq support yesterday and they want me to run the grill for an hour at 400 and they’ll analyze the temperature graph. So as soon as it’s not 25 degrees outside with 30mph winds, I’ll give it a try.

They offered the same explanation regarding opening the lid - but if that’s actually the cause of the overshoot, you’d think they’d modify their controller software to detect a “lid open” condition and compensate for it rather than overshooting the temperature set point by nearly 60 degrees.

 

[C. Keeper]

I talked to Recteq support yesterday and they want me to run the grill for an hour at 400 and they’ll analyze the temperature graph. So as soon as it’s not 25 degrees outside with 30mph winds, I’ll give it a try.

They offered the same explanation regarding opening the lid - but if that’s actually the cause of the overshoot, you’d think they’d modify their controller software to detect a “lid open” condition and compensate for it rather than overshooting the temperature set point by nearly 60 degrees.

For the PID controller to know the cover is open it would require a input (lid switch) and the addition of more programming raising the final price of the product. I'm not sure how many would be willing to pay the extra cost?

 

[Waterboy]

With any grill, smoker, oven you get lots of temperature swings when you open the lids/doors. If you have third party probes put them in your house oven when cooking something and you’ll see significant temperature swings as well. Add the variables of cooking outside in the elements and these grills do a pretty good job of managing temps. So work it through with customer service and they will get to the bottom of this issue and either fix it or help you with operating it differently.

 

[Greg Jones]

I talked to Recteq support yesterday and they want me to run the grill for an hour at 400 and they’ll analyze the temperature graph. So as soon as it’s not 25 degrees outside with 30mph winds, I’ll give it a try.

They offered the same explanation regarding opening the lid - but if that’s actually the cause of the overshoot, you’d think they’d modify their controller software to detect a “lid open” condition and compensate for it rather than overshooting the temperature set point by nearly 60 degrees.

How would the grill know it’s an actual “lid open” condition, unless they put some sort of sensor ($$$) on the lid? Don’t misunderstand, I understand the challenge with this. I’ve often wished for something that locks the current auger timing. It would drive me mad to cook on a griddle with one of these grills-you get the griddle temp to where you want it, open the lid to actually cook on it, and the controller jacks up the temp.

Edited to add, once again I’m a wee bit late with my response!

 

[Mastertech59]

As I've suggested in the past if your going to have the lid open for more than 1 minuet turn the controllers set temperature to a very much lower temperature to help in temperature over shoots when the lid is shut.
I have found my best cooks I've had are the ones I ignore until it gets close to the final temperature I'm looking for on the recteq app and then verified by my Thermoworks MK4 probe.

 

[Mr. T]

Ran the grill at 400f for an hour today, rock solid. So the temperature controller works fine if you don’t open the lid I guess.

 

[C. Keeper]

Ran the grill at 400f for an hour today, rock solid. So the temperature controller works fine if you don’t open the lid I guess.

Yepper

 

[sandyut]

Ran the grill at 400f for an hour today, rock solid. So the temperature controller works fine if you don’t open the lid I guess.

yup, just leave it shut - there is no need to be running it with the door open. gawking does not cook the meat .

RE: outside temps - Where I live it gets below zero and snows a lot. I have used my Bull through it all. just get a cold weather cover or welders blanket. the grill will work without these, but your pellet consumption will be quite high.