Bull rt-700 constant flame out (solved)

[HunterC]

bought a used rt-700 that is in great shape, had some wiring damage so i repaired that. I went to do my first cook today and found it will fire up normal but will only turn the auger on to feed pellets at 165F no matter what the target temp is. constant flame outs, it will burn the pot empty over a 15-20 minute period, drop from the set 200/225 down to 165 then start feeding. Then go back to the set point and again not feed until 165. i called rec teq and there wasn't much help or advice other than them saying I must be having pellet issues even after multiple times trying to tell them that the controller isn't telling the auger to run. they told me to try top turn the min feed rate to 30. still the same, i tried at 65 aswell and no real difference. from my understanding the auger should be turning on to feed pellets as it sees temps starting top drop, is this wrong ? i had high hopes for rec teq but im honestly quite disappointed with it so far. its also hard to call customer service when its almost a dollar a minute in long distance charges being from canada. just looking to get this thing running like it should

(wiring damage was from a dog chewing on the main harness, not corrosion or anything like that, everything that was damage was replaced by the same gauge wiring and good connections)

 

[Waterboy]

Have you run each process in the test mode? You can check the fan, igniter and auger to make sure each is working.
Is the RTD probe inside the grill standing straight up or is it bent? That can really mess with temps.
Are the pellets brand new or did they come with the grill? We’ll need more info to be able to help you.

 

[HunterC]

Have you run each process in the test mode? You can check the fan, igniter and auger to make sure each is working.
Is the RTD probe inside the grill standing straight up or is it bent? That can really mess with temps.
Are the pellets brand new or did they come with the grill? We’ll need more info to be able to help you.

like i said in the post each component works, just the controller isnt telling the auger to turn on until its way to late, it will only run the auger at 165f. it will do its regular fire up sequence and once its lit and gets to temp it wont run the auger again until 165f whether its set to 200 or 400. pellets are good, have been running my Traeger no problems with them, i cleaned out the hopper, put fresh pellets and ran it with the shield off to watch the fire pot to make sure it was feeding the fresh pellets through. if i cycle the power button to keep putting it in start up and get the auger to run it will bring the temp up perfect. so the systems are working, its just the controller not calling for pellets. thats why im asking what its supposed to be doing in terms of pellet feeding. i know its different but just for example the treager runs the fan steady and adjusts temp by adjusting the run time on the auger, im wondering if these are supposed to do that aswell as modulate fan run time. temp probe seems to be mostly accurate, screens reads about 10 degrees lower than a cheap hand held meat thermometer that i stuck in the chamber to see if it was accurate or not

 

[HunterC]

this is what the chart looked like all day for a 5 hour cook, this was screenshotted halfway through, it feeds at 165, goes tot arget, then slowly burns down until its out of pellets, then falls to 165 again and feeds again

 

[Motodad1776]

Could be the internal probe or AKA the RTD? Doesn't matter you believe/think it is good, just one thing I would rule out before the controller.

 

[HunterC]

Could be the internal probe or AKA the RTD? Doesn't matter you believe/think it is good, just one thing I would rule out before the controller.

How would I check to see if it's bad ? The controller is showing steady temps that are within 5-10 degrees of another thermometer I used. And if your at 200 and turn the heat up to 350/400 it should start trying to reach that new temp but it won't. It will stay at whatever temp it's at until it runs out of pellets and falls to 165 where it will then start the auger again

 

[RattleR]

I know you can ring them out but possible this will be useful. I hope so, I know I would be frustrated (being nice else I would have said pi$$ed)

 

[TheRicker]

Interesting problem. I like @RattleR’s thought about the RTD. Otherwise, the controller, for whatever reason(s) thinks it is at the temp you’ve set on the controller. Not sure if there’s a potentiometer associated with the temperature setting on the controller board. But if that’s the case, then, you’d be staring at a controller board issue if “messing around with it” doesn’t resolve the problem.

One last thought…double check all your connections if you’ve replaced wiring. Make sure none of the new wiring isn’t pinched or broken. Thin solid copper wires can break inside the sheathing. Hopefully they are strands…making them a bit more flexible.

Your “theory of operation” understanding is correct.

 

[HunterC]

Interesting problem. I like @RattleR’s thought about the RTD. Otherwise, the controller, for whatever reason(s) thinks it is at the temp you’ve set on the controller. Not sure if there’s a potentiometer associated with the temperature setting on the controller board. But if that’s the case, then, you’d be staring at a controller board issue if “messing around with it” doesn’t resolve the problem.

One last thought…double check all your connections if you’ve replaced wiring. Make sure none of the new wiring isn’t pinched or broken. Thin solid copper wires can break inside the sheathing. Hopefully they are strands…making them a bit more flexible.

Your “theory of operation” understanding is correct.

I finally received some decent insight from customer service. Had to talk to 3 different people to get a decent answer besides blaming my pellet quality. I originally asked for a wirring diagram and didn't get one so I matched the colours (straight forward right ? Red to red blue to blue, apparently that's wrong). I was directed to a board replacement video and while it didn't show the whole assembly it gave a legend as to what colours do what function. My wirring on my auger is red. But apparently the red wire from the controller is for the igniter. So I might have some mixed up wires due to it changing colours throughout the harness. I re wired it with a Deutsch plug as all the molex connectors were gone. So going to try swapping some pins around and see if I can get stuff working and wired to the legend on the video. As it sits right now if the video is correct for colours my auger is being run by the igniter circuit which would make sense with the initial feed and the turning on at 165 as a "restart" ignite. I'll update the post when I can mess with it more.

 

[Waterboy]

Glad to hear you got some better help. To be fair this is beyond what customer service typically deals with. They can get a bit condescending when it isn’t a straight forward issue. Hopefully a little rewiring will get you up and running.

 

[RHEINLEIN]

Sounds promising.
I would say customer service took good care of you considering your unit is out of warranty, you’re not the the original owner and the unit has been physically damaged.

Best of luck with your findings and it sounds like you are on the road to recovery.

 

[HunterC]

Sounds promising.
I would say customer service took good care of you considering your unit is out of warranty, you’re not the the original owner and the unit has been physically damaged.

Best of luck with your findings and it sounds like you are on the road to recovery.

That's one thing I never understood. "Original owner" thing. You build a product, it doesn't matter how many owners it has, if it has 6 year warranty it should have 6 year warranty. But anyways yes they did help, while it did take multiple attempts with different wording I finally got an answer and solved the issue

 

[larry4406]

Nice you got it fixed!

Now start smoking!

 

[HunterC]

So final update, yes the wire colours indeed do not match from component to wire harness. My grill has red auger wires, but the red wire is for igniter. My auger was on the igniter circuit so this why it only kicked on during start up and 165 degrees as it was trying to re ignite. Re pinned the connector and tested, all seems fine now. Thanks everyone for the input

For anyone wondering this is the colour coding on the controller/harness side.
Yellow wire- auger. (My auger wires are red)
Purple - fan. (My fan wires are orange)
Red - igniter

 

[kstone113]

That's one thing I never understood. "Original owner" thing. You build a product, it doesn't matter how many owners it has, if it has 6 year warranty it should have 6 year warranty. But anyways yes they did help, while it did take multiple attempts with different wording I finally got an answer and solved the issue

I think "most" of agree with you. This is something that should be pushed to have warranties passed to the next owner as long as their is a way to verify when the grill was purchased.

It appears what RecTeq does though is approach them in a case by case basis which from business point of view, I can understand.

I do usually "hear" RecTeq taking care of folks even if it isn't their original grill but just not a blanket policy to do so.

And most of all, glad you got it all figured out and the grill is up and running well.

 

[TheRicker]

That's one thing I never understood. "Original owner" thing. You build a product, it doesn't matter how many owners it has, if it has 6 year warranty it should have 6 year warranty. But anyways yes they did help, while it did take multiple attempts with different wording I finally got an answer and solved the issue

Not specific to RecTeq…I’ve never understood any company’s warranty not extending coverage to the next owner…at least from the original buyer’s perspective. That would be a beneficial factor in being able to sell the unit if/when the original owner opts to do that. Maybe charge an administrative fee to change the owner’s contact info in their system. I’m guessing they save or make money not providing warranty coverage to secondary owners.

 

[TheRicker]

So final update, yes the wire colours indeed do not match from component to wire harness. My grill has red auger wires, but the red wire is for igniter. My auger was on the igniter circuit so this why it only kicked on during start up and 165 degrees as it was trying to re ignite. Re pinned the connector and tested, all seems fine now. Thanks everyone for the input

For anyone wondering this is the colour coding on the controller/harness side.
Yellow wire- auger. (My auger wires are red)
Purple - fan. (My fan wires are orange)
Red - igniter

That’s super great news!

Now, we’re all expecting to see some pictures of whatever you cook first.

 

[RHEINLEIN]

So final update, yes the wire colours indeed do not match from component to wire harness. My grill has red auger wires, but the red wire is for igniter. My auger was on the igniter circuit so this why it only kicked on during start up and 165 degrees as it was trying to re ignite. Re pinned the connector and tested, all seems fine now. Thanks everyone for the input

For anyone wondering this is the colour coding on the controller/harness side.
Yellow wire- auger. (My auger wires are red)
Purple - fan. (My fan wires are orange)
Red - igniter

Great work on sleuthing the wiring issue.
Thanks for the update @HunterC