Inconsistancy and lack of confidence

[SuperDave]

I'm of the opinion that bricks and bricks wrapped in foil make a poor dummy load.  We should be looking for something that can absorb heat.  I've been using a pan of damp sand.  (uncovered)

[SuperDave]

Seeing as how many of us are seeing the odd performance with ribs, I've begun to speculate that the ribs laying flat are blocking too much air flow.  For anyone interested, how about putting a Maverick probe below the ribs to see what the temp delta is between the space above and below the ribs when the Auber is giving the low readings? 

[CUTiger80]

Thanks Dave.
Do you try to chill the damp sand first to make it more like a piece of meat coming out of the fridge?
I think that your idea of putting temp probes above and below is a great one.  Two or four shallow foil boats with cool damp sand should look to the smoker like one or two racks of ribs as far as mass, temperature and physical volume go.  One or two 9x9 pans with cool damp sand should look one or two butts.
(This is what happens when you give an electrical engineer an electrical appliance and a programmable controller.)

[SuperDave]

I dampen the sand the night before and figure that the night time temps bring it down into the 50's.  I get up in the morning, have a cup of coffee and do my auto tune or test.

[Carp210]

Thanks Dave.
Do you try to chill the damp sand first to make it more like a piece of meat coming out of the fridge?
I think that your idea of putting temp probes above and below is a great one.  Two or four shallow foil boats with cool damp sand should look to the smoker like one or two racks of ribs as far as mass, temperature and physical volume go.  One or two 9x9 pans with cool damp sand should look one or two butts.
(This is what happens when you give an electrical engineer an electrical appliance and a programmable controller.)

I think you are right on target.  My best auto tune was done with a pan of wet sand that I scrapped off the back yard that was under my above ground swimming pool.  Sand was very wet and at a temp around 40 to 45 degrees.

[CUTiger80]

Since we we are not likely to see night time temps in the 50's here in the great South until sometime in October or November, I think that I will try to refrigerate the sand overnight. (I'm sure that my wife will love this, but hey, she married an engineer, so she should be used to goofy behavior by now.)

[SuperDave]

Hey engineer, tap water and a tray of ice cubes.  LOL!

[Carp210]

Seeing as how many of us are seeing the odd performance with ribs, I've begun to speculate that the ribs laying flat are blocking too much air flow.  For anyone interested, how about putting a Maverick probe below the ribs to see what the temp delta is between the space above and below the ribs when the Auber is giving the low readings?

Ribs blocking air flow may be part of the problem.  Since I am only cooking for two, with a SI#2, I have been cooking one rack cut in half.  On the top shelf I place a Maverick close to my fixed probe.  Ribs are on 2nd shelf with room between but I slide them forward too allow heat to rise up the back, more or less unrestricted.  On last thee rib smokes it hit target with little overun and locked on target.  Maybe multiple racks of ribs, using multiple shelfs, has something to do with how the heat reaches the probe creating strange currents within the smoker. 

It would be nice to document these problem cooks in detail with photo to see what they all have in common. Then compare them to others that never have a problem.

[TexasSmoke]

Is it possible that it's the increased surface area of the ribs that is causing the issue?  I was thinking this weekend that there is more surface area radiating cold than on a big hunk of meat.  Kind of like there is more breading on chicken nuggets vs a chicken breast.  The air has to move up and around all of this cold surface.

Would a better simulation be several socks full of cold wet sand vs one big hunk? 

[BedouinBob]

While I can see that multiple racks of ribs and greater surface area may cool the smoke, with the amount of airflow in the SI and the amount of space for the smoke to move, I am having a hard time coming to the conclusion that this is the issue. Not that I have a better idea...... 

[Carp210]

I thought my Auber problems were behind me.  Wrong!  Two months ago I had a bad Auber replaced and for 8 weeks I have been constantly doing test smokes and logging every aspect of my meat cooks.  Everything with the new Auber was perfect so I saw no need to continue hovering over the smoker to make sure the new Auber was doing what I paid it to do. Set it and walk away. Two weeks ago I even stopped putting my Maverick probe in to check smoker temps. 

Over the weekend I took a quick peek at the smoker 40 minutes into the cook and what do I see?  Same problem I had with the first Auber,  a temperature spike.  I ran inside and got my camera and filmed a 46 second video showing the climb all the way up to 451 degrees.  During this spike power is not going to the heating element (you can see this in the video) and the temperature showing is not accurate.  This explains why I noticed the temp rising on the Auber and my Maverick temp falling with my first bad Auber.

This time I let it run it's course to see what would happen.  Temp dropped down to 217 but would never lock on a setting , just kept going up and down.  After 3 1/2 hrs I turned the Auber off then back on.  This seems to be a fix if you happen to be home and watching your Auber during this period. It ramped up and locked on target temp of 235.

This is just my opinion but I feel that it is a problem within the Auber.   Maybe something in the  algorithm or possibly a bad component.  Way above my pay grade to figure out.  All I can do is gather information and pass it along.  Glad I caught it on video this time.

[SuperDave]

Dave, no video link.

[Carp210]

Dave, no video link.

 

I have the video on my Mac computer. Can it be posted directly to the forum like a photo?  I can e mail it to you if that works.  I not really up on all the video posting.

[SuperDave]

Dave, check your messages.

[Carp210]

Ok, I hope this link works.  It's all new to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANmH045HSxM&feature=youtu.be