Late night 4D issue

[EFGM]

Was preparing to fire up the 4D after putting in 3 Briskies to start an overnight smoke and "Oh NO!" Display flashed a couple of time and went dark. GFI confirmed good, moved to garage to non GFI plug, display still dark. Man oh Man, Inner Peace is a wonderful thing, It keeps everything under control. Thanks to some quick reading on this wonderful forum, I removed the back to check for burnt wires to element and found none. Did observe what I think is the SSR causing the problem. I am attaching 3 pictures of it. What I don't know is if this is just something that happens or if something else could have caused it. I have sent an email to Auberins and copied Steve, but I know with the holidays I'm out of luck. I hope perhaps SMOKIN-it will have one in stock but if not Auberins for sure and to get an answer as to what possible caused it to fail or if it is just a part failure. Still loving my 4D, but now I have to figure out what to do with these 3 hunks of Goodness. If anyone's been down this road on the part in the pictures, please share your story with me. Otherwise Merry Merry Christmas to all.

 

[gregbooras]

Doug what a bummer. At least it happened before you starting smoking the meat. When I had a failure, I lost a brisket!
Anyways, I hope the rest of your Holiday is a good one!
Best Greg

 

[old sarge]

Doug-Hopefully Steve is able to get you up and running.

 

[LarryD]

Oh no!  The failed part does look pretty obvious...  less obvious is why such a thing would happen.  Here's hoping things get back in action soon.

 

[EFGM]

Wow, I just want to say "Thank you" to Steve and "SMOKIN-IT" 

You know what guys? There are 4 Companies that in my experience have Top Notch Customer Service. For the life of me I couldn't decide which one takes top spot but Steve and Smokin-it were not only within those four but now hold the top spot. As I mentioned in the post last night, I copied Steve on the email to Auberins. Now I didn't expect to hear back anything from Auberins until next week but , by 10:16 AM this morning, this morning mind you, Christmas Eve morning,  I received an email from Steve. Yes they have the part in stock, gave me the reason for the failure, and a top notch customer service resolution. Did I have to improvise, overcome and adapt? You bet, but this company is AWESOME. Communication and Service is "AWESOMER'"

"SMOKIN-IT CARES!"

 

[TX Gent]

Outstanding Sir ... Congrats on both your parts to "making" it right!

 

[LarryD]

Christmas Eve morning,  I received an email from Steve. Yes they have the part in stock, gave me the reason for the failure, and a top notch customer service resolution.

Excellent!  So...  what is 'the reason'?

 

[SuperDave]

I always order 2, it almost guarantees that it will never happen again. Lol! 

 

[EFGM]

I always order 2, it almost guarantees that it will never happen again. Lol!

I like the way you think!

 

[old sarge]

Good to know Steve is taking care of you. Pretty rare these days.

 

[EFGM]

Quote from Old Sarge..."Good to know Steve is taking care of you. Pretty rare these days."

AND THAT HE DID, THAT HE DID!
A long and overdue update!
You will notice in my signature line it states "SMOKIN-IT CARES!" They do. You will see below.
The opportunity was afforded me to ship the rear panel of my 4D back to Steve and he would retrofit it to the way the current production units are coming, relocating the SSR and Heat Sink, which will solve the excessive heat buildup, with new wiring and send it back. Within one day of receipt, it was retrofitted and on its way back to me.

The pictures in order are as follows
1) This is a picture of the inside (smoker side) of the rear panel retrofitted...
2) This is a picture of the outside of rear panel retrofitted...
3) 4D with two layers of insulation out
At the same time as I had the smoker open I decided to raise the OEM pit probe as it was at 4.5 inches down. I raised it where it is 2 inches down. Perhaps I should have gone higher but I didn't. I also put a bolt, fender washers and nut to plug the existing hole. And while I was at it, I drilled a hole and added a permanent Pit probe for the Fireboard. I wrapped the lead for the Fireboard probe with some black spiral cable wrap and ran it up thru the hole going into the control panel and out the side.
4) Probe Rework
5) Picture of Probes from back installed and existing hole plugged
6) Inside view of both probes
7) Fireboard Pit Probe wrap
    Fireboard Pit Probe Route
9) Fireboard Pit Probe Exit
10) Fireboard Pit Probe wrapped
Follow up Post coming with results from the fantastic customer service from SMOKIN-IT!

 

[EFGM]

It was night before last Jan 16th and it got down to 12 Degrees here but that didn't stop the 4D from doing its job. Handled it easily.

I seem to be having trouble posting pictures and putting type between them for descriptions so I will list out the descriptions by number and then post all the photos.

1) Locked and Loaded with 3 Briskets, about 49#'s going in.
2) First Smoke after retrofit and first with Fireboard
3) Fireboard Close Up
4) Results
5) Results
6) Results
7) Results

 

[old sarge]

Nicely done!

 

[Judge]

never did see the answer to the question
what caused it?

 

[EFGM]

Excessive heat buildup.

 

[MacDarnell]

Excessive heat buildup.

Hmm, no wonder..