I'm smoking 6 racks of ribs in my 3D right now. 2 hours in. I can not get the temp past 260 and I have it on 275. When I put the ribs in earlier the wood ignited and caught on fire when I opened the door. I took it out and replaced the wood, put the ribs back on, and no fire since. What is wrong? Why will the temp not get up to 275? When I cooked 2 racks in it the other day there was no problem. It had 2 hours to get to 275 and never made it that high. Is something broke or what's going on? Any help ASAP would be great! Thanks.
Temp Issues.
- Thread starter gunman9
- Start date
DivotMaker
New member
When your wood caught on fire, you may have triggered the high temp alarm. Any time you get a big spike in temp like that, you want to turn the controller off, let it set for a minute or so, and turn it back on. Auber controller boards are very capable, and reliable, but can be a little "quirky" at times when something isn't calculating right. I've found that cycling the power usually solves most of those issues.
DivotMaker said:
I had the temp set to 275. So I moved the racks of ribs away from the probe and the temp started to climb only problem then it was settling at 290 which is way off of 275. I cycled the power a few times. Shut it off for a minute then turned it back on and got the exact same results. I'm not sure what was going on with it. Also my ribs never formed a nice bark which is very disappointing. Even though it did with only 2 racks but with 6 it didn't. Idk what's going on with the smoker.
I am not experiencing any problems with my 3D. I have had the belch where I am guessing the gasses ignited but died quickly do to a lack of oxygen. No change in temp reading. I don't open my door for any reason till near the end of smoke on ribs only and that is to see what the shrinkage looks like. Otherwise there would be a heat dump and the possibility of air rushing in causing a flash fire, like you experienced when you opened the door. I also keep plenty of free space around the probe. The meat below the probe is going to intercept and absorb most of the heat before it reaches the probe but over time it all settles out. On the analog smokers and the CS, the probe was low close to the smoke box and generally below any meat being smoked so readings would be quicker on whatever controller was being used. Not sure why you did not get bark.
old sarge said:
I could not get it to hold a steady temp at all yesterday. Which is a shame that on the 2nd time using it that it is performing so poorly. I don't have these issues with my CS and was hoping my SI would perform the same as well. So far hasn't been the case. Because of the fluctuating temps the 6 racks of ribs didn't come out like I'd prefer. Could the temp probe inside the smoke box be bad? I can't think at all why the temp was all over the place like that.
DivotMaker
New member
Gunman, when you had 6 racks in there, are you 100% certain you didn't have one of the racks touching the temp probe on the back wall? When I hear "won't get up to temp," and "temps all over the page," that is almost always meat against the box probe.
As a side note - not sure what your rub is, or what you consider good bark, but I smoke ribs at 235, and get killer bark (I don't foil them). Surprised you wouldn't get bark, even if it "only" held 260. That's hotter than anyone smokes just about anything here (except poultry).
As a side note - not sure what your rub is, or what you consider good bark, but I smoke ribs at 235, and get killer bark (I don't foil them). Surprised you wouldn't get bark, even if it "only" held 260. That's hotter than anyone smokes just about anything here (except poultry).
DivotMaker
New member
If you decide to try the autotune, this will help: How to Autotune the Auber PID
JackT
New member
Speaking from experience, I had an initial issue with temperature fluctuations and it was all tied to drippings that burned onto the temp probe. Once I figured that out, cleaned the probe and reset the PID, all was perfect from there. Also, if I can give some very simple advice, this is a game of patience. The PID will generally achieve and then exceed the desired setting. So if you're set for 250, don't be surprised to see it go to 260 or so. It will then settle back to the target temp. You'll also come to find that opening the door is not something you want to do often. If everything is as it should be, it's time to kick back, pop a top and let the 3D do it's thing. We've all experienced a few quirks and "learning experiences", but you still get to eat your mistakes. Haven't had any really bad mistakes, as it's a game of patience and it all comes out in the end. Keep everyone informed if you continue to have issues, but I'm sure that you'll be enjoying your 3D more and more as you learn the ropes. Happy Smoking!gunman9 said:
