Question for FEC 100 owners.

[Finney]

Question for FEC 100 owners.

What is the temp at the top grate if the controller is set to 250°?
(I know it can vary depending on how it it loaded, but lets assume good air flow)

[Capn Kev]

I see about a 5-7 degree difference between the sensor area and the top rack in my FEC. Also varies depending on how much food (moisture) I have loaded into it.

[Smokin Mike]

on my FEC, the left is hotter then the right, and the top grate is the hottest.

[Smokin Mike]

you can try this,

get abunch of the cheap biscuits in a can, and cook all them at once, on each shelf, and you will see where your hot spots are, it's the easiest way to map out your FEC

[Finney]

I don't have a FEC 100.

I was taught a cooking method by a guy that uses a FEC. But when I have tried it on numerous test cooks I always need at least 1/2 more on a 1 1/2 cook. (so it's taking me 2hrs) He puts his FEC on 250° and cooks the meat on the top rack.

I'm just trying to figure out what temp I need to have my cooker on to get his method and timing to work for me. (just thought this would be the place to get a quick answer instead of doing more test cooks)

Thanks for the help.

[SmokinOkie]

Here's a link to a webpage for my mapping for my original FE (a Traeger model), it's not a photo so I can't post it here.

Check out the link and let me know if you have any questions:

This is from 2004:

FE100 Traeger Controller Mapping



I haven't run this since, on my IQ's but the general comments seem to apply.

here are the details, Probably will update the HTML page, but this was a rush job and MAN does it take a lot of time. To do this, took about 3 hours.

Columns, left to right are for Smoke setting, 275 and 325. The numbers are grouped by shelf, from top down to bottom

I placed 5 remote probes on each shelf, so that if you were looking down on the shelf, the probes were Center, Front Left, Front Right, Back left and Back Right.

I based the temps off of the central spot, for example showing a +/- off that temp.

Look at 275

Looking at shelf one, in the center, you see two temps; 310 and 275. The 310, indicates the HIGH temp, as the auger feeds pellets. I watched the smoker and about the time the smoker thermometer hit 275, I watched until a high temp was reached. Here it was 310.

The others temps are +/- for that shelf. The two numbers for each corner indicate the +/- from the high temp and from the 275 temp. One shelf one (top) @ 275 setting, the back right corner got +26 degrees from 310 at it's hotter and a -1 from 275. Confused --

Again, Top Shelf, 275, shows that the back right ran a little hotter and the others a little low than the central temp

Observations


There are initial observations, I'm sure you can get more from the numbers if you study

• On average the unit does a great job of maintain the selected temp, there will be highs and lows, but the average is fine
• The left side (away from the airflow) tends to run hotter -- on average
• The right side (nearest the airflow) runs below the indicated temp
• The 3rd and 4th shelves show the lowest fluctuation of temps -- on average

[Ron_L]

Originally Posted by Finney

I'm just trying to figure out what temp I need to have my cooker on to get his method and timing to work for me. (just thought this would be the place to get a quick answer instead of doing more test cooks)

Ah ha! Then that's probably the question that you should have asked

I have found that even at the same temp foods seem to cook faster in my FEC than in any of my other cookers. I put a thermometer on the shelf with a couple of butts in the FEC, and then duplicated that grate temp in my WSM, for example, and at the same grate temp the FEC was faster. I'm not sure why, however.

Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to your question. You're just going to have to do the test cook and suffer eating the results

[Jorge]

Originally Posted by Ron_L

Ah ha! Then that's probably the question that you should have asked

I have found that even at the same temp foods seem to cook faster in my FEC than in any of my other cookers. I put a thermometer on the shelf with a couple of butts in the FEC, and then duplicated that grate temp in my WSM, for example, and at the same grate temp the FEC was faster. I'm not sure why, however.

Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to your question. You're just going to have to do the test cook and suffer eating the results

Convection.

[Trucky1008]

Originally Posted by Jorge

Convection.

I think you meant to say "Perfection"

[Finney]

Thanks guys. Between what you have said (and the temp charts), my test cooks, and talking again with the person that showed me originally... I 'think' I figured out what I need to do. My scores at Kings Mountain next weekend will be the tell as to whether or not I got it right. LOL