PK 100, temp
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On saturday I attempted to make smoked chicken. I placed 2 small friers, about a dozen drum sticks, and about 8 bone in thighs. I also placed a water pan that took up about half a shelf in the pk100. Also a bowl of moist sawdust. I had one of the new hyperion thermometers. 1 probe in the breast of a chicken and the other for ambient temp. I had the pk on full power at 250 degrees. BOth dampers were closed all the way and no matter what after about 3 or so hours I was only at 176 on the ambient temp and like 139 in the breast of the chicken. I then added more sawdust and decided to open both dampers most of the way opened. To my surprise the temp went up to around 196. This made me doubt everything I had learned or tought myself in the past. I ended up putting the chickens in the oven to finish and the skin was tough so it couldn’t be eaten. I emailed Jon about this and the questions that I had were; since this is an electric smoker shouldn’t the temp rise to the 250 regardless of the state of the dampers? If the dampers are left opened how will the product pick up the smoky taste? And lastly did I have to go back to smokin 101? I did use an extension cord and originally thought the cord might be bad. I ran the smoker directly from the wall plug, and with 2 different cords. THe probes are the same ones that I used Saturday and after about 20 minutes directly connected to the wall and to 2 different extensions the temp was at 260. After the last test tonight I placed the drip tray, and all grates and the temp was at 157 when I closed the door and at 202 when I checked after 20 minutes. So that temp even beat my 196 temp from Saturday. Weather was about the same both days. upper 60’s low 70’s. Any thoughts, explanations, ideas. I am totally at a lost with this one.
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ALso fyi written explanations would be great since pics graphs charts are not accessible to me because as the username states No Eyes Processor, for those that are new or have never seen myy posts I am totally blind. Look forward to anything on this one.
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ALso fyi written explanations would be great since pics graphs charts are not accessible to me because as the username states No Eyes Processor, for those that are new or have never seen myy posts I am totally blind. Look forward to anything on this one.
no_eyes_processor haven’t heard from you in a while. Glad to have you back.
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On saturday I attempted to make smoked chicken. I placed 2 small friers, about a dozen drum sticks, and about 8 bone in thighs. I also placed a water pan that took up about half a shelf in the pk100. Also a bowl of moist sawdust. I had one of the new hyperion thermometers. 1 probe in the breast of a chicken and the other for ambient temp. I had the pk on full power at 250 degrees. BOth dampers were closed all the way and no matter what after about 3 or so hours I was only at 176 on the ambient temp and like 139 in the breast of the chicken. I then added more sawdust and decided to open both dampers most of the way opened. To my surprise the temp went up to around 196. This made me doubt everything I had learned or tought myself in the past. I ended up putting the chickens in the oven to finish and the skin was tough so it couldn’t be eaten. I emailed Jon about this and the questions that I had were; since this is an electric smoker shouldn’t the temp rise to the 250 regardless of the state of the dampers? If the dampers are left opened how will the product pick up the smoky taste? And lastly did I have to go back to smokin 101? I did use an extension cord and originally thought the cord might be bad. I ran the smoker directly from the wall plug, and with 2 different cords. THe probes are the same ones that I used Saturday and after about 20 minutes directly connected to the wall and to 2 different extensions the temp was at 260. After the last test tonight I placed the drip tray, and all grates and the temp was at 157 when I closed the door and at 202 when I checked after 20 minutes. So that temp even beat my 196 temp from Saturday. Weather was about the same both days. upper 60’s low 70’s. Any thoughts, explanations, ideas. I am totally at a lost with this one.
no_eyes_processor so to be clear, once you removed the extension cords and plugged the smoker directly into the wall outlet is when it started working correctly and heating up? Sounds like the extension cords were drawing too many amps but I would the breaker would trip not have the smoker not heat up correctly unless there is some sort of protector in the main board for the smoker. What was the length of your extension cords? The shortest possible needed and a heavy gauge is doable for appliances that draw a lot of amps but directly from smoker to wall outlet is the best.
Hopefully someone with better electrician knowledge jumps on here to say if I’m thinking of this correctly
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An undersized extension cord, or one with bad connectors on the ends of the cord can make a difference on an appliance like a smoker, but not for the reason that twilliams gave.
An extension cord that is too long will also limit the heating capacity of a smoker just like one with too small of wires.
The reason is that it limits the current that goes to the smoker element which in turn would prevent it from putting out its rated heat output.
Using an undersized extension cord is like trying to water your lawn through a hose the size of a drinking straw instead of a normal garden hose.
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I can’t guarantee that is the reason no_eyes_processor had his problems with the chicken, but it gives you a place to start and is fairly easy way to rule out an electrical supply problem.
Were it me, I would figure out a way to avoid extension cords or if I had to use one, keep it as short as possible and use one constructed with 14 or 12 gauge wire.
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Very few extension cords can take the amps required by a smoker. Your manual will have the amp draw for the machine. Going with a extension cord rated less will create heat in the cord and smoker cord possibly permanent damage. I had to build a box with a 20 amp relay to power my pid and smoker. The pid could not handle the amps needed so we wired the box to turn on and off 20 amps to the smoker to hold steady temps.
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The PK-100 specifications say it is rated at 1250 watts, which means it consumes about 10.5 amps when operating at its maximum rated output.
A heavy duty grounded extension cord 25 feet long with 14 gauge or 12 gauge conductors would work fine with this smoker and have little or no impact on performance.Steer clear from the light duty extension cords marked 16 gauge or 18 gauge. Also stay away from long cords.
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