Author Topic: SSII/PTG testing  (Read 12701 times)

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Offline muebe

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SSII/PTG testing
« Reply #-1 on: August 17, 2013, 03:59:05 PM »
Today was the first chance I had to do some testing with the SSII on the PTG. I had installed the controller and imputed the numbers from my other PID but never actually fired it up.

Well when I first fired it up this morning and closed the lid I noticed the PV going down! WTF?!? I installed the thermocouple wires in reverse ;D

So after letting it cool down and re-installed the wires the correct way and started it up again..

SV was set to 225F and OUTL was at 13 & OUTH at 100(I always leave it at 100). Ambient temp was 70F...



My new Tappecue also on the watch...



And here is the graph from the Tappecue. I had to make the graph in excel and it is not the best. There are several temp spikes and drops from opening the lid to move the probe and check pellets. The run was for about 1 1/2 hours...



What I did was start it up with the fan speed on normal. Then when it reached SV I dropped the fan speed to low and let it ride. It was doing really good. I noticed much more smoke and the temp swings were smaller than at normal fan speed. The problem I had was not with the SSII but the fact that the ambient temps started jumping up very quickly and the sun was beating down on the PTG housing. I ended up lowering the OUTL to 9 to get the temps down to around SV.

Also the Tappecue probe was reading between 10 and 15 degrees higher than the SSII. But the temp swings stayed pretty consistent with both readings regardless. The Tappecue probe is a meat probe so this might be why it reads a little higher. I tried relocating the probe closer to the SSII probe to see if the variance would be less and it did not change much. I also have a layer of carbon build up on the SSII probe that might have contributed to the readings. Need to remember to clean it ;)

The pellet consumption appeared to be lower. At least substantial enough to notice. I never actually did any real consumption testing with the PTG so I don't have any numbers to compare it to but after 1 1/2 hours there was a very small dent made in that small pellet hopper. Very cool!

And here is a picture of the firepot after running the 20 minute cool down cycle built into the controller...



As you can see the cycle did an excellent job clearing out the ash.
« Last Edit: August 17, 2013, 04:06:03 PM by muebe »
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