Heat Diffusers?

[DragonsEmber]

I'm a newbie to the pellet smoker game. I have a Rec Tec order to place in the near future, but in the meantime, I'm trying to make a cheap smoker I have work for me.  ZGRILL Elite 900. Its a new grill on the market through an Indiegogo campaign. Apparently this company sold the same grill to all of their pre order members (myself and about 1040 others)but changed the design for some grills part way through the manufacturing process.

Some people got diffusers over the firepot with grease pan and some people only received a slanted grease pan.

I received a grill with only the slanted grease pan.  No diffuser. The original design has the firepot in the middle with he diffuser. But the design I received has the firepot on the left with only a slanted grease pan.

The temp swings I see are about 40 degrees over all when pellets stoke the flame.  I placed a cookie sheet over the pot to diffuse heat to the side opposite the firepot.  No holes in it. The heat is now more on what was the cooler end but it feels like all the heat accumulates there now.

Not really sure what I'm doing here. I guess the firepot on the right simulates an offset smoker.

Should I loose any type of diffuser? Or add holes to actually diffuse the heat? Right now I'm just redirecting it.

[hikerman]

DragonsEmber, I can only comment based on my Green Mountain grill and it's performance. My firepot is in the middle. I use a diffuser and wind deflectors. The diffuser sits over the firepot with all four sides open for even heat distribution. The steel wind deflectors prevent windage issues on windy days but I find they add to more even heating so use them most of the time. They are angled with an open slot at the top of the left pellet-feed side and angled with a slot near the bottom on the stack-side. IMO your pan is "forcing" heat to your stack-side which will of course run hotter. You may try perforations, but I'm thinking if you cut out the "sides" of your pan, heat would flow out the sides while still being pushed to your stack-side. The drip pan re-enforces evenness as well. It's your grill, experiment with it until it works the way you want.  Good luck!

[DragonsEmber]

Thanks for the reply.

I agree with adding some ventilation to the diffuser. I will do this tonight.

I figure I will take some different sized drill bits. Drill small holes closer to the fire put and bigger holes farther from the firepot. I saw some pictures on google image search when i was doing some research. Try to disperse that heat evenly and also not waste the tasty smoke by sending it straight to the stack.

Something similar to this:



The reason I feel I need something over the first pot is that even though the grease pan is slanted so that its highest end if the farthest from the fire pot, on my 2nd cook a grease fire erupted on the grease pan.

I'm pretty sure this is because of an error with the controller (I had it set to 225 and came back to a 480 degree cooker!)  The auger was just feeding pellets continuously.  I had to restart it and it seemed to work fine for a couple hours. Eventually it seems to get "confused" and can't keep the temperature.

It has been fine on short cooks this last 2 days.

My next long cook is Saturday morning. Beef Ribs. Going to try to impress my father-in-law.

[bspitt]

This is a picture of a GMG offset heat deflector for an offset fire box. The "triangle" goes over the center of the fire box.

http://imgur.com/C293G7Y

[sparky]

Call the manufacturer.  Ask them all these questions.  Most pellet grills have a defuser and a drip tray.  It sounds like you need a new conrroller.  Most pellet grills work very well rught out of the box.  A lot of people like to mess with their smokers.  Use a biscuit test.  Set it to 250 and let is stabilize fir 1 hour.  Then put your biscuits down And see how they cook on your grill.  Throw down some jimmy dean too.  Got to do something with the biscuits.

[DragonsEmber]

Call the manufacturer.  Ask them all these questions.  Most pellet grills have a defuser and a drip tray.  It sounds like you need a new conrroller.  Most pellet grills work very well rught out of the box.  A lot of people like to mess with their smokers.  Use a biscuit test.  Set it to 250 and let is stabilize fir 1 hour.  Then put your biscuits down And see how they cook on your grill.  Throw down some jimmy dean too.  Got to do something with the biscuits.

I like the idea of the biscuit test. I'll probably try that.

Trust me when I say I would call the manufacturer if I could... This is a Chinese company. They have a support line, which I did call.. they have one lady who works the phone support on US hours. One person on staff to take calls... no joke. She simply takes notes and requests and then sends emails to their email support team in China. I decided to cut out the middle man and just email them.  I just went through a week long back and forth with them about refund and warranty requests (support works Business hours in China ... 12 hour time difference). In the end they told me that due to the issues I was having with the controller and the paint peel (due to controller malfunction)  they would refund all my money and told me to just keep the grill as it is not worth the shipping costs for them (I told them I would not pay to ship it back).

 
So i'm trying to just make this work for me until I can get the Rec Tec (Customer service being one of there selling points).  I was told my full refund would be coming back to me today. I'm awaiting notification.

[Hub]

Call the manufacturer.  Ask them all these questions.  Most pellet grills have a defuser and a drip tray.  It sounds like you need a new conrroller.  Most pellet grills work very well rught out of the box.  A lot of people like to mess with their smokers.  Use a biscuit test.  Set it to 250 and let is stabilize fir 1 hour.  Then put your biscuits down And see how they cook on your grill.  Throw down some jimmy dean too.  Got to do something with the biscuits.

Sparky speaketh the truth.  Something has likely fallen in a crack and only the manufacturer knows for sure.  Most pellet cookers are a compromise design with a heat span that will allow smoking (roughly 180-275 degrees), baking (300-400 degrees) and grilling (400 plus).  At smoking temperatures you should not see much difference in heat levels at the grid.  Higher temps will cause hot and cool areas and the biscuit test will reveal what's going on.  Don't get too bothered about temp swings -- it is the average temp that does the work.  Some controllers will "lock on" and others will jog up and down at bit but its the smoke and heat that does the work over time.  Worrying about ten or twenty degrees either way at any point doesn't accomplish anything.



Keep us posted on your results -- we have lots of experienced pellet cooker drivers here and will provide reassurance and expert scientific advice at no charge 

Hub 

(after your post above) Oops.  Looks like you're going to have to make a silk purse out of this one.  Some days are diamonds and some days are coal 

[DragonsEmber]

So there is a thread going for all the people who supported this grill project on Indiegogo.  Other people have been asking about there design. This is what support posted:

There are two designs for the grease pan : 1)grease pan with holes + heating baffle; 2)grease pan without holes and without heating baffle. The first design is to offer consumers an option of increasing the speed of raising the temp,by moving the heating baffle and exposing the holes. To simplify the structure and make it more easy to operate, we canceled the heating baffle and changed the grease pan to be without holes. Both designs had been tested and function good. Thanks!

- Z GRILLS Team

The way they word it seems confusing. A grease pan with holes would just let grease through. So the other design must be a solid pan below a heat diffuser plate. Its the only way I can picture this. Maybe its a terminology miscommunication.  I keep seeing the term "Tuning plate" in all my research (the metal sheet with holes) and diffuer/baffle as the solid metal sheet usually around the firepot.

[smokeasaurus]

You have gotten some sound advice.

I for one will be happy when you get your Rec Tec 

[TMB]

You have gotten some sound advice.

I for one will be happy when you get your Rec Tec 

X2!

[DragonsEmber]

Thank you all for your advice!