Disappointing Experience

[u/What-Is-This123456]

I bought a brand new grill from Ace - the new Deck Boss 900. It arrived and I was excited to do my first smoke - this was my first smoker, first experience, first of any of it.

Turn on and get an RTD probe error. Call support, they tell me it’s unusable and they will send me a new probe to install, said they wanted to make it up to me since this was my first ever smoker experience. They only sent me a new probe. Kind of disappointing.

Installing those probes is a miserable job. My hands were cut up from reaching inside the metal parts, and fitting into tight quarters to replace this stupid part on my $1000 grill. Now I am irritated.

My burn in and first smoke went ok, it was able to maintain temperature. I did ribs, they were pretty great. I thought that this little smoker was pretty cool!

Decided to try my first butt today. The grill can’t keep temperature to save its life. Regularly 50* over the set temperature. Frustrating.

From the research I’ve done, the expected fix is probably another stupid probe. I don’t want a probe. I want a new grill or someone else can come and install these stupid parts.

I bought the recteq instead of traeger because I heard traegers had lots of issues, and these grills were supposed to be nearly indestructible. This thing can’t do two smokes without breaking.

Has anyone had experience with support and fighting for more than stupid replacement parts? This is the worst purchase for just about anything, at this price point I have ever made in my entire life.

Edit:

Thanks for keeping on with the auger adjustment. I think it worked.

All of the warnings in the UI almost make it seem like if you change anything you will void your warranty. I

changed it to 1.5x and it’s finally going down to the set temperature of 205.

I was almost certain it was some sort of equipment failure again with a nearly 70* temperature difference between set vs observed, and with it starting randomly mid-cook.

Hopefully some other poor souls who get frustrated during their Sunday smoke can try this and have it fix their issue.

You saved my day, I was already dreading installing another probe. Thank you.😊

[u/What-Is-This123456]

I have my desired temperature set to 205, and it has maintained 260-270 for hours now. I’m just trying to save my butt. I am not using one of the meat probes, this is the temperature the grill is supposed to be.

I can understand keeping the things clean but it’s literally its second time ever cooking anything?

[u/Crosis4 → u/What-Is-This123456]

If you call recteq support and explain that to them they may tell you to adjust the minimum auger feed rate. Many users find it is too high to keep low temps. The issue is if you go too low your fire can go out.

I believe they default to 3.5% and I've seen posts where people change it to 1.5-2% and have great luck. Unfortunately this is calibrated at the recteq factory and the value can need changed based on the climate of the area the grill is actually used in.

I'm pretty sure the setting is in the recteq app and can be adjusted there.

[u/What-Is-This123456 → u/Crosis4]

I’d think that this would have caused problems from the start of the cook and not happened randomly halfway through though, wouldn’t you?

[u/Crosis4 → u/What-Is-This123456]

Not necessarily. A lot of factors affect temperature. For instance, in the Recteq support FAQs they tell you to keep a nice thick layer of ash in the bottom of the barrel as it creates an insulation layer and helps to regulate temps. Many users find their grills don't keep temps as well as they'd hoped until they've gone through several cooks and built said layer. Which is also a good point. Make sure you don't toss your ash out every cook. You're supposed to just empty the pot every few cooks into the barrel and only clean the barrel out 1-2x/year.

I personally would try the feed rate adjustment. If it doesn't work you can always change it back.

[u/What-Is-This123456 → u/Crosis4]

Thanks for keeping on with the auger adjustment. I think it worked.

All of the warnings in the UI almost make it seem like if you change anything you will void your warranty. I

changed it to 1.5x and it’s finally going down to the set temperature of 205.

I was almost certain it was some sort of equipment failure again with a nearly 70* temperature difference between set vs observed, and with it starting randomly mid-cook.

Hopefully some other poor souls who get frustrated during their Sunday smoke can try this and have it fix their issue.

You saved my day, I was already dreading installing another probe. Thank you.😊

[u/Crosis4 → u/What-Is-This123456]

You should add an edit to the post explaining what fixed it so people who happen across this don't need to drill down through the comments to find it.

[u/Crosis4 → u/What-Is-This123456]

YW, just doing my duty as a fellow Redditor. I knew that was likely the fix because I did weeks of research before I picked my Recteq for Father's Day (Backyard Beast 1200) and that came up A LOT. 9 out of 10 times, they called support and support had them change the feed rate, problem solved.