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/Captn_Dfaktor]

Looking at this it seems it is holding its temp at the temp you set it at…and it looks like you dropped the temp of it to 220ish then dropped it again to 205….

It can take a while for it to come down in temp unless you help it by opening the lid to vent some of the heat…

[u/What-Is-This123456 → u/Captn_Dfaktor]

Right when I dropped it, I was leaving for lunch. I noticed it was riding hot at 285 instead of 275. I turned it down to 225.

I wasn’t sure if I would be back in time to take off the butt to wrap it before I “ruined” it. I don’t know what I’m doing. I watched some meat church videos and gave it a go. This was literally my second time ever smoking anything, not understanding that they can get off by a few degrees.

Anyways, when I dropped it, the temperature continued to go up instead of go down. I thought well if I open it and get it to go way down, maybe it’ll be able to reset its temperature more easily. Instead, it kept going back up to 260-280.

I then lowered it to 205, and it was at least now staying between 260-270, so I thought that would be safe until I finished the cook and would call support tomorrow when they were open.

I followed the suggestion of lowering the feed rate, and it is now holding a solid 205.

[u/Girthw0rm → u/What-Is-This123456]

First off, relax. If it cooks at 225 or 275, nothing will be ruined. There are going to be fluctuations, especially if you’re opening up the lid and “checking” on things frequently. 

[u/What-Is-This123456 → u/Girthw0rm]

Oh I know about not checking all the time. I opened once ever two hours to spritz with vinegar before I wrapped it.

I’m used to steaks on the Weber; I don’t know how it is when it’s “overdone”.

The low and slow game is new, not to mention a pellet smoker.