Flame boss 500

Mr1egg

Soooo I just realized I bought the flame boss 500 universal kit for my primo oval xl. Can I use the universal one for my kamado? What’s the difference between the universal kit and the kamado kit? Are the fans the same?

lkapigian

@stlcharcoal ?

Mr1egg

lkapigian said:

@stlcharcoal ?

thanks ikapigian…. I’m looking at pics and the fans seem similar but have different “tubes”. I bought the ss plates needed for kamados and just hope I can make this work. Ended up getting the universal kit for half off used.

Canugghead

My understanding is they are identical except for the hardware included to facilitate connection with the smoker. Universal is pricier because of more complicated hardware required, whereas the Kamado just has three rectangular plates. All have same hole size to accommodate the same fan. 

Mr1egg

Canugghead said:

My understanding is they are identical except for the hardware included to facilitate connection with the smoker. Universal is pricier because of more complicated hardware required, whereas the Kamado just has three rectangular plates. All have same hole size to accommodate the same fan. 

I am really hoping that’s the case, that’s what I thought when I bought the universal kit. Didn’t really realize there was two different kits until after I bought it. 

Canugghead

If you don’t have easy access to the SS plates you can even make one easily, just cut a piece of sheet metal to fit between top and bottom tracks, then cut a hole using fan port as template.

stlcharcoal

It's the same unit and algorithm, but the fans and adapters are different.  21 CFM on the universal and 7 CFM on kamado.  You can use the bigger fan on the BGE, it will learn, but just be real careful using it for start up as that fan running at 50%+ will get that fire ripping before the dome temp catches up (thus throttling it down.)

The adapter opening is the same, so you can just get the kamado adapters.  They're cheap.  I often sell customers a universal with the kamado adapters so they can use it on everything (truly making it "universal")

Canugghead

Mea culpa on the fan 
Perhaps turning the firebox opening an inch or two anticlockwise from the bottom vent can help compensate for the over powered Universal fan?

Mr1egg

I’ve even heard that the smaller fan has a hard time keeping up with bigger kamados? But I’m not sure if there’s any truth to that, maybe my mistake was a better move. 

The guy who I bought this fan off of had the 48”big bad Komodo kamado, so maybe the dealer advised him on the bigger fan. 

Thank you very much for your response stlcharcoal, I was stressing out a little last night lol. 

stlcharcoal

You definitely don't need the bigger fan for any kamado.  But the fact that you're putting it on a big kamado is better, because 21CFM is overkill for a Small, Medium, or even Large.  I was going to tell you to put some aluminum tape over the output if you didn't have the big oval XL.  

Money_Hillbilly

@Mr1egg I have 2 Flame Boss 500’s.  One for my eggs and one for my big gravity fed unit.  I run the bigger pit viper fan from BBQ Guru on my gravity unit.  They work fantastic on both units.  

Mr1egg

I am excited to get it and play with it, I think this Friday it’s coming 

6baluts

- As mentioned you do not need that larger fan by other forum members waaaaay smarter than myself.
- I have the old FB 200 and when/if it works on my Primo XL the fan provided by FB is fine.
- Different controller and I guess different controller thought process is the Fireboard FBX11 and Fireboard 2. Both offered with a much larger fan than required for a Kamado. However, Fireboard offers you the opportunity to throttle the fan down. I only have the fan that was provided with the FBX11 and have it throttled down to 30%. I use my BBQ Guru DX2 fan (pit viper) with the Fireboard 2.  

stlcharcoal

6baluts said:

- As mentioned you do not need that larger fan by other forum members waaaaay smarter than myself.
- I have the old FB 200 and when/if it works on my Primo XL the fan provided by FB is fine.
- Different controller and I guess different controller thought process is the Fireboard FBX11 and Fireboard 2. Both offered with a much larger fan than required for a Kamado. However, Fireboard offers you the opportunity to throttle the fan down. I only have the fan that was provided with the FBX11 and have it throttled down to 30%. I use my BBQ Guru DX2 fan (pit viper) with the Fireboard 2.  

Yeah FB experimented with the adjustable dampers but it turns out it confused the unit and the operators.  The Guru's had a fixed speed fan.....on or off.  Since FB was variable, it didn't need the damper.  Despite this, you put a 21 CFM fan on a MBGE, and you're gonna have ash everywhere and a fire that's gonna get away from you if for some reason that thing decides it's gonna ramp up.  That's why I like the aluminum tape as a little safety damper.  

Mr1egg

This is only going on the xl, might sell the medium but we’ll see. 

Photo Egg

stlcharcoal said:

6baluts said:

- As mentioned you do not need that larger fan by other forum members waaaaay smarter than myself.
- I have the old FB 200 and when/if it works on my Primo XL the fan provided by FB is fine.
- Different controller and I guess different controller thought process is the Fireboard FBX11 and Fireboard 2. Both offered with a much larger fan than required for a Kamado. However, Fireboard offers you the opportunity to throttle the fan down. I only have the fan that was provided with the FBX11 and have it throttled down to 30%. I use my BBQ Guru DX2 fan (pit viper) with the Fireboard 2.  

Yeah FB experimented with the adjustable dampers but it turns out it confused the unit and the operators.  The Guru's had a fixed speed fan.....on or off.  Since FB was variable, it didn't need the damper.  Despite this, you put a 21 CFM fan on a MBGE, and you're gonna have ash everywhere and a fire that's gonna get away from you if for some reason that thing decides it's gonna ramp up.  That's why I like the aluminum tape as a little safety damper.  

So a damper on the FB 500 would be a good idea to tame down a larger fan as long as you keep the damper slide consistently the same. Just like your aluminum tape suggestion. If your taped off area changes when you change out tape it will take time for the control unit to relearn the changed airflow.

stlcharcoal

Yeah the whole thing with the damper is, if it's a variable speed fan & logic, you don't need to be screwing with something mechanical......it's just something extraneous in the middle.  But in this case, if you start with a cold BGE and don't want that huge fan going at 100%, then the tape is an easy fix.  But if you're running the Kamado version with the 7 CFM fan, then no need for it.

I wish you could set the max CFM of the fan in the unit based of the size, then operate 1-100% with 100% being the max you set.  But that's a whole new set of programming I'm sure.

Canugghead

FWIW I don't hook up the controller until egg has stabilized itself naturally. Regardless of brand I don't believe in pushing from ambient to smoke temp in x minutes.

blind99

Mr1egg said:

Soooo I just realized I bought the flame boss 500 universal kit for my primo oval xl. Can I use the universal one for my kamado? What’s the difference between the universal kit and the kamado kit? Are the fans the same?

i bet the controller will learn pretty quick with the bigger fan and it'll be fine.
if you see huge overshoots, and ash flying everywhere, then splice a resistor in series with one of the leads and drop the output of the fan.

Mr1egg

blind99 said:

Mr1egg said:

Soooo I just realized I bought the flame boss 500 universal kit for my primo oval xl. Can I use the universal one for my kamado? What’s the difference between the universal kit and the kamado kit? Are the fans the same?

i bet the controller will learn pretty quick with the bigger fan and it'll be fine.
if you see huge overshoots, and ash flying everywhere, then splice a resistor in series with one of the leads and drop the output of the fan.

I was thinking about that, I bet I can put in an adjustable controller for the fan. But we’ll see how everything goes.