DigiQ DX2 - Lesson Learned

xfire_ATX

I was "here you can have this" a BGE DigiQ DX2 ~a year ago.  Tried using Thanksgiving and it worked fine, but nothing special I couldnt have done without dampers.  Towards the end of the cook I was trying to ramp the heat down and it just kept climbing so I pulled it off.

FF to Saturday and Im making (Turbo) Ribs for a potluck event.  I thought perfect time to pull it back out and give it a run.  Worked great holding 350 pretty well but I thought hmm they are a bit ahead of schedule let me lower temp to 325.  Walked away and checked on it a bit later... 365.  WTH.

Pulled the blower, put the top damper on and got the heat down manually.   I start looking at the blower and Im like hang on... where are the dampers on this thing.. its WIDE OPEN, no wonder it wont hold heat.  OK time to go read the directions finally.  Huh there is a manual damper, well its likely never been adjusted as its gunked shut.  Some light Rubber Mallet help and a bit of triflo and Ah Ha thats likely going to be better.

Back on the egg and sure enough we are now holding 325 perfectly.

So lesson learned- go read the damn instructions sometimes

Canugghead

RTFM 

stlcharcoal

I'm confused......if it held 350 just fine for hours, why would the temp go up when you lowered the set point have anything to do with a damper?  Nothing change except the fan would be running less or not at all.

Were you running it without the chimney cap on?  If you have that barely open, the lower fan damper really shouldn't be necessary.  

The DigiQ is a older technology.....fixed speed fan.  So thats why it has the damper.  New brands have a variable speed fan and will throttle themselves down after they learn, so that's why the manual fan dampers aren't around much anymore.  I was surprised to see thermo works use one of theirs.

xfire_ATX

I have no idea why the temp would go up with the temp setting going down- 

1. I wasnt running a cap, read the whole manual today, need a cap on when using.
2. It doesnt make sense that no air blowing would generate more draft then when blowing.

The point of this is READ the Manual and I would have understood this much better.  Instead I was going with "I got this it isnt hard" and well I was doing it all wrong.

TechsasJim

Not trying to be an @ss here but this is why I hate technology.   I've experienced too many fails whilst trying to put the onus on tech.

Sorry you experienced this...hopefully a one-off.

My Meater + failed me on Thanksgiving.    Now I just use tech as a guidline.

Trust but verify...

stlcharcoal

I'm guessing you got a reverse airflow going.....airflow coming in from the chimney cap.  Before that, the fan was kicking on every once in a while and preventing it.   Or, the fire just shifted and you got a different reading.  15F even 25F isn't that much under the dome.  In a XL there can be a 50F+ swing under the dome just depending where the fire is and what's under the dome temp probe.

In any case, I always run a chimney cap controller or not.  If nothing else, you're keeping a lot of smoke and moist air from escaping.  Only time I take it off is if I'm trying to run 500+.

I used to be that you set up the dampers to maintain whatever fire you wanted, and the controller was there as a back to kick on and stoke the fire if needed.  Now, with the variable speed fans, you nearly close the chimney and make the controller push the exhaust out to hold a more accurate temp.