Question for fan speeds
With my Fast Eddy PG1000 and smoking at 180, I experience large temperature swings with LHT=10 and just about any HHT setting. In recording internal temperatures and watching the auger activity, it appears clear to me that as the observed temperature drops below the set point there are several LHT pellet injections before the temperature begins to rise and go past the set point, thereby getting into the HHT range. This suggests that the smaller pellet quantities are not combusting quickly enough to minimize the the amount of fuel needed to maintain the set point. Given that the firepot temperatures are adequate for ignition with the airflow through the firepot, I'm wondering about the possibility of increasing the burn rate of the LHT injected material by increasing the firepot air flow rate. This would require a fan with higher CFM that the Cookshack unit which is rated at 130 CFM. There are DC fans that have considerably higher air flow rates, have the same size and form factor as the OEM part and can be speed controlled. Interestingly, at the time the PB1000 (and unless going DC) was designed the OEM unit was and is the highest CFM constant speed AC unit available. Most other pellet grills utilize 100-110 CFM units. Going variable speed might permit fan speed fine tuning for minimal temperature swings and would require a DC fan, a 12 or 24VDC power supply and a PWM speed controller. In my quick search, this would come to about $65 including tax and shipping between eBay and Amazon. Of course this would involve manually setting the fan speed. Any thoughts, comments, experiences?
Posted Jul 9, 2025, 6:05 PM UTC