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New Pitmaker Safe, Anyone cooked on one?

Our comp team has a new one (3-4 months old) you have to use water. We run digiQ and even then it would run away. Also close valve to where it is barley open on fan. Our goes through a lot of fuel and boiled the water off like crazy. We had a 1/4" piece of steel cut to pl;ace between water pan and fire box which has helped a ton. Also had a deeper firebox made with a maze system and that has helped with fuel consumption. With the above things done we can run 230 all day long.

Couple other things we do is preheat the cooking chamber with weed burner so digi dont work so hard to get to temp. Also looking at your pic, you have a roof on your porch? beware that with water you will get a lot of steam/grease accumulate on your roof and will have to wash it after use.

I was not impressed with pitmaker at all on the process the main guy went through getting the safe. Poor communication and for the price no wway you should have to do any mods to get it to work right. I would never buy one after what I have seen with the one we have now.
 
Kind of sound like an air leak somewhere to me.

I don't see any mention of trying to run it without the draft controller either. That is possible to do isn't it?

If you can get it running nice without the controller, than by process of elimination....

If it still runs too hot, might be a leak around the intake like is mentioned above.

IMO, you shouldn't "need" water in the pan to keep the temps down. It's about too much O2 getting to the coals.
 
Ok correct me if I am wrong but if you can choke the fire out by shutting eveyrthing down then you should be able to control your temp? I mean on my WSM if it gets to hot I just cut back on the air intake to bring it under control. I am only wondering because I am about to buy either a Stumps or a Pitmaster.
 
stephan said:
Ok correct me if I am wrong but if you can choke the fire out by shutting eveyrthing down then you should be able to control your temp? I mean on my WSM if it gets to hot I just cut back on the air intake to bring it under control. I am only wondering because I am about to buy either a Stumps or a Pitmaster.
Click to expand...

One would think that is the way to get it to come down, but everything is closed off with only a 1/4 inch open on my guru slide.
 
Hozman said:
Our comp team has a new one (3-4 months old) you have to use water. We run digiQ and even then it would run away. Also close valve to where it is barley open on fan. Our goes through a lot of fuel and boiled the water off like crazy. We had a 1/4" piece of steel cut to pl;ace between water pan and fire box which has helped a ton. Also had a deeper firebox made with a maze system and that has helped with fuel consumption. With the above things done we can run 230 all day long.

Couple other things we do is preheat the cooking chamber with weed burner so digi dont work so hard to get to temp. Also looking at your pic, you have a roof on your porch? beware that with water you will get a lot of steam/grease accumulate on your roof and will have to wash it after use.

I was not impressed with pitmaker at all on the process the main guy went through getting the safe. Poor communication and for the price no wway you should have to do any mods to get it to work right. I would never buy one after what I have seen with the one we have now.
Click to expand...

Any chance you could send me some pics of your mods to the fire box? You are right for what this thing cost we shouldnt be dealing with mods to get it to operate at a reasonable temp.
 
Might be far off here.. but if youve got her really shut down and its still runnning away either y'all have rocket fuel firewood or there is a air leak. Is it possible to seal up the exhaust with plastic bag n tape then blow low pressure/high volume air from a vac cleaner in the inlet. Go around all the doors n welds with a paintbrush n bubble mix of watered down detergent splashing it everywhere to see if'n it blows great big bubbles from somewhere. Hey presto y'all found yer extra air inlet hole, just gum it up with JB weld and see if the heat is more controlable without any extra air coming in.

What about a fat/dripping drain to the outside.. maybe its cocked open?

Muzza.
 
stephan said:
Have you tried a cook without the guru. It could be the source of your problems.
Click to expand...


I have tried shutting down the Guru and the temp still rose. I am cooking a couple of shoulders tomorrow and I am only going to use a chimney of lump and use some heat tape to make sure the inlet is sealed tight. If that doesnt work it looks like I will have to fab a new charcoal basket and see if that will help.
 
Interesting post. I guess it goes to show you can't judge a book by its cover, because by looks one would think the vault would hold temperature awesomely.
 
I have to agree it is interesting to me also. I was about to pull the trigger on the Pitmaker safe. Im waiting to see the outcome to this thread.
 
I can't believe a guy spends that kind of money then has to do mods to make it run right... I hope it works out for you!
 
Tagged. I have been saving up for a Vault. My teammate is heading to Houston to pick up his shiny new Pitmaker trailer next week, full on decked out with everything so I am sure he will find this thread and have input once he gets that beautiful thing home. I have been flipping back and forth between the Vault and the Long Rifle Sniper.
 
I spent Memphis In May with the owners of Pitmaker and cooking on all their products. They make an amazing product and I can't wait to buy a vault. I didn't rad through the entire thread so I don't know all the issues but if you have specific questions PM me them and I'll call George and get the official response. I'll post the questions and responses here.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
BBQ Grail said:
I spent Memphis In May with the owners of Pitmaker and cooking on all their products. They make an amazing product and I can't wait to buy a vault. I didn't rad through the entire thread so I don't know all the issues but if you have specific questions PM me them and I'll call George and get the official response. I'll post the questions and responses here.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
Click to expand...

Thanks, and I dont want to knock the product it is beautiful and built like a tank. I am hoping the temp spikes are something that I have not mastered yet. In all fairness I have not contacted the factory yet. After my cooks this weekend I hope to have tried some more tricks that have been suggested here and that I have come up with. Although, if those dont work I will take you up on your offer.....Thanks!
 
I found this thread from a brethern. Sorry to say I dont know how to transfer a quote from another thread but he had the same problem and this is what he found out
From podidol

"Thanks for the reply. I may have just answered my own question. I'm five hours into it since I lit it for a dry run, four hours after closing the dampers and its almost to 325. I put a firebrick over the exhaust to try to choke it out more in the event the damper had any gaps (intake is already blocked by guru plate and plug). When I did this, I could see smoke blowing out under light pressure. It getting dark and having a flashlight actually helped me out. I decided to try to do a reverse smoke test. A smoldering piece of wood and a flashlight gave me my answer. After checking all the door seals and the damper, it looks like the culprit is the closed damper. It was sucking in the smoke like nobody's business. I don't really see any gaps in it, but the draft is so good that its sucking it through somehow. I guess that amount of draft with the heat produced with lump is enough to keep her cranking. It's just a little strange; I'm used to closed dampers = no fire."
 
stephan said:
I found this thread from a brethern. Sorry to say I dont know how to transfer a quote from another thread but he had the same problem and this is what he found out
From podidol

"Thanks for the reply. I may have just answered my own question. I'm five hours into it since I lit it for a dry run, four hours after closing the dampers and its almost to 325. I put a firebrick over the exhaust to try to choke it out more in the event the damper had any gaps (intake is already blocked by guru plate and plug). When I did this, I could see smoke blowing out under light pressure. It getting dark and having a flashlight actually helped me out. I decided to try to do a reverse smoke test. A smoldering piece of wood and a flashlight gave me my answer. After checking all the door seals and the damper, it looks like the culprit is the closed damper. It was sucking in the smoke like nobody's business. I don't really see any gaps in it, but the draft is so good that its sucking it through somehow. I guess that amount of draft with the heat produced with lump is enough to keep her cranking. It's just a little strange; I'm used to closed dampers = no fire."
Click to expand...


Thanks, I think I will try a heat tape over the intake damper and make sure it is sealed tight arount the guru adapter.
 
I'd say that if a smoker is designed to use water then I'd try it. It may require a heat deflector to manage temp spikes and the water will help keep the meat moist. At comps I always cook on my UDS with water especially when I sleep and use my IQ101.
 
Check out this thread from a fellow Brethren. He has identified the problem as a leaky damper door. This was suggested in the thread above also.

He has a nice solution that he says works well.

I do agree that for the price you should not have to do any mods for the smoker to hold a temperature, but this looks relatively easy and effective.

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=129770

I'm also in the market for a new smoker and really wanted a Vault, but I've heard too many bad reports on their customer service, and my limited experience has convinced me that I don't want to deal with Pitmaker no matter how good their product.

I've sent 2 e-mail messages with some basic questions. Both were delivered and opened by Pitmaker, but I never received a reply. I guess I could call, but if a company has a customer service e-mail address I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a reply a week after receiving confirmation that they opened your e-mail.

For me it's going to be a Backwoods Gater once my budget can handle it. Less expensive, great product and wonderful support. Not as pretty as the Vault, but I'll learn to live with it!

Good luck.
 
I have a Backwoods smoker and have had the same problems you're having. With my Backwoods it is almost impossible to hold the temps down without water. Also, I found that I had to use a maze in addition to the water. After these two techniques were combined I was able to hold temps very well. I also use an Auber system with a 6 cfm fan. I used three bricks and made an upside down "U" shaped maze. When I have time I will have a removable steel maze fabricated which will give me some additional space in the firebox and increase my burn time before I need to add charcoal. I hope this helps solve your problem, as I know how frustrating it can be to see the temps keep rising past your set point time after time! :loco:
 
Its good to see someone has found a solution to this issue but these units are not cheap in fact they are more expensive than most. I would not be a happy camper if I have the same issues and then have to spend more money to make it right.
 
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