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Portable Pellet Pooper Power

An inverter gives you a 110v outlet using battery power. That way you're not counting on the notoriously unreliable power at comps to power your pellet smoker.

I'll leave it to more knowledgeable brethren to tell you what you need. If no one does, I'll post what I bought.
 
71-South said:
Good deal. Do you disconnect the hotrod and light manually for start up at comps to avoid the 200 watt draw for the first 20 minutes or so? I think I'm going to do that.
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I don't. It's not 20 minutes. It's like 10 minutes tops. You can tell when the ignitor is on because the fans on your invertor will spin up and run harder and then will stop doing that when it's done.
 
71-South said:
Good deal. Do you disconnect the hotrod and light manually for start up at comps to avoid the 200 watt draw for the first 20 minutes or so? I think I'm going to do that.
Click to expand...

This is what I did when cooking contests on Yoder pellet cookers. I'd recommend it.
 
MikeJ65 said:
I use comp power, but run it through a computer UPS. I haven't tested it for endurance, but it should run both FEC's for a couple of hours. It has an audible alarm when power is lost, which allows me plenty of time to fix the problem or fire up the generator. I do keep a 400W inverter in my trailer that I can run off my truck battery if the first two options both fail.
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I started out with a UPS but found it too sensitive. It didn't like generator power at some contests and would just run off the battery all the time. The inverter with a transfer switch seemed to have fewer issues with marginal power.
 
From Byron at Yoder: The YS640 uses .75 amp of power at startup, 2.25 amp of power during ignition and then .50 amp thereafter. Fortunately, you can manually ignite your smoker and bypass the igniter altogether. That would be the "least power way".

Here are instructions for that:

1. Remove the cooking grates, heat diffuser & the burn grate.
2. Reach into the hopper cavity on the left side of the igniter tube and pull the igniter wires into the firebox.
3. Unplug the igniters weather tight connection and then push the wires back into the hopper cavity.
4. Reinstall the burn grate & place a small handful of pellets onto the grate.
5. Light the pellets with a torch, starter gel or starter stick.
6. Once lit, turn the power switch to the on position and allow the fan to run across the fire.
7. If the flame continues to develop press the start button and reassemble the grill.

My igniter went and I haven't replaced it. I manually light now. I use to use a powerpack connected to a car battery but have recently upgraded to a Honda eu2000i which also runs the rest of our trailer. The powerpack you linked to has a 22ah battery which is better than the 18ah Schumacher that many here use but not as good as the Duracell 600w powerpack that has a 26ah battery. None of them will give you an entire cook without hooking to an external battery.
 
So let's do a little math :-D

TheJackal said:
From Byron at Yoder: The YS640 uses .75 amp of power at startup, 2.25 amp of power during ignition and then .50 amp thereafter.
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I'm going to use these numbers and assume that this is the current draw at 120V AC.

.75A at 120V is 90W

2.25A at 120V is 270W

.5A at 120V is 60W

Since the battery is 13.8V DC at full charge, let's calculate the DC current draw...

90W is 6.5A at 13.8V

270W is 19.6A at 13.8V

60W is 4.4A at 13.8V

I am going to make the assumption that startup and ignition are shorter in time and are insignificant in battery life. The 270W during ignition is important in inverter selection. An inverter that can handle 400W continuous should be fine.

71-South said:
Sounds good. The battery I ended up getting has 101ah. Hopefully that'll take care of a whole comp.
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Now, for battery life, most inverters are around 90% efficient, but less expensive inverters are less efficient. Let's use 80%, so the inverter will be pulling 4.4A/80%, or 5.5A from the battery. If the battery capacity is 101AH, then theoretically it will last 18 hours. But, as mentioned, it's not a good idea to run it below 50%, and, as the charge on the battery drops, the output voltage will drop, which will mean that the current will increase to maintain the same power output, so actual life will be less.

The best way to test this is to put a 60W light bulb on the inverter AC side and let her rip. Best case you'll get around 18-20 hours. Worst case around 10.

The inverter/charger/transfer switch combo is the best option because it will run on comp power until the battery is needed, and your battery is always charged.
 
I think I'm going to start it manually and skip the start up phase. I'm not good w/ electrical calculations, but I saw on Yoder's boards that the YS640 draws 200 watts during the start up phase and 20 watts thereafter. I found a couple of watt/ah calculators on the interwebs and they say that my 101ah battery will power 20 watts for ~25 hours. I only plan on using the YS640 at comps for around 9 hours, so I think I'm going to be fine.

I should have mentioned that I plan to leave a smart charger attached to it when I'm using it as well.

Long and short, we're doing a full dress rehearsal practice cook on Saturday. That'll hopefully tell me if this is going to work.
 
I think you'll be fine with that, but I have serious doubts about the 20W number. Yoder doesn't do anything drastically different that other pellet cookers once past the ignition phase, and most of the others spec 50 - 60W. I've measured my FEC and Memphis Pro and both are in that range. Cook temp does play a factor, too. A high cook temp will mean more pellets which equals the auger running more often and the fan being on more.

I think the numbers given by TheJackal are more realistic.
 
I went back and checked the numbers in Yoder's forum. I must have had a brain shart when I got that 20 watt number in my head. They say 50 watts in several posts. Thanks for pointing that out.
 
71-South said:
I think I'm going to start it manually and skip the start up phase. I'm not good w/ electrical calculations, but I saw on Yoder's boards that the YS640 draws 200 watts during the start up phase and 20 watts thereafter. I found a couple of watt/ah calculators on the interwebs and they say that my 101ah battery will power 20 watts for ~25 hours. I only plan on using the YS640 at comps for around 9 hours, so I think I'm going to be fine.

I should have mentioned that I plan to leave a smart charger attached to it when I'm using it as well.

Long and short, we're doing a full dress rehearsal practice cook on Saturday. That'll hopefully tell me if this is going to work.
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From the info i have read it is not good to charge a deep cycle battery while using it.
 
Inverter Setup

I have run my pellet cookers for years thru an Inverter powered by a marine battery with the shore power hooked up to my battery charger which will not overcharge the battery. I usually set it up on Thursday evening and plug it in and then forget about it the whole weekend. I don't need any special switches or any other parts for this to work. Hell, the power can go out, come back on, go out several more times and I won't even know it. As compared to some of the other options, this is very inexpensive.

Dave
 
The big decision a pellet cook must decide prior to evaluating back up power need is how they will use the back up. A back up system is useless if the cook has to notice the power is out and then connect the system. This is why I think the smaller chargers are not the way to go.

I compete with a FEC100 & a Yoder 640. In the case of power loss, the FEC100 has a 4 second delay before the board clears and the Yoder 640 has a 3 second delay before the board clears.

After a great deal of research, I went with the Tripplite charger/inverter that also has an internal 2 SECOND transfer switch. I have it hooked up to 2 group 31 deep cycle (not marine starting) batteries. The Tripplite is plugged into comp power and when the power goes down the system does its thing. My math says after start up this unit will give me 120 hours of run time or 60 hours for each cooker. With start up I figure I have more than 30 hours of run time.

As to the question above, the Tripplite does not charge and deliver power at the same time. It charges the batteries until they are full and then stops charging. It only draws power from the batteries when the main power source is down and the transfer switch is automatically engaged. This is another reason why just tying a basic battery charger to a separate inverter "can" become an issue. You really need to understand each individual unit's technology when assembling multiple components. The Tripplite is all in one...and its not a delicate unit meaning having it on a cart outside doesn't have me all nervous.

On three occasions over the past 3 seasons I have lost comp power. One particular contest in MA we lost comp power 5 times on turn in day morning. People were going nuts. CBQ will remember that one. Both he and I barely noticed as we both run the Tripplite w/ the 2 second power switch and there were no issues for either of us.

Down side is the Tripplite is around $500, but considering I have 100% peace of mind that my $1000 investment in a contest will not be taken down by someone firing up a hair dryer or MR Coffee makes the cost justified many times over.
 
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I use a setup similar to Patrick, but with a different brand inverter/charger/transfer switch for the same reasons. I still have a power failure alarm that I plug into comp power so I know that there was a failure, but the inverter setup has never failed me. It was worth the money for me as well.
 
Could you add an automatic transfer switch? I saw the KISAE TS20A 20A Automatic Transfer Switch online for around $50.

Seems like you could:

1) hook the battery up to the charger plugged into comp power (this is optional since a fully charged battery should last a weekend and you could charge it at home before you leave)

2) Connect the inverter to the battery

3) Plug the automatic transfer switch into the inverter & into the comp power (the KISAE requires you to wire the AC in (they call it shore power but for us would be comp power) and the AC out (for cooker/power strip).

4) Plug the cookers into the automatic transfer switch (use a power strip for multiple cookers).


The advantage of this is that it only costs an extra $50 for the automatic transfer switch if you have the inverter and battery. It could even be connected to a car battery and be purely a backup system.

I have not done this nor am I an electrician, this is more of a question to see if it might work and get suggestions. I already have an inverter and a charger so it would save me, and probably others, some money.

Thanks
 
I picked up a second battery today. With 202 ah between the two (inline) I'm hopeful that I'll have plenty for the comp without running the deep cycle batteries below 50% and damaging them. I'm all ears about the xfer switch if that's the way to go. I'm just more than out of budget for this at the moment.
 
71-South said:
I picked up a second battery today. With 202 ah between the two (inline) I'm hopeful that I'll have plenty for the comp without running the deep cycle batteries below 50% and damaging them. I'm all ears about the xfer switch if that's the way to go. I'm just more than out of budget for this at the moment.
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I use two batteries and hook them together with short cables from walmart.http://www.walmart.com/ip/Everstart-24-Switch-to-Starter-Battery-Cable/16006697

I cook on two Cookshacks, one being a pellet grill. I cook dinner Friday night and cook all night with the FEC100. I will use the grill all day Sat, along with the FEC. Never have had to charge the batteries at the contest, only after I get home. I've done this for three years with no problems.:biggrin1:

When you clip the invertor cables on the batteries, do one on the positive of one battery and the other cable on the negative of the opposite battery. Same way when you charge the batteries after use. I never separate the batteries for anything.

We will be in St Charles next weekend, your more than welcome to come look!:thumb:
 
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