PID CONTROLLER HELP!

[JamsCowbell]

Yeah it's 22mm inside, initially I only had one 15mm input and it just wasn't getting enough air into the smoker. Other people seem ok with 15mm but I think the 57cm WSM with all the vents sealed up with aluminium tape and a nomex gasket around the door and lid is pretty airtight and I need to be able to push more through.

I think it takes about 30 minutes to heat up when I remember to fill the water pan at the beginning, had a bit of a duh moment last time out with that one... I just got a bag of sandpit sand to replace the water on the next cook. When I didn't have the two 15mm inputs it seemed to take forever to heat up and struggled to maintain 120C even with the fan on full, that's why I changed to two inputs. Now it gets there fast enough and maintains it well at around 20% fan.

[essexsmoker]

Oh well that sounds promising. I effectively have the same thing u do, just the cheapo version.
It is very well sealed up too.
Will give 22mm a go then.

How did you find the sand? Any better?



Thanks very much for all your help!

[JamsCowbell]

I haven't tried the sand yet, there are a few guys on here that say it works well with foil over it to stop it getting messy. I looked for a big clay saucer at B&Q but they didn't have any. The only downside I can see is that it will probably weight a tonne when I have to take it out of the smoker.

[essexsmoker]

Hope your feeling strong!

I plan on tryinf it too. Although I have thought about using the lava rocks you get for gas units. Should be a bit lighter?

Let us know how it goes!

[fitasc]

Just found this older thread... a good friend has very kindly built a Heatermeter for me & I'm in the process of trying to sort out a fan & servo damper.

I have a 57cm WSM and trying to fit servo & fan using PVC tubing. Hoping that a bit of silicone tubing will give me enough thermal insulation to prevent the PVC melting. Will try and measure the WSM skin temp tomorrow when I smoke some pastrami.

Am I right in thinking that you're not using any kind of damper? If so do you have any problems keeping a low temp? Think I can sort the fan out ok, the servo damper is a bit more difficult to think about.

Cheers - Bob

[essexsmoker]

Just using a fan only. At the moment I've been struggling to keep the temp high enough!