Cold Weather start?

[BBQ Snipes]

OK, guys, just trying to do a smoke up in the frozen North! (-28 today) When I powered up my Brunswick, it gave me the ERP error code. This code is the improper shutdown code so I tried to shut down and power up again. And no luck It still. I hear the fan running but the error code won’t clear. Could be that the machine doesn’t have a error code for “it’s too fuckin cold” TFC?

Anyone else been crazy enough to try and do this with a Bruswick at -28?

Suggestions would be appricaieted

Thxs

Frozen Smoker

 

[Mike From R.I.]

Did you unplug it from the outlet then try restarting it?

 

[BBQ Snipes]

Did you unplug it from the outlet then try restarting it?

Yes but I’ll try it again and see if it clears.

 

[Redoctapus]

OK, guys, just trying to do a smoke up in the frozen North! (-28 today) When I powered up my Brunswick, it gave me the ERP error code. This code is the improper shutdown code so I tried to shut down and power up again. And no luck It still. I hear the fan running but the error code won’t clear. Could be that the machine doesn’t have a error code for “it’s too fuckin cold” TFC?

Anyone else been crazy enough to try and do this with a Bruswick at -28?

Suggestions would be appricaieted

Thxs

Frozen Smoker

Man it's 75f here in Sunny South Cackalacky!
If you didn't unplug it, try unplugging for a minute.
You can do a "manual" restart by filling the burn pot and pushing fresh pellets to onside. Then light the pellets with the torch. Get a little burn going, put more pellets in and then power up and hit start.

If you have a little LP Torch.

You can do this if you ever have an igniter fail and you need some smoked meat before the new igniter arrives.

 

[Redoctapus]

Man it's 75f here in Sunny South Cackalacky!
If you didn't unplug it, try unplugging for a minute.
You can do a "manual" restart by filling the burn pot and pushing fresh pellets to onside. Then light the pellets with the torch. Get a little burn going, put more pellets in and then power up and hit start.

If you have a little LP Torch.

You can do this if you ever have an igniter fail and you need some smoked meat before the new igniter arrives.

Mike beat me to the reply button!
Cool let us know if it works.

 

[Steve In Pa]

For my vertical it struggled at zero degrees F around Christmas. Tossed a couple error codes, auger noises, etc. Since the warm up no probs.

 

[Cowboy1955]

OK, guys, just trying to do a smoke up in the frozen North! (-28 today) When I powered up my Brunswick, it gave me the ERP error code. This code is the improper shutdown code so I tried to shut down and power up again. And no luck It still. I hear the fan running but the error code won’t clear. Could be that the machine doesn’t have a error code for “it’s too fuckin cold” TFC?

Anyone else been crazy enough to try and do this with a Bruswick at -28?

Suggestions would be appricaieted

Thxs

Frozen Smoker

The best way to stop that is to put the cover on it. Cover it with a blanket then place a heater under it and turn it on.
It will get the grill warm enough so you can fire it up without gettin that code.

 

[Redoctapus]

The best way to stop that is to put the cover on it. Cover it with a blanket then place a heater under it and turn it on.
It will get the grill warm enough so you can fire it up without gettin that code.

That's good Intel! It's kind hilarious!
I used to have a nick name, Fair Weather Fitter, long story.

So we have a bunch of fair weather smokers! Bahahaha

 

[BBQ Snipes]

The best way to stop that is to put the cover on it. Cover it with a blanket then place a heater under it and turn it on.
It will get the grill warm enough so you can fire it up without gettin that code.

WOW, that works? Good to know I was gonna do that with a blanket and space heater, now I'll try it for sure!

Thxs

W

 

[WT2121]

I have pulled my Navigator inside during extreme cold weather. Let it warm up about an hour. I pull it pack on patio and quickly start it. Error code disappeared each time and it worked throughout the day. I inquired to Pitboss. They said it will work in cold weather. Mine did not until I got it inside and got it warm. I am only talking about the controller.

 

[BigdogBTS]

I tried to use the brunswick this winter in sub-zero temperatures to smoke a prime rib for christmas eve dinner. Here's the issue: Pitboss does not use a low temperature grease in their auger motor gear housing. This means that even with no pellets in the hopper, the brunswick struggles to turn the auger when temperatures drop below freezing, which WILL cause it to throw errors. I completely disassembled my unit in the snow to verify (I had a dinner to cook). Once the auger gear housing came up to "room temperature" inside the house, I reassembled the unit and placed a space heater under it to ensure that nothing cooled down. This worked to keep everything moving until the smoker was up to temp, and was generating enough heat to keep things warm on it's own. Just to verify, i smoked some chicken the next time we dropped below freezing. Same situation, but without the disassembly: the space heater was necessary to allow the auger to turn until a point that the smoker was "warm enough" to keep everything moving. Hope this is helpful to everyone.

 

[MikeInFla]

Ran mine on Christmas as well while in blizzard like conditions. Took a while the get started. First I put it on 250 and it errored out because it took to long to reach temp. Then I set it to 200 and hit the prime button. No issues after that and then set it to 250 like I wanted it.

 

[Shielrl]

Know issue here, turn the temp way down, let it struggle to heat itself up. Uger will crawl for 30 minutes then start working as it warms up. In the winter in MD, I remove the screws to the pot cover so i can slide the cover out and drop a handful of pellets in so it moves faster...

 

[Cowboy1955]

Know issue here, turn the temp way down, let it struggle to heat itself up. Uger will crawl for 30 minutes then start working as it warms up. In the winter in MD, I remove the screws to the pot cover so i can slide the cover out and drop a handful of pellets in so it moves faster...

Welcome from Texas to the group.

 

[Sparky]

Welcome to the club