Rec Tec pellet grill is one of the most popular grills which is well known for its super-built quality that lasts for a long time.
It is a versatile grill, as along with grilling, it can bake, smoke, roast, and dehydrate.
The Rec Tec grill allows you a cooking space of over 1000 square inches.
It enables you to grill from anywhere with its advanced wi-fi technology.
This grill comes with many modern features, one of which is the “App” it runs on.
The amazing customer support is another great thing about this grill.
This grill doesn’t only grab your attention with its good looks but is a great performer as well!
When you grill often, you sometimes require to correct certain mechanical issues.
Like, you may experience your Rec Tec pellet grill is overheating.
Rec Tec pellet grill is overheated due to many reasons such as opening the lid frequently, weather conditions, bad pellets, and grease fire.
It also happens due to a bad temperature sensor and faulty controller.
Though there are myriad reasons for Rec Tec overheating, but the good news is there are various solutions to fix it.
Here you’ll get to know in detail the main reasons and solutions to fix the overheating issue of your grill.
Why is My Rec Tec Pellet Grill Overheating?
Sometimes your Rec Tec grill is showing higher temperature than you set ones or overshoot the temperature.
It means the Rec Tec is Overheating. We will get to know here what are the reasons for overheating the Rec Tec grill.
The Rec Tec may overheat due to few reasons. They are as follows:
Opening grill lid frequently
Most of you have seen the temperature swings when you open the lid of the grill especially if the lid stays open for a while.
When you are cooking something on your grill, you should be patient and should not open your grill lid frequently.
The frequent opening of the lid affects the internal temperature of the grill.
When you open the lid, the internal temperature of the grill drop.
Then the controller will overshoot the temperature to compensate for the set temperature.
You will see a spike once you close the lid and you will have more feed pellets in the pot.
When the lid is closed that extra pellets have to burn, hence there is a spike in temperature.
That could cause the controller to overcompensate for lost temperature.
Weather condition
One of the biggest reasons for temperature swings or overheating on your Rec Tec pellet grill can be something beyond anyone’s control- it is the weather.
Cold weather, wind, rain, hot weather, direct sunlight can affect the temperature of your Rec Tec.
If your Rec Tec is Overheated frequently, the Weather condition could also cause for happening this.
If there is hot weather, humidity, or direct sunlight on your top of the grill, you’ll have the issue to keep the temperature low.
On hot sunny days, the grill gets pretty hot. This may have a quite big impact on temp control.
So, try to keep your grill out of direct sunlight.
Pellets may be the culprit
While using a pellet grill, pellets play a key role in maintaining grill temperature.
Sometimes pellets may cause overheating your pellet grill. Some pellets burn hotter than other ones.
Some other brands of pellets hold the temperature better if you don’t open the lid but if it loses temp it takes forever to get back.
There is temperature fluctuation or overheating that may arise due to using non-reliable or bad pellets.
Ash accumulation
If you are lazy and do not clean out ash due to laziness, then you may get into trouble with Rec Tec cooking.
Due to excess ash accumulation, you may face the problem of your Rec Tec Overheating. The excess ash causes choking the fire.
Ash build-up is natural when you’re using any pellet grill, but it requires to be removed at regular basis.
Otherwise, it could lead to temperature swings, improper heating, or overheating.
Cleaning of grill plays a vital role in holding the set temperature of the grill.
If you clean it regular basis, it will definitely perform great.
Bad temperature sensor
If you are noticing that the Rec Tec is overheating, then it is because of a bad temperature sensor.
The temperature sensor may be bent and touching to the side of the grill.
So that it may show inappropriate temperature or higher temperature.
If the temperature sensor is not clean and a lot of dirt and grime accumulated over the temperature probe, it results in showing wrong or higher temperature.
Grease fire
You may have overheating issue on Rec Tec due to a grease fire in the cooking chamber.
A grease fire in your pellet grill is a result of grease or grease fumes igniting when in close contact with fire.
Grease fires generally start on the drip tray and spread from there.
Bad PID controller
If you are facing overheating issue with your Rec Tec, it may be happening due to the bad PID controller.
A controller is a thing that controls the pellets that going into the fire pot.
If it is faulty, it may feed more pellets into the fire pot and you will face overheating problem with your grill.
The bad controller will show the wrong temperature on your grill and causes overheating.
How to Fix Rec Tec Pellet Grill Overheating?
Don’t open the lid frequently
When you are cooking on your Rec Tec, Patience is the key.
When you throw some pork butts or other meat cuts or food for cooking in your Rec Tec, you should not open the lid frequently or keep on eye.
The Rec Tec will do the rest of the job for you!
Your grill doesn’t need babysitting, you can control it even from your comfortably sitting in your air-conditioned room with its advanced wi-fi technology.
If you are noticing that your grill is overshooting the temperature, it may because of the frequent opening of the grill lid.
But if you open the grill for wrapping or marinating your meat or checking the meat temperature you can use a little trick to lessen or prevent the temperature spike.
If you are going to open the lid for some inevitable reason longer than 30 seconds or so, turn the controller down to LO.
Do what you need to do like wrapping, marinating, etc. Then reset the controller back after the lid is closed.
Adjust Feed rate
If your Rec Tec is overheating then you may need to knock down the pellet feed rate to a lower number. It means you are turning down the auger speed.
If you are adjusting through the Wi-Fi, go on your app and adjust the feed rate down to 3.0 and you’ll be good to go.
For Rec Tec you have to set it at 35 at the gill or 3.5, if you are adjusting with the iPhone.
You need to experiment around those numbers, you can adjust grill temperature according to climate conditions.
You may need to altitude when you go far at 6000 ft. as it runs differently.
Try changing the pellets
Pellet brand can easily change your grilling or smoking game.
You can prevent overheating by using pellets of the right brand.
For using pellets, Rec Tec doesn’t recommend that use only Rec Tec pellets. You can use any brand’s pellets.
Pit Boss competition blend found the most reliable pellets for most of the Rec Tec users.
The Pit Boss competition blend works great, especially with Rec Tec.
There are no wild temperature swings which are usually caused by pellets bridging over the auger.
The Pit Boss competition blend pellets holds the temperature better than other pellets. So, it can avoid overheating of the grill.
This Pit Boss Competition Blend pellets are the best bang for the buck for cooking pellets and for results on the cook.
Ash cleans out
When you won’t start the grill then clear out the ash from around the fire pot. Remove the cooking grill, drip pan, and fire pot cover.
Clean the whole area using a brush after opening the lid. If the grill is cold, you can use a shop vacuum.
Start your grill on the “Smoke” setting. If your Rec Tec grill goes out on the smoke setting clean the ash.
Empty the ash regularly and keep the fire pot always clean.
When you clean out the grill on regular basis and the ash still builds up, make sure you have installed the fire pot and heat baffle properly.
In this way, you can maintain overheating or protect from this issue.
Check temperature sensor
If your Rec Tec is overheating or showing higher temperatures than set ones, then you have to check the temperature sensor.
You need to check that the temperature sensor is not bent and not touching the wall of the grill.
The temperature sensor of the grill should be clean so that it shows the right readout of temperature.
If you find there is a lot of dirt and grime accumulated over the sensor, you have to clean it properly.
So that it can show the right internal temperature of the grill.
For checking the accuracy of the temperature, you can compare the temperature with another reliable sensor.
It is a good idea to check the temperature with a second thermometer.
Check the readout on both temperature sensors and compare them for a more accurate result.
Also, you need to check the connection of the temperature probe.
Ensure that the temperature probe is properly connected to the controller board RTDA tabs on the grill.
If the temperature sensor is faulty, you need to replace it with new one.
Get to Know Here How To Clean Rec Tec RTD Probe?
Foiling drip tray properly
If there is overheating issue with your Rec Tec grill, then you may need to check the drip tray.
Make sure it is foiled properly otherwise it creates overheating.
If the foil overhangs the sides of the tray, it could cause airflow and heating issues.
Rec Tec recommends covering the middle section of the drip tray and not up the sides and over.
Clean out the grease
You should keep your grill clean, especially any drip pan areas to prevent a grease fire.
If you are cooking on your Rec Tec with greasier foods, like bacon, you may need to clean more often.
Change the foil on the drip tray more often if you are cooking something greasy or when it is needed.
Make sure the grease is flowing smoothly down the drip tray and into the grease bucket or grease tray.
You should check for grease pooling. “Grease pooling” means an area where grease is collected instead of flowing out into the proper channels.
Grease Pooling caused by some different things like inappropriate placement of the drip tray or drip tray liner, foil which is not flush to the drip tray, damaged or dirty drip tray, dirty or damaged grease trough, etc.
If a grease fire happens, switch off the grill immediately. Wait for some minutes for flames to go out.
If the fire doesn’t extinguish itself, you may need to douse them by using baking soda or kosher salt.
Replace the PID controller
If you are a newbie, it is also important to ‘learn’ the controller and adjust its settings accordingly.
If your grill is overheating give it a little time and keep an eye on it.
In some cases, the temperature controller is faulty. So it may cause an overheating problem.
So, you need to replace the PID controller with a new one.
If your grill is under warranty, you can contact Rec Tec support and get a new one.
Contact Rec Tec Support
If the overheating issue persists even after applying the aforementioned solutions, you will need to contact Rec Tec support.
Rec Tec support is very responsive and many grill users have an amazing experience with them for solving their specific issue.
You can contact them by giving them a call or send an email and see what they will say on this issue.
What is Rec Tec Feed Rate Adjustment?
Your Rec Tec is specifically programmed and calibrated to achieve consistently perfect results for every single cook.
But still, Rec Tec gives you some power to change some parameters inside the controller of the grill.
So that you can customize it as per need and preference.
You can access your grill with the setting button on and off position.
To access the feed rate, you need to hold the setting button for 5 seconds.
When you press this button, you can see OFS or AUG on the display in the top right. Here AUG is used for the minimum feed rate for your grill.
It will enable you to customize the minimum number of pellets that are feed into the fire pot.
You can set the minimum feed rate from as lowest as 30 to high as 250 stock value.
The lowest stock value 30 minimizes the amount of pellets feed into the fire pot. It will give you the lowest temperature.
Rec Tec doesn’t recommend any specific brands of pellets.
So, if some pellets don’t burn well, you need to turn your minimum feed rate as high as 100 or even higher than that to prevent the flame out.
Once you get the minimum feed rate as per your desire, hold the setting button for 5 seconds to exit.
Then your display on the grill will go blank or go back to your set point.
You can adjust the feed rate in two ways;
The first way is to adjust with the PID controller on the grill as mentioned above.
The second way is controlling using the app on your phone.
Hit the little gear icon upper right side and click on the minimum feed rate.
Set it as per your desired temperature. Both ways work equally.
Final Thoughts
Though there are myriad reasons for overheating your Rec Tec grill, but there are so many different ways to fix it out.
So, you need to find the right reason for occurring this issue and fix it accordingly.
If you can’t solve this issue yourself, then I recommend contacting Rec Tec support.
Hope this guide has given you the much-needed information to get back on track.
Best of luck, and happy grilling!
Resources:
https://www.recteqforum.com/threads/overheating.3302/
https://www.recteqforum.com/threads/new-rec-tec-340-is-overheating.2043/
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/729770/Rec-Tec-Grill-Rt-680.html?page=19
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