RTD sensor replacement on Pit Bosss Titan model PB1600CST

[Pitman#193]

Hello Pitman,
Thanks for writing and keeping me in the loop. With regards to the hopper and removing it from the barrel, as you saw on the string I talked to Cowboy, and I'm on my way out there this morning to further investigate the hopper and see if I can't get it off. I mean, I need to get it off!!
I also want to mention that I called PitBoss this morning and yeah they're not really totally up to speed on every nut and bolt, in fact not many of the nuts and bolts really, but the guy I talked to talked to his other buddies there and the consensus was yes, you should be able to take it off, so I am hoping I can figure it out, should be able to probably seems to be a very reputable source! Either way I am going to post information. I am seriously thinking about putting a YouTube video up, I've never done one but this information should be out.
Please reach out to me directly if you'd like to about the RTD replacement or running something internal to the barrel. A bit of work but I think it could be done.
With regards to your temperature differences that you mentioned using the probes and the thermometers, I wanted to add that I don't think those temperature are that abnormal and yes it is talked about by others, but I believe that is more or less a natural occurrence given the design features of the PitBoss. By that I mean that the fire pot is essentially located in the center of the barrel and the fan is blowing air from left to right as you face the grill. That means that the fan picks up the hot air from the fire pot and pushes it farther to the right side of the barrel which is why I believe you see the difference in temperatures across literally every PitBoss, including the Titan. As you may know the fellow at SMOKES LIKE A BOSS. com sells adapter kits, including one for the Titan, which are installed to mitigate the temperature discrepancies across the grill. Video on his website, specifically the Titan portion of his website, is pretty impressive. Having said that I called and talked to him, a really nice guy, ordered the kit for the Titan, got it, installed it and had all sorts of issues with it. I could not duplicate what I've seen in the video on his website. I am assuming it's error on my part, the set up is pretty simple. I reached out to him about a week ago, have not heard back yet but I am planning to pursue this probably sometime next week once I get past the issues I'm having now.
In the past (and something you might want to think about doing right now giving your temperature discrepancies) I have stuck a Traeger
Disposable drip tray liner between the top of the flame broiler plate and the bottom of the lower grill, basically acting as a heat shields. I have had really good luck with this and I have an IR camera, a cheap one, that I looked at the grill and it does mitigate the heat significantly.
You can buy these off Amazon or lat Ace Hardware, it's not much for a pack of six. You might try one of these immediately so to speak and see if it affects your current situation. If nothing else, it will give you a little bit of ability to control things during a cook. Traeger makes different size liners for the different size grills and the liner size that you want for a Titan is a BAC410 Drip Tray. as I said you can find that exact number on Amazon and if you have a local ace hardware possibly there too.
I have attached pictures here of myself doing the bread test on my Titan before and after one of these drip trace is installed. You'll see the difference is pretty significant. The burnt edges you see towards the front of the grill are actually my error from putting the bread out in the direct heat path along the side of the grill, that was an error on my part. The darker toast on the right side corner is accurate and I believe reflects that heat I talked about being carried from left to right across the grill and passing up from below.

All right I'm off to my Hopper!!

John

I have seen a number of posts from people using the Flame Tamer from Smokes Like a Boss and they all seem to say they don't work. They cover the top of the pot but leave the front and back open to the heat and that is the problem with all that heat pouring up the sides right onto thje RTD probe. If the bracket was open from side to side instead of front and back it might work. Someone on a post suggested balling up some aluminum foil and placing it under ine RTD probe between the back wall and the didduser plate edge. I will probably try the waterpan diffusion and the foil next. There has to be a solution if everybody is having this problem,. Don't know why Oit Boss engineers haven't figured it ot.

 

[Pitman#193]

You’re welcome
They do come off
My theory is it got put together so hence it comes off
Let me know how it goes sir

An up to date video on you tube regarding the Titan would be great and I am sure would help a lot of people.

 

[Cowboy1955]

I have seen a number of posts from people using the Flame Tamer from Smokes Like a Boss and they all seem to say they don't work. They cover the top of the pot but leave the front and back open to the heat and that is the problem with all that heat pouring up the sides right onto thje RTD probe. If the bracket was open from side to side instead of front and back it might work. Someone on a post suggested balling up some aluminum foil and placing it under ine RTD probe between the back wall and the didduser plate edge. I will probably try the waterpan diffusion and the foil next. There has to be a solution if everybody is having this problem,. Don't know why Oit Boss engineers haven't figured it ot.

I have one on my 820 and never had a issue

 

[Pitman#193]

I have one on my 820 and never had a issue

Yes, but the Titan is a whole different animal and what works on other models doesn't seem to wotk on the Titan. When I had my Austin XL1000 a couple of years ago and had the diffusers and RTD shield on it and they worked great stabilizing the temps. I guess I should have kept my Austin.

 

[Pitman#193]

Yes, but the Titan is a whole different animal and what works on other models doesn't seem to wotk on the Titan. When I had my Austin XL1000 a couple of years ago and had the diffusers and RTD shield on it and they worked great stabilizing the temps. I guess I should have kept my Austin.

Just got off of a conference with Pit Boss. They are going to send me another RTD sensor to try. If that doesn't correct the problem they said it very well could be the control board

 

[Pitman#193]

Hello Pitman,
Thanks for writing and keeping me in the loop. With regards to the hopper and removing it from the barrel, as you saw on the string I talked to Cowboy, and I'm on my way out there this morning to further investigate the hopper and see if I can't get it off. I mean, I need to get it off!!
I also want to mention that I called PitBoss this morning and yeah they're not really totally up to speed on every nut and bolt, in fact not many of the nuts and bolts really, but the guy I talked to talked to his other buddies there and the consensus was yes, you should be able to take it off, so I am hoping I can figure it out, should be able to probably seems to be a very reputable source! Either way I am going to post information. I am seriously thinking about putting a YouTube video up, I've never done one but this information should be out.
Please reach out to me directly if you'd like to about the RTD replacement or running something internal to the barrel. A bit of work but I think it could be done.
With regards to your temperature differences that you mentioned using the probes and the thermometers, I wanted to add that I don't think those temperature are that abnormal and yes it is talked about by others, but I believe that is more or less a natural occurrence given the design features of the PitBoss. By that I mean that the fire pot is essentially located in the center of the barrel and the fan is blowing air from left to right as you face the grill. That means that the fan picks up the hot air from the fire pot and pushes it farther to the right side of the barrel which is why I believe you see the difference in temperatures across literally every PitBoss, including the Titan. As you may know the fellow at SMOKES LIKE A BOSS. com sells adapter kits, including one for the Titan, which are installed to mitigate the temperature discrepancies across the grill. Video on his website, specifically the Titan portion of his website, is pretty impressive. Having said that I called and talked to him, a really nice guy, ordered the kit for the Titan, got it, installed it and had all sorts of issues with it. I could not duplicate what I've seen in the video on his website. I am assuming it's error on my part, the set up is pretty simple. I reached out to him about a week ago, have not heard back yet but I am planning to pursue this probably sometime next week once I get past the issues I'm having now.
In the past (and something you might want to think about doing right now giving your temperature discrepancies) I have stuck a Traeger
Disposable drip tray liner between the top of the flame broiler plate and the bottom of the lower grill, basically acting as a heat shields. I have had really good luck with this and I have an IR camera, a cheap one, that I looked at the grill and it does mitigate the heat significantly.
You can buy these off Amazon or lat Ace Hardware, it's not much for a pack of six. You might try one of these immediately so to speak and see if it affects your current situation. If nothing else, it will give you a little bit of ability to control things during a cook. Traeger makes different size liners for the different size grills and the liner size that you want for a Titan is a BAC410 Drip Tray. as I said you can find that exact number on Amazon and if you have a local ace hardware possibly there too.
I have attached pictures here of myself doing the bread test on my Titan before and after one of these drip trace is installed. You'll see the difference is pretty significant. The burnt edges you see towards the front of the grill are actually my error from putting the bread out in the direct heat path along the side of the grill, that was an error on my part. The darker toast on the right side corner is accurate and I believe reflects that heat I talked about being carried from left to right across the grill and passing up from below.

All right I'm off to my Hopper!!

John

I had asked Pit Boss awhile ago about lining the drip tray with foil and they said no, that it could alter temp stability. Just got off of a conference with them and they are sending me another RTD sensor to try. If that doesn't fix it they said it could very well be the contron board. I will advise. It will probaably take a week to getthe new probe but I will post with the end result

 

[John.H]

Hi here's a mid afternoon update
I got back under my Titan, not easy to do since I can't walk, but I did it and I ended up removing the bottom plate which the hopper release pull handlepasses through. This plate is hinged on the barrel side of the hopper and has only two screws holding it in place . These two screws that hold it on are located on the left side of the hopper as you're looking at the control board. There is a third screw towards the front, but kind of obvious it's not in the same positions the other two, that serves as the ground lug for the 120 power cord coming in. This can be seen if you have the handle and/or dump valve plate I've talked about previously removed - you can look in there and on the right side you'll see the ground wire
So once I undid that ground wire and the other two screws this bottom plate basically fell on my face and when doing so the hopper pull handle swung free, no longer captured or held by the framework of the hopper box. Looking up from the bottom along the back wall I see three vertical screws mounts ( ie, a female lug / nut that a screw screws into from the other side ) on each side of the auger shute leading up into the barrel. I believe these serve to hold down the framework upon which the hopper box is installed onto the barrel. No other screws are visible for loosening on the inside and I had a very clear view.

I need to deal with the wire connectors and wiring leading to the control board next to be in a position to try to remove the hopper itself but I believe it will be doable at least at this point I think it will. The control board has six hold-ins or plastic detents, I guess you might call them, three across the top and three across the bottom, that have to be released in order to allow the control panel to come out.
There are four screws that are accessible from the outside or the front of the control panel as you're looking at the hopper. This appears to be no value because you're basically uncoupling the framework upon which the control panel is inserted and there is not enough room due to the hopper configuration immediately behind the control panel, ie, inside the hopper box itself, to allow you to just push or do anything that would clear that area and allow the hopper box to be pulled off, so I don't think it's worth touching those four screws. Additionally, the two screws on the left are buried up in the corner of the inner hopper box and if you need to align or do anything up there it's virtually inaccessible.
You know, I can sit there and look it up at the wiring the box and everything else and just picture in my mind a couple of people on an assembly line putting this together and I try to basically backwards disassemble / deconstruct what they had to do on that assembly line. It seems pretty clear the control panel has to come out and once the Tywraps securing the various wires inside the Hopper box are cut, then there appears to be enough cable length/wire length such that all the wiring could be pulled out and the wire connectors clicked together outside, and then the complete assembly, including the control panel, be mounted into the hopper box. As I said the control panel is held in by plastic detents. no screws, so it makes sense you click all the wires together and simply push the control panel into the mouth of the frame that goes around it. It would click in place and you'll be done. The next guy on the assembly line would have to reach up and secure the Tywraps around the various wires.
A few days ago I saw a PitBoss related video somewhere on YouTube talking about these detents on the control panel and removing them, but I don't remember WHERE. It's out there though
PS - when I removed the bottom plate and freed up the hopper pull handle, i.e. it was just hanging in air, I was able to work the hopper release mechanism without any issue, so that problem is solved for me. Apparently the auger motor jamming and torquing around hit the plate and jammed the linkage assembly used to open the hopper dump valve or plate. There is more than enough play there such that when I removed the bottom plate and freed to handle it basically freed up the linkage that had been bound up.

All right, I have to rig some fishing gear for my wife, and I'll probably hit this tonight once the sun goes down I can use my flashlight to have better visibility on the interior.

John