First time snack sticks and thermo processing
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taufrecht 30 hours for snack sticks is way too long so there are a few things that could be going on here. (sorry, I know we’ve kind of moved on but I wanted to point this out)
You might have gotten case hardening, where the outside of the casing either cooks or dries too quickly. At -8 I hope you warmed up your smoker first and then tried to keep the doors open for short periods while you loaded it? Adding humidity is a good way to increase the thermal processing energy as it fights off the stall and helps convey the heat more effectively into the meat.
Last thing, it COULD be an issue with your PK-100. I remember someone else saying something similar recently. I hope they don’t have a bad batch of controllers or something out there. Using a thermometer that can check the ambient temperature in the smoker is probably idea.And, of course, finishing in water speeds everything up!
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processhead i bloom mine with a fan blowing on them. Works good.
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smokinbubba the term “bloom” i dont quite understand, the look of my snack stix, summer sausage and ring bologna has the same look from finished out of smoker to 20 minute ice bath to 1 hour set dry time and after overnight in fridge before packaging. So not really sure on the term or what it is supposed to do
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Bloom is basically a resting period after the ice bath. Some smoked products will develop a nice mahogany color. It also dries a little. It really helps my sticks that were finished in sous vide. Didnt see much color change in thise tho.
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I used the MEATER thermometer. The internal ambient temperature never got close to the setting of the PK100. I even set it up to 250 degrees at high watt setting. The temperature never got above 150.
What would be my next step? -
taufrecht call customer service at proSmoker
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Could be several things causing that.
- Bad temperature probe telling the controls that it is hotter than it actually is, so the controller doesn’t call for the element to turn on.
- Bad control board.
- Bad or intermittent wire connection between control board and the element.
- Bad heating element. Usually when they go bad, you will get zero heat .
Depending on your skills and comfort troubleshooting electrical power equipment, you may want to have a technician look at it for you.
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processhead i assume it is under warranty, if that is the case only a certified technician can dive into it.
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I read that on the directions
I bought it from Walton’s last month.
Sure hope they will stand behind the warranty -
Yes, if its under warranty, exhaust all those options first.
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taufrecht I have forwarded your information to the manufacturer to see if they know what this might be. Hopefully they will respond quickly with a “fix” if not it is possible that they will need to contact you directly. I will let you know what they say asap.
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Jonathon, please post what you find out from the manufacture. I had previously submitted a request for help from the group for a similar occurrence with my PK-100 and my first and only so far attempt to make snack sticks. I got some suggestions to try the next time but overall I came away with the conclusion that it can’t keep up with Iowa winters at either temp setting.
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Thank you for your continued support. I called them last week and left a message. They never called me back. I had to finish my snack sticks in my Traeger. I didn’t purchase a PK 100 to use my pellet grill.
Thank you -
Give Bill Rink a call, he is a service representative for PK. Cell # 920-370-1684 or 563-359-7967.
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This post is deleted! -
I contacted Bill. He said the PK100 will Not work well in cold weather. He did give me some ideas. I will push my smoker outside my garage and complete the smoking process in cold weather. I will then put my smoker inside my garage and complete the cooking process
More to come.
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