southern pride smoker

Paul S_3

Does any one know about kitchen equipment....I'm working on a "southern pride" Smoker....its gas fired and they also put wood logs for taste??....with a s8610u spark ignition module and a vr8304 m gas valve....I'm having pilot issues seems like its pulling away and not sending flame correctly

Tim McElwain

That is a pretty typical

intermittent pilot ignition system. Have you checked micro-amps when the pilot is running? It would also be a good idea to do a combustion test with an electronic analyzer just in case you have a combustion problem pulling the flame away from the sensor.



Also the fact that you have an S8610U module says at some point the module was replaced was that recent?

Paul S_3

Tim

I checked the micro amps its 1.5.....this is a smoker to smoke meat there is no flue pipe it vents into a overhead commercial kitchen exhaust how would I be able to do a combustion test on this?....they also burn wood logs in the same chamber where the gas burner is..I adjusted the air louver on the side of the gas burner it helped with the pilot issue now it happens when the burner is off for a good amount of time when I cycle the Burner on and off the pilot lights every time ...but when its off for lets say twenty minutes it had trouble staying on....as far as the s8610u control this is a continuous retry control....the one before locks out after only one fault can that be a problem too?

Paul s

Tim McElwain

No vent is part

of the problem. Is the ventilation system on all the time the unit is running? If not you may not be getting products of combustion out of the combustion chamber. These units also require frequent cleaning so I would take it all apart and give it a good cleaning.  You can still take combustion readings by sticking the probe into the exhaust. We do combustion testing on unvented heaters so yours should be no problem to test.



Remember venting (natural draft) is created by temperature difference and chimney or vent height, you have neither one so it will be difficult to create draft and also sustain it. We used to have the same problem with rooftop equipment with standing pilots. The retry on the S8610U is not a problem as a single lockout would be a nuisance.



The microamps are low I would like to see between 2 to 10, 3 to 5 is normal.

Paul S_3

thank you Tim

Ventilation is on all the time....the literature saysthe exhaust fan should not exceed 1100 cfm....I will check exhaust fan tomorrow...can that cause problem...I would believe so... Paul a

unclejohn

Forget the

Combustion test. Clean the flame sensor and your done.

unclejohn

You may

Also want to blow some nitrogen through the pilot tube to clean that out. Then your done.

Tim McElwain

I strongly recommend

a combustion test be done on every service call in order to insure safe and efficient operation. In addition to that if you are trained in combustion analysis it can lead you to particular problems that otherwise would not be detected.

unclejohn

Don't know how

You would do a combustion test when you have a gas and wood fire?

Tim McElwain

Unclejohn

have you ever worked on one of these? I had a restaurant service business for nine years and have worked on several of these over the years.



You first fire on just gas and make sure you are within the operating parameters on gas then have the folks you are servicing set it up for wood flavoring. You then take readings to minimize carbon monoxide levels.

unclejohn

Actually I

Have Tim. I used to do a lot of work for Red Hot & Blue. Not tring to give offense or anything but the issue is the pilot. Also those smokers are design to have the gases blown around inside the oven and I'm not sure how that would effect combustion readings.