CHALLENGER 2 PRE-ORDERS
NOW OPEN
EMAIL US AT SALES@ARMORTEK.CO.UK TO PRE-ORDER
CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS


Smoke Unit Temperatures

Forum for Armortek Owners to Meet, chat and share knowledge. You are advised to check 'official advice' before carrying out any modifications.
Post Reply
Kevin Hunter
Posts: 559
Joined: Sat Nov 03, 2012 9:10 am
Location: Guernsey, Channel Islands
Has liked: 598 times
Been liked: 145 times

Smoke Unit Temperatures

Post by Kevin Hunter »

If there is such a thing as an Armortek Idiot Of The Week/Month/Year award then perhaps I should be added to the list of nominees.....

They say that confession is good for the soul......... I have managed to cook my smoke unit :oops: :oops: :oops:

Proximate cause frankly was a combination of absent minded oversight, having no idea how much oil was in the unit and not wishing to overfill the unit. The long and short is that the smoker ran dry, overheated and lead to a small "engine fire" as the nylon/plastic part of the unit caught alight.

Has this ever happened to anyone else?

I blame absolutely no-one except myself. However, looking forward I think it would be a good idea if the smoke unit could be modified with some kind of fail safe? I know it is possible to buy preset thermostatic switches, at reasonable price, which would open and cut off the power if the smoker case got too hot. I plan to buy one, but in order to get the right cut out point does anyone know the optimum operating temperature for the smoker?

Annoyingly, my DX8 comes with telemetry options but I was using the temp sensor to monitor the batteries. In future the loop will be wrapped around the smoker case with an appropriate high temp alarm on the TX. Belt and braces.

Finally, every cloud has a silver lining. For Gill and Mark, they will be able to sell me more spares for my Cent :D For me, the interior of my engine compartment now has some very realistic weathering! :D

Regards
Kevin

User avatar
Adrian Harris
Posts: 5076
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2007 10:46 pm
Location: Berkshire (UK)
Has liked: 1421 times
Been liked: 1603 times

Re: Smoke Unit Temperatures

Post by Adrian Harris »

I must say I've never heard of a smoker unit catching fire like that before. :shock:

The elements used are from soldering irons and, if run when outside of the smoker unit, will glow a nice orange colour. I'm not sure how long for though... :shock:

The elements are actually from soldering irons, and already have a thermocouple built into them. I have used a Dallas chip to monitor the temperature of one of these elements, with the idea of modulating their power consumption, so that they didn't act as such a drain on the main batteries, but gave up on the project due to lack of time.

Adrian.
Contact me at sales@armortekaddict.uk for details of my smoker fan control module

michael hilton
Posts: 1197
Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2011 4:29 pm
Has liked: 1564 times
Been liked: 835 times

Re: Smoke Unit Temperatures

Post by michael hilton »

Hello Kevin, sorry mate you are not the first to fry your 'smoker'. I managed the same mistake on my Comet. I thought my error was caused by a short circuit..just an excuse really. Ring Gill and all will be forgiven :) Mick

Kevin Hunter
Posts: 559
Joined: Sat Nov 03, 2012 9:10 am
Location: Guernsey, Channel Islands
Has liked: 598 times
Been liked: 145 times

Re: Smoke Unit Temperatures

Post by Kevin Hunter »

Adrian Harris wrote:I must say I've never heard of a smoker unit catching fire like that before. :shock:
Well I was quite surprised too. :lol:
Attachments
image.jpg
image.jpg

User avatar
Adrian Harris
Posts: 5076
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2007 10:46 pm
Location: Berkshire (UK)
Has liked: 1421 times
Been liked: 1603 times

Re: Smoke Unit Temperatures

Post by Adrian Harris »

Eeuuuuww :shock:

Not quite the smoke you were hoping for :!:

Adrian.
Contact me at sales@armortekaddict.uk for details of my smoker fan control module

Robin Hinson
Posts: 109
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 10:10 pm
Location: BEDFORDSHIRE
Been liked: 1 time

Re: Smoke Unit Temperatures

Post by Robin Hinson »

Me too I'm ashamed to say on my King Tiger, mine actually caught fire but luckily for me I was close enough to it to put a CO2 extinguisher on it. However, the loom and fans all went up in smoke. Replaced the lot but reluctant to use the unit now. Nope, your not the only one

Best of Wishes

Rob

Kevin Hunter
Posts: 559
Joined: Sat Nov 03, 2012 9:10 am
Location: Guernsey, Channel Islands
Has liked: 598 times
Been liked: 145 times

Re: Smoke Unit Temperatures

Post by Kevin Hunter »

Michael / Robin.............. Thank goodness it wasn't just me! I feel a bit better now :)
Kevin

Stephen White
Site Admin
Posts: 3110
Joined: Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:05 pm
Location: Dorset
Has liked: 1024 times
Been liked: 2094 times
Contact:

Re: Smoke Unit Temperatures

Post by Stephen White »

To add to the theme that confession helps the soul, I was dead impressed with the smoker on my Pz III at Yeovilton Air Display the other day . It was managing to exude great swathes of smoke from every orifice of the tank. It impressed the crowd no end. I did vaguely register that it also seemed to be consuming fluid at a rate of knots.

It was only when I got home that I discovered that the heating element had worked loose and was only partially engaged in the mounting boss. Smoke everywhere. Luckily, I didn't suffer spontaneous combustion of the rear end of the tank and all is well. Mark suggests cable ties to keep it in position. I'm certainly going to do that now.

Smoking can damage your wealth.....

Stephen

Kevin Hunter
Posts: 559
Joined: Sat Nov 03, 2012 9:10 am
Location: Guernsey, Channel Islands
Has liked: 598 times
Been liked: 145 times

Re: Smoke Unit Temperatures

Post by Kevin Hunter »

Thought you may wish to see why you should never run the smoke unit dry - well, not for too long anyway! :oops: :oops: :D

Image

Image

Image

Post Reply