The Overnight Cook In Which I Have Nothing To Show For...

I was pretty excited about this cook, as I was doing it for my employees at work for having such an outstanding quarter.

This cook however, was just not meant to be.

I purchased a 10lb brisket and 17lbs of butt on Monday. I prepped the butt's first, then moved on to trimming up the brisket. Well, as I was trimming up the brisket, my knife slipped and I cut my finger. Small amount of blood hit the meat, even though I was wearing gloves. Without thought, I trashed it, I wasn't going to put anyone at risk even though I'm clean as a whistle.

Yesterday on my way home, purchased another brisket, trimmed it up, rubbed it down, no cuts

Cracked up the MAK around 5:00p, put all the meat on at 5:30. Proceeded to let it smoke for 4 hours, then scheduled the MAK to run 225 the rest of the way. Went to bed at 10:00p. At some point before 2:30AM (most likely almost immediately after I went to bed) I woke up, checked my Maverick, brisket temp was 71 degrees.

I knew this was a bad sign, and it was...my GFCI outlet had tripped and power to the MAK was lost.

Needless to say, the meat had sat in the danger zone for a while without heat, once again not putting anyone at risk so I aborted.

I believe my extension cord is to blame for the trip, I will be replacing it. But, i'm going to take this as a sign I probably wasn't suppose to cook in the first place.

Anyone else had an experience with losing power to their MAK during a cook?

Wow, does sound like a cook that was not meant to be! Thanks for sharing.

Such a nice gesture for your guys/gals at work too!

An inverter & batteries may help guard against that happening. Here's a couple links posted in the forum a while back:

http://www.pelletsmoking.com/pelletsmoking-com-gallery-10/jimbotron-photo-link-636/

http://www.pelletsmoking.com/pellet...-advice-neat-power-source-pellet-cookers-294/

As TentHunter mentioned the inverter is how I do long cooks. Cutting your finger didn't help. I guess the positive is you had two bad things get out of you way.

I'm intrigued Jim, however I imagine you probably have a decent amount of $ in that?

Also, I had the same problem on the same outlet using the same extension cord with my Brinkmann mutliple times.

What is the liklihood the 16 gauge extension cord is to blame here?

Regardless I am going to purchase the shortest 12 guage cord I can find.

For the overnight cooks I used to use the alarm feature on my Maverick to alert me if the pit temp goes over or under the set temps. Now I use my Stoker for all monitoring and control. I've never had my MAK experience power issues during the night (knock on wood) but have had a few GFCI trips during the day which I caught quickly.

Why did you trash the first brisket? You could have kept it to cook for practice and eat yourself! Pretty sure 250* will kill any surface bacteria or virus

I would have probably kept it, but I had to go to work.

dude, i just glad your alright. your do it better next time which will probably be real soon anyway.

Thanks sparky. Cut was very minor no biggie...I have since purchased a new gfi outlet and installed it and picked up a new extension cord

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That's too bad Scott. You were doing a great thing for your employees. Are you going to redo the cook?

I once lost four pork butts in an overnight cook. I don't do overnight cooks very often but now use the low alarm feature on the maverick when I do.

It's hard not to be discouraged.
I've had this happen with my Cookshack, in the earlier days.

The MAKS that were coming out 14-15 months ago had issues with the heating element, however that situation was taken care of with MAK going to a different manufacturer for their heating elements. Check your serial number and inquire from MAK headquarters if it looks like that may be the culprit.
My MAK badge number is (#141)

OK.You can pretty much disregard my last post.
After checking your signature, I see that you have a MAK OneStar. The heating element shouldn't be an issue in that model.
Sorry for blabbing on

Its ok Trooper I have yet to lose an all night cook....and I wouldnt hear the maverick alarm...for the comps we use an inverter aka Jimbotron. Also make sure you check what else is in the circuit...maybe unplug unnecessary stuff while you are doing overnight cooks

Only have had one overnight misfire and that was when I forgot to top off the pellet hopper before heading for bed.......

Your extension cord might be the culprit but also check your GFI circuit like BP mentioned. Don't know how old your house is but GFI's do wear out and will go bad over time. Some are weaker than others to start with. Your MAK barely has any draw once it's lit and the fan and auger are the only things running. Hope you have better luck on your next attempt, at least you got all the bad luck stuff out of the way on one cook!

There was nothing else plugged into the circuit. All my plugs outside are on the same ciruit. So, I replaced the GFI, and have a new cord so I think we should be good to go.