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Dennis Condensate at Guru Port Seems to have ruined the Fan

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I have noticed the last time I used the Cooker , That a small amount of water ran out of the Guru port.. I attribute this to condensation collecting there somehow unless it is juice or grease that has collected somehow..

Dennis It would seem that there is a slight angle on the tube that causes the liquid to drop out. Meanwhile the liquid seems to have run into the fan and shorted it out so that I now have to replace the 4 month old fan (ouch)

I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this draining problem ??If so, perhaps the guru port needs a slight downward angle to prevent this. another option is to have the kind of shield on the inside of the tube similar to the one used on a steel firebox.. This secures the inducer tube and prevents anything from running down. The air exits the bottom of the shield. On the other hand, that shield may not work due to the slight curve inside the firebox.. (could use some hi temp silicone to seal..)

Just thinking as I type... (bad idea)

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It would seem very difficult to get liquid into my Guru tube, it sticks inside past the wall at least an inch or more, and behind the firebox wall leaving a very small target for a drip. Any existing condensation would seem to get blown in. When in operation I can't imagine condensation occurring as you would normally be blowing colder air against a warmer pipe, the opposite of typical condensing conditions. I'm stumped.

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Hmmm -- Excellent point.. I just looked at mine.. I used a relatively short tube I had from another other cooker so that it does not project outside the cooker.. On the inside however it does project in about 1/2". It does have the slight angle to the outside though.. There is no way I can change that.

It is a mystery.. The liquid does have a brown/gold cast to it though.

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It is above the floor and it does project in about 1/2".. has happined a couple of times. It happined when weather was warmer also.. Don't know about hot. Could moisture be condensing on the inner wall behind the fire box and running down ? Unlikely ..That would seem to be the only way in unless it is moisture condensing on the inducer tube itself.

Constantly cooled tube with fresh air in warm environment of cooker.. Hmm.

The more I think about it , I bet it is humid cool input air on a humid day.

It cant drain into cooker because of tilt of inducer tube.. You might want to look at that angle .

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I bet it is humid cool input air on a humid day.

It cant drain into cooker because of tilt of inducer tube.. You might want to look at that angle .

Lets assume the condensation is happening during use, the input air would have to have a butt load of moisture in it to get condensation on a tube that should be at a higher temp (after a few mins). Condensation happens when the condensing surface reaches, or falls below, the dew point of the air it is in contact with. (if the dew point is below freezing, you get frost) Typically it is warm moist air on a cooler surface. Think of the bathroom mirror when it encounters high moisture air from a hot shower, if the mirror is below the dew point of the air you get fog (condensation) on the mirror. If put the blow dryer on the mirror the fog disappears (you have raised the temp of the mirror above the dew point of the air, and the moisture leaves the glass and returns to the air. Hot air can hold more moisture that cold air.

If the temp inside the KK was below the dew point on initial fire up and you used the guru from the get-go, you could get some condensation, however, it should be very short lived as the internal temp (and tube temp) should rise very quickly and stop condensing.

Wouldn't the moisture run out the crack of the guru damper before it gets to the motor? I'll have to look at mine later.

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If you look at the fan from the bottom, it's virtually impossible for the condensate to short the fan. All of the electrical components of the fan are mounted on the top. The bottom of the fan is open so even if water did leak into it, it would leak out the bottom.

This is the 10cfm fan, not sure what the 5cfm fan looks like but I can't imagine it would be much different.

Hope this helps,

Joe

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I get heavy condensation in my mexi-k when I leave it sealed up. It collects on the inside of the dome as the dome heats up in the sun. Over several days there can be so much condensation that I have a small puddle in the drip pan I used to leave on the grill. It will even sometimes run down the back of the inside of the dome when I first open it.

It takes some time for the condensate to get this bad, and cracking the dome open a tiny bit to vent seems to cure it. I just need to remember to back the dome open some the day after I cook :D

As soon as I get a KK with the lip around the dome, I can even do so in the summer, when it pours down rain for 30 minutes a day!

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Well there seems to be a consensus that the fan failure is coincidental..

I can live with that. If that is the case than the water doesnt matter.

If it is not condensation in the tube then how is the water getting there if the inducer tube protrudes into the body 1/2" ?? It must be condensation on the inside of the KK somehow running down the side and around the lip of the inducer tube... That seems improbable. It may be getting to the space between the inducer tube and the inner diameter of the guru port which is a sloppy fit which I glued/sealed with silicone to hold in the inducer tube.

A mystery.

Rory

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I also had lots of condensation in my Mexi-K Guru port (rarely under 80% humidity here, especially if it is warm - hehe). But I used it quite frequently and never had a fan failure. If the fan was not running, the water would have just ran out on the ground the way my fan is positioned and would not of mattered with the fan running. I think they are also using the brush-less DC fans, with any connections being on the top side (at least with mine), I would have to go with coincidence too.

-=Jasen=-

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Guru Fan Replacement!

I was having an email conversation with Rorkin tonight about his Guru fan, and this jogged my memory (don't know why it did not the other week when we had this discussion here). Well I remembered in my not too distant past I was into overclocking CPUs pretty heavy on computers. So more fans, liquid cooling or cold junction thermocouple cooling was the big things. One of my experiments was buying these small blower motors from radio shack for around $3 each to which I build mounts to attach to the inside back of my computer to help pull out more heat. Everything worked well, but I thought my puter would hover at any moment - hehe. Anyway, I just went and dug through my computer parts dumping area - hehe - and found one of those blowers - sure enough it matched up to the Guru's 12v blower (10cfm model) perfectly down to the mount holes (and it is 180 mA which would be fine on the Guru power supply). Can't be sure the CFM produced from each fan is exact (without taking them to work), but they felt and sounded (air passing over ears) very close. Really as long as the CFM rate is anywhere close between 4-12 , it will be good since the Guru will regulate itself and only pulses the blower when needed. Anyway, I found the website for this fan (radio shack must not carry them anymore as I looked there) - http://www.nidec.co.jp/english/product/fm/fm.html . If I find a distributor, I will post that too.

-=Jasen=-

Well, I found the specs on the model fan I have (A34342) - http://www.nidec.com/fanpdfs/gamma28.pdf and it turns out to be a 9 CFM fan - so perfect replacement.

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I just installed my new inducer tube.

I cut down the 4.5 inch tube, and after reading this thread, and looking at the angle, I decided to make the cut an an angle, so any condensation (or coals) that might fall would not roll down the tube.

Here's the result:

aV3lXRi.jpg

The image is upside down from the way it installs in the side, so there is a protective overhang over the end of the tube.

After installing it, I found that the angle should have been even a bit steeper! The end of the tube inside is vertical, but there is no overhang.

Cheers,

Mike

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saving my guru fan

I have a guru and a BGE. I get condensation when doing a low and slow. my guru is on the down wind side of my egg and with a loot of wind and it being below freezing the smoke was blowing out of the fan and watter was dripping. I plug in my fan with the fan on the top now. 8)

I am trying to decide if i want to turn my egg around. so the the bottom faces the wind or put a little flapper on my guru port to stop back flow.

Jeff

Still trying to convince my wife to let me have one of these babies

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