Started 4 pork butts planned to do unwrapped overnight on a freshly cleaned 1 year old Traeger Pro 780. At 12 hours in I notice smoke is only coming out of the hopper. This went on for a hour then water began dripping out of the back of the hopper. I open the hopper lid feel the moisture right away so I leave the lid open a half hour and everything seems to be good again. It’s 3am now so I lay down set alarm for 6am hop up to discover flames in the hopper. The material in the fire pot seems to be sandy not ashy from the moisture but my biggest concern is in the ash were chunks of what appears to be melted aluminum. I used an off brand pellet because the chef store didn’t have the traeger brand so I’m guessing the metal must have come from the pellets? Did this come from the pellets in the auger burning through to the hopper? Has anyone else experienced this problem?
by Cautious_Return89
5 Comments
Hey! It looks like you posted an image!
If this is a photo of one of your cooks, maybe share the recipe and techniques
used, as it’s almost guaranteed one of the first questions you will be asked!
*What seasoning did you use?
*How long did you cook it, and at what temperature?
*Did you use any special tricks or techniques?
Traeger on!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Traeger) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Had something similar happen but not as bad as this. If you don’t catch it early this is like worst case scenario. I believe it happens due to a couple things. Some of which you mentioned. If the pellets are crappy and have too much moisture in them that causes them to burn weird. When it burns weird they usually last longer in the pot . Meaning it will get backed up , filling up your pot and jamming your auger , which if the fire is big enough will spread down that chamber into your hopper which is exactly what happened.
Another time this can happen without moisture is if your built in traegers thermometer that monitors the temps inside is not accurate
Looks like your pellets got wet and lost their integrity causing them to slowly ignite in the hopper, we’ve seen this before.
I would freak.
It looks like your pellets were very moist, got jammed, and caught on fire. That’s one of the worst I’ve seen yet