I performed a deep clean and vacuumed all components a few weeks ago as I noticed a decent about of smoke coming out of the hopper. Smoke has still progressively been getting worse.
Today the hopper caught on fire and the grilling session had to be cancelled.
Could this be caused by the auger /pellet feeding mechanism failing?
by valtrex77
16 Comments
I keep the lid open when I am lighting the pellets as it will get more air flow and should catch sooner.
What did rectec say when you called them? I know some pellet manuals says to close the lid when lighting/start up, but this makes no sense froma safety perspective, keep the lid open until the startup procedure is complete.
What kind of pellets are you using? Is the auger moving for sure. Maybe the auger speed is adjusted to slow if it’s working.
It’s been my experience that this is caused by the powdered bits of the pellet bag when you dump the whole bag in. The embers catch the wood powder in the auger tube on fire and they back burn up the tube. Opening the hopper lid will expedite the back burn because it gives the heat and smoke somewhere to go.
I wonder if putting a little gasket to better seal the hoper would stop back burning up the tube.
You need to clean the vents on the back of the grill. If they’re blocked with grease and grime it will come out the hopper.
With that much smoke though it looks like the pellets are burning in the auger
Your vents are possibly blocked in your lid. This restricts the air flow. I had the same issue.
Did you clean out the vents in the lid? This happened to me once on my Bullseye, but not as bad as your pics. I took a wire brush to the lid vents after and that cleared it up. They were blocked enough that smoke couldn’t really get out.
Agree with above about dust. In addition, the burn pot being overfilled with ash can add to this problem. I had a Pit Boss do this with I was fairly new to pellet grills and burned the whole thing up because I wasn’t keeping the thing cleaned up enough.
I now use a shop vac every 5 cooks or so to thoroughly clean everything out and avoid pouring the dust at the bottom of the bag into my hopper.
I loved my original bullseye, my new one has been constant problems. Support has gone way downhill too, last time we talked they said 300 degree temp swings which put out the fire were normal.
I had a similar experience and had to buy a sifter I shake the pellets before i add them to the hopper. I am pretty aggressive shaking them to get all the broken and dusty pieces.
Scrape all the creosote built up in the vents and around the entire edge of the grill top and bottom where the lid closes
Out the food in the pellet box.
It will be bad
I can taste this picture. Happened to my old rt 700 a few times. Thats a kind of stink you dont soon forget lol
Holly smokes!
Posts like these make me very happy to smoke on a drum smoker