So today I decided to smoke the pork butt I didn’t have time for last week. Last Saturday was my first time using my Pro 34 and it all went well. Well today I was probably 6 hours into my cook and suddenly I had a steep temperature drop from 250 to the low 100s within just a few minutes. I took the butt off, finished in the oven, and then checked my fire pit and I had a bunch of pellets in there.
How do I ensure on these longer cooks I don’t run into this again? I cleaned it out after the first cook last week and don’t want to run into this issue again.
by WelziTheGreat
7 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!
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I’ve made it a habit to clean it before any cook.
And be sure to use the shut down process. Burns out what pellets you have in the firebox.
Get in the habit of cleaning your smoker. I have a vacuum dedicated to cleaning out all that ash. Otherwise the heat rod gets covered and can’t ignite the pellets. The controller keeps adding more, waiting to pick up a temperature rise at the temperature probe. It’ll eventually time out and give you the LeR code. (Or something like that) I strip mine down and clean it after 10 smoking hours. So 3 consecutive tri tips, or 1 pork butt. Keep the probe clean too.
Mine did this to me didn’t matter how much I cleaned it, if it wasn’t a flameout it was an auger fire or not reaching a set temp. Always seemed to be something
Make sure you make sure you put it to shutdown not just turn the switch off
Definitely not a cleanliness issue from the pic. Likely a bad fan or control board
Likely 1 of 2 things.
Either your hot rod got covered in ash/residue and couldn’t continue igniting the new pellets
Or your hot rod went out and needs replaced. They’re relatively inexpensive and easy to replace. I’ve done it 1 time on my Pro 34 in the 10+ years and thousands of hours I’ve smoked meats.
About every other weekend, or before a long smoke session, I like to take my Milwaukee leaf blower and blow out my smoker. Or a shop vac would work I guess. I prefer the cinematic experience of the leaf blower