I was about 26 hours into a 20 lbs pork butt smoke. I noticed the temp dipped after wrapping the butts at 165 degrees and went out to investigate. The pot tipped over and the auger over filled and created a forge pretty much.
I had removed the pork before doing the shutdown which caused the forge effect.
Not sure why the pot tipped over but pretty concerning if this would have happened over night. Really makes you rethink it on the deck. Near Darwin Award.
by nonconstant
1 Comment
I’ve seen too many videos of pellet grills having grease fires, an auger jam, or something else going wrong to ever leave it for an overnight smoke on my deck. I scrape off and wipe my grates and flavorize bar, and hand vacuum and scrape the inside after every single cook. I also empty the firebox after every cook. Every 2-3 cooks I deep clean the entire thing and remove all of the inside pieces and wipe them off and scrape into the corners. I try to remember to to empty the hopper after every cook to prevent the pellets from building up with humidity. To do what I do after every cook takes about 10-15 minutes and I do it the following day. In the summer it’s not fun when it’s 100 degrees and sunny, but in the cooler months it’s not a problem. Even with everything I do I still always have a slight concern in the back of my mind that something bad could happen.
Sorry this happened to you. These are machines and my feeling is that no matter how well I take care of it there is always the possibility, even if it is 1% that something goes wrong.