3rd time using the grill. I’ve already cleaned it once…. The grill was talking longer than usual to ignite and then it went up in smoke. Any ideas??

by Benchwarmer1727

15 Comments

  1. highflyer10123

    Is this during startup? This is normal when starting up. It will be like this very briefly and then the smoke thins out.

  2. bernoodler

    If it took a long time to ignite the fire pot might have filled up. Now its burning a lot of pellets all at once instead of a few.

  3. shine0n4ever

    Normal on startup when there’s a clinker in the pot. Just let it go.

  4. petpeeve214

    Make sure you open the lid when starting. Also when shutting down. 🤪

  5. Bullitt420

    Post more pics of your smoker when it’s off.

  6. StevenG2757

    You need to clean the fire pot out after each cook.

  7. update on what happened? I have a searwood too so I’m curious

  8. Free-Leading160

    I experienced this yesterday for the first time using a different brand of pellets. They got stuck so my temp dropped. After I agitated they dropped into dispenser and same smoke as shown occurred. I believe just too many piled up and was not igniting properly. Smoke was so thick you could not see inside, but lifting the lid allowed more oxygen to come in, I heard a whoosh as though the pellets ignited and then within a minute I was fine and carried on with my chicken. If it would not have lit I would have just performed shutdown process and cleaned out. You should not have to clean out every time as there should be little ash. I clean twice a year.

  9. Melodic-Matter4685

    is that mesquite? Mesquite does that. thick white smoke that lingers. . . Fire Dept bait.

  10. tnrts345

    My XL smokes off but not this much. I do keep the lid closed during startup and shut down. Generally do a deep clean every 5th cook on it but I’ll run the grill at 600 for a few minutes before I shut down to burn off any pellets left in the fire pot. Have not had the intense smoke until I had some humidity that caused the pellets in the auger to be slightly damp

  11. My Camp Chef smoked like that the first several cooks.