Auger tube purging?

[Linefinder]

Here's the scenario.....

My last cook was a low and slow using apple pellets. This time I want a fast hot (~15 min) cook using hickory. I went through the shutdown procedure after my last cook. However, the auger tube still has a considerable amount of apple pellets in it.....

Even after filling the hopper with hickory there are enough apple pellets left in the tube that, given the short cooking time, the cook will be done before the hickory even reaches the fire pot. By a wide margin. I tried vacuuming them out, and even blowing them out with a leaf blower. There was still quite a few apple pellets left in the tube.

Pro22 doesn't have an independent auger control. If the auger is moving, you're burning.

Any suggestions/tricks?

 

[bluecrab]

Use a shop vac to suck out all of the old pellets? That's what I did with my old Rec Tec smoker.

 

[Linefinder]

Yeah, I did that. Still enough packed in there to cook for half an hour.

 

[ThrillinAndGrillin]

"Prime" the auger until it ejects all the pellets. You'll need to pull them out of the firepot as they come out.

EDIT: Ah, sorry - read afterwards you were running a Pro 22 w/ no Auger controls

 

[bfletcher]

If a 15 minute cook is an indication of a high-heat cook then why not let the apple wood preheat the smoker?

 

[Linefinder]

"Prime" the auger until it ejects all the pellets. You'll need to pull them out of the firepot as they come out.

EDIT: Ah, sorry - read afterwards you were running a Pro 22 w/ no Auger controls

Yeah, that's the problem. I love the simplicity of the Pro 22, but an independent auger feed feature would be really nice.

 

[Linefinder]

If a 15 minute cook is an indication of a high-heat cook then why not let the apple wood preheat the smoker?

Though I haven't tried that, there seem to be enough pellets left in the auger (that I can't reach, even with a straightened coat hanger)that the "warm up cycle would take 45 min or more before the leftover pellets were gone. That turns a 15 minute burger job into an hour or more.

OTOH, maybe apple or cherry isn't bad on burgers. Never tried it. Time to learn, I guess.....

 

[bfletcher]

OTOH, maybe apple or cherry isn't bad on burgers. Never tried it. Time to learn, I guess.....

Yeah, those wood species may not be bad at all on burgers. Plus, some folks say that on such a short cook and high temp they cannot distinguish what wood was used.

I don't know how many "buttons" are on a Pro 22 but might there be a secret power-up sequence that would only spin the auger? Maybe scour the web or email Traeger?