Smoke in pellet hopper?

[TexasTaylors]

Hello! New to the forum, just bought a used Lone Star Elite model TFB52QOB. It was in pretty good shape, just needed cleaning up. I took it down to parade rest and got it up & running. Cooked a great first meal on it last night, but after about 20 minutes at 350 F smoke started coming out of the hopper (see photo). I pulled out all of the extra pellets and they weren’t burning. It was just coming back up out of the auger. Cooked another 40 minutes while it did this, no troubles maintaining temperature. Is this normal? Something I need to repair / replace?

 

[Slimpicker]

Is this normal?

NO not at all.

 

[TexasTaylors]

NO not at all. View attachment 6590

Any suggestions as to what might be wrong?

 

[Slimpicker]

Well, are your pellets fresh?? Are they NOT Traeger pellets (Traeger pellets can have a lot of dust that can cause an auger fire)
Did you clear and clean out your auger before use of your USED grill???
Is your fan working properly, no weird noises or anything??

Now I'll let some of the others ask Qs too, we have several threads in here about this and the solutions.

 

[TexasTaylors]

Thanks for the tips. Strange that’s its doing this because it cooks just fine. Didn’t start smoking from hopper until about 20 minutes into cooking at 350.

using brand new bag of Traeger mesquite pellets - bought yesterday. Very dry here.

When I cleaned up the grill I vacuumed out everything I could reach. What’s the beat way to completely clear the auger tube?

How would I know if the fan was a problem?

 

[Slimpicker]

SMOKE COMING OUT OF THE HOPPER​

 

[TexasTaylors]

SMOKE COMING OUT OF THE HOPPER​

Thanks for sending this link - it was a good read. I also called Traeger tech support, and was impressed that they quickly answered the phone and I could speak to a human being.

Based on the advice in the FAQ and from tech support, I pulled the bottom grate off again and looked at the fan. It is rotating the correct direction (pushing air up into the chamber) and spins freely by hand. No soot deposits - blades are all white and intact, spins too fast to see when the grill is on. I went to the firebox to feel for a draft, and with the fan running I can feel air coming up out of the fire box, but it's not super high flow or high pressure. When I lay a piece of paper over the fire box it pushes the paper off, so I know air is flowing, but not sure how much air pressure to expect.

How hard is it to pull the airbox apart and look at the auger tube, heat rod, etc? Not sure if I should do this much surgery or not...but would be comforting to have a peek inside and make sure there's no varmint nests in there blocking flow, etc.

 

[Slimpicker]

Not sure if I should do this much surgery or not...but would be comforting to have a peek inside and make sure there's no varmint nests in there blocking flow, etc.

I'd have to agree... plus you would learn something about your grill that's valuable...

My fan probably pushes the volume of the chamber out in 10 seconds or so... I light my smoke tubes first, before I "ignite", once that fan turns on my whole chamber is pushed out... so if your fan is not that strong (or didn't 'seem' strong ) to you, then I'd check it out

 

[TexasTaylors]

Well we cooked carne asada tonight at 450 F and no smoke in the hopper, so who knows what it was. Maybe all the cleaning did the trick somehow.

 

[Timmy]

Well we cooked carne asada tonight at 450 F and no smoke in the hopper, so who knows what it was. Maybe all the cleaning did the trick somehow.

In theory the fan runs faster when doing hot and fast, and runs slower when doing low n slow. I’d still check the tunnel where the auger tube runs for an obstruction.