Smoking pellet box?

[DrewL]

Anyone ever deal with the pellet box smoking during shut down?
Something internal I may need to worry about?
On a Ironwood 650

 

[JPSBBQ]

Odd to see on an ironwood as they have a shut down cycle that should eliminate that sorta thing. First off, I would close the lid to eliminate any possible draft in that direction.

 

[RustyJake]

I have only had that one time on my IW650. It was an auger fire that was th culprit for mine smoking back through the pellet hopper. Not sure what caused it because I had started with a clean grill and vacuumed firepot. At the time I blamed the pellets (I was trying a new brand and type of pellet), but I doubt that was the reason.. it was a one time thing for me. Hasn't happened again

 

[RayClem]

Is your circulation fan blowing properly. That should keep the heat away from the pellet box. If the fan fails, then you are relying on natural convection. Since the Ironwood does not have a chimney, you do not have a natural draft like you would with smokestack grills.

 

[Slimpicker]

I would definitely run the PRIME feature to push those burning pellets into the POT where it's more safe, but empty the hopper first.

I know you wrote this yesterday but just for future times.

 

[cooklet]

I had a similar problem which I eventually attributed to powder from the pellets that accumulated in the hopper and the auger tube. I emptied the hopper and vacuumed away the powdered pellets. Which seem to have cured the problem.

 

[Lbeberdick]

Anyone ever deal with the pellet box smoking during shut down?
Something internal I may need to worry about?
On a Ironwood 650

I have the Silverton 810, My instructions say that after a high temp cook, reduce the temp to 200 and let cool to that temp and hold for 15 minutes before starting shutdown. i have never had smoke in my pellet box following that procedure.

 

[RayClem]

I have the Silverton 810, My instructions say that after a high temp cook, reduce the temp to 200 and let cool to that temp and hold for 15 minutes before starting shutdown. i have never had smoke in my pellet box following that procedure.

That makes a lot of sense.

 

[Scraper84]

Anyone ever deal with the pellet box smoking during shut down?
Something internal I may need to worry about?
On a Ironwood 650

I had this happen with my Ranger, tho not during shut down. Apropos a YouTube video about hacks on a Ranger, for things to improve smoking. I stuffed the vents and grease spout opening with tin fioil and added a gasket to the lid. Ran with temp set at 350. After a while white smoke was pouring out of the hopper side. I shut off power, opened the lid Of the hopper. Clouds of white smoke. Thinking fire in the auger I started pPrime and watched as burning, smoldering pellets were pushed into the fire pit Which I scooped out and tossed. Shortly clean pellets came out and I let it run to be sure it was OK. I removed the foil and opened the vents Cleaned out the fire pit and left some clean pellets. Restarted at 350. Temp cycled nicely around 350. Probe on GrillGrates cycled around 410. C
Cooked a delicious ear of corn, Moral seems to be leave the vents alone.

 

[Megasmoke]

This happened to me when I used Plum wood pellets. The firepot was stuck with a thick ashy wood that wouldn't burn up and caused the pellets to backup and start burning in the augur before they dropped into the firepot.

As soon as I removed the "clinker" and shopvacced the ash, the rest of the pellets fell in and burned correctly.

Knottywood claims:
What you got is what we refer to as clinker. Because we use the whole tree including the bark where the knots and minerals are, when burned the dust mixes with the minerals and crystallizes with the dust to form the clinker. The size of the clinker corresponds to the cook time so if you use the plum for a shorter cook it shouldn’t be so much of a problem. It is an issue we are working hard on to resolve.

But I've avoided this pellet ever since and haven't had a problem. I could see getting similar results if anything else burns too slowly, is wet, or has a similar pellet makeup and jams up the firepot.

 

[RayClem]

This happened to me when I used Plum wood pellets. The firepot was stuck with a thick ashy wood that wouldn't burn up and caused the pellets to backup and start burning in the augur before they dropped into the firepot.

As soon as I removed the "clinker" and shopvacced the ash, the rest of the pellets fell in and burned correctly.

Knottywood claims:
What you got is what we refer to as clinker. Because we use the whole tree including the bark where the knots and minerals are, when burned the dust mixes with the minerals and crystallizes with the dust to form the clinker. The size of the clinker corresponds to the cook time so if you use the plum for a shorter cook it shouldn’t be so much of a problem. It is an issue we are working hard on to resolve.

But I've avoided this pellet ever since and haven't had a problem. I could see getting similar results if anything else burns too slowly, is wet, or has a similar pellet makeup and jams up the firepot.

Some woods are particularly susceptible to clinkers. Apple is another tree whose bark is high in silica and can experience the issue. I got clinkers when running Pitt Boss apple pellets. Some trees like oak are typically debarked before chipping and grinding, so blends are less likely to have an issue.

 

[mpolanco]

Anyone ever deal with the pellet box smoking during shut down?
Something internal I may need to worry about?
On a Ironwood 650

It's happened to me several times during the shutdown cycle. I just let it burn out.

 

[RayClem]

The Traeger grill smoke most during times when the pellets are not burning efficiently. That occurs primarily during startup of a cold cold grill and during the shutdown process.

Although Traeger says you should shut the lid during startup, I always leave mine open until I know the firepot has ignited and smoke starts to billow from the grill. Then I close the lid. That way, I know that the startup process is proceeding normally.

Although you can leave the lid closed during the shutdown cycle, I usually leave mine open until the grill has cooled to ambient temperature.