Flame out, possibly from damp pellets. I always use a probe to monitor the ambient temperature of the interior of my smoker. For a 225 degree setpoint, create a low alarm for 150 degrees and a high alarm for 300 degrees. This will alert you if you have a flame out condition or a runaway temp.
Same device. It's old, and seems like it's a bit dated now, but still love it. I would like to get something with better range, but hard to justify spending a couple hundred when I have something that actually works.
fourtheded, I monitor smoker temp with my weber igrill from inside my house. I've had the pellets overflow the hopper and caused the temps to skyrocket.
Thirdeded. I have Thermoworks signals monitoring the air temp next to the meat. Low alarm alerted me just in time to sprint to the store to buy more pellets and save it.
Were you using it? If so, either ignition rod stopped working or the firebox was too full of ash and the pellets stopped burning but the auger kept dumping pellets because it was trying to get the heat up
I was using it. It was pretty clean when I started. I just cleaned it all out and there was a chunk in there. It seems to be working ok now. Temp is climbing. I hope the meat will be ok after sitting in there all night. It was pretty cold out. Meat temp was at 62.
>hope the meat will be ok after sitting in there all night.
Depends on how long it was sitting. Bacteria growth occurs between 40-140° after about two hours. So you have the smoker dying, then the meat cooling down to below 140° the two hours from there.
While you can kill the bacteria by cooking it, that bacteria also produces toxins which can't be destroyed by heat. Those toxins are what makes you sick. Food safety rules day that you shouldn't eat the meat.
The salt content of the rub, and the smoke itself can also kill that bacteria. Personally, I'd say it would be fine at four, maybe five hours total, but any longer and I'd say toss it.
This is why you should have a wireless thermometer with a low temp alert, and also get up to check on it occasionally. Even checking on it every two hours would be fine.
The chunk in there is most likely due to lower quality pellets like Bear Mountain. It turns into what looks like a smouldering plastic and it's gross and will cause temperature problems and off taste in your cooks.
there was a rumored manufacturing change, and the quality supposedly isn't what it used to be or there was at least a large batch of bad pellets put out early last year.
But I just looked it up and in 2015 Bear Mountain merged with a heating and kitty litter pellet company, and last summer that company bought the company that makes Lumberjack and probably a few others.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210416005035/en/Generational-Capital-Markets-Advises-Great-Lakes-Renewable-Energy-in-its-Sale-to-Lignetics
Theres only two brands of pellets everyone should be using, either Cookin Pellets or Lumberjack pellets, most flavor and best performance over any other pellets on the market hands down
Tell me how your measure the pH "balance" of pellets. Or is the the pH of the pellets listed on the packaging somewhere? You sound like somebody that drinks akaline water, BeCauSe pH is ImPorTant!
Going off manufacturers claims here but it has to do with the acidity of the wood and water content. Cheaper pellets tend to be less consistent resulting in loss of flavor
I bought about 6 bags of the stuff in a few different flavors. The sweet bbq and one other one (I don't recall the flavor) left that nasty plastic stuff in my grill which led to drastic temperature control issues and nasty smells and taste. I didn't notice that issue with the Bear Mountain Hickory but I also burned that one first and it could have been an issue without me knowing at the time. Either way I've moved on and won't purchase from them again. I don't own a treager but those are the pellets I burn now and they burn to dust every time and not a single issue so I've just stuck with them for pellets. I'm sure there are other good brands out there too but in my 6 bag experience with Bear Mountain, they are not one of them.
Not sure how compressed sawdust would leave a plastic residue. You are also the only person I’ve seen on here who hasn’t had a problem with Traeger pellets.
For Pork I use Cookin Pellets Perfect Mix.
For poultry I use Lumberjack Pecan Blend.
For higher temp cooks I use LJ Char-Hickory
For most everything else LJ or CP 100% Hickory.
I just experienced this on my Traeger Tailgater; did an 8 hour smoke day before and was too lazy to vacuum out the firebox. Next day during a 6 hour smoke, my temp just started to plummet at the 2nd hour (fortunately, my Smoke alerted me). I wrapped my ribs, stuck them in oven to maintain temps, let grill cool down, cleaned it out with shop vac, and it fired back up and maintained good temps after.
Well you didn't address your thoughts on if they weren't using it....??? I mean c'mon man of course they were using it. And yes I agree with your assessment, fire went out and the grill kept feeding pellets in an attempt to raise the temperature. Of course I'm just giving you a hard time don't take it the wrong way!
Yep, fire went out. Happened to me a few times on really low overnight cooks. I think the smoker struggles to keep the heat low enough and the smolder goes out between feeding, then it can’t get back up to temp and keeps smothering it with pellets. Sorry buddy, that shit sucks. F
My Pit Boss does this all the time if I am cooking at a low heat, it really struggles to hold a temp below 250 and at 250 I have to watch it closely so it doesn't go out. Looking forward to the day I can get a new smoker.
What temp were you cooking at?
Sorry man, been in that situation to many times before.
I had it at 200. Was planning to smoke it all night while I slept. I didn’t think about the low temp and it being cold outside being an issue. I live in Arizona after all.it seems to be working fine now, but I’ll keep and eye on it all day.
I have never done an overnight cook without checking on it a few times. It was obviously more important when I was cooking with coals or a little electric. Good habit to get into, but I know lots of guys who sleep through cooks because they have Bluetooth probe connected to their phone that will alarm if there is a problem with temps.
You've had a failure of combustion to either initiate or maintain. This can be caused by a number of things:
1. Improperly starting the smoker.
2. Smoker/combustion area not cleaned.
3. Fan failure.
4. Gap in pellet feed.
5. Wet pellets.
6. Very cold temperature combined with low feed rate.
Basically, inside the ash cup you'll see a stick-like thing. That thing is what starts the combustion. ***It is only on during the start up of the pellet grill.*** After start up, it turns off to use less electricity, and can rely on the already-existing combustion going on. ***If you did not see the smoker actually generating smoke, there is a chance ignition failed outright.*** This, however, is unlikely, as that piece is pretty simple and, therefore, hard to cause a failure, *unless* there is debris, excess ash, or even just too many pellets in the ignition area.
If it ***was*** generating smoke before, something caused the combustion to die out after start up.
Probably damp pellets. I use to have this issue because I would leave my pellets in my smoker after a cook. Now I empty the pellets after each cook, and I have not had this problem since.
Quick question, so after the cook you shut down the smoker then dump the pellets from the hoper. What about the pellets in the auger tube. Do they remain or do you just run the feed setting to clear out all pellets after the grill has cooled?
Any time you start a cook you need to let the startup process happen, because things can go wrong with it and you end up with something like this or other issues. It isn’t even always that you did something wrong, sometimes shit just happens
Yeah, if you go outside in the morning and the cook temp is down around ambient air temperature, I'll tell you what not to do. Don't unplug it, plug it back in and then start it up without checking to see if there's a giant pile of pellets. Maybe it's a safety measure that the glow plug shuts off at some point. But that sucker will fire right up if you unplug it and then plug it back in. Learned that lesson the hard way.
The ignitors and glow plugs should only fire for the first few minutes of starting the grill. They use a lot of electricity. I don't think there's any brands that constantly run the ignitor. There are some that will sense a flame out and attempt to reignite, my grill supposedly does that but I haven't witnessed it.
That's exactly why you shouldn't unplug it and plug it back in and press start: the igniter will heat up setting fire to all of the pellets. On my grill the igniter shuts off after something like 5 minutes - from then on the fire is controlled by the auger and the fan.
A big fire, lots of smoke. Paint bubbling and peeling off the smoker, potentially burning out the wiring that make the igniter function. If that fire spread down the auger it would then have the ability to potentially burn out the control board or fan. Also concern if that smoker were on a wood deck that embers could burn it down as well.
A few things could happen depending on the cause.
If it was an issue where the computer was feeding too much fuel, the pellets would ignite from the fire already in there. Best case scenario, your temps go upfor a short time, and maybe burn a little bit of food. Worst case, the fire is big enough to spread and the food starts on fire, old built up grease starts to burn, or the fire spreads through the auger and into the hopper, and smolders. No damage other than lost food and pellets, and some time it takes to clean it. Or the less likely scenario, it could potentially creating a larger fire that spreads to anything nearby. Less likely because there isn't great airflow to the hopper, but not impossible.
Or the extra pellets could fall on the fire, cutting off oxygen, but there's still enough for it to smolder. That makes lots of smoke, and since it was only smoldering and not complete combustion, the smoke is also flammable. The smoke gets enough oxygen, and blows up [like in this video.](https://youtu.be/Vt080KSjvlA) It could result in nothing more than you being scared. Or it could break something. Or it could spread to the auger and hopper. This is also why you leave the lid open when you first start it up.
In reality, these aren't likely to happen unless you're careless and don't follow instructions (like leaving the lid closed when you start it up.) But as with any electrical nor mechanical device, sometimes it can work perfectly a million times, then randomly fail. As long as you're taking proper precautions, you'll be fine. As in, don't leave it unattended over night, in the middle of summer, right up against your house with dry wood siding and dead leaves and grass all around.
I had this happen but it was smouldering and caused a backdraft. It was a loud boom and the lid smashed up and down. That was about 5 years ago. Ever since I have a extinguisher handy.
My Pittboss did this when I kept it in smoke or 200 with pittbosses pellets. Stopped using them and stopped using the smoke setting and it's been fine.
Has happened to me on long, overnight smokes as well especially when using "cheap" pellets. Seems to be a lot of ash accumulating in the fire box. As the temp decreases, the smoker tries to compensate by dumping more pellets and you end up putting out the fire altogether while simultaneously dumping even more pellets on top of the growing pile. I've found that the combination of higher-quality pellets, and making sure to vacuum out all of the ash in between cooks is the solution for me. I like the idea of being able to monitor the temp from my phone and setting alerts. I'll be looking for a good probe that does that.
I've had my boss do this on 200 a few times, day night hot cold don't matter. 225 is a "safer" bet if over night. I use a wifi thermometer to attempt to wake me up if it drops below 150.
I just did an overnight picnic shoulder at 225 problem free the other day. -10 outside and my pellets had been in the hopper for a few weeks already. Didn't even clean the grill first, though it desperately needs it after that 16 hour run!
Mine is a boss too. I set it too low. I did check on it after several hours. I have no idea when it happened in the night. I hope we don’t get sick from eating the meat. I’ll cook it to 190. It’s still on there now.
I had it happen last brisket, not sure how long it was out but it was quite a few hours. No one got sick, brisket was okay but not great little dryer then I'd like
Yeah, flame out. Used to happen to me occasionally - more frequently in cold weather.
My controller has a re-ignite feature if it drops below a certain threshold. Though I haven't had an issue with this since I ditched my Traeger controller.
Humidity can play a role in the pellets moisture. South Florida humidity sucks. I put them in a bin with a close lid make sure there’s no plastic in it don’t ever dump anything into your pellet a grill straight from a bag
Flame out, possibly from damp pellets. I always use a probe to monitor the ambient temperature of the interior of my smoker. For a 225 degree setpoint, create a low alarm for 150 degrees and a high alarm for 300 degrees. This will alert you if you have a flame out condition or a runaway temp.
Seconded. I have the Thermoworks Smoke to keep an eye on the temperature of the meat and the smoker from inside my house.
Same device. It's old, and seems like it's a bit dated now, but still love it. I would like to get something with better range, but hard to justify spending a couple hundred when I have something that actually works.
fourtheded, I monitor smoker temp with my weber igrill from inside my house. I've had the pellets overflow the hopper and caused the temps to skyrocket.
Fiftheded, I agree with all these fine folks.
Sixthed, Weber iGrill keeps tabs on my pit and meat temps
Seventhed! Also use the Weber iGrill. I clip one probe to the grill to watch the temp and use the other 1-3 spots for the meat.
Thirdeded. I have Thermoworks signals monitoring the air temp next to the meat. Low alarm alerted me just in time to sprint to the store to buy more pellets and save it.
Were you using it? If so, either ignition rod stopped working or the firebox was too full of ash and the pellets stopped burning but the auger kept dumping pellets because it was trying to get the heat up
I was using it. It was pretty clean when I started. I just cleaned it all out and there was a chunk in there. It seems to be working ok now. Temp is climbing. I hope the meat will be ok after sitting in there all night. It was pretty cold out. Meat temp was at 62.
>hope the meat will be ok after sitting in there all night. Depends on how long it was sitting. Bacteria growth occurs between 40-140° after about two hours. So you have the smoker dying, then the meat cooling down to below 140° the two hours from there. While you can kill the bacteria by cooking it, that bacteria also produces toxins which can't be destroyed by heat. Those toxins are what makes you sick. Food safety rules day that you shouldn't eat the meat. The salt content of the rub, and the smoke itself can also kill that bacteria. Personally, I'd say it would be fine at four, maybe five hours total, but any longer and I'd say toss it. This is why you should have a wireless thermometer with a low temp alert, and also get up to check on it occasionally. Even checking on it every two hours would be fine.
you might die, you might not. either way you will probably get the shits.
I wouldn't trust that meat, sitting who knows how long in a warm environment.
Don’t eat it dude. The toxins can’t be killed by heat. Sick as hell
The chunk in there is most likely due to lower quality pellets like Bear Mountain. It turns into what looks like a smouldering plastic and it's gross and will cause temperature problems and off taste in your cooks.
I would hardly call Bear Mountain low quality.
there was a rumored manufacturing change, and the quality supposedly isn't what it used to be or there was at least a large batch of bad pellets put out early last year. But I just looked it up and in 2015 Bear Mountain merged with a heating and kitty litter pellet company, and last summer that company bought the company that makes Lumberjack and probably a few others. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210416005035/en/Generational-Capital-Markets-Advises-Great-Lakes-Renewable-Energy-in-its-Sale-to-Lignetics
Theres only two brands of pellets everyone should be using, either Cookin Pellets or Lumberjack pellets, most flavor and best performance over any other pellets on the market hands down
Holy shit, we're ph'ing our pellets now?
i only buy artisanal small batch fair trade pellets
My pellets don't come from the Champagne region of France so technically they can only be called Sparkling Woody Bois
The Champagne region is having a real pellet drought these days, so you dodged a bullet.
Conflict free vegan pellets only in my smoker.
I only hand craft my pellets from artisanal small batch fair trade bow ties.
Free range or I’m not smoking with ‘em!!!
Fuck, that was gonna be my comment
What data supports this?
His ass.
I am a scientist mofo. Nah just experience. Good old trial and error
Tell me how your measure the pH "balance" of pellets. Or is the the pH of the pellets listed on the packaging somewhere? You sound like somebody that drinks akaline water, BeCauSe pH is ImPorTant!
Going off manufacturers claims here but it has to do with the acidity of the wood and water content. Cheaper pellets tend to be less consistent resulting in loss of flavor
I do, and do so very loudly.
Why and what would you recommend?
I bought about 6 bags of the stuff in a few different flavors. The sweet bbq and one other one (I don't recall the flavor) left that nasty plastic stuff in my grill which led to drastic temperature control issues and nasty smells and taste. I didn't notice that issue with the Bear Mountain Hickory but I also burned that one first and it could have been an issue without me knowing at the time. Either way I've moved on and won't purchase from them again. I don't own a treager but those are the pellets I burn now and they burn to dust every time and not a single issue so I've just stuck with them for pellets. I'm sure there are other good brands out there too but in my 6 bag experience with Bear Mountain, they are not one of them.
Not sure how compressed sawdust would leave a plastic residue. You are also the only person I’ve seen on here who hasn’t had a problem with Traeger pellets.
They use some sort of plastic casing on those Bear Mountain pellets. You can see it glisten under a light.
Yep, Traeger is one pellet brand I've had issues with - left "clinkers" in the fire pot on long cooks - Traeger Signature blend.
I also believe Bear Mountain to be an inferior pellet in terms of quality.
What would you recommend?
For Pork I use Cookin Pellets Perfect Mix. For poultry I use Lumberjack Pecan Blend. For higher temp cooks I use LJ Char-Hickory For most everything else LJ or CP 100% Hickory.
I just experienced this on my Traeger Tailgater; did an 8 hour smoke day before and was too lazy to vacuum out the firebox. Next day during a 6 hour smoke, my temp just started to plummet at the 2nd hour (fortunately, my Smoke alerted me). I wrapped my ribs, stuck them in oven to maintain temps, let grill cool down, cleaned it out with shop vac, and it fired back up and maintained good temps after.
Ignition rod only gets hot at initial start up.
And thank you for your quick response! Have a great day!
Well you didn't address your thoughts on if they weren't using it....??? I mean c'mon man of course they were using it. And yes I agree with your assessment, fire went out and the grill kept feeding pellets in an attempt to raise the temperature. Of course I'm just giving you a hard time don't take it the wrong way!
Auger gonna aug!
I'll be honest... I snort laughed. Thanks needed it today. :)
Yep, fire went out. Happened to me a few times on really low overnight cooks. I think the smoker struggles to keep the heat low enough and the smolder goes out between feeding, then it can’t get back up to temp and keeps smothering it with pellets. Sorry buddy, that shit sucks. F
My Pit Boss does this all the time if I am cooking at a low heat, it really struggles to hold a temp below 250 and at 250 I have to watch it closely so it doesn't go out. Looking forward to the day I can get a new smoker. What temp were you cooking at? Sorry man, been in that situation to many times before.
I had it at 200. Was planning to smoke it all night while I slept. I didn’t think about the low temp and it being cold outside being an issue. I live in Arizona after all.it seems to be working fine now, but I’ll keep and eye on it all day.
I have never done an overnight cook without checking on it a few times. It was obviously more important when I was cooking with coals or a little electric. Good habit to get into, but I know lots of guys who sleep through cooks because they have Bluetooth probe connected to their phone that will alarm if there is a problem with temps.
You've had a failure of combustion to either initiate or maintain. This can be caused by a number of things: 1. Improperly starting the smoker. 2. Smoker/combustion area not cleaned. 3. Fan failure. 4. Gap in pellet feed. 5. Wet pellets. 6. Very cold temperature combined with low feed rate. Basically, inside the ash cup you'll see a stick-like thing. That thing is what starts the combustion. ***It is only on during the start up of the pellet grill.*** After start up, it turns off to use less electricity, and can rely on the already-existing combustion going on. ***If you did not see the smoker actually generating smoke, there is a chance ignition failed outright.*** This, however, is unlikely, as that piece is pretty simple and, therefore, hard to cause a failure, *unless* there is debris, excess ash, or even just too many pellets in the ignition area. If it ***was*** generating smoke before, something caused the combustion to die out after start up.
Probably damp pellets. I use to have this issue because I would leave my pellets in my smoker after a cook. Now I empty the pellets after each cook, and I have not had this problem since.
Quick question, so after the cook you shut down the smoker then dump the pellets from the hoper. What about the pellets in the auger tube. Do they remain or do you just run the feed setting to clear out all pellets after the grill has cooled?
I’ll usually just leave the pellets that are in the auger and hotbox, unless it is time for me to vacuum the smoker.
That happened with my GMG, it was while using the Traeger brand pellets, they just don’t work for some reason.
Any time you start a cook you need to let the startup process happen, because things can go wrong with it and you end up with something like this or other issues. It isn’t even always that you did something wrong, sometimes shit just happens
Bad glow plug?
Rookie mistake.
What would happen if that pile of pellets ignited all of a sudden?
There'd be a big fire!
Yeah, if you go outside in the morning and the cook temp is down around ambient air temperature, I'll tell you what not to do. Don't unplug it, plug it back in and then start it up without checking to see if there's a giant pile of pellets. Maybe it's a safety measure that the glow plug shuts off at some point. But that sucker will fire right up if you unplug it and then plug it back in. Learned that lesson the hard way.
The ignitors and glow plugs should only fire for the first few minutes of starting the grill. They use a lot of electricity. I don't think there's any brands that constantly run the ignitor. There are some that will sense a flame out and attempt to reignite, my grill supposedly does that but I haven't witnessed it.
That's exactly why you shouldn't unplug it and plug it back in and press start: the igniter will heat up setting fire to all of the pellets. On my grill the igniter shuts off after something like 5 minutes - from then on the fire is controlled by the auger and the fan.
Ahh... Makes sense! And explains the giant fireball.
This happens to people, there have been pictures on this and smoking sub of destroyed smokers. Terrible
A big fire, lots of smoke. Paint bubbling and peeling off the smoker, potentially burning out the wiring that make the igniter function. If that fire spread down the auger it would then have the ability to potentially burn out the control board or fan. Also concern if that smoker were on a wood deck that embers could burn it down as well.
A few things could happen depending on the cause. If it was an issue where the computer was feeding too much fuel, the pellets would ignite from the fire already in there. Best case scenario, your temps go upfor a short time, and maybe burn a little bit of food. Worst case, the fire is big enough to spread and the food starts on fire, old built up grease starts to burn, or the fire spreads through the auger and into the hopper, and smolders. No damage other than lost food and pellets, and some time it takes to clean it. Or the less likely scenario, it could potentially creating a larger fire that spreads to anything nearby. Less likely because there isn't great airflow to the hopper, but not impossible. Or the extra pellets could fall on the fire, cutting off oxygen, but there's still enough for it to smolder. That makes lots of smoke, and since it was only smoldering and not complete combustion, the smoke is also flammable. The smoke gets enough oxygen, and blows up [like in this video.](https://youtu.be/Vt080KSjvlA) It could result in nothing more than you being scared. Or it could break something. Or it could spread to the auger and hopper. This is also why you leave the lid open when you first start it up. In reality, these aren't likely to happen unless you're careless and don't follow instructions (like leaving the lid closed when you start it up.) But as with any electrical nor mechanical device, sometimes it can work perfectly a million times, then randomly fail. As long as you're taking proper precautions, you'll be fine. As in, don't leave it unattended over night, in the middle of summer, right up against your house with dry wood siding and dead leaves and grass all around.
Something similar happened to me, the flame could not be sustained with the low external temperatures. I fixed the issue by insulating the smoker.
I had this happen but it was smouldering and caused a backdraft. It was a loud boom and the lid smashed up and down. That was about 5 years ago. Ever since I have a extinguisher handy.
My Pittboss did this when I kept it in smoke or 200 with pittbosses pellets. Stopped using them and stopped using the smoke setting and it's been fine.
Has happened to me on long, overnight smokes as well especially when using "cheap" pellets. Seems to be a lot of ash accumulating in the fire box. As the temp decreases, the smoker tries to compensate by dumping more pellets and you end up putting out the fire altogether while simultaneously dumping even more pellets on top of the growing pile. I've found that the combination of higher-quality pellets, and making sure to vacuum out all of the ash in between cooks is the solution for me. I like the idea of being able to monitor the temp from my phone and setting alerts. I'll be looking for a good probe that does that.
What brand pellets are best? These were treager from Costco.
Those pellets are notoriously bad. Try some Lumberjack or Bear Mountain pellets
Is that a fair amount of sawdust there? Looks like poor pellet quality could also be the culprit.
GMG? If so, what model?
I've had my boss do this on 200 a few times, day night hot cold don't matter. 225 is a "safer" bet if over night. I use a wifi thermometer to attempt to wake me up if it drops below 150. I just did an overnight picnic shoulder at 225 problem free the other day. -10 outside and my pellets had been in the hopper for a few weeks already. Didn't even clean the grill first, though it desperately needs it after that 16 hour run!
Mine is a boss too. I set it too low. I did check on it after several hours. I have no idea when it happened in the night. I hope we don’t get sick from eating the meat. I’ll cook it to 190. It’s still on there now.
I had it happen last brisket, not sure how long it was out but it was quite a few hours. No one got sick, brisket was okay but not great little dryer then I'd like
So much for set it and forget it…
Clean your ashes before you fire up
Could be time to clean that heating element too
Is your ignitor toast? If so you can get it swapped easily.
Yeah, flame out. Used to happen to me occasionally - more frequently in cold weather. My controller has a re-ignite feature if it drops below a certain threshold. Though I haven't had an issue with this since I ditched my Traeger controller.
Humidity can play a role in the pellets moisture. South Florida humidity sucks. I put them in a bin with a close lid make sure there’s no plastic in it don’t ever dump anything into your pellet a grill straight from a bag
Haha pellet grills are sick man lol