Fire in hopper during burn in after shutdown

RTFfan

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  1. Trailblazer
  2. RT-1250
I just received my 1250 3 days ago. So naturally I put it together and did the burn in asap. I used new pellets and ones i've never had an issue with. Anyway after the burn in I went outside to check it was fully shutdown. 25 to 30 min after turning it off. I smelled smoke and saw smoke coming out of the grill. I opened it up and realized it was still burning but the grill was off. I opened the hopper to find the pellets were hot and inside the auger I could see blackened pellets burning. I got all I could out and sucked the rest out with an old shop vac I didn't care about. Saved myself from a nasty hopper fire. So my question is has anyone else had this issue. I know recteq puts new pellets in the hopper after it shuts down for the next cook. Sounds like a good idea but obviously can have issues. So anyone else have this happen?
 
Just solved my own issue. Apparently you need to turn it down to low for a while after a high heat cook like 400. My bad for not reading other threads before posting.
 
Just solved my own issue. Apparently you need to turn it down to low for a while after a high heat cook like 400. My bad for not reading other threads before posting.

Amazing with the updated controller for the 1250 they have yet to implement a true shutdown mode.. not just a countdown but a true step down to prevent this.

Just goes to show they do not pay that much attention here on issues but certainly on upgrades/mods.
 
Amazing with the updated controller for the 1250 they have yet to implement a true shutdown mode.. not just a countdown but a true step down to prevent this.

Just goes to show they do not pay that much attention here on issues but certainly on upgrades/mods.
I agree with you, it would be easy for them to program a step down to 225 before simply running the fan for a couple of minutes, which at the end of that shutdown cycle they pump more pellets into the fire pot that may still be burning if you were running it at hight temp.

i had a Savana Stoker 3rd party PID on my Traeger that stopped feeding pellets and ran the fan until the pit temperature was 150 degrees and then shutdown. Never knew anyone that had a auger fire running that PID controller.
 
I agree with you, it would be easy for them to program a step down to 225 before simply running the fan for a couple of minutes, which at the end of that shutdown cycle they pump more pellets into the fire pot that may still be burning if you were running it at hight temp.

i had a Savana Stoker 3rd party PID on my Traeger that stopped feeding pellets and ran the fan until the pit temperature was 150 degrees and then shutdown. Never knew anyone that had a auger fire running that PID controller.

Such an easy thing to fix I'm sure.. especially when redesigning and adding even more heat.. lack of attention to detail on RT's part where they could have mitigated this one in one go.
 
Is this a 1250 issue only? Ive never had that happen, and I always just turn it off after pizza or higher 400 to 450F temps no problem yet on my rt700.
 
I think some people have that issue with the 700 too it seems. I wish I would of read this first. Wifi connected without an issue and as long as I remember to turn it down before I turn it off I guess I'll be OK. Always something wrong with everything. Nothing is perfect. Just sucks after spending $1600.
 
Thanks for mentioning this. In my process of modifying a PiFire controller to account for a better cool down procedure, I'm going to more gracefully handle an out-of-pellet scenario to avoid a the huge temperature spike once you add them.
 
Thanks for mentioning this. In my process of modifying a PiFire controller to account for a better cool down procedure, I'm going to more gracefully handle an out-of-pellet scenario to avoid a the huge temperature spike once you add them.
This is gonna be good
Plotting The Simpsons GIF
 
I remember this happening after doing one of my first cooks on my 700. It was maybe 30 to 45 minutes later and my son texted me saying the grill is still smoking some. So this is normal when the grill is new. I didn't have that happen again. And by again, I mean where a lot of time passed and it was still smoking. The grill does take awhile to cool down but seems like once the grill has been used for awhile, this doesn't happen.

Like others mentioned, with my Bull, if I do like 400 or above cooking, I do turn down to low for awhile before turning off. This also allows the grill the next time to start up faster because more pellets(that are not burned) will be in the firepot whereas if you turn off at 400 or above, all the pellets will burn up during the shutdown.

Just thought I would also mention for my Bullseye, I had started to do the same thing but noticed it wasn't worth it. I don't know if others do this but everytime I start up my Bullseye, I always put a hand full of pellets into the firepot and before that, scoop out any ash with my hand.
 
I just had this happen twice in the last 3 or 4 cooks. I lower the temp before I turn it off but I was cooking at 450 and dropped it to 250. Next thing I know I have smoke billowing out of the hopper. I turned the temp back up to 325 to get the auger turning more and it worked it’s way out. Then dropped it to 225 for awhile before I turned it off.
I’ve been wondering if it was the last batch of Bear Mountain pellets I bought. They seem to be a lot longer than previous purchases. When this bag runs out I think I’ll put different pellets in to see if it makes a difference.
 
Ive had a hopper smolder happen about 4-5 times. I’ve contacted CS all of the times and the only thing they came up with is to remove the grill lid gasket that i added. Finally, i just shut the 1250 down at the end of a high heat sear. That seems to work for the time being. CS hasn’t provided any solid answers yet.
 
I've had this happen with my Stampede, especially when it's 120° outside.

I learned to lower the temp first, and to leave my phone/app next to my Bourbon so I won't forget to shut the grill down.

Public Morals Cheers GIF
 
I am glad I read this thread, even though I have not had it happen...yet... Hopefully, I will learn from the "collective" and not have the same issue. Thank you all for the information!
 
Yeah I've been doing 200 also and that has solved my issue. Used it 4 times since with no issues. Just made candy chicken bacon bites and a beer can chicken. Really good. Sorry no photos. I'll do better next time
 

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