Best way to clean out/change pellets

GHewitt

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9
Grill(s) owned
  1. Stampede
Have been using my RecTeq for about 5 months now and love it. Is there an easy/best way to clean out the pellets if I want to try a different type? Do you have to disassemble to clean it out? Thanks!
 
Scoop out what you can with your hands, red Solo cup, etc. Use a shop vac to get the rest. It is quicker than it sounds. Some of us bought those Buckethead vacuums that attach to a standard 5 gallon bucket. I have two; one for ashes and one for clean pellets I plan on using later. I store my pellets in 5 gallon buckets which makes life simple.
 
Get a buckethead wet dry vac from home Depot and a home Depot bucket, works great to suck them out right into a bucket and is extremely cheap. Only use it for pellets.
Samesies. Couple of things to note though;

Both the power cord and the hose for the Buckethead could be longer. Helps if you have the Buckethead up on a table to negate the short hose.
 
As said use a shopvac to empty the hopper then run the auger in manual mode to empty it. Leave the auger running, dump in new pellets until they start falling in the firepot.
 
As said use a shopvac to empty the hopper then run the auger in manual mode to empty it. Leave the auger running, dump in new pellets until they start falling in the firepot.
I no longer swap out pellets, but when I did, I found that by the time the grill had preheated, all the older pellets in the auger were already burned.
 
I no longer swap out pellets, but when I did, I found that by the time the grill had preheated, all the older pellets in the auger were already burned.
What kind of pellets did you find that you are happy with all the time?
 
Scoop out what you can with your hands, red Solo cup, etc. Use a shop vac to get the rest. It is quicker than it sounds. Some of us bought those Buckethead vacuums that attach to a standard 5 gallon bucket. I have two; one for ashes and one for clean pellets I plan on using later. I store my pellets in 5 gallon buckets which makes life simple.
Thanks! Did you remove the grate that keeps your hand away from the auger? Or is the shop vac strong enough to pull them back up through it?
 
What kind of pellets did you find that you are happy with all the time?
I’m probably/likely in the minority here, but I’ve not been disappointed in any pellet other than the LJ charcoal and the Kirkland blend. Both of those pellets caused bridging in my grills. Taste wise, I’ve not seen a significance difference to make me pick one, another, over the others. Start with what is cheap for you and change from that if it creates problems.
 
Simply scoop out what you can with a large scoop/cup whatever, then put different pellets in. Burn the few augers worth of old pellets, then the different pellets will start dumping in. Personally, I've never bothered changing pellets for different cook, I have better things to do with my time. Besides, unless going with some really unique type of pellets, no one can tell the difference 🤔
 
Scoop out what you can with your hands, red Solo cup, etc. Use a shop vac to get the rest. It is quicker than it sounds. Some of us bought those Buckethead vacuums that attach to a standard 5 gallon bucket. I have two; one for ashes and one for clean pellets I plan on using later. I store my pellets in 5 gallon buckets which makes life simple.
I like the 5gal bucket idea. Do you have any moisture issues with the tight lid or did you drill a small hole to control that? Thanks!
 
I like the 5gal bucket idea. Do you have any moisture issues with the tight lid or did you drill a small hole to control that? Thanks!
I have no issues at all with the buckets. I just toss in the pellets and pop on the lid.
 
2 holes backside and 1 on each side in front

IMG_20220817_081535.jpg
 
Have been using my RecTeq for about 5 months now and love it. Is there an easy/best way to clean out the pellets if I want to try a different type? Do you have to disassemble to clean it out? Thanks!
I use a bucket head vac from Home Depot to suck out pellets from the 590 to replace with different pellets. If you remove the safety screen out of the hopper, you can get most all of the pellets out. The vac fits an orange Home Depot bucket perfectly.

F827C9C7-29B5-4683-AE2F-4AE54E1DC4B7.png
 
GHewitt, One of the first things I did was remove the grid over the hopper. When you remove the OSHA grid over the hopper, it might be a good idea to seal the screw holes with some gasket seal or something similar. This might be overkill, but I am not sure where the dust from the hopper would go if these were left open. My worry was the pellet dust would get into the electronics.

I was installing the wind vents on my 590 and had the sealer handy.

I just scoop out the pellets with a left over plastic yogurt carton if I want to change. The few pellets left in the and the auger will be burned during warm-up
 

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