Stampede Auger Tube Clogged

[pasmadj]

New 590 about 3 weeks ago. First bag of pellets were Weber - waiting to get Rec Teq pellets. Smoker would not heat up; not feeding pellets.

I went into test mode. It took about 8 tries while pushing a piece of wire into the auger tube. Finally, it pushed out a little dark (burned?) sawdust, and a bunch of compacted sawdust.

it’s a bit disappointing with the first (and not cheap) batch of pellets.
If this is normal, is there an easier way to clean out the auger?

 

[Beach Bum]

Small shop vac works well. I use the home depot bucket head that fits on a 5 gallon HD bucket. The hose is small and clears the auger well. Sounds like a bad load of dusty pellets. I'm a big fan of Lumberjack. Dust content on my first ten bags has been minimal.

 

[ol' stonebreaker]

Don't know where you live but I suspect some high humidity played a hand in this.

 

[pasmadj]

Thank you. So there is no easy way to open the auger and clean it out?

 

[Gonefishin]

Don't recall reading about anyone removing an auger, might be worth asking RT.

 

[ricwoodard]

That isn't 'normal' behavior. I would contact RT and let them advise you on how to handle any potential issues moving forward.

Is there any chance some of your pellets were wet when you poured them in?

 

[Jeffhoppy]

There are a number of YouTube videos out there for clearing the auger tube on RTs. It is a DIY for sure but I wouldn’t say I’d want to do it very often. Myself, I’ve had one auger jam and was able to clear it with shop vac. I picked up some micro accessory attachments from HD and worked like a charm (posted a pic below). Most posts I’ve seen on forums for auger jams are cleared by shop vac. Fingers crossed for you it was just bad batch of pellets.

 

[pasmadj]

That isn't 'normal' behavior. I would contact RT and let them advise you on how to handle any potential issues moving forward.

Is there any chance some of your pellets were wet when you poured them in?

It was my first bag. I don’t recall any being wet or damp.

 

[pasmadj]

There are a number of YouTube videos out there for clearing the auger tube on RTs. It is a DIY for sure but I wouldn’t say I’d want to do it very often. Myself, I’ve had one auger jam and was able to clear it with shop vac. I picked up some micro accessory attachments from HD and worked like a charm (posted a pic below). Most posts I’ve seen on forums for auger jams are cleared by shop vac. Fingers crossed for you it was just bad batch of pellets.
View attachment 7127

Those look good. I’ll have to try them out

 

[mac_hine82]

I had the same issue on my 2nd cook with my brand new 590. I live in AZ where it’s dry as hell and my pellets were stored in a spare bedroom. Bone dry! I went to start the grill and it didn’t light. I found the auger wasn’t moving so I called tech support and the guy had me drop the bottom of the hopper assembly and pull out the auger. I found a bunch of charred chewed up pellets and sawdust. It was the first time I used the new blue bag of Smoke House pellets from Sam’s club. I put a orange bag of smoke house in and been using those for a couple weeks with zero issues. Not sure if it was the pellets or just a fluke.