So I was getting ready to do my first attempt at poor mans burnt ends. I fire up the 590 and notice it wouldn't come up to any temp.
I open it up and notice no pellets in the fire pit. I take a handful and put them in. A few minutes later and I smell smoke. Good to go.
A few minutes later I notice the temp is going down. I look once again and see no pellets. Wonderful.
Turn it off and back on and listen for the sound of the auger spinning. I can't hear anything. I look inside and I can't see it spinning either.
I watch a few videos and they mention seeing if the fan goes on for the auger motor. It does, so that is good but I figure I'll make a call to their support and get their input.
I spoke with Lewis (Very helpful) and he advised that I probably have a jam. He said to remove all the pellets and take the augur out along with the motor to see if it is spinning.
I remove a few screws and get to the motor. I take it out, power it on and see the motor spinning. That is good but why won't it spin. I try and stick an allen wrench in the 2 holes for the auger and spin it. It won't budge. I even put a small pipe wrench on it. Still nothing. It is really jammed.
I remove the pellets with the shop vac and remove that safety cover in the hopper. Once I get to the bottom of the hopper I see the problem. A tightly packed bunch of sawdust that is like a rock. I had to chip away at it with a screw driver and eventually got it cleaned up. Once I did that I was able to slowly unscrew the auger and remove it. I still had to use a pipewrench and buggered up the end of it a little bit. Looking in the hole, I still see tons of tightly packed sawdust in there. I had to use a really long punch to chip away at it.
I do have the vent covers for my 590. I try and always cover the 590. After my last cook on it about 3 weeks ago, it started to rain just as I was finishing the cook. I ended up pulling the power cord on it and didn't let it finish the cooldown. (Lewis said that isn't a good thing to do) I didn't put the cover on it because it was still hot. I put the cover on the next day after it stopped raining and everything dried out.
Looking at the pics you can see the rust on the auger. Clearly there is water getting in there. I'm in MD and it hasn't been too humid here. I'm amazed at how much sawdust is in there. I think I'm really going to be careful about pouring any additional sawdust when I fill it up. I hope this helps anyone else that may run into this issue.
I'm going to run my pellets down low from now so I can see the bottom of the hopper and keep it clean. That should eliminate this issue in the future.
I open it up and notice no pellets in the fire pit. I take a handful and put them in. A few minutes later and I smell smoke. Good to go.
A few minutes later I notice the temp is going down. I look once again and see no pellets. Wonderful.
Turn it off and back on and listen for the sound of the auger spinning. I can't hear anything. I look inside and I can't see it spinning either.
I watch a few videos and they mention seeing if the fan goes on for the auger motor. It does, so that is good but I figure I'll make a call to their support and get their input.
I spoke with Lewis (Very helpful) and he advised that I probably have a jam. He said to remove all the pellets and take the augur out along with the motor to see if it is spinning.
I remove a few screws and get to the motor. I take it out, power it on and see the motor spinning. That is good but why won't it spin. I try and stick an allen wrench in the 2 holes for the auger and spin it. It won't budge. I even put a small pipe wrench on it. Still nothing. It is really jammed.
I remove the pellets with the shop vac and remove that safety cover in the hopper. Once I get to the bottom of the hopper I see the problem. A tightly packed bunch of sawdust that is like a rock. I had to chip away at it with a screw driver and eventually got it cleaned up. Once I did that I was able to slowly unscrew the auger and remove it. I still had to use a pipewrench and buggered up the end of it a little bit. Looking in the hole, I still see tons of tightly packed sawdust in there. I had to use a really long punch to chip away at it.
I do have the vent covers for my 590. I try and always cover the 590. After my last cook on it about 3 weeks ago, it started to rain just as I was finishing the cook. I ended up pulling the power cord on it and didn't let it finish the cooldown. (Lewis said that isn't a good thing to do) I didn't put the cover on it because it was still hot. I put the cover on the next day after it stopped raining and everything dried out.
Looking at the pics you can see the rust on the auger. Clearly there is water getting in there. I'm in MD and it hasn't been too humid here. I'm amazed at how much sawdust is in there. I think I'm really going to be careful about pouring any additional sawdust when I fill it up. I hope this helps anyone else that may run into this issue.
I'm going to run my pellets down low from now so I can see the bottom of the hopper and keep it clean. That should eliminate this issue in the future.
