RT-1250 Foil / No Foil on 1250 Drip Tray Debate Thread

[Texas_TL]

I apologize in advance, I know this topic has been discussed in other grill threads, but I didn't see a 1250 specific one and my issue may be 1250 related.

I've been foiling my drip tray since getting my 1250 in early November and have not had any issues until this weekend. I've always used the heavy duty wide foil, so fit has never been a problem and so far, nothing has been able to get under the foil.

On Saturday evening, I decided to do a reverse sear on some flank steak and smoked for about 45 min, then removed the steak and switched the 1250 to FULL to get the temps up on the grill grates sear station. This resulted in a small grease fire (I had done another quick cook earlier in the week and didn't think there was enough grease to be problem), so I quickly unplugged the grill and swapped out the foil for some fresh and then started the process over to get back to temp. No problems at this point and I threw the steaks onto the grill grates, came back and flipped them, then came back to take them off.

Here's where things got weird, and why I am starting a thread in the 1250 group. At this point, my drip pan was glowing red right over the fire pot and the foil was melted / brittle! I had never seen the drip tray glow red before and I have done many high temp cooks, usually with pizza or reverse sears like this one. I'm a bit concerned about the foil disintegrating around food and am not sure continuing to foil is a good idea.

Since I don't have a scraper yet, last night I went ahead and foiled again for some wings, but wanted to see if anyone else has had a similar experience.

Also, if you don't foil and only scrape, how do you avoid grease fires at high temps? It seems like at least some grease would always be on the tray and then flare up at high temps.

 

[Jim6820]

If you had the grill turned up to FULL and the grill plates in place, you could have gotten up to 700 degrees. Aluminum foil will melt at 650-660F. I’m not surprised that the drip tray was glowing red.

How much coverage on the grill did you have with the grill plates? I think it would be wise to just use enough grill plate for the meat you are searing.

Personally, I don’t use grill plates; my adjacent gas grill is used for searing. Works great.

 

[Greg Jones]

Also, if you don't foil and only scrape, how do you avoid grease fires at high temps? It seems like at least some grease would always be on the tray and then flare up at high temps.

Keep it clean. in my experience, grease only accumulates on the drip pan during low and slow cooks. Grease fires, regardless of the pellet grill, tend to only happen on cooks with a grill that had dirty foil/grill pan to begin with. I never foil and I’ve only had a grease fire when I’ve been lazy about keeping the drip pan clean.

 

[Texas_TL]

If you had the grill turned up to FULL and the grill plates in place, you could have gotten up to 700 degrees. Aluminum foil will melt at 650-660F. I’m not surprised that the drip tray was glowing red.

How much coverage on the grill did you have with the grill plates? I think it would be wise to just use enough grill plate for the meat you are searing.

Personally, I don’t use grill plates; my adjacent gas grill is used for searing. Works great.

After it happened last night, I did an internet search and what I found said that the aluminum foil melts at a little over 1200ºF or so and the glowing red stainless would happen around 1500ºF.

For the grill grates, I have the kit that I bought with the 1250 and it's a 3 piece set that I had on the right side of the grill under the smoke stack. They did not cover any part of the foil / plate that were glowing red.

 

[IPlayWithMeat]

If you had the grill turned up to FULL and the grill plates in place, you could have gotten up to 700 degrees. Aluminum foil will melt at 650-660F. I’m not surprised that the drip tray was glowing red.

How much coverage on the grill did you have with the grill plates? I think it would be wise to just use enough grill plate for the meat you are searing.

Personally, I don’t use grill plates; my adjacent gas grill is used for searing. Works great.

I believe aluminum foil melts around 660 Celsius . The area directly above the fire pot could have gotten much hotter than that of the ambient grill temperature, though.

 

[Jim6820]

After it happened last night, I did an internet search and what I found said that the aluminum foil melts at a little over 1200ºF or so and the glowing red stainless would happen around 1500ºF.

For the grill grates, I have the kit that I bought with the 1250 and it's a 3 piece set that I had on the right side of the grill under the smoke stack. They did not cover any part of the foil / plate that were glowing red.

Here’s what my research found…

https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1435

Check the Technical Properties chart for “Melting Point.”

 

[Jim6820]

I believe aluminum foil melts around 660 Celsius . The area directly above the fire pot could have gotten much hotter than that of the ambient grill temperature, though.

Yes; 660 C. Mea culpa. That would be 1220F.

 

[C. Keeper]

Yes; 660 C. Mea culpa. That would be 1220F.

Oooops

 

[Jim6820]

Well, 660C or 1220F would certainly put a sear on a steak!

 

[sdynak]

After almost burning the house down from a foil grease fire testing out the 3RPM (same as 1250) auger motor I am leaning toward a scraper and no foil. Too many places for that to hide and create fires.

I have no idea how hot this actually got since it was off the charts..

 

[yamamatt65]

I’ve always foiled my 590 and now my 1250….. until today. Got tired of taking the grate off to change the foil, and decided to just start scraping instead. As easy as the foil makes cleanup, I could damn near as quickly scrape the bare drip tray in the time it takes me to crumble the old foil and get another sheet to replace. Also, I’ve noticed a few times some of the foil sort of flakes off / melts and I don’t want to mess with it anymore.

 

[Mikes351]

You mention that when you had the grease fire you unplugged the grill ,did you let it go threw the shut down first, maybe if you didn't ,when you started it back up and then turned it to high it overloaded the fire pot ,just a thought?

 

[Texas_TL]

No, in the instructions for a grease fire, it says to immediately unplug the grill which is what I did (only knew this from a grease fire on my 340). The start up went normal and it was only after running at full for about 10 min total that I noticed the melting foil / red drip tray.

I'm curious if anyone else has seen the glowing red when running at full. Whoever says that pellet grills can't get hot enough just need to buy a 1250 apparently!

 

[Mikes351]

No, in the instructions for a grease fire, it says to immediately unplug the grill which is what I did (only knew this from a grease fire on my 340). The start up went normal and it was only after running at full for about 10 min total that I noticed the melting foil / red drip tray.

I'm curious if anyone else has seen the glowing red when running at full. Whoever says that pellet grills can't get hot enough just need to buy a 1250 apparently!

If you do a search there are a few that had a glowing red drip pan here's one

https://www.recteqforum.com/threads/reverse-seared-steak.49/post-56543

 

[Chevys10zr2003]

No, in the instructions for a grease fire, it says to immediately unplug the grill which is what I did (only knew this from a grease fire on my 340). The start up went normal and it was only after running at full for about 10 min total that I noticed the melting foil / red drip tray.

I'm curious if anyone else has seen the glowing red when running at full. Whoever says that pellet grills can't get hot enough just need to buy a 1250 apparently!

I commented about this in another thread awhile ago. I hit 752° in full mode with my 1250 and the drip pan was glowing red. I haven't checked on the cast iron heat deflector but the grill is still working so I am going to assume everything is still good.

From day one I have been in the "no foil" camp. So I cannot say if I've had troubles with foil getting brittle or melting.

 

[ToeJam]

I've been using these with nice results:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XT4K4YM?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share&&tag=rectecgrill-20

 

[C. Keeper]

I've been using these with nice results:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XT4K4YM?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share&&tag=rectecgrill-20

There goes my foil budget.

 

[Texas_TL]

I haven't checked on the cast iron heat deflector

When I pulled the drip tray the first time to replace the foil, the cast iron was red hot. That one didn't really surprise me though knowing how hard the fire had been going to get to full for several minutes.

 

[oldschool]

I apologize in advance, I know this topic has been discussed in other grill threads, but I didn't see a 1250 specific one and my issue may be 1250 related.

I've been foiling my drip tray since getting my 1250 in early November and have not had any issues until this weekend. I've always used the heavy duty wide foil, so fit has never been a problem and so far, nothing has been able to get under the foil.

On Saturday evening, I decided to do a reverse sear on some flank steak and smoked for about 45 min, then removed the steak and switched the 1250 to FULL to get the temps up on the grill grates sear station. This resulted in a small grease fire (I had done another quick cook earlier in the week and didn't think there was enough grease to be problem), so I quickly unplugged the grill and swapped out the foil for some fresh and then started the process over to get back to temp. No problems at this point and I threw the steaks onto the grill grates, came back and flipped them, then came back to take them off.

Here's where things got weird, and why I am starting a thread in the 1250 group. At this point, my drip pan was glowing red right over the fire pot and the foil was melted / brittle! I had never seen the drip tray glow red before and I have done many high temp cooks, usually with pizza or reverse sears like this one. I'm a bit concerned about the foil disintegrating around food and am not sure continuing to foil is a good idea.

Since I don't have a scraper yet, last night I went ahead and foiled again for some wings, but wanted to see if anyone else has had a similar experience.

Also, if you don't foil and only scrape, how do you avoid grease fires at high temps? It seems like at least some grease would always be on the tray and then flare up at high temps.

Like this?

 

[C. Keeper]

View attachment 14565

Like this?

If that drip pan is glowing red, I wonder what the heat deflector looks like