Bullseye Grease fire in Bullseye at 225 degrees??

[RT Rob]

Weekend, of course, and I know I'll get good help from Tony Miles or one of his friends on Monday but I'd like to figure something out to resume tonight's ribs. [edited to correct Tony's name].

Today, I got one of those dense, smokey grease or creosote fires, again. The Bullseye was about a hour into a smoke set at just 225 degrees. Single rack of pork back ribs rubbed and light spray of olive oil over the top. I'm sure I should have removed all flaked grease on center of drip plate which was mostly covered with some flaking-up mess but, over several years with barrel-type pellet smokers, I never had such a fire when the grill was set lower than around 400 degrees.

So I'm wondering whether, unattended, something could have malfunctioned causing the temp to rise much higher than 225 degrees causing this fire to ensue. The temp display showed about 450 when I showed up and felt the need to unplug it sooner than wait for the shutdown cycle. Subsequent inspection showed normal-looking burn chamber, just a bit too much creosote on the drip pan and, maybe, a bit around the bottom of the chamber.

I've had a few more grease fires than I like to admit with previous barrel-style pellet smokers from a popular brand but never at a middle or lower temperature. I will add that the fan was operating whereas, brand-new, this grill had a faulty fan which I had to replace myself. When the fan stopped, the burning pellets kept being overfed to where they spilled out of the burn chamber, also creating dense smoke.

[Editing to add that I found some chat, somewhere online, about how a smoker might be set for 275 degrees but a normal drip pan might be 500 degrees. I'm thinking that the design of the Bullseye, with it's parabolic shaped circular drip pan might be designed to heat even hotter than the drip pan in a normal barrel smoker meaning that it must be cleaned more aggressively.]

[Edited to insert pic of drip pan when I first opened grill after intense smoke incident while showing 450 degrees when set for 225. Was this enough mess to create so much smoke? It had looked flaky like during previous cooks including the previous pork shoulder with foil drip pan underneath.]

 

[Pete6737]

Hi I’ve experienced grease fires with my new 1250 in one month that I’ve had all last year with my old propane grill. I did a firmware update, and still use foil. My grease fires have been at grilling temps, during the cook and the others on shutdown. Not sure about why ir how, Ibut I suspect heat from under the tray gets real high and igniting the grease in the tray. I Hope we can get to the bottom of the grease fires in Rt grills! This is my thread with grease fire issues.

https://www.recteqforum.com/threads/grease-fire-twice-in-a-row.5361/

 

[RT Rob]

Hi I’ve experienced grease fires with my new 1250 in one month that I’ve had all last year with my old propane grill. I did a firmware update, and still use foil. My grease fires have been at grilling temps, during the cook and the others on shutdown. Not sure about why ir how, Ibut I suspect heat from under the tray gets real high and igniting the grease in the tray. I Hope we can get to the bottom of the grease fires in Rt grills! This is my thread with grease fire issues.

https://www.recteqforum.com/threads/grease-fire-twice-in-a-row.5361/

Thanks, Pete. I haven't seen the design of the RT barrel smokers but, if yours works like my last one, from another major brand, there was a flat, rectangular pan that, with or without a disposable liner, tilted downward toward one end of the barrel. Grease was to drain off the rectangular pan onto a pair of steel channels welded to the side of the steel barrel. Those two channels were to further drain the grease toward a central hole through which the grease was to pour down a spout and into waiting container outside the barrel. The problem was that the grease would quickly cool in that steel channel before making it to the drainage hole. So it would build up in an area that was hard to see and harder to clean. We were advised to consider using a heavy flat-edged screwdriver to chisel loose the grease or creosote. Maybe all barrel grills are designed this way. I have no idea but this seemed to be the source of most of the fires that would occur when I'd turned it up past 400 degrees, looking for more searing and this is the main reason I gave a $1,500 grill to in-laws to make room for the smaller but more hot-happy Bullseye.

 

[JGW]

Yeah, pellet grills and what not have their limitations for sure. Searing being one of the most glaring.

One word for you, my man......Blackstone. While I love my pellet grill, and the grill grates work pretty good, they do not compare to the sear you get with a griddle.

Grease fires - I haven't had one in any pellet grill I have owned. May I ask what you were cooking when it happened?

 

[Pete6737]

Thanks Rob. I missed the part about you having a Bullseye. May bad! I’ll check the the grease catch channel. My grill grease tray and trap is how you described.

 

[RT Rob]

Yeah, pellet grills and what not have their limitations for sure. Searing being one of the most glaring.

One word for you, my man......Blackstone. While I love my pellet grill, and the grill grates work pretty good, they do not compare to the sear you get with a griddle.

Grease fires - I haven't had one in any pellet grill I have owned. May I ask what you were cooking when it happened?

I do believe a griddle like the Blackstone is in our future for when our new house is finished. From what I've seen online, though, grease fires in pellet smokers are quite a "thing". Could I ask what brand(s) of pellet grills you have owned that never had grease fires and what temps were usual for you?

 

[JGW]

Traeger and Recteq models. I smoke, grill etc so temps anywhere from 180- to as hot as they get.

I tend to keep my grills pretty clean, and foil for almost each cook so I’m not sure if that may be a contributing factor to why I haven’t had a grease fire.

 

[kstone113]

This is odd but if I was going to do a smoke on my Bullseye that is a longer than a few hours and I know some grease will be dripping down, I will use a drip pan. I got a 14 inch stainless steel pan that fits in the Bullseye nice. If you had that, this won't happen. I would recommend some sort of drip pan.

 

[Grilltreats]

I have yet to have an undesired flame in my Bullseye in some six years now, but I have been grilling for many, many years. The only thing I can think of is the grill was unattended for too long and there was grease dripping down and feeding the fire pot because there was no pan in place to catch the grease drippings when cooking fatty meats, or there was a controller malfunction. In any event I would say user error.

 

[Freebeer7]

Bob,

I have had a grease fire in my bullseye when cooking at 225. What I have noticed about the bulleye, is that it is about 50 degrees hotter than what it says on the built in temp gauge. Even on the lowest setting, my thermoworks ambient probe reads about 250-260 degrees so keep this in mind. Maybe your grill was a lot hotter than you thought?

On a side note, I always use a aluminum pan to catch grease and I find myself turning the grill on riot mode for around 10-15 minute after every 2-3 cooks. Then I allow the grill to cool, then scrape it and vacuum it out. I haven’t had a grease fire since.