I experienced the BOOM as well with my 1250

Hinkdad

Active member
Messages
25
Grill(s) owned
  1. RT-1250
Fired up my 1250 in the cold for some 0-400 chicken, and was startled when my whole house shook. Turns out my 1250 experienced an explosion.

I did notice A LOT more smoke than usual as it was warming. I am fairly certain that during startup when there is so much smoke the pellets cannot breathe enough to burn so they build up in the fire pot. Meanwhile the temp is not climbing so the auger keeps dumping pellets in.

My theory is this continues until the wood gas reaches high levels and it gets just enough air from either the fan or breeze through the stack and BOOM!

Wood gas + spark + proper air (O2) = Pellet Grill Bomb

No damage was done to anything. I will be starting my grill with the lid open from now on to avoid this.
 
What's that? Like three detonations in a couple of days?!? Did anyone contact Recteq? Perhaps this is another kick in the cherries that they might need to update their firmware...oh and yeah thap app thingee.

I hear that those class action lawsuits can get expensive.

Thankfully no such drama on my end yet...and no major damage/casualties thus far.🤞
 
What's that? Like three detonations in a couple of days?!? Did anyone contact Recteq? Perhaps this is another kick in the cherries that they might need to update their firmware...oh and yeah thap app thingee.

I hear that those class action lawsuits can get expensive.

Thankfully no such drama on my end yet...and no major damage/casualties thus far.🤞
I did submit a ticket to Recteq about it just to give them feed back.
 
I did submit a ticket to Recteq about it just to give them feed back.

Please do let us know what they say.. Did you catch it on video?

I would check your ignitor position.
 
any chance you guys have to roll your grills out of a garage or anything before turning on? that definitely shouldn’t cause a problem but im just curious if maybe that’s shaking extra pellets in the pot possibly?
 
Please do let us know what they say.. Did you catch it on video?

I would check your ignitor position.
I do have video of it smoking and you hear the sound cutout when it blows, but you can’t really see anything
 
any chance you guys have to roll your grills out of a garage or anything before turning on? that definitely shouldn’t cause a problem but im just curious if maybe that’s shaking extra pellets in the pot possibly?

I do but since I adjusted my ignitor I have not had another issue. Mine was obvious though in about 1/4 in.
 
I do have video of it smoking and you hear the sound cutout when it blows, but you can’t really see anything

I would hold onto it.. never know. Especially since you contacted them.
 
I think my 1250 was going to do this yesterday when I went to go make ribs and pork belly. It was smoking really badly for about 2 minutes so I remotely shut it off for about 2 minutes and then started it again. After about another minute all the smoke around the grill got sucked in and then puffed out really fast and it was done smoking. I think that was mine igniting but didn't have such a severe explosion.

I took it apart and checked the burn pot to see how many holes I had on Saturday and remember thinking that there was quite a lot of pellets in the burn pot from the last shut down but didn't think anything of it. Maybe it primed too many pellets on the previous shutdown. Honestly when I do clean out the firepot, I use a spoon and clean everything out. Unburnt pellets and all and I do not prime it again and I've never had any issues of it failing to start without it being primed. I figure on start up the auger spins at full speed right away so it only takes a few seconds before there are pellets for the igniter.

To answer @chadinsc I do store mine in my garage and roll it in and out for every use.

Edit: I also wanted to specify that every time I start it, I turn it to LO, and then once it hits 180 I turn it up to where I want it. Also, every time that I shut it down, even if it's from 225, I still turn it to LO and wait until it is at 180 for 5 to 10 minutes before I shut it down.
 
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Might have had the same thing about to happen to my 1250 ,I do roll mine out of the garage each time ,anyway I remote started the grill at 300 ,was waiting for it to heat up and my wife says ,hey there's a lot of smoke out there ,so I go out and the thing is just bellowing smoke ,and not good smelling either, I opened the lid and turned it off ,decided to clean the pot (which was loaded with pellets) did the initial start up process and everything was fine , now I just start with the door open ,and at a lower temp
 
I did get this response from Recteq
 

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Fired up my 1250 in the cold for some 0-400 chicken, and was startled when my whole house shook. Turns out my 1250 experienced an explosion.

I did notice A LOT more smoke than usual as it was warming. I am fairly certain that during startup when there is so much smoke the pellets cannot breathe enough to burn so they build up in the fire pot. Meanwhile the temp is not climbing so the auger keeps dumping pellets in.

My theory is this continues until the wood gas reaches high levels and it gets just enough air from either the fan or breeze through the stack and BOOM!

Wood gas + spark + proper air (O2) = Pellet Grill Bomb

No damage was done to anything. I will be starting my grill with the lid open from now on to avoid this.
This happened to my 700. Blow the door almost clear off my cold box & bent the door hinges too. After shutting it off I cleared everything out. This is what I found and after researching. a) overfilled fire box (same pellets I always run, Bear Mountain). b) a smoldering fire without a complete ignition c) I had not lifted the lid prior to start up & my initial temperature set point was low, like 200° I believe there was a pocket of trapped gas/fuel from my previous cook that had not vented properly this causing a backdraft explosion. My lesson learned, I always leave the hood open after completing a cook & I frequently lift the hood either right at start up or just randomly if I walk by my smoker. This did tell me that the seals on my Bull are good if simple gas can not escape. This was a one time occurrence & since lifting the lid on occasion I’ve not had this issue. RT did replace my entire smoke box & the lid at no cost.
 
Fired up my 1250 in the cold for some 0-400 chicken, and was startled when my whole house shook. Turns out my 1250 experienced an explosion.

I did notice A LOT more smoke than usual as it was warming. I am fairly certain that during startup when there is so much smoke the pellets cannot breathe enough to burn so they build up in the fire pot. Meanwhile the temp is not climbing so the auger keeps dumping pellets in.

My theory is this continues until the wood gas reaches high levels and it gets just enough air from either the fan or breeze through the stack and BOOM!

Wood gas + spark + proper air (O2) = Pellet Grill Bomb

No damage was done to anything. I will be starting my grill with the lid open from now on to avoid this.
It could be just moist pellets in the hopper from the colder weather. A clean fire pot is key as well during high moisture periods. I have never had an explosion in over five years now with a 700 with a sealed lid gasket, but I do pay close attention at startup. I always leave the lid closed on startups. I am wondering if the 1250 has a different heating element or different wattage to cause this issue. The only thing constant is change itself and this applies to Recteq, too.
 
Fired up my 1250 in the cold for some 0-400 chicken, and was startled when my whole house shook. Turns out my 1250 experienced an explosion.

I did notice A LOT more smoke than usual as it was warming. I am fairly certain that during startup when there is so much smoke the pellets cannot breathe enough to burn so they build up in the fire pot. Meanwhile the temp is not climbing so the auger keeps dumping pellets in.

My theory is this continues until the wood gas reaches high levels and it gets just enough air from either the fan or breeze through the stack and BOOM!

Wood gas + spark + proper air (O2) = Pellet Grill Bomb

No damage was done to anything. I will be starting my grill with the lid open from now on to avoid this.
I had the same thing a week ago. Excessive smoke (understatement) and had the cover closed on a 5-degree day. Heard the boom from inside the house and knew right away what it was--having read about this but thinking it wouldn't happen to me. The next day I decided to do some experimenting and took out the grates, grease tray, and deflector, vacuumed out the fire box, put in a small handful of pellets and turned it on so I could watch the ignition. What I noted is that in the pre-ignition sequence there's a smoke build-up which, upon ignition and burn, dissipates. There was no where near as much smoke as there was when it boomed the previous day, and while just as cold, having vacuumed out the fire box which was pretty full after three long cooks and starting with the cover open did make a huge difference in smoke output. I've since done three cooks at high (450) and low (250) temps and have started with the cover open and don't close until I hear that it has fired. No unbelievable amounts of smoke billowing out, no booms, no worries. I'm wondering if warmer temperatures will eliminate the need to start with the cover open. Look forward to testing.
 

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