My girl caught me cheating...then threw some Karma my way...flame out!

[spartanhuntr]

As i messaged in another post. I decided to pick up a weber kettle grill for a change up. A little different flavor and style of cooking. Honestly, i think the Kettle Pizza attachment was my draw.

Well my girl (Bull-700) must of noticed she had company on the patio. When i tried to reverse sear some steaks today i went out to a clean pit, put in fresh pellets, had a clean deflector, new foil on drip pan and i fired her up. I went inside and watched the temp. it went from 38 to 53 or so and then i watched it for 15 minutes or so... and it wasn't climbing (was on a work call). Finally ran out and found my pellet hopper pouring smoke out like the fire was in the pellets. No smoke in the pit or chimney. I shut it down... Cleaned up all of the ash in the drum and there was a lot... put some more pellets in the fire pot and fired it back up and it was fine (i wasn't fine as it took over an hour for cool down, clean up and re-fire - making dinner 90 minutes late).

So... my girl was clearly pissed at me for buying the Weber Kettle... but any ideas other than that for the misfire? It was essentially smoldering and the pellet chamber was full of ash. I cleaned it out after last clean and added fresh pellets? Any idea what could cause a clean Bull to flame out like this?

Thanks...

 

[Blues1]

You're lucky she didn't divorce you outright and leave you with you with your new flame

 

[cutplug]

Sounds like the fan wasn't running. The pellets lit but if the fan isn't blowing the temp cant climb and your just feeding pellets into a can with smoldering pellets. Hence the smoke from the fire pot and none anywhere else. The fans can get sticky sometimes. Is your bull fairly new?
Just check for the fan sound to make sure its running.

Got to let the girl know you still love her. Give her some candy bacon and flowers!

 

[spartanhuntr]

i think you are on to something. I don't remember hearing the fan. I cleaned her up and started over. No issues. Today cooking ribs and running like a top!

Trying to show her some love this weekend. Very clever on the flame post! LOL.

 

[jaw5279]

I had a similar issue on my 340 yesterday. I was 3 hours into my cook and all of a sudden the temps went wacky (very high). Then smoke started coming out the hopper and not the barrel. After 45 minutes of troubleshooting I realized the fan was not running. A few pokes of a thin screwdriver through the bottom grate and I got the fan going again but still had to stop, empty the hopper and augar tube making certain all burning pellets were in the dish. I put everything back together and continued the cook with no further issues. I called support and they are sending me a new fan unit. The only other time I noticed the fan not running was at initial set up time back in January when the smoker was brand new. However, every once in a while my temps would widely vary and now I wonder if that wasn't the fan acting up.

 

[cutplug]

Sweet new fan unit!
The fan can get sticky a couple times but a little encouragement they always run.
I think I need that bigger auger and extra fan unit for the x parts bin.
RING RING... Hello RecTec Customer Service!

 

[jaw5279]

Sweet new fan unit!
The fan can get sticky a couple times but a little encouragement they always run.
I think I need that bigger auger and extra fan unit for the x parts bin.
RING RING... Hello RecTec Customer Service!

My main fear with the sticky fan is that it would happen again in the middle of a cook when I wasn't paying close attention (or sleeping). I am one of the unlucky ones whose phone alarms do not work.