Run hopper empty

nygiant

Active member
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Just saw the newest video on YouTube from Rec Teq. Going over some maintenance and cleaning. Said it’s a good idea to run hopper empty every 5-6 bags of pellets to avoid dust build up. I was running low in the hopper and just decided to go this.

Took about 4 handfuls out and left what was in the bottom. Set to 350 and let it go. After about 40 minutes it’s now at 130°. What should I do? What should I expect at this point?

>> sorry about that I just edited. I was doing talk to text outside and did not realize.

Also, the temperature was down around 90 so I just turned it off. I stuck the shop vac down in the bottom of the hopper into the auger tube and vacuumed everything out. Vacuumed the fire pot out. It looks very clean. I guess I’m good at this point.
 
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Need to edit your post, it’s garbled.

fwiw, I empty mine by hand down to the auger, then go into maintenance and run the auger till that’s empty. Put a vac to one end to suck out the dust. A blower would do the same.
 
Need to edit your post, it’s garbled.

fwiw, I empty mine by hand down to the auger, then go into maintenance and run the auger till that’s empty. Put a vac to one end to suck out the dust. A blower would do the same.
Sorry about that. I just edited the initial post. Thanks for replying.
 
Just saw the newest video on YouTube from Rec Teq. Going over some maintenance and cleaning. Said it’s a good idea to run hopper empty every 5-6 bags of pellets to avoid dust build up. I was running low in the hopper and just decided to go this.

Took about 4 handfuls out and left what was in the bottom. Set to 350 and let it go. After about 40 minutes it’s now at 130°. What should I do? What should I expect at this point?

>> sorry about that I just edited. I was doing talk to text outside and did not realize.

Also, the temperature was down around 90 so I just turned it off. I stuck the shop vac down in the bottom of the hopper into the auger tube and vacuumed everything out. Vacuumed the fire pot out. It looks very clean. I guess I’m good at this point.
I don't know if this will help ... I vacuum out the burn chamber and lower box to clean up pellet dust after 3-5 cooks. You can also purchase a Vacuum Head that fits 5 gallon buckets to suck out pellets from the hopper. I vacuum my pellets to change over to a different type of wood pellet. I also use the vacuum to empty the hopper when I leave my cabin and Bull 700 for the winter.
 
I’n nearly 4 years into buying my first recteq, now own 4 pellet grills, and I have never vacuumed the pellet hopper to get rid of dust. The pellets drag the dust out of the auger in my grills. Never understood why recteq encouraged vacuuming the hopper dust. Now the fire pot is a different matter-important to keep that clean.
 
I’n nearly 4 years into buying my first recteq, now own 4 pellet grills, and I have never vacuumed the pellet hopper to get rid of dust. The pellets drag the dust out of the auger in my grills. Never understood why recteq encouraged vacuuming the hopper dust. Now the fire pot is a different matter-important to keep that clean.

I sift the pellets with a large cat litter slotted hand shovel, works like a charm and I get very little sawdust in my hopper. The Pitboss pellets are pretty damn clean IMHO in particular compared to the overpriced Trager variants. I do my firepot clean after about 15/20 hours of cooking, everything is burning efficiently as the ash is like talcum powder. :)
 
I don't know if this will help ... I vacuum out the burn chamber and lower box to clean up pellet dust after 3-5 cooks. You can also purchase a Vacuum Head that fits 5 gallon buckets to suck out pellets from the hopper. I vacuum my pellets to change over to a different type of wood pellet. I also use the vacuum to empty the hopper when I leave my cabin and Bull 700 for the winter.
When you suck the pellets back into a 5 gallon pail with the pail vacuum, do you store them in the pail for re-use? In other words, does the vacuum contaminate the pellets in any way?

Thanks
Chuck
 
Yes you can leave them in the bucket and no vacuuming does not contaminate them. I have two Bucket Head vacuums, one for ashes and one for pellets.
 
Yes you can leave them in the bucket and no vacuuming does not contaminate them. I have two Bucket Head vacuums, one for ashes and one for pellets.
Waterboy,

As a caution, make sure the vacuuming does’t fragment the pellets. If they are shattered or pulverized too much, it may affect that amount of residual crap you have to deal with or cause the feed mechanism to work overtime. I tried the “Tim the Toolman” approach and used a 5hp shop vac. Now I have a surplus of smoke tube pellets. In hindsight, I normally predict my pellet consumption rates pretty well and don’t have a lot of residual hopper contents, but I had to do a quick changeover during a multi-protein cook and didn’t want to use my little red cup extraction method. Lol.
 

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