Stampede Searing steaks

[kski690]

Had my stampede for about a week. Pretty successful with low and slow. No complaints other then typical light smoke flavor. But the selling point for me on this was the ability to sear and cook steaks and burgers. I purchased the searing kit. I tried reverse seared steaks tonight. Everything was going good. Until the sear part came to play. The 590 got up to the right temp. Seared half the meat. But when I open the grill to flip, the temp dropped dramatically. To 315, and never really recovered. Steaks where less then desirable. Almost as if I baked them in the oven. Only seared on one side. I know I’m new to the pellet grill game , but I’m a stickler for following directions exactly. I wasn’t happy

 

[Rt590127]

That’s strange how it wouldn’t recover. How long did you give it to get back up to temp? Assuming that you didn’t run out of pellets?

 

[kski690]

Hopper was full. It burned for at least 20 minutes and only got as high as 375.

 

[Devimik]

I've had a similar issue - mine didn't drop that low, but it's hard to get the sear as good when you open the lid and flip. I have resorted to removing the drip tray, and sometimes, I remove the heat diffuser and put my grill grates over the fire pot. You get a little ash, but no more than you'd get cooking on charcoal.

 

[Gotbbq]

Had my stampede for about a week. Pretty successful with low and slow. No complaints other then typical light smoke flavor. But the selling point for me on this was the ability to sear and cook steaks and burgers. I purchased the searing kit. I tried reverse seared steaks tonight. Everything was going good. Until the sear part came to play. The 590 got up to the right temp. Seared half the meat. But when I open the grill to flip, the temp dropped dramatically. To 315, and never really recovered. Steaks where less then desirable. Almost as if I baked them in the oven. Only seared on one side. I know I’m new to the pellet grill game , but I’m a stickler for following directions exactly. I wasn’t happy

What happened is definitely unusual. I've seared dozens of steaks and never had that problem. The temp does drop a bit but not like what happened to you. Was there a lot of ash build up in the firepot? ??

 

[Wslayer]

The sear grates shouldn't have cooled that much just opening and flipping. Still should have gotten a good sear. Strange. . .