Stampede Smoke from pellet hopper

[huffy8870]

Hi everyone. I had my 590 on high to make pizza and smoke was coming out of my pellet hopper. Is this normal? Thanks everyone.

 

[ol' stonebreaker]

Usually means you have a fire going in the discharge end of the auger. When that happens remove what you're grilling and turn temp down to lo and see if it will burn itself out. If that doesn't work then shut it down and restart going to manual auger feed so it can discharge burning pellets into firepot w/o fan draft.

 

[pungo]

Be careful with those auger fires if they make it to the hopper. Not mine but it can happen.

 

[hput2]

Wow that’s scary!

 

[sdynak]

Do you have any airflow restrictions that would push the fire/heat into the auger?

 

[northgagriller]

Usually means you have a fire going in the discharge end of the auger. When that happens remove what you're grilling and turn temp down to lo and see if it will burn itself out. If that doesn't work then shut it down and restart going to manual auger feed so it can discharge burning pellets into firepot w/o fan draft.

“Manual auger feed”? Could you explain please?

 

[pungo]

Wow that’s scary!

Whole new meaning to reverse sear

 

[C. Keeper]

Whole new meaning to reverse sear

Sometimes "direct" flame is needed.

 

[Lenny Pepperidge]

Yesterday I was cooking steaks in the 590 at FULL and temperature for up to 660 degrees. After awhile smoke started billowing out of hopper. I have burned pellets in hopper and what looks like grease on hopper lid. Any idea what happened?

 

[pungo]

Looks like old and or dampish pellets and not enough of them in the hopper to keep a solid feed of pellets to the firepot

 

[okie]

Yesterday I was cooking steaks in the 590 at FULL and temperature for up to 660 degrees. After awhile smoke started billowing out of hopper. I have burned pellets in hopper and what looks like grease on hopper lid. Any idea what happened?

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Grease got down into your barrel bottom and into the fire pot. Could have accumulated from the last cook or even current? as well. If fat meat was either over the edges of the drip pan or the pit is not on level ground, in which case the grease migrates on the grates to the lowest spot (either front or back) and then down the wall to the fire area and got into the pot where it ignited. The only other possibility could be that the pellets had accumulated some greasy substance? If you will take out the grates and drip pan and look at the front or back sides you may be able to track the drippings trail. Note the side walls do not catch drippings as there is the deflector baffle on left and the oil drain assembly on the right that impede the flow. However, the corners make good drip trails as the collected grease can drain along the support rails to either end and then drip off into the corners.
The other possibility is "IDNK".

 

[okie]

Grease got down into your barrel bottom and into the fire pot. Could have accumulated from the last cook or even current? as well. If fat meat was either over the edges of the drip pan or the pit is not on level ground, in which case the grease migrates on the grates to the lowest spot (either front or back) and then down the wall to the fire area and got into the pot where it ignited. The only other possibility could be that the pellets had accumulated some greasy substance? If you will take out the grates and drip pan and look at the front or back sides you may be able to track the drippings trail. Note the side walls do not catch drippings as there is the deflector baffle on left and the oil drain assembly on the right that impede the flow. However, the corners make good drip trails as the collected grease can drain along the support rails to either end and then drip off into the corners.
The other possibility is "IDNK".

Forgot to add that I had the grease collection problem with my 590 just one time, and discovered and corrected it before a fire occurred. I used a carpenters level to test both sideways and fore/aft. Then use tiles for shims to level it for long greasy cooks. No problem since. If shims are inconvenient, then I place the pit with the right side down hill, so most of grease follows the drip pan to the drain. If you find a trail, then take a pic and send it. IDNK =I do not know. O maybe Pungo is correct but that would not account for the grease on the lid.

 

[Buckeye1]

If you have the newer style 590 check your vents. I'd there is build up it will create back pressure and cause this. I had it happen on my Bullseye. Once I cleaned vents smoke from hopper went away.

 

[tpack]

My neighbor has a 700 that they used one night and the next day around noon, it was smoking out of the pellet hopper. She asked me to look at it. It was almost full of pellets and as soon as I started digging to the bottom of the hopper it caught fire due to being expose to oxygen. I had to use water to put it out and then clean it out. It had been smoldering for about 15 hours. I

 

[Lenny Pepperidge]

Here’s an update. Took out the grates and drip pan. The heat defector is cracked. Cleaned out the burnt pellets and fire pot. Recteq customer support asked for my shutdown process which was simply pressing the off button in the app. Thanks for all the responses. I sent these photos to recteq also.