Smoke out of 1070 hopper during cool down after hot cook.

okie

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Military Veteran
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499
Grill(s) owned
  1. RT-1070
First up to 350 for one hour for potatoes. The up to 500 for 45 minutes to grill steaks. Then down to 240* to cool down while we ate dinner. Then started shut down. Soon smoke coming from both pit and hopper. Less from pit and more? from hopper. Took apart to inspect and found all dark pellets in pot, and smoke from them and hopper both. Lots of ash in hopper. I gave it15 minutes and it was still smoking but no fire. So I went into test mode and activated the auger which put out a lot of black smoldering pellets before running fresh pellets. Dipped all the ash and pellets from the pot into a fire bucket, then primed with pellets for next start.
Investigation suggests that perhaps less resistance to air flow from auger, than grill vents. I used two GrillGrates fitted for the 1070 to do steaks, and they overlap the drip pan both fore and aft.That does block air flow on the right side of the drip pan. I wonder if they block the flow enough to cause the back pressure???? Plan: will turn them sideways after using for hot cooks, so the space in front of and back of the drip pan is not compromised??? Also consider using a gasket on the top of the hopper to prevent air flow from below???( a very thin gasket will do the trick without preventing the lid from closing.) I don't think the fire pot was to loaded with ash.
 
Did it get down to the 240 before shutdown?

FWIW, I too had it backburn for no discernible reason, once. Did the same as you, cleared the auger. I just leave it at low or 225 for a while longer then I used to. Today I let mine go down to low, 180, after toasting a couple whole chickens @ 425. I did not pay attention to how long it took to get down to low, I looked at the app after maybe 30 minutes and it was there.
 
@okie did you turn it from 500 directly to 250? If so that may be your problem. I did that originally but found that making that big of a change caused the fan to kick on and off a lot to bring the pit temp down. I think the high cooking temp (500 in this case) starts to burn back up the auger tube faster than the on and off action dispenses the pellets. I now drop the temp in 50 degree increments until I get below 275 (usually 250) then turn it off. No problems since I started doing it incrementaly.
 
Did it get down to the 240 before shutdown?

FWIW, I too had it backburn for no discernible reason, once. Did the same as you, cleared the auger. I just leave it at low or 225 for a while longer then I used to. Today I let mine go down to low, 180, after toasting a couple whole chickens @ 425. I did not pay attention to how long it took to get down to low, I looked at the app after maybe 30 minutes and it was there.
Thanks. Do you have the GrillGrates? If so, we’re they in place when this happened?
 
@okie did you turn it from 500 directly to 250? If so that may be your problem. I did that originally but found that making that big of a change caused the fan to kick on and off a lot to bring the pit temp down. I think the high cooking temp (500 in this case) starts to burn back up the auger tube faster than the on and off action dispenses the pellets. I now drop the temp in 50 degree increments until I get below 275 (usually 250) then turn it off. No problems since I started doing it incrementaly.
Good point.. Thanks.
 
Thanks. Do you have the GrillGrates? If so, we’re they in place when this happened?
I do not have grill grates. Sure wish they would make the fan delay time user selectable.
 
I do not have grill grates. Sure wish they would make the fan delay time user selectable.
I think the auger action and fan action are independent. I have not had this problem before but was letting the pit stay down longer before shutting it off. That gave time for the auger to deliver the ignited pellets out of the tube. I agree a slower decline would help prevent, but not in 50* increments.
Plan: Will turn down from 500+ temps to 350*, and then down to 250*. When it reaches 250* will leave it there for 15 minutes or so. Then off! Also, clean the fire pot after all long cooks. Have not had this problem before, and in retrospect I think I just turned it off too soon before it could poop the smoldering pellets.
 
I think the auger action and fan action are independent. I have not had this problem before but was letting the pit stay down longer before shutting it off. That gave time for the auger to deliver the ignited pellets out of the tube. I agree a slower decline would help prevent, but not in 50* increments.
Plan: Will turn down from 500+ temps to 350*, and then down to 250*. When it reaches 250* will leave it there for 15 minutes or so. Then off! Also, clean the fire pot after all long cooks. Have not had this problem before, and in retrospect I think I just turned it off too soon before it could poop the smoldering pellets.
Was inspecting the fire pot again today (after emptying it.) and noted that the air holes are lined up NESW. There are two holes (upper and lower) on the North side of the pot, two on the East and West sides, and one above the Auger tube on the South side. Total 7 holes. The way they are situated, the two North side holes blow directly South and right into the Auger tube. Seems to me that such position, would increase risk of fire ignition in the Auger tube, as there is only one tube blowing air back North. It would be great if we could rotate all the holes 45*. Then they would be NE,NW,SW,SE. and we could also have two holes in each area for total of 8. Does anyone think that might reduce the Auger fire risk? If so, it would be a great experiment to do. Have the holes welded shut, and drill the new holes in the proper places. Hmm- Fire pot and ignitor cost only $79 last time I looked.

Just the "what if?" thoughts of an old guy with too much time on his hands.
 
Looks like someone beat me to it. Traeger, and after market. Sorry pics are small.
s-l64.jpg
s-l64-1.jpg
 
Since the above, I have resolved my shut down problems without involving adjustment of the fire pot holes on a different thread.
 

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