So how does one blow up a brand new grill?

Anyone know what the rationale is for leaving the door closed? Why does Recteq so strongly recommend that?

The only thing I can think of is maybe someone at RT thinks not changing what they've recommended in the past somehow doesn't admit to a revealed hazard/liability. At my company (a large commercial airplane maker) the product liability lawyers said the exact opposite. It shows lack of willingness to correct a known hazard and it's more likely that someone pursuing punitive damages would be successful.
 
Anyone know what the rationale is for leaving the door closed? Why does Recteq so strongly recommend that?

Here's a video of a 400F set startup, obviously with the door open and everything removed from the inside. Nothing bad can happen from having the door open. Most of you will fall asleep, its so boring. .. the way it should be.
 
The only thing I can think of is maybe someone at RT thinks not changing what they've recommended in the past somehow doesn't admit to a revealed hazard/liability. At my company (a large commercial airplane maker) the product liability lawyers said the exact opposite. It shows lack of willingness to correct a known hazard and it's more likely that someone pursuing punitive damages would be successful.

Just another thought. Maybe they use the RTD to see if the ignition is working and there is a chance of it shutting down in error if some period of time it does not sense heat?
 
Just another thought. Maybe they use the RTD to see if the ignition is working and there is a chance of it shutting down in error if some period of time it does not sense heat?
I don't think so. But that would be cool, since they would then have a way to do "door open" pellet feed pause. The startup routine is a 10 minute cycle and is exactly the same, from what I could tell, whether set at LO or 400F. After the 10 minute startup cycle, the auger adds more pellets at some preset rate/interval, until the heat setting is reached.
 
I don't think so. But that would be cool, since they would then have a way to do "door open" pellet feed pause. The startup routine is a 10 minute cycle and is exactly the same, from what I could tell, whether set at LO or 400F. After the 10 minute startup cycle, the auger adds more pellets at some preset rate/interval, until the heat setting is reached.

Yeah but the chance of it ever reaching temp is low if the door is open. By keeping the door closed it takes common sense away meaning heat will build and a user will not have to watch it and close it as soon as it lights. I would think the diagnostic system would trip at some point if heat is not achieved thinking no ignition. Especially on cooler temps with wind.
 
Yeah but the chance of it ever reaching temp is low if the door is open. By keeping the door closed it takes common sense away meaning heat will build and a user will not have to watch it and close it as soon as it lights. I would think the diagnostic system would trip at some point if heat is not achieved thinking no ignition. Especially on cooler temps with wind.
Easy enough to test. Just do a startup without any pellets in the hopper and see what happens.
 
Hello there,

So pellet grills and smoking are an entirely new ball park for me. This RT-590 was a Christmas gift from the wife after a long time of looking at Rectecs and other brands.

Pellet hopper, not overfilled. Whatever the plate is called under the grills, 4 pieces of foil overlapping in the correct manner so grease would run down them and not get caught in the foil itself. I did everything as the instructions said regarding setup. That 400+ burn-in, not filling the firepot with too many pellets etc. I didn't overfill the fire pot the first time and have allowed the auto-shut down to run its course after using it 4 times.

So how the hell does this happen:

That explosion was about 10 minutes after I turned it on and set it to 410 to cook burgers. About 7 minutes in my wife told me there was WAY too much smoke outside and as I'm heading out there this happens. I'm not a pro at this or cooking anything in general but the only sense I can make of this is the grease leftover from 4 times I've used so far (burgers twice, fajitas twice) smoked bad until ignition/launch. Of those 4 cooks, not a drop has actually made it into the bucket/jar. It's just sat on the foil. I'd planned to change the foil every 6 or so cooks since I either read that or saw it in a review video as "best practice." Ironically my concern with this before was always igniting fuel up the auger and into the firebox and creating a disaster. I'd never thought of it blowing up like this.
That was probably caused by the grease left on your foil from 4 cooks and starting off at a high temp rather than stepping up in increments. My guess is the oil vaporized and ignited causing the explosion.
 
I had a similar experience as a newbie. My 340 had trouble from the beginning getting the pellets to light. Sometimes it would light quickly other times it would take as long as 20 minutes. It was during one of those long waits that everything went boom.

My guess is that the pellets were not getting hot enough to ignite. During the long warming process gasses built up until a spark set everything off.

Recteq support was very helpful. Eventually we replaced the igniter. This seemed to solve the problem for me. Unless the pot is full of dust, the smoker fires up quickly every time these days.
 
Hello there,

So pellet grills and smoking are an entirely new ball park for me. This RT-590 was a Christmas gift from the wife after a long time of looking at Rectecs and other brands.

Pellet hopper, not overfilled. Whatever the plate is called under the grills, 4 pieces of foil overlapping in the correct manner so grease would run down them and not get caught in the foil itself. I did everything as the instructions said regarding setup. That 400+ burn-in, not filling the firepot with too many pellets etc. I didn't overfill the fire pot the first time and have allowed the auto-shut down to run its course after using it 4 times.

So how the hell does this happen:

That explosion was about 10 minutes after I turned it on and set it to 410 to cook burgers. About 7 minutes in my wife told me there was WAY too much smoke outside and as I'm heading out there this happens. I'm not a pro at this or cooking anything in general but the only sense I can make of this is the grease leftover from 4 times I've used so far (burgers twice, fajitas twice) smoked bad until ignition/launch. Of those 4 cooks, not a drop has actually made it into the bucket/jar. It's just sat on the foil. I'd planned to change the foil every 6 or so cooks since I either read that or saw it in a review video as "best practice." Ironically my concern with this before was always igniting fuel up the auger and into the firebox and creating a disaster. I'd never thought of it blowing up like this.
I believe it has to do with the outside temp being cold. I have heard of this happening with many smoker brands. Mine has started on really cold days putting out too much smoke so I opened the lids for a bit. I think it has to do with being really cold and the unit pumping in too many pellets and smoldering then getting oxygen and boom. Scary for sure.
 
While I’ve not had a blow up before, I definitely experienced the heavy smoke one time. Once I had my grill placed in the yard. Well, it started to rain so I moved it under the patio, the temp started dropping so I turned it off then back on and it finally got going again and then the heavy smoke came, then the flame up and fire. I immediately unplugged it because just turning it down doesn’t stop it.
This is what I think happened. When pulling it under my patio there is a ledge and the grill had to come up at an angle. When doing so I think the pellets got away from the igniter or just went out. After I got it back on level ground, the pellets kept filling in the fire pot with no fire happening. When it finally did catch there was so many pellets in the fire pot that it burned way too much and way too hot. I think the temperature recorded was almost 800 degrees.
Solution, don’t move your grill while cooking.
 
Hello there,

So pellet grills and smoking are an entirely new ball park for me. This RT-590 was a Christmas gift from the wife after a long time of looking at Rectecs and other brands.

Pellet hopper, not overfilled. Whatever the plate is called under the grills, 4 pieces of foil overlapping in the correct manner so grease would run down them and not get caught in the foil itself. I did everything as the instructions said regarding setup. That 400+ burn-in, not filling the firepot with too many pellets etc. I didn't overfill the fire pot the first time and have allowed the auto-shut down to run its course after using it 4 times.

So how the hell does this happen:

That explosion was about 10 minutes after I turned it on and set it to 410 to cook burgers. About 7 minutes in my wife told me there was WAY too much smoke outside and as I'm heading out there this happens. I'm not a pro at this or cooking anything in general but the only sense I can make of this is the grease leftover from 4 times I've used so far (burgers twice, fajitas twice) smoked bad until ignition/launch. Of those 4 cooks, not a drop has actually made it into the bucket/jar. It's just sat on the foil. I'd planned to change the foil every 6 or so cooks since I either read that or saw it in a review video as "best practice." Ironically my concern with this before was always igniting fuel up the auger and into the firebox and creating a disaster. I'd never thought of it blowing up like this.
Clearly the fire pot had too many pellets in it. You can tell this by the amount of smoke coming out. I am not sure this is from anything you did wrong. It just didn't ignite soon enough like it should have and filled with too many pellets instead. There is a growing number of these cases recently. I would contact Recteq about this. It could be the igniter position or something that has changed in production.

As far as the auger running at the end of the shutdown cycle, this is done to ensure there are no pellets remaining at the very end of the auger chute that might be smoldering, and cause ignition later on. A safety measure if you will in case someone shuts down at higher temps and doesn't leave enough time during the 300 second shutdown period to cool the flame down enough. This brief auger cycle is not running for the next cook.
 
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I’ve had a similar experience a couple times with my Trailblazer (Though not quite that extreme). I believe the issue is ash buildup in the fire pot. That allows it to smolder then as some other poster noted, the gases and/or heated fuel ignites. I now make sure that ash is minimal in the fire pot before every cook (vacuum out regularly) and a small hand full of fresh pellets are there for ignition. Another tip is during shutdown to avoid auger fires. If cooking above 250, I set to 225 after cook is done and let it run until it reaches 225 and then shut it down. I haven’t had any issues since I’ve made these two changes.
 
Don't care what RT says......I do and will continue to start the grill with the lid open, common sense keeps pellet grills from going KABOOM!!!!! I agree with overfilled burnpot and perhaps the pellets were a bit damp, so far my 590 ignites with barely any smoke present at all and not for long. I keep my pellets in a gasketed sealed dog food bin, keeps them quite dry of any humidity. I also don't leave my grill alone until it has ignited fully and rolling along, open door and ignition observation has worked well for me over the years.
 
I'm going to resurrect this thread. I just stumbled on an online blog/video discussing pellet grill explosions. named Backyard Alpha https://www.backyardalpha.com/why-do-pellet-grills-explode/

The author discusses the causes of explosions, but his discussion seems to lack much technical depth. He doesn't even state what the fuel mixture is that explodes, nor the sequence that occurs. He dumbs it down to "if your grill shuts down incorrectly, it may explode."

But the reason I am posting about it is that he takes the position that these explosions are a result of improper owner use. I'm going to have to take the other side, in this case, since it's 2022 and these grills are a "smart device", in that they have an onboard computer of sorts. I know some people will give me flak for this, but maybe a manufacturer will read this and consider some design changes. Just keep in mind that these consumer appliances are intended for the masses, meaning your misses and your 18 and older kids, and they are intended to be on a home patio where kids and family are in close proximity to the device. I'm not blaming the industry for yesterday's hazard, just providing a perspective for their actions going forward.

First, there is a known hazard that these appliances can explode. The industry has had their notification of that. It's been documented on videos and attested to by others. They are aware that the proximate cause is a flammable/explosive mixture of smoke and air that is ignited by the firepot when it finally generates a flame.

Second, the hazardous condition of too much pellet fuel in the fire pot is not readily visible, nor have manufacturers instructed users to visually inspect the fire pot for a certain condition prior to each start up.

Third, the industry knows they cannot control all of the conditions leading to over priming the pellet fire pot with their current designs.

Fourth, the pellet grill state of the industry is not utilizing simple state of the art safety designs.

Fifth, (this applies to manufacturers that don't even recommend leaving the door open during start up) no method to prevent the occurrence of an explosion is provided to the user.

So, most manufacturers have addressed this hazard with what I'd call a self-service band-aid. They recommend leaving the door open during start up. That's great. But they don't prevent someone from leaving the door closed and starting it and they've still seen explosion events, even after advising of leaving the door open. A method of prevention could be incorporated very inexpensively in the form of an open-door sensor and the logic in the motherboard interlock the door position during start up.

Hopefully, we won't see a serious injury of any users or their families before the industry steps up to modern consumer product standards. But we often see consumer safety improvement has a been a result of injuries or deaths.
 
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Traeger invented/designed pellets grills and had a lock on the market until their patents expired. Most other makers simply copied the design, and ALL pellets grills are derivatives of the Traeger design.

Traeger has always stated to start the grill with the lid opened. Many makers still do.

Recteq makes their grills with quality components, and arguably the best pellet grill controller on the market.

Where they fail is the recommendation to start with the grill closed, and the ridiculous short shutdown procedure and adding more pellets to the fire pit after 5 minutes.

Users can control the first issue, but we cannot change the shutdown procedure.
 

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