The 340 went crazy!

[JJP]

My wife and I were sitting on the patio while I was smoking some beef back ribs. I was watching the app and all was going well. All of a sudden the actual temp started going down from 225 to 200 to 160, when all of a sudden the grill went kaboom puff, and started smoking heavily. I unplugged the grill, opened the hopper to make sure I didn't have a fire there. It's still smoking like crazy. What should I do? What should I look for?

 

[C. Keeper]

My wife and I were sitting on the patio while I was smoking some beef back ribs. I was watching the app and all was going well. All of a sudden the actual temp started going down from 225 to 200 to 160, when all of a sudden the grill went kaboom puff, and started smoking heavily. I unplugged the grill, opened the hopper to make sure I didn't have a fire there. It's still smoking like crazy. What should I do? What should I look for?

Uninstall the app and try again without the app installed.

 

[JGW]

1st, SAVE THE MEAT.

2nd, ensure there is no fire. If not, remove the grill, drip pan and the heat deflector.
What does your fire pot look like?
Is it full of pellets? If so, spoon them out leaving a few in there, put everything back, and start it back up.

 

[ol' stonebreaker]

Sounds like the pellets bridged making a void in the auger feed then broke and the controller overfed trying to compensate for the temp drop.

 

[JJP]

Sounds like the pellets bridged making a void in the auger feed then broke and the controller overfed trying to compensate for the temp drop.

I believe that. How do I just run the auger? I took it apart and the fire box didn't look that bad. I took a spoon and dipped the fire box out. I then spooned the auger tube, and the were burnt pellets in there. I'd like to just run the auger to see how far back it burned.

 

[Waterboy]

This Video will show you how to go into test mode. Toggle to the auger and you can run it as long as you need to.

 

[Gonefishin]

go into test mode, 5-1 is the Auger.

Download the manual from here https://www.recteq.com/rt-340-support for specifics.

 

[JJP]

Thanks for the help. The 340 was hot and it got dark last night. I just got through running test mode on the auger and fan this morning. The pellets didn't burn very far into the auger tube. Fresh pellet started coming out quickly. The fan ran well. I shut test mode down and started the 340. The auger started dumping pellets into the fire box, and the igniter started the burn. So there must had been a bridge or gap in the hopper or auger tube. Before I started I looked at the fire box and it seemed clean enough. But maybe not. I'll have to keep that in mind next long cook. Or after several short cooks. Because I have had several temp drops lately.

I finished the beef back ribs in the oven. They probed tender at about a 195 degrees. They were wonderful.

 

[C. Keeper]

Thanks for the help. The 340 was hot and it got dark last night. I just got through running test mode on the auger and fan this morning. The pellets didn't burn very far into the auger tube. Fresh pellet started coming out quickly. The fan ran well. I shut test mode down and started the 340. The auger started dumping pellets into the fire box, and the igniter started the burn. So there must had been a bridge or gap in the hopper or auger tube. Before I started I looked at the fire box and it seemed clean enough. But maybe not. I'll have to keep that in mind next long cook. Or after several short cooks. Because I have had several temp drops lately.

I finished the beef back ribs in the oven. They probed tender at about a 195 degrees. They were wonderful.

I love a happy ending

 

[Gonefishin]

I push around the pellets during a cook whenever I visit the smoker. Have yet to have a pellet bridge.

 

[JJP]

I push around the pellets during a cook whenever I visit the smoker. Have yet to have a pellet bridge.

I do that too. Yesterday I opened the hopper and stirred the pellets around before topping the hopper off. during the cook I opened the hopper several time keeping an eye on it. I just don't know how it happened?

 

[jimbbq]

I had the same symptoms last cook. Had no idea what was causing it.

 

[Roaniecowpony]

I had something like this happen once in my 700. I'm pretty sure the boom was a smoke flashover. I've had these in my komado when lifting the lid and letting O2 in. But I'm not sure what caused the temperature to drop. Log jamb, auger jamb, PID controller has learned to catnap?

 

[C. Keeper]

I had something like this happen once in my 700. I'm pretty sure the boom was a smoke flashover. I've had these in my komado when lifting the lid and letting O2 in. But I'm not sure what caused the temperature to drop. Log jamb, auger jamb, PID controller has learned to catnap?

Union controllers have planned breaks.