Trailblazer What did I do wrong?

[Gonefishin]

Hi Folks
For my 2nd try at the RT I made a small pizza, cooked on stones, grill at max temp which it says is 550 but I didn't double check it. When it finished I put shut it down at which time it did it's thing. When the timer finished I opened the lid to let the stones cool. A few minutes later I noticed it smoking both from the grill and the pellet hopper. Shut the lid and dug out pretty much all the pellets from the hopper. It smoldered for 10 or 15 minutes and seemed to go out. It's too hot at the moment to remove the guts and check the fire box but what few are left in the hopper are unburned.

So 1st off, what would have caused the fire? Opening the grill too soon after a very hot burn?

The auger was at default 6.5, after this I changed it to 3.5 as it's a warm 75 out today.

What's the best way to handle a suspected auger fire?

Thanks, Pizza was excellent.

 

[Buckeye smoker]

You didn't post anything other than a title and the letter H for beginners....?

 

[Gonefishin]

Got an error when I started to type but it registered the thread as you saw, edited the OP.

 

[Buckeye smoker]

So it's been said in here that turning it all the way to LOW before turning it off may have an impact on this....but I think it's more the cooking at max high temp is going to keep the smoldering for a bit.
I've never had this problem, but then gain I've always turned mine to low before shutdown mode. Not because of this, but because I always like it to be ready for extreme smoke mode.
But again my opinion is it has to do with air flow and the very hot temp it was on. Just more pellets in the pot to stop burning... The fan runs based on the temp or for so many minutes to extinguish the fire, but in high it may have still had too many to completely put out. (Obviously).. plus it Primes pellets into the pot for the next cook.
I would call RecTec and explain what happened to see what their answer is.
Also I usually do pizzas at 450° on a stone for 10mins. And it's more than enough heat.
Good luck let us know what they say!

 

[PSU-85]

I made burgers on my 700 a few weeks ago with the grill at 500*. I went out after dinner and the grill was still smoking even though it had been off for about 15 minutes. I asked a similar question and someone explained that the grills prime the fire pot when they are shut down so its ready to start up the next time. Problem is you were running the grill at max temp and some of the primer pellets started smoldering. A suggestion was made to me to cut the grill back to 250* for a few minutes before shutting down completely. I did that on the next cook at 500* and there was no residual burning or the pellets.

 

[Mastertech59]

I would recommend to turn the temperature setting down to LO on high temperature cooks, I pretty much do it on all my cooks, I would rather turn the grill temperature up when I start it up instead of turning it down, the logging charts come out better doing it this way.

 

[Gonefishin]

I'll try that next time, probably a good idea just to get used to dropping the temp all the way down after every cook.

Just went into Auger test mode, took a minute or so to get to unburned pellets. Now I need to go get a vacuum.

Tried calling RT support, no answer. I'm not going to bother calling again, I'll try lowing the temp 1st.

Thanks for the suggestions
Bob

 

[bfletcher]

I don't customarily [yet] do HH cooks on my Bull but when I finish a cook (sometimes at ~325f) I cut power before the auger feeds more pellets into the hopper. Whether this is good, bad, or indifferent I cannot speak.

 

[mooncusser2k]

Did the pizza stone(s) cover the gap on either side of the drip pan? If so, that can impede airflow and cause heat to build up under the grates. That heat can carry over and smolder pellets in the pot after shutdown. The amount of ash in the pot might also be a factor. I know mine had more than I realized.

 

[Gonefishin]

No, there was about the same air gap between the stones and the edge of the grate as the heat deflector has +/-. There was a good amount of ash in the fire box, no ide if it was too much. The manual says to clean it every 3 or so cooks, I had the burn in @ 400 for an hour, a 4 hour chicken @ 275ish, and the 40 minute or so pizza at whatever max is.

 

[mooncusser2k]

Yeah, I had some smoldering after shutdown on Sunday. Had been cooking bacon @ 400 using some sheet pans (which contributed to another issue). I wound up running it a while longer at the LO setting just to cool it down.

When I cleaned out later, there was a fair amount of ash in the firepot. Not so much that I'd consider to really be an issue. But it got me wondering if a bed of ash meant the pellets weren't dropping far from the auger tube - which could make it easier for smoldering to travel into the tube. Just wondering out loud, no real evidence...