Stampede White Smoke Explosion

[dwf29]

BOOM!!
At about my 10th cook, I set my thermostat to 375 degrees, and the grill seemed not to heat up for some time, also MASSIVE amounts of white smoke started billowing out of every opening on the grill, I had no idea what was going on, then suddenly BOOM! a flash flame and the lid popped up. Afterwards it started smoking and heating normally. I thought maybe the cause was an ashes up ignition area…who knows!

The last picture is a frame from a video I took which shows the explosion flame to be considerably huge!!

 

[hput2]

WOW!!! What makes the white smoke explosive?

 

[pungo]

BOOM!!

You're not the first one to have an explosion

explosion search results

 

[SmokeZilla]

Great pics. Maybe it will be a reality check for those that think you should place a source of fire near a house/dwelling/structure. I have many LEO and FD friends and I have been to many scenes that had major structural damage due to run away grill conditions. The neighbor that shares the rear wall with my own house has been under construction for 2 years and 4 months because he did something similar. Thanks for sharing your PSA so we can all be reminded that no grill is worth the price of your home or family.

 

[ol' stonebreaker]

Leave the lid open 'til you know the flame is established.

 

[sdynak]

Per Recteq this is acceptable since they have yet to address it and still say to leave the lid closed when heating up. Can happen even after up to temp in mid cook as others have reported.

It might still be good to contact Recteq and add yourself to the list. Don't expect anything other than it was your fault though. Somehow they will spin it that way being cleaning, pellets, or some other wacky response to negate themselves.

 

[sdynak]

WOW!!! What makes the white smoke explosive?

Smoke like this contains all the combustible elements without enough oxygen & heat. Once the perfect ratio of that comes together.. "poof". Like backdraft.

Recteq calls it a "lid pop". It is in fact an explosion.

 

[Kim]

That's it. I'm gonna get rid of this POS.

 

[C. Keeper]

That's it. I'm gonna get rid of this POS.

That's all you can do

 

[sdynak]

Just to add.. check the app and see if there is a FW update. If you have the newer 590 you might be able to update it to the latest version.

 

[C. Keeper]

Just to add.. check the app and see if there is a FW update. If you have the newer 590 you might be able to update it to the latest version.

You just missed the firmware guru

 

[sdynak]

You just missed the firmware guru

 

[ol' stonebreaker]

So why's it such a big task to leave the lid open until the flame is going?? The treager I had did this so I've always left the lid open.

 

[C. Keeper]

So why's it such a big task to leave the lid open until the flame is going?? The treager I had did this so I've always left the lid open.

Global warming is the biggest reason.

 

[JGW]

That's it. I'm gonna get rid of this POS.

Traeger recommends starting grills with the lid OPENED. Do the same with your grill and you won’t have this issue.

Some of the Rec Teq instructions are BS, contrary to the laws of physics, and dangerous….especially their shut down programming.

 

[Kim]

Traeger recommends starting grills with the lid OPENED. Do the same with your grill and you won’t have this issue.

Some of the Rec Teq instructions are BS, contrary to the laws of physics, and dangerous….especially their shut down programming.

I've not been impressed with this cooker since I bought it and it's not just this post but the whole thing about fire running back through the auger and burning in the hopper is freaking crazy too. I was smoking a lean piece of beef, a cheap boneless rib roast, on 225 and decided to turn it up to 300 after it had smoked a while to hurry the cook. I was going to reverse sear.
This was before they got notifications working the first time. My grill was newly cleaned so no pooled grease other than the tiny bit that cooked out at 225. I was watching the temp on my phone when I saw it start to rise rapidly. A grease fire at 300°. I called support to find out why on earth I was having grease fires at that temp and how was I ever going to be ever to smoke a whole shoulder if I was getting grease fires in the instance. The brilliant guy on the other end could only tell me that I had a grease fire and that he smoked shoulders on his cooker all of the time.
Now notifications aren't working again. I have the old style 590 that has the huge holes in the back and I bought the rain guards for it that warped on the first cook so if it's raining I have to get my cooker under cover. The only place that I can do that is by bringing it onto the screened porch.
Many times I have shut the thing down and it smokes for hours because of the whole thing about dumping pellets out after you shut it down rather than when you get ready to light it.
The other day I had about 2/3 s of a hopper full of pellets. I went out and the grill was cooling off. The pellets had slid all down one side and were stacked up to almost the brim on the other side.

 

[GizmoD]

Global warming is the biggest reason.

LMFAO. I love this place.

 

[C. Keeper]

I take exception to the " white smoke explosion ". Why does it have to be white smoke?

 

[ol' stonebreaker]

Because white smoke is racist, LOL!!

 

[FF Cory]

I’ve had the same issue. I clean my 590 about every other cook. I’m not sure if I cleaned out too many pellets in the fire pot or not. I was pre-heating for a cook and started the heat. It took a little longer than I was used to and then BOOM! Blew the lid open and plenty of smoke. It wasn’t white, more of a dirty brown, which is indicative of incomplete combustion. that was the first and last time I had that issue. I make sure not to vacuum out the very end of the tube while cleaning. Don’t know if that is the fix but I have had no issues since.