Stampede WTF Just Happened?!

[RHEINLEIN]

Wonder who this might be… 3 guesses

And thanks again @BigDan !
You're a fountain of smokin' knowledge.

 

[C. Keeper]

And thanks again @BigDan !
You're a fountain or smokin' knowledge.

@BigDan is a volcano of smokin' knowledge

 

[BigDan]

@BigDan is a volcano of smokin' knowledge

 

[v1per95]

Before I bought my first pellet grill (a cheap $300 masterbuilt from sams club) I had heard of, and witnessed one of these explosions. Once I got my grill, I followed its startup directions which included opening the lid during startup. I've carried that practice till now, and I've yet to have an explosion after about 5 years, hundreds of cooks, and used 3 different pellet grills. It won't entirely eliminate the issue, but I think leaving the lid open during startup until the smoke clears can only help reduce the risk.

 

[TheRicker]

Generally this will be caused by too much fuel, pellets and not enough air flow for proper combustion and is mainly due to a dirty fire pot restricting the air flow from the fan or a slow running fan. You should never see this type of heavy whitish smoke coming from these pellet grills if so somethings wrong. The only smoke you should see is a thin blueish smoke coming from a pellet grill.

I think it’s normal to have heavy smoke for 2-3 minutes when you first start it up. Once the fire gets started, that smoke subsides and you get the “normal” light white/blue smoke.

 

[TheRicker]

Before I bought my first pellet grill (a cheap $300 masterbuilt from sams club) I had heard of, and witnessed one of these explosions. Once I got my grill, I followed its startup directions which included opening the lid during startup. I've carried that practice till now, and I've yet to have an explosion after about 5 years, hundreds of cooks, and used 3 different pellet grills. It won't entirely eliminate the issue, but I think leaving the lid open during startup until the smoke clears can only help reduce the risk.

Amen! I’ve had a pellet grill for over 15 years. The original (Traeger) directions said to leave it open during startup. I’ve always done that even with my RT-700. No issues of that sort.

 

[MOTJ]

I am a newbie to pellet grills - just did my first cook yesterday on our new recteq Flagship RT-1100 - a 2-and-1/2 pound reversed seared NY Strip steak and it came out fantastic! I would say that recteq made it almost unbelievably easy.

Anyway, as I was studying how to do reverse sears and take care of the smoker, I saw stories about explosions.

I understand now the importance of following proper start-up and shut-down regarding unused pellets, blocked airflow, etc, but what I don't understand is why recteq instructs users to start the grill with the lid closed, because it does seem intuitive to not trap explosive gases. Is there some other safety reason to keep the lid closed that supercedes such intuition and experience from other grills?

This makes me nervous:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=379052564852849

 

[Nerdygrrl]

RT states a lot of things. I've had four pellet grills now: three Traeger Timberlines and an RT 1250 that I returned. If the smoker is correctly designed and executes as it should, you don't need that extra air flow. None of my Tmberlines needed to have the hood open and there was plenty of air circulation happening in there so it wasn't needed.

The one big issue that people were having with RT is that the heating elements on these were coming off of the line incorrectly installed/not making good contact with the pellets. This resulted in a far higher instances of the grills not starting before the auger started to feed in more pellets. It's on a times system.

The additional pellets snuffed out the air flow and lead to smoldering, smoke building up and many occasions explosions.

 

[Buckeye smoker]

I am a newbie to pellet grills - just did my first cook yesterday on our new recteq Flagship RT-1100 - a 2-and-1/2 pound reversed seared NY Strip steak and it came out fantastic! I would say that recteq made it almost unbelievably easy.

Anyway, as I was studying how to do reverse sears and take care of the smoker, I saw stories about explosions.

I understand now the importance of following proper start-up and shut-down regarding unused pellets, blocked airflow, etc, but what I don't understand is why recteq instructs users to start the grill with the lid closed, because it does seem intuitive to not trap explosive gases. Is there some other safety reason to keep the lid closed that supercedes such intuition and experience from other grills?

This makes me nervous:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=379052564852849

Yes, I always start mine open.... there are many factors to this happening and its not just a Recteq problem . Its happened in traegers and other units.

This is back when this first started happening 2018...talks about too much fuel, unburnt fuel, gases in smoke and flame outs... Just a few example of what can happen.

 

[C. Keeper]

I am a newbie to pellet grills - just did my first cook yesterday on our new recteq Flagship RT-1100 - a 2-and-1/2 pound reversed seared NY Strip steak and it came out fantastic! I would say that recteq made it almost unbelievably easy.

Anyway, as I was studying how to do reverse sears and take care of the smoker, I saw stories about explosions.

I understand now the importance of following proper start-up and shut-down regarding unused pellets, blocked airflow, etc, but what I don't understand is why recteq instructs users to start the grill with the lid closed, because it does seem intuitive to not trap explosive gases. Is there some other safety reason to keep the lid closed that supercedes such intuition and experience from other grills?

This makes me nervous:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=379052564852849

The remote ON function was replaced by the max smoke feature

 

[Nerdygrrl]

Yes, I always start mine open.... there are many factors to this happening and its not just a Recteq problem . Its happened in traegers and other units.

This is back when this first started happening 2018...talks about too much fuel, unburnt fuel, gases in smoke and flame outs... Just a few example of what can happen.

It really depends on the model. The lower end Traeger's which the original RT Bull was modeled after they actually tell you to start with the lid open.

Added oxygen is not a bad thing, but depending on the way the smoker is designed it'a not always needed.

 

[Gonefishin]

The only time I’ve had real heavy smoke was when I had way too much in the fire pot on startup.

You had just done a reverse sear, did you bring the smoker down to 225ish, let it stabilize, then shut it down, or just shut it off from high heat?

 

[RattleR]

Three year old plus post. We’re Back.

 

[MOTJ]

The only time I’ve had real heavy smoke was when I had way too much in the fire pot on startup.

You had just done a reverse sear, did you bring the smoker down to 225ish, let it stabilize, then shut it down, or just shut it off from high heat?

It was my first cook and everything went perfectly. I did NOT have ANY smoke other than a wisp of blue and not much of that - it was mostly "invisible." After the reverse sear, I did shut down from "high" heat. But I had only put the grill at 300 for the reverse sear, because the GrillGrates instructions indicated the grates surfacesthemselves would add another 150-300. Maybe, I didn't have the recteq all that hot otherwise....

 

[MOTJ]

Three year old plus post. We’re Back.

Sorry about that. I was trying to look for answers that seemed related. Would a new post have been better? Anyway, thank you all for help out!

 

[Waterboy]

You’re good. Old threads get stirred up all the time. The last post before you started were in December.

 

[RattleR]

Sorry about that. I was trying to look for answers that seemed related. Would a new post have been better? Anyway, thank you all for help out!

No worries, it’s all good.