> Weber Genesis EP-330
> Grilla Grills Original Grilla (OG) pellet smoker with Alpha/Connect
> Grilla Grills Pellet Pizza Oven
> Pit Barrel Cooker (gone to a new home)
> WeberQ 2000 (on "loan" to a relative (I'll never see it again))
> Old Smokey Electric (for chickens mostly - when it's too nasty out
to fiddle with a more capable cooker)
> Luhr Jensen Little Chief Electric - Top Loader circa 1990 (smoked fish & jerky)
> Thermoworks Smoke
> 3 Thermoworks Chef Alarms
> Thermoworks Thermapen One
> Thermoworks Thermapen Classic
> Thermoworks Thermopop
> Thermoworks Square DOT
> Thermoworks IR-GUN-S
> Joule Turbo Sous Vide Circulator
> Searzall torch
> BBQ Guru Rib Ring
> WÜSTHOF, Dalstrong, and Buck knives
> Paprika App on Mac and iOS
A little more detail please. Will the motor part of the generator run? If the motor runs then are we talking no output from the generator? Is the motor a 2 or 4 cycle? Have you checked the fuel system and filters? Have you checked your air filter? Have you checked your oil level if a 4 cycle? Help us help you.
May be an issue with old gasoline and something gumed up. Easy for a fuel line or carb jets to gum. Try some spray carb cleaner, drain the bulb and or carb and get some fresh gas. Big fan of gas stabilizer for small gas engines.
Brand new generator, clean gas (I use gas stabilizer in all my gas), 4 cycle. It died trying to run the pellet pooper, so I just used the generator the rest of the night for the fridge and fans. That thing literally ran 10-12 more hours after the pellet failure. I was hoping once the pellet got going drawing its 75 or so watts, I could plug up the fridge and fans.
It runs great to use with anything, except the stinkin' pellet pooper.
Nothing else was running off of it when I hooked up the pellet.
And it died fast, as soon I heard the fan at start-up.
Okay. It sounds like the smoker itself is pulling too many amps on startup. What does it do to a circuit breaker when you start it up plugged into a wall socket.
Jerod Broussard when I've had to run my MAK on the gene, I don't use an extension cord. Actually many pellet cookers have warmings about extension cords (what size/what length)
Jerod Broussard I'm assuming you mean extension cord to outlet without issue, but it makes a difference with generators especially that initial startup for pellet grills. After the ignition I think they could ALMOST run on a solar calculator but that startup is like a hair dryer or space heater, add an extension cord to that and well no bueno if it's the wrong size. I'm no expert, just have mad respect for electricity especially with power tools and such especially when it comes to e-cords
Let us know how the experimenting goes. A pellet grill pulls a surprising low amount of current. At startup, most pull less than 2 to 2.5 amps. Using a kill a watt tonight just to test for this thread, my rec tec pulled 1.0 amp at startup, and less than 2.3 amps under full igniter burn, then settled in to less that 0.8 amps cursing along. Generator tripping issues are usually caused by grounding issues. So maybe a bad cord or watt not. See what I did there... Ha.
Since the grill works fine on a wall socket, and the generator also works fine when using a welder (I’m assuming without an extension cord) then let’s look at the extension cord.
1. Check the rating chart below to see if it your cable can handled the load.
2. Substitute the cord with a higher rated one.
3. Check that your existing cord isn’t damaged or crushed, and also that the plugs are not loose, damaged, and if all screws are tight.
4. Check that the ground wire is connected
Yup. Probably a ground issue of some sort. You could try plugging it directly into the generator. You don't have a gauge issue I'm pretty positive. Heck the actual cord to your pellet grill, (or most are anyway) is 18 AWG. The whole system is probably protected by a 5 amp fuse. You could run this thing on a cheap green Christmas tree cord actually.
Have you tested the cord that the smoker was connected to? I recently got a bad 50' 10ga from a big orange store. After testing resistance the ground was not connected. Damaged wire somewhere in all that plastic. Orange did let me exchange...
Do you have a multimeter? Test continuity from male to female ends.
Kamado Joe Big Joe III
Pit Barrel Cooker
Camp Chef Flat Top 900
Weber Performer 22
PowerFlamer Propane 160
Meater +
Thermoworks Smoke
Thermoworks Thermapen
Temp Spike
Do you have anything you can hook the generator to that pulls as much power as the smoker? All our pipeline x ray trucks had generators on them. It almost sounds like a bad plugin with high resistance. I’ve had so many of those that you could grab and feel the heat. They would have blackened prongs when you pulled them apart. It could be the plug on the grill. If that grill shouldn’t pull enough wattage to cause problems then I believe you will find high resistance somewhere. Good luck.
Please let us know the results when you power the pellet directly from the generator without extension cord. If it doesn’t work we need to move onto the stove’s cord and also look at what’s happening inside the pellet stove. New generators might have a different style circuit breaker than what your house does and that is detecting something causing the generator to shut down. Heck, I just tracked down an issue that was tripping an entire circuit because some small 1/16” ants were using the wiring as a path.
If I were a betting man, I would guess that the igniter is tripping the instantaneous limit on the circuit breaker whereas a normal circuit breaker has a different trip curve. The igniter has a positive temperature coefficient, and the current draw when cold is going to be pretty high, even if only for a few milliseconds.
Did you try to put a load on the generator first then turn your smoker on. The surge may be smoothed out if the generator is already powering something.
Give it a try let us know. I'm interested as to whether my gen can run the Yoder without that issue. I won't be able to give that a try for a while. Thanks
Comment