So yesterday I had my second burnback experience on my MAK 2-star. (Which I've owned for 8 years and used happily hundreds of times, so this is an anomaly - but still one I'd like to avoid.)
The first time (almost 4 years ago), I went to bed after using it and didn't discover until the next day, by which time it had burned through most of a hopper full of pellets, burned off the powder coat inside hopper (I was able to repaint with can from MAK), and damaged the controller beyond repair (I paid to replace it).
This time I was luckier - I noticed smoke coming out of the (very full) hopper just a few mins after shutdown...so I was able to empty the hopper (pellets were warm at the bottom), turned the grill back on and set to high temp to force all remaining pellets into the fire pot - figured that was best way to get any smoldering pellets out of the auger tube. The pellets I pulled out of the hopper don't smell great but everything else seems to be intact.
Once it had cooled, I emptied the fire pot and vacuumed out ash throughout. I had allowed quite a bit of ash to accumulate generally since last time, but had emptied the fire pot pretty recently and it wasn't super full.
So what caused and what to do differently next time..? I was running at 400 as I do frequently...last time this happened, MAK's advice to prevent in future was to leave the lid open during cool down, so I've been doing that ever since, including this time. It was very windy last night, so I wonder if that could have blown the fire toward the augur tube enough for those pellets to catch??
Would be grateful for anyone's experience and suggestions. I'll also try asking MAK again in case their advice has evolved - last time they said I was the first customer ever to report a hopper fire.
The first time (almost 4 years ago), I went to bed after using it and didn't discover until the next day, by which time it had burned through most of a hopper full of pellets, burned off the powder coat inside hopper (I was able to repaint with can from MAK), and damaged the controller beyond repair (I paid to replace it).
This time I was luckier - I noticed smoke coming out of the (very full) hopper just a few mins after shutdown...so I was able to empty the hopper (pellets were warm at the bottom), turned the grill back on and set to high temp to force all remaining pellets into the fire pot - figured that was best way to get any smoldering pellets out of the auger tube. The pellets I pulled out of the hopper don't smell great but everything else seems to be intact.
Once it had cooled, I emptied the fire pot and vacuumed out ash throughout. I had allowed quite a bit of ash to accumulate generally since last time, but had emptied the fire pot pretty recently and it wasn't super full.
So what caused and what to do differently next time..? I was running at 400 as I do frequently...last time this happened, MAK's advice to prevent in future was to leave the lid open during cool down, so I've been doing that ever since, including this time. It was very windy last night, so I wonder if that could have blown the fire toward the augur tube enough for those pellets to catch??
Would be grateful for anyone's experience and suggestions. I'll also try asking MAK again in case their advice has evolved - last time they said I was the first customer ever to report a hopper fire.
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