I live in a very very humid area on the Gulf Coast. I have a camp chef DLX that I keep full of pellets all the time and I keep it covered outdoors. I’ve never had the pellets give me a problem or the auger, it just plugs in and starts up and smokes!
Maybe I’m lucky?
As someone else who lives in a swamp, your experience is unusual to me.
I have a Grilla Grills Chimp. It sits outside on my patio, covered with a grill cover but nothing else overhead. I keep the hopper full all of the time. (I keep the rest of the pellets inside next to the back door.)
I've never had a jam of any sort in my three years of ownership. My grill has gone months without use and no problems.
The particular pellets I use are exclusively the B&B Championship Blend. I can get them locally and they are inexpensive. The seem to be very low ash. I've also never had an instance of them getting soft or mushy due to an intake of moisture.
I don’t have a pellet smoker, but I do have a pellet tube. The instructions recommend microwaving the pellets briefly to make sure the pellets are dry.
Like a few others here, I live in a sauna. Hell's back porch with an open sauna. Everything here, in or out, molds, rusts or rots. I don't have a pellet anything, but know people that do, and never heard this mentioned either. I would agree, look for the leak or see if you can seal better?
Last edited by acorgihouse; May 20, 2025, 07:43 AM.
All pellets will have humidity problems. What you wat to do is empty the pellet hopper into a bucket after each use then bring it inside to the AC. Lump charcoal or silica beads will help absorb some humidity but let the bucket sit uncovered for at least a few hours in the AC then snap on a lid. Refill the hopper when you want to use it again. You can store a sealed bucket in a garage, but if you buy new bags of pellets you probably want to store them indoors.
The problem is not the cooker, it is the fact that pellets will absorb humidity. Then they swell up and get soft, easily jamming augers.
Waiting for the Worms I've been using GMG pellets in my GMG the last year, because the bbq boutique store here carries them, and whatever I buy from a big box store has issues... Broil king pellets have worked well too. But shouldn't be having jams from the wrong sized pellets using GMG's own brand.
Those pellets in post #14 look pretty broken up.
I have never seen pellets look like that.
Living in the Seattle/Tacoma area, when I was researching what smoker to get, I finally decided on a MAK II Stainless. It didn’t hurt the MAK is made right down the road in Oregon, that is still part of the USA I think. I didn't want to worry about rust and the all stainless eliminates that concern.
While Seattle/Tacoma summers tend to have low humidity, it can be high during the rainy winter months.
Winter (December through February) – The most humid time of year. Average afternoon relative humidity 75-85%. Spring (March through May) – Humidity starts to decrease. Average afternoon relative humidity 65-70%.
I have never had an issue with a clogged auger or wet pellets in the bin and I rarely empty it. All I do is vacuum the firepot and the auger feed at the firepot entry point before every use. It might be better to do it after a cook cools down but I have never worried about it.
I used to use the pellet hopper dump to winterize the smoker but I haven’t bothered the last two years. I did have a thick custom waterproof cover made that may help.
Just a heads-up: These are charcoal ... not wood pellets. They'll burn hotter than wood pellets and will smell/taste like charcoal smoke rather than wood smoke.
I won't win the Genius Prize, but I simply empty my Traeger pellets and clean the grill thoroughly after every cook, storing the pellets inside in a Traeger container. I've never had a pellet problem.
Comment