Wow, what a lesson...

[Deaf Arty]

Had trouble the last cook on my GMG DB keeping a steady temp. Worked with GMG and Fireboard together to try to find the problem. Customer service at both companies was outstanding. They spent a lot of time coaching me on how to determine the culprit. I cooked a chuckie today and the first few minutes were a nightmare. Then I remembered a recent reply in this forum (thanks, FlaBouy ) that mentioned pellets that had been sitting in the hopper for a while may not burn as well as they should. I had been traveling and hadn’t cooked on my GMG in a couple of months except the cook I had trouble with.
So I emptied the hopper, added fresh pellets and continued the cook. Rock solid temps! Lesson learned: even in Southern California in a covered cooker, the pellets can degrade over a couple of months. I’ll drain the pellets after every cook now.
Here’s what Fireboard showed:

By the way, here are the results

[HouseHomey]

Need help eating that lesson? Looking pretty tasty. Nice save.

[Mr. Bones]

Great lookin' chuckie, Arty!!!
Fine job!

[DWCowles]

Beautiful!

[kmhfive]

Awesome! Thanks for the lesson!

[FlaBouy]

Nice cook... btw, did I mention my 15% consultation fee can be over nighted to zip code 32405?

If I recall correctly, that was in a thread whereas I was trying to dispel conventional wisdom of people a lot smarter than I over consideration being imperative when selecting a pellet pooper in the aspect of needing an easy means to dump pellets since you HAVE TO remove all the pellets after a cook or it will result in swollen pellets, clogged augers, which cause an electrical overload, resulting in a spark, that ignited the clogged, compacted, highly volatile combustible wood products resulting in a huge explosion, registered by Kim Un causing him to launch a retaliatory strike, sending us all back into the dark ages.... or something along those lines.

If you will indulge me, I will provide a small backdrop. When I am not standing over a smoke chamber, I am either asleep, at the gym, or at my day job as an Industrial Process Control Engineer. So for those who get frustrated and think that I am arguing the nuances of wood pellets and their use, I am actually not arguing. I am explaining why you are wrong.

I have spent the better part of 40 years in industrial plants and facilities of all stripes. Wood Yards, plywood plants, bakeries, electronic manufacturing facilities, auto plants, etc., etc. Of those 40 years, the better part of the last 15 have been spent developing the European BioMass Energy market here in the states. Specifically, I have designed and implemented the manufacturing process controls for nearly a dozen new plants up and down the south eastern seabord of the US. Their product? Wood Pellets... I have one customer who manufactures 300 million metric tons of pellets a year for the market in the United Kingdom. I have been involved in the design and construction of 4 of the 6 pellet plants they have placed since 2004, all of which were several hundred million dollar projects.

So... I have spent a lot of time standing next to 5kV Hammermills, Pelletmills, Dryers, Chippers, and other process equipment that breaks down a 50' Great Southern Pine stem and chews it up to be spit out as a wood pellet. I have actually added automation to a machine that settles an argument on this forum about whether you should debark wood or not. I can take a 50' pine stem and toss it at a Nicholson Debarker at 500' per minute and strip it down as clean as a toothpick. So yes... Wood Pellets and I have an understanding of sorts. I know it spends most of its early life in a damp, dark, open environment since most all these plants are located next to rivers that connect to seaports. The end product is loaded and shipped via barges or loaded into open cars and moved by rail... loaded into storage silos at the ports, transferred into the cargo holds of ships.. and then start their long trek overseas to the end user. The wood pellet is actually a fairly robust product when you think about it.

Like anything else, smoking involves knowing your product. Knowing your equipment. Knowing your fuel. Aaron Franklin sources his product. Sources his wood. Builds his own smokers. To what end? Consistency. I dare say most people have more impact on their cooks by the muscles used to depress the left mouse button than any impact they will ever see by storage of pellets. Do you know what you are buying? Is it made from sawdust byproduct? Do they use fillers in the manufacturing process? Does the plant source its hardwood or does it accept Independents providing random product? All will impact the consistency of the burn over time. Proper storage and handling will also impact the consistency. Common sense should be used to prevent moisture intrusion. Just as feeding a stick burner wet or green wood will impact the cook, but it will burn if you get it hot enough... but now you have dirty smoke and unstable chamber temps. It is no different with pellets. But with that said, it is a well engineered product in most cases. It will withstand a bit of time in the hopper with no adverse effects as long as the hopper is closed and doesn't leak. As Arty noted, even after a bit of time, it still burned, there was no clogging, but the consistency was off. The recommendation is that if you are not going to smoke for a bit, measured in months, not days or weeks, then it is advisable to remove the pellets. But for someone like me who runs a smoker nearly daily or weekly, just use common sense. I load 40 pounds of pellets at a time into the RecTec. It has a covered hopper and it sits under an open sided canopy in the North Florida weather patterns. I have never had issue with moisture. I have never had issue with a clogged auger. Some claim that is luck. I argue it is a well educated risk assessment based in years of actual, practical experience. But, I am still willing to debate the issue.

Fun Fact: A semi pulls into a pellet plant full of wood chips from another process facility. What is the quickest way to unload it?

Answer: Tell the driver to get out of the rig and press the red button.

Carry on.

[kmhfive]

Nice pic!

[JCGrill]

Everything you said there makes perfect sense. And it fits with my limited experience too. Thanks for the great writing.

[CandySueQ]

Truck dumps are amazing. We could talk "shop" sometime, FlaBouy! Very well said.

[Deaf Arty]

Thanks to all for the comments. FlaBouy the check's in the mail...😁 I agree, consistency is the key. I discovered long ago that mixing pellet brands affected my cooks, but having stored pellets in the hopper for the last 4 or 5 years of using a pellet smoker I never thought of how they might degrade. I've probably over-reacted by removing the pellets, especially since there's no way I'll be waiting more than a week or so to cook again!

[Troutman]

Wow impressive read sir. I've been using Lumberjack pellets in my new pellet pooper and would like your take on their use of and claim that bark and the cambium layer produces the best smoke flavor profiles.

[FlaBouy]

Never used Lumberjack so I would be hard pressed to offer an objective opinion. Of the brands I have used, this is my overall baseline to which I will add a mixture of something else to tweak the smoke flavor depending on what I am smoking : https://cookinpellets.com/

[CandySueQ]

Problem with bark is resulting ash. Too much ash can clog the firepot and put the fire out. I don't like the small diameter of the Lumberjack pellets. Maybe they've bought a "right" size die now.

[Troutman]

Very little if any ash in the fire pot from Lumberjack in my case.

[gshayd]

duly noted...see how that works out

[Mudkat]

Good stuff Deaf Arty and FlaBouy !