To begin with I should have known better. I have a large custom built pellet cooker that started out as a stick burner that morphed into a pooper. It's a Pitts and Spitts whose signature component is a heavy rolled stainless lid. And I'm not talking thin metal or stainless wrapped, I'm talking 10 ga. 305 stainless, I'm guessing at least 45 pounds worth.
Anyway the reason I tell that to you is to put this in context. First, I'm pretty fastidious about vacuuming out the dust in the bottom of the cooker as well as the burn cup after each cook. I had an issue about a year ago where I had tried to go with a new cook without cleaning it out and had a blow back into the auger that almost caught the pellets in the hopper on fire. Since then, religious cleaning. Well this weekend we had bad weather and lots of rain forecast and I had a fairly quick cook I had to make so I figured I'd do a quick pellet cook before the weather set in.
When I opened the cooker and noticed I had cleaned the grate, put in new foil on the drip plate but remembered I hadn't vacuumed out the bottom. In my mind I remembered the last cook had been a long one but surely I could get away with another without cleaning. So I fire it up, dial in the temp and noticed it was slow to get up to that temp while puffing acrid smoke all over the place. I'm thinking should I shut this down? Clouds are looking ominous. After about 10 mins the temp finally started to climb and I figured all was well so I go into the house to prep the meat.
It got up to about 110* when all of a sudden I hear this loud explosion. It blew the doggie door in and the dogs started barking like crazy. We're looking at each other and I realized immediately what had happened. I go outside and noticed that my 10 ga. 305 stainless lid had distorted and bulged in the center about 3/8-1/2". In other words I had a dust explosion in my cooking chamber that was strong enough to distort a heavy steel lid !!!
The good news was nothing else appeared to be wrong and I went ahead and did the cook with no apartant issues. The next day I removed the lid and with the help of a 2x4 and my 5# persuader was able to get it back in shape and it appears to be no worse for wear.
Bottom line, unless you have a burn cup dump (which I wish I had), do not go without cleaning your pellet pooper. Dust ignites and that could have happened about the time I opened the lid, who knows what the result would have been. Bottom line and the reason I'm telling you all this is to learn from my mistake and be safe out there. These cookers can be dangerous if not maintained and operated correctly. Had that been a thinner lid, or had I been in front of the cooker I might not be here telling this story !!!
Anyway the reason I tell that to you is to put this in context. First, I'm pretty fastidious about vacuuming out the dust in the bottom of the cooker as well as the burn cup after each cook. I had an issue about a year ago where I had tried to go with a new cook without cleaning it out and had a blow back into the auger that almost caught the pellets in the hopper on fire. Since then, religious cleaning. Well this weekend we had bad weather and lots of rain forecast and I had a fairly quick cook I had to make so I figured I'd do a quick pellet cook before the weather set in.
When I opened the cooker and noticed I had cleaned the grate, put in new foil on the drip plate but remembered I hadn't vacuumed out the bottom. In my mind I remembered the last cook had been a long one but surely I could get away with another without cleaning. So I fire it up, dial in the temp and noticed it was slow to get up to that temp while puffing acrid smoke all over the place. I'm thinking should I shut this down? Clouds are looking ominous. After about 10 mins the temp finally started to climb and I figured all was well so I go into the house to prep the meat.
It got up to about 110* when all of a sudden I hear this loud explosion. It blew the doggie door in and the dogs started barking like crazy. We're looking at each other and I realized immediately what had happened. I go outside and noticed that my 10 ga. 305 stainless lid had distorted and bulged in the center about 3/8-1/2". In other words I had a dust explosion in my cooking chamber that was strong enough to distort a heavy steel lid !!!
The good news was nothing else appeared to be wrong and I went ahead and did the cook with no apartant issues. The next day I removed the lid and with the help of a 2x4 and my 5# persuader was able to get it back in shape and it appears to be no worse for wear.
Bottom line, unless you have a burn cup dump (which I wish I had), do not go without cleaning your pellet pooper. Dust ignites and that could have happened about the time I opened the lid, who knows what the result would have been. Bottom line and the reason I'm telling you all this is to learn from my mistake and be safe out there. These cookers can be dangerous if not maintained and operated correctly. Had that been a thinner lid, or had I been in front of the cooker I might not be here telling this story !!!
Glad you were inside and out of harms way.
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