New problem this evening. I set my SmokeFire to preheat to 600° but it won’t heat over 495°. It was stuck there for about 20 mins and then started dropping. It’s at 475° now and still dropping. The outside temp is 50° and the fan’s running like a hungry cheetah. 🤷ðŸ»â€â™‚ï¸
> Weber Genesis EP-330
> Grilla Grills Original Grilla (OG) pellet smoker with Alpha/Connect
> 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 IR-GUN-S
> Anova sous vide circulator
> Searzall torch
> BBQ Guru Rib Ring
> WÜSTHOF, Dalstrong, and Buck knives
> Paprika App on Mac and iOS
Actually, after I finally shut it down, I kept an eye on it during the "shut down" process and I saw smoke coming out of the pellet hopper. That seems...dangerous to me.
> Weber Genesis EP-330
> Grilla Grills Original Grilla (OG) pellet smoker with Alpha/Connect
> 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 IR-GUN-S
> Anova sous vide circulator
> Searzall torch
> BBQ Guru Rib Ring
> WÜSTHOF, Dalstrong, and Buck knives
> Paprika App on Mac and iOS
You probably had a case of burn back. That’s when pellets in the auger tube get so hot that they ignite and begin to burn back toward the hopper. The temperature drop is due to the auger delivering already burnt pellets into the burn pot where, as a result, there is less and less fuel to support adequate combustion.
If you google "pellet grill burn back", you’ll get hits on lots of detailed explanations.
While "burn back" is a pellet pooper possibility, with the chute configuration of the SmokeFire that should be close to impossible baring a normal op failure. One possibility is pellet type. Hardwood or largely hardwood mix pellets will tend to burn hotter. For instance, pellets legitimately made up of, say oak or hickory will burn hotter than say single species cherry or apple, or any fruitwood. Alternatley, does the controller of the SmokeFire allow adjustments of the feed rate of the auger. It could be that the burn pot is not getting enough fuel to keep up with the set temp specified. Likewise, there may be some other hinderance to the feed rate such as the suspected "gopher hole" effect some early adopters of the SF have experienced where a void in the feed stream developes under the surface of the pellet bin supply.
Last edited by Uncle Bob; February 19, 2020, 07:52 PM.
I had this problem trying to reverse sear steaks Friday night. I figured out in my case it couldn’t keep up with the wind blowing straight into the vents. It was 20 degrees with 15-20 mph winds blowing straight into its vents. Sort of another design flaw expecting a little fire pot to overcome this situation. I didn’t think about it beforehand as the grill on the side of patio always gets positioned that way out of habit. I had it set to 525 and it would pas 440, fan was going full bore.
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