Here’s a pic of my YS 640s. Anyone know why I’m getting smoke pouring out of my pellet bin?
Any ideas what I should do? Do I need to let it just burn itself out?
Backburn into the auger. Although with Yoder's design, I've never had that happen, as the pellets drop a fair way to get into the firepot. But that used to happen with my Traeger back in the day, which had an auger that really emptied directly into the firepot.
For those that don't know, Yoder has a removable grate that the pellets fall down into that sits in the firebox - the pellets fall... what, 2-3" down onto this grate? Draznnl, sometimes my pellet-catcher grate fills up with ask and it gets a little caked on there, perhaps your pellets are falling onto this sort of cushion or mattress of caked ash and are burning up closer to the drop point, allowing the pellets back in the auger to get lit up?
I dunno, seems kind of a stretch to me, as that caked up ash only occurs when I turn off the smoker and let it set, then try to start another cook later, without emptying it. The ash layer prevents the newly-falling pellets from contacting the igniter, and it just won't light - the pellets just stack up and overflow the pot into the bottom of the smoker. I have to stop the process, open everything up and pull out the fire pot pellet grate and empty the caked up ash out of it and restart.
That's the only thing I can I think of, though. But I do remember my old Traeger having smoke coming back up out of the pellet hopper because it was burning back up into the auger.
I turned it off. Took a while for the smoke to stop pouring out, it’s still kind of leaking smoke. I had just cleaned the whole smoker the other day in anticipation of this cook.
> Weber Genesis EP-330
> Grilla Grills Original Grilla (OG) pellet smoker with Alpha/Connect
> Grilla Grills Pizza Oven
> 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
Google "pellet smoker burn back" for discussions about the phenomenon. I'm not sure about your smoker, but "burn back" is a great reason to have a way to rapidly dump pellets out of the hopper ... and a fireproof (metal) airtight container in which to dump them.
I have not had this happen with my Traeger yet, so I queried Bing AI and got the following:
Pellet burn back can be prevented by following some tips for safe pellet grill operation. Here are some tips that can help you prevent pellet burn back:
Know your grill’s features and capabilities to cook safely without any burn-back mishaps.
Use high-quality pellets to ensure a flavorful and efficient grilling experience.
Not criticizing your post (and thanks for trying) ... but I AM criticizing what Bing AI had to "say" ... literally none of which has anything to do with burn back. (gotta keep an eye on those shifty AI characters)
This seems entirely unhelpful. Best case scenario, someone knows they can ignore the entire post. Worst case scenario, they actually stumble across this post and think it's real advice. If it was obviously satire it might be funny, but it's not. Don't spread bad information, please.
That's dangerous and shouldn't be happening. Is the exhaust chimney clear and unobstructed? I recommend you call Yoder and follow their instructions on how to clean up and star over.
Seems very odd to me with Yoders auger/pot design. I think hopper fires outside of one particular cheap brand are really pretty rare these days as most companies have improved design and control logic a lot. Was the fan running? Any weird evidence left behind afterwards? Any chance there was a flameout and the pot overflowed then relit?
I’ve had that happen in my Grilla OG. The first time I figured it was a fluke. The second time I investigated it more.
I noticed I had a lot of pellet dust in my mix. I think the fine dust caught fire and brought it back into my tube then into the hopper. I removed those pellets, vacuumed out everywhere and added in fresh new pellets and haven’t had that issue since. I am now being more diligent trying to keep wood dust out of my pellets.
Only have a couple of months experience with my pellet rig; but I always drain the hopper after a cook and vacuum the pellet bin, burn pot, and auger...did not know it was called back-burn but that is what I was concerned about.
I had high smoke one day and contacted Yoder. They stayed with me on the phone and tried a few things. Their conclusion was that there was moisture in my pellets and it was continuously dumping pellets which in turn finally ignited and burning poorly. I agreed as i was using a very old bag of pellets which was stored on the bottom of the pile. Even here in very low humidity this can happen. I tossed that bag and used another one and all was fine. Never had it happen again.
Looking closer at your pic, there’s smoke coming back out the fan, the fan should be blowing into the firepot, so smoke shouldn’t be able to travel back through it. Looks like for some reason your fan wasn’t running or you have a major obstruction. Still would think with an obstruction it would be pushing all smoke out through any other crack it could.
I’ve experienced that exact problem, my new pellet supplier was the cause.
The auger will need to be removed to inspect the plastic bushing that it rides on, mine was damaged and had to be replaced. I would also replace the fans while you have everything apart, Digikey has them at a fraction of the cost from Yoder.
I remember reading somewhere that you don't have to watch over our pellet units and they don't make much smoke!
guess this just might turn a few heads.
Best of luck with repairs I'm sure it will be simple.
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