Last Thursday I cooked up some spareribs on my Yoder pellet smoker. About 5 hrs into the cook I had a considerable amount of smoke coming out of the pellet hopper. I dug the pellets away from the auger as best I could trying to find anything that may have been causing the smoke to back up into the hopper. Luckily the ribs were done at this point, so I pulled them and let the smoker cool for a few minutes. When I removed the heat plate the burn pot was completely full of ashes, burning pellets, and unburnt pellets. After emptying the hopper out I cleared out the auger and had red hot pellets inside the auger. I contacted Don at Yoder Smokers and he suggested I try a different brand of pellets before pursuing any other courses of action. The results were quite interesting.
I am at 7200ft in elevation here in Laramie. So, thinner air and less oxygen for the combustion process.
Before burning the new pellets, I complete cleaned out the smoker and did a test run with the old pellets with no food in the grill.
The pellets I had been burning were Deadwood Nuggets Prairie Blend Grill Pellets. Here are some pictures of my burn pot during this test.
This is about 4 hrs into the burn. At this point the holes in the burn pot for combustion air are already covered and the pile of pellets starts to grow.
This is about 4 1/2hrs into the burn. At this point I turned off the smoker. You can see the pellets and flames are climbing up towards the auger.
Today I picked up some Louisiana Grills Gourmet Flavored Wood Pellets and put the smoker through the same burn.
About an hour into the burn.
2hrs into the burn.
3hrs into the burn.
4 hrs into the burn.
At this point I started getting some snow flurries and shut down the smoker and covered it, but it was clear that the pellets were the problem. Had I been doing a longer cook and not monitoring the smoker, using a low quality pellet could have taken a turn for the worse as the fire worked its way into the auger and the pellet hopper.
I am at 7200ft in elevation here in Laramie. So, thinner air and less oxygen for the combustion process.
Before burning the new pellets, I complete cleaned out the smoker and did a test run with the old pellets with no food in the grill.
The pellets I had been burning were Deadwood Nuggets Prairie Blend Grill Pellets. Here are some pictures of my burn pot during this test.
This is about 4 hrs into the burn. At this point the holes in the burn pot for combustion air are already covered and the pile of pellets starts to grow.
This is about 4 1/2hrs into the burn. At this point I turned off the smoker. You can see the pellets and flames are climbing up towards the auger.
Today I picked up some Louisiana Grills Gourmet Flavored Wood Pellets and put the smoker through the same burn.
About an hour into the burn.
2hrs into the burn.
3hrs into the burn.
4 hrs into the burn.
At this point I started getting some snow flurries and shut down the smoker and covered it, but it was clear that the pellets were the problem. Had I been doing a longer cook and not monitoring the smoker, using a low quality pellet could have taken a turn for the worse as the fire worked its way into the auger and the pellet hopper.
