Burn pot filling up on Pit Boss vertical smoker

[CubsWIn]

I am still relatively new to smoking meat and I currently have 2 corned beef brisket flats in my Pit Boss vertical smoker. They have been cooking for about 8 hours, but I just noticed that the temperature in my smoker was starting to creep up. I have it set to 250, but it has reached as high as 325 and is currently sitting at 310. I opened it up and noticed a pile of pellets in the burn pot coming out the top of the burn pot., as in the attached photo. Should I be seeing a pile with a flame on top of the burn pot, or should the pellets all be contained within the burn pot? Everything was vacuumed out before this cook and completely clean, and I am using a brand new bag of pellets. Assuming I shouldn't be seeing this many pellets, what would cause them to pile up like this?

 

[TNJAKE]

You should not have a pile up. It can happen sometimes though. Did you shut it down correctly after your last cook? Did you start it up correctly? Have you tried shutting down, unplugging for 10-15sec then starting back up? Can you hear the auger running constantly? If none of these are the issue your controller might need to be replaced. Pitboss/dansons is a joy to work with and have 5yr warranty so no expense to you to replace

 

[kilo charlie]

One of the things that most people miss is cleaning the internal temp probe located on the back wall. At this point, you'd have to shut down and remove the water pan and use a green scratchy pad to carefully clean off that probe then clean out all the pellets in the pot and return the water pan and refill etc and get it going again.

 

[CubsWIn]

Did you shut it down correctly after your last cook?

Not exactly, but that's a longer story. I had a problem during my last cook (last fall). The smoker ran out of pellets and apparently had overheated. I shut everything down, but when I came back and checked on everything I found that the auger motor no longer worked and the window on the side of the hopper was warped and frosted. Danson's sent me new parts and I just got everything replaced and put back together prior to today's cook. Before I started, everything was completely cleaned out... nothing at all in the burn pot or hopper, and then I filled the hopper with new pellets

Did you start it up correctly? Have you tried shutting down, unplugging for 10-15sec then starting back up?

When I first primed and started it this morning, it ran for about 10 minutes and then gave an overheat error. I unplugged it and plugged it back in, and everything seemed to be working fine until the pile up.

Can you hear the auger running constantly? If none of these are the issue your controller might need to be replaced.

Not constantly, but it is running quite a bit, seemingly more than it needs to.

One of the things that most people miss is cleaning the internal temp probe located on the back wall. At this point, you'd have to shut down and remove the water pan and use a green scratchy pad to carefully clean off that probe then clean out all the pellets in the pot and return the water pan and refill etc and get it going again.

I have never done that, but I wonder if the temperature probe could have also been damaged when I had the problem described above?

 

[kilo charlie]

It's likely coated in carbon and just needs a cleaning. If you clean it and still get an error it likely needs replaced. It's two screws inside the smoker and then plugged into the harness underneath.

1. Loosen the screws and remove.
2. Remove the covers underneath and unplug it.
3. Tie a string around the plug end so when you pull it out you can use the string to fish the new probe back through. Most important step really.
4 Put it all back together.
5. In the future, clean the probe off with a green scratchy pad before firing up on every use.

 

[flatbroke]

Mine did it too from day 1. Keep an eye on it. The swing will get a lot higher. Mine got so hot it turned off. I’d transfer to the oven if you can.

 

[CubsWIn]

I am getting very frustrated now... I cleaned the burn pot out again and now it's just shooting flames into the burn pot and overheating almost instantly.

 

[CubsWIn]

It's likely coated in carbon and just needs a cleaning.

I'm not seeing an internal temperature probe. It obviously has to be there "somewhere", but I don't see anything on the back wall.

Nevermind, I see it now. I need to try cleaning the probe, vacuum out the burn pot AGAIN, and start over. If that doesn't work, then it's yet another part swap, a new control board.

As much as I like smoked food, this is really more trouble than it is worth. It is one problem after another.

 

[flatbroke]

I'm not seeing an internal temperature probe. It obviously has to be there "somewhere", but I don't see anything on the back wall.

Nevermind, I see it now. I need to try cleaning the probe, vacuum out the burn pot AGAIN, and start over. If that doesn't work, then it's yet another part swap, a new control board.

As much as I like smoked food, this is really more trouble than it is worth. It is one problem after another.

It’s on back wall around dead center at least it was on mine

 

[flatbroke]

I'm not seeing an internal temperature probe. It obviously has to be there "somewhere", but I don't see anything on the back wall.

Nevermind, I see it now. I need to try cleaning the probe, vacuum out the burn pot AGAIN, and start over. If that doesn't work, then it's yet another part swap, a new control board.

As much as I like smoked food, this is really more trouble than it is worth. It is one problem after another.

I had the same problem you are having. Pitboss said I needed to use their pellets. I got theirs and it didn’t work. The issue I noticed was at some point the fire died out in the pot and the auger kept feeding pellets until it ignited then would raise above set temp and repeat but higher until finally over 400 degrees with the low well user the set temp. I sold mine. Been happy since.

 

[MJB05615]

I had a PB a few years ago and had similar issues, Auger kept overfeeding the burn pot. But the fire would go out and temps were never high enough. I did all of the clean outs, etc. There was a lot of greas built up on the auger so we took everything apart, etc. It worked intermittently proper, but was hit or miss when you needed it work if today would be the day. After 2 years of fooling with it and praying, I gave it to a friend. He just used it more as a wood burner, lol. I went back to my old reliable MES 40 Gen 1 and made some modifications, and now happy. I had the PB700 I think, I know it was the low end of their line, but it still should work. My Son got a Z grill pellet smoker over a year ago, uses it about 5 times a year, and it works perfectly every time. Good luck let us know the out come. But don't give up on smoking meat.

 

[CubsWIn]

I'm going to keep trying some troubleshooting, and as long as they keep sending me parts I'll keep putting them in, but at some point I may just decide to throw in the towel. Are there other more "foolproof" smoker models that people would recommend? I don't really care about fancy features, but just want something that I can rely on to work when I need it.

 

[MJB05615]

I'm going to keep trying some troubleshooting, and as long as they keep sending me parts I'll keep putting them in, but at some point I may just decide to throw in the towel. Are there other more "foolproof" smoker models that people would recommend? I don't really care about fancy features, but just want something that I can rely on to work when I need it.

If you're only looking for pellet smokers there's a lot of reliable ones. My Son has had a perfect record with a Z Grill pellet smoker. There's a seperate thread for the MAsterbuilt Gravity feed Pellet smokers. Lots of good reviews on those. If I ever go back to a pellet smoker, I'd definitely get a gravity fed instead of an auger fed.

 

[mike243]

Bought my son 1 and the only trouble he has had is pellets getting wet where it was left out in the rain, he has a covered carport now so that problem went away .