Hopper fire

[Gog]

Sorry if this is an old question but I need help. Have a zgrill smoker. Used it several times then my hopper pellets ignited. Any ideas?

 

[Up_In_Smoke]

The only time I had a hopper fire in my old Z Grill was when I shut it down from 400 degrees.

After that, I always went down to 180 in steps and then told it to shutdown.

Hope this helps.

 

[SmokingUPnorth]

Was it a fire during your cook or on shutdown? So you made sure to clean all the dust and everything out of the burn pit after every coulle of cooks? I don’t have too much pellet experience but the ones I’ve had I was surprised how much dust builds up.

 

[Gog]

Was it a fire during your cook or on shutdown? So you made sure to clean all the dust and everything out of the burn pit after every coulle of cooks? I don’t have too much pellet experience but the ones I’ve had I was surprised how much dust builds up.

During a cook. Cleaned with shop vac right before ignition.

 

[sandyut]

During a cook. Cleaned with shop vac right before ignition.

thats very concerning. I think most back burns I have read about were at shut down. Is your ZGrill old? Maybe reach out to them and see what they have to say?

 

[DougE]

Had some issues with my Camp Chef pellet grill if I do a straight shutdown from high temp. The fire seems to want to work back to the hopper.

Now I just dial the temp back with it running, then do the shutdown. Never have had an issue during a cook though.

 

[sandyut]

Had some issues with my Camp Chef pellet grill if I do a straight shutdown from high temp. The fire seems to want to work back to the hopper.

Now I just dial the temp back with it running, then do the shutdown. Never have had an issue during a cook though.

I do this after all high temp cooks just to be safe. I like to get it cooled down to 200-225 before starting the shutdown. Read up on back burns quite a bit before buying a pellet. This just seems like a good practice.

 

[DougE]

I do this after all high temp cooks just to be safe. I like to get it cooled down to 200-225 before starting the shutdown. Read up on back burns quite a bit before buying a pellet. This just seems like a good practice.

Makes shutdown take a little longer but I have had burn back happen when going straight to shutdown from high temp.

 

[Fueling Around]

Never had a hopper fire or even a burn back up the auger tube. I only tried a high temperature run once and that wasn't satisfactory so everything has been under 300° since.
Have you tried running it again to make sure the auger feeds and the fan runs?