It did it again… smoker failed mid session. Throw in oven or throw in trash? (Internal 110°)

[mike243]

A pellet smoker gives less smoke and flavor the higher you go, smokers having issues at 225 more than other temps is because more folks run that temp, if 1 is going to have a problem a higher temp will get you there faster, a lot of time pellets cross up and stop feeding from what I have read over the years, A good remote therm with a high and low alert will save the day no matter what smoker your using. In the 8 or so years I been running my PB I had 1 pellet feed issue and I caught it quickly, I have done a pile of overnight cooks without issue, but I also run a remote therm to keep track of it, I also been known to set my alarm for 2 hours and look at the temps then reset go back to sleep. Sure it gets harder to do it as I get older but have pulled a lot of overnighters feeding wood and charcoal. I prefer pellet for nighttime use, been know to run 4-6 hours charcoal/wood then switch to pellet to finish to keep the smell out of the house.

 

[jcam222]

Our website host, Jeff, turned me on to smoking butts at 300°. Takes about 4-5 hours that way, and no noticeable difference in texture or flavor.

Hot and fast is the way to go on butts for sure. I'm team 275 up to the wrap and 300 after.

 

[luvcatchingbass]

Before I had a pellet (which I don't trust mine for anything at the moment) I used to do pork butts and briskets with plans to serve around 11am-1pm for football games. What I did and never any complaints was start at around 7pm at the latest and run 225-275 if I could in the cold till 11pm-1am and if I was going to take any naps just set an alarm at about an hour or so if I figured things could coast a little. Then pork butts went into a crockpot on med or low and brisket into the oven in a pan covered in foil at around 225-250. Get up in the morning around 7am make coffee and figure out hiw things we're going and make adjustments from there

 

[bbk357]

thanks for all the info guys.

I’m going to be taking down the Traeger and investigating this weekend. My initial thought is an auger/feed issue. We have experienced crazy temp and moisture variants in Ohio and I have a feeling my pellets were the cause since they were in there for a few weeks.

If I get it going, my plan is to try a smoke at 300° and maybe put a side tray of chips to help with the flavor.

I’ll report back after my “fast and easier” morning pork butt smoke :)

 

[schlotz]

Beware, wet pellets can turn into something almost like cement which can freeze up an auger. Having gone through this once (because I was lazy) I now never leave any pellets in the smoker. My MAK has a pellet dump door plus I let the smoker continue to burn up what's in the auger tube until it quits.

 

[civilsmoker]

Here is a fast method that workes every time…..
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t...simplified-and-reliable-dinner-timing.325427/

 

[civilsmoker]

Oh and here is the brisket version as well!
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/brisket-simplified-and-reliable-dinner-timing.331064/

 

[bbk357]

Beware, wet pellets can turn into something almost like cement which can freeze up an auger. Having gone through this once (because I was lazy) I now never leave any pellets in the smoker. My MAK has a pellet dump door plus I let the smoker continue to burn up what's in the auger tube until it quits.

Good to know.
My hopper does a good job at keeping the water out. And I have a cover for it. But we were super cold and snowy for weeks. Then warmed up to 60’s. Rain.. lots of moisture in air. Then it froze to the single digits. So I really think it’s an auger issue. I’ll try to keep it empty especially in the winter months.

 

[schlotz]

In my case, the pellets sat in the hopper for approx 2 months (late Feb into Apr). Lots of rain during that period. While the lid keeps the water out, the moisture still finds a way and that was enough for those within the tube to fall apart and eventually reform into a hard mass.

 

[Chris_in_SoCal]

You never posted the root cause of the failure. If you look back at what caused it it can help you in the future.

I have done many overnight cooks and luckily they all turned out well. I do use a thermo with an alarm in case the smoker fails to warn me that something is wrong. There could me many causes like running out of pellets, a pellet jam, moisture causing pellets to coagulate, the auger to break or others.

Find out what went wrong and it will help you to avoid it from happening again.

 

[louie d]

Me personally I will stay with my drum smoker.Might take a little more work but no need for power or auger motors once I get the temp dialed in they run for hours with awesome results.Hunsaker,Gateway,WSM make great products and they last for years if you take care of them.There is a reason they are used in competitions they work.Good luck in your search

 

[bbk357]

Update:
Ok so I took my Traeger down and cleaned out all the pellets. What I found I’ve never seen before, I had a pot full of blackened pellets. Like pellets did not light.. so I have 2 thoughts so far.

1- hot rod did not get hot enough to light.
Or
2- the new pellets I tried (half wood half charcoal) did not work with my smoker.

I need to buy a new bag of pellets and that will tell me what the problem was.
I even tried to light these pellets with a small torch and they would not light. So odd.
The pic I posted was after I cleaned about half of them up. There was double the amount just laying off to the side like they got pushed out of the pot.

 

[Chris_in_SoCal]

Looking at the photos I would first suspect the the pellets have somehow gained too much moisture to burn properly. Not only the ones in the pot but the surrounding ones.

You don't have your location listed so I can't completely blame it on that.

Another thing that can happen even in "sunny California" if the pellets are left in the hopper and a good rain storm comes in it can turn the pellets into a wet mush. Even with a cover this has happened to me. The ones on top look fine but underneath it turns into a toxic sludge.

I quickly learned how to dismantle the hopper and auger like you have and clean it up.

Keep your pellets in a good dry place until you are ready to smoke and return them when you are done. If possible empty out your hopper between smokes to keep this from happening.

We just had the largest rain storm for the last two weeks. The cover blew off my new smoker and I am sure when I get to looking at it I will have to do a cleanout that I am not looking forward to. I did not clean out the hopper after the last smoke.

 

[civilsmoker]

If you had blackened pellets all over then you had a blow out.....IE the fire struggled, then the unit kept dumping pellets then your smoker created a back draft and you had a little bomb go off which blew out all the pellets out of the pot. This is often common for dirty pots, bad pellets, or a bad hot rod. It often happens on startup, plenty of supper smoked stoves exploding on the web...Long and slow cooks cause buildup in the pot and make these cooks prone to issues like this, as well as other fire blow out issues. IE the buildup incases the hot rod and thereby insulates it from doing its thing.

The tricks to avoid this is to always have dry pellets, keep your smoker clean.....ie if you are going to do a long 225 deg cook, vacuum out the pot before the cook. I also think I would avoid those pellets for long goods as the charcoal likely has more ash and was a contributor to the blow out.

 

[Fueling Around]

The pellets looks fine to me. They still have the glossy exterior from the extruding process. Moisture compromised pellets usually loose the glossy and get puffy as the lips on the collagen injected women so common around here (Florida). I store my pellets indoors in Florida. Humidity here does cause a problem with pellets and charcoal (also stored indoors)
My pooper grill is in Minnesota which is closer to Ohio climate. Not sure how the Treager cycles. The hot rod on my pooper doesn't activate after start up. I have never dumped pellets between smokes and I store the pellets in the garage in open bags. Pooper stored in the garage. Covers trap moisture in temperature swings.
Not sure who posted but don't run a pooper lower than 275° for unattended cooks.
Mine doesn't do well below that temp, but it is not a high end as others.

Yes.. I’ve been smoking meat for many years. I am aware that you go by internal temp. But I was wondering how fast things get done by going 300° instead of my normal 225-250°

Happened before in your time?
ThermoWorks has a great sale on the Signals unit which has the high low alarms and connects to your phone with the app. The graphing is another feature.