Pellets igniting...

[inkjunkie]

Using Pacific Pellets. Has happened with maple, Apple and Hickory. Using the AMNPS in the bottom of an XL Egg.
Dry the pellets in the microwave. Use the Rutland gel to get them lit. 10 minutes blow them out. Smoldering for hours. Towards the end of the tray they ignite. Ended up tossing 13 pounds of cured belly...was on the final day of a several day smoke when this happened...sooted out the meat. Tried washing it off, didn't help. Has also happened on a cheese smoke or 2. Happened last night/this morning on another batch of belly...but it was just prior to me removing the meat.
Egg exhaust is wide open. Dome is propped open .500" to avoid condensation. Air intake was open about an inch and a quarter. Have used it like this ever since I started cold smoking. Todds pellets, Bear Mountain, and different bags of Pacific Pellets. Beginning to think I may need to close the intake some. But why does this not happen in the beginning? I have a Weber 17" grate that I use when I cold smoke. The Egg one gets covered with oil from the pellets...which then drips on the pellets and puts them out. I put a piece of heavy aluminum foil over the section of the grate where the AMNPS sits. Pretty obvious that the pellets are igniting, the foil has the oil from the pellets smoldering...which then turns to soot from them burning...

 

[inkjunkie]

Damn...disliked that much I can't even get a single response?

 

[SmokinAl]

I read your post, but I'm not familiar with your smoker, so I can't really give you an answer.

I'm going to move this to the General Discussion section & maybe you will get more responses.

Al

 

[amlong88]

I was thinking either too much air flow or those oils are dripping onto the end of the amnps causing it to ignite when it gets to the end.

 

[jokensmoken]

I agree with AMLong88. I don't have an egg but did have a similar experience in my 40xl propane and it was caused by the fat or oils dripping onto the pellets... I think it happens towards the end of the smoke because it takes that long for enough fat or oil to render out of your food...
Once I completely protected the pellets from drippings the problem went away.
A viable experiment would be to run the smoker empty with just the pellets...if they don't ignite then you know it's some kind of oil or fat burning...
If they do, then I'd guess it's an air flow issue...
Hope this helps.
Let us know what you learn.

Walt

 

[dward51]

For the pellets to re-ignite I think there must be some gust of wind that's basically blowing on the pellets to stoke them back up.  Is that possible in your setup?