Pit Boss pellets irritating me.

[Brad4x4]

Bought a new 40 lb bag of Pit Boss competition mix pellets for my MES and the last 2 smokings I've had a tough time getting them to stay lit. I light one end of my A MAZE N tray with my torch and let it burn for a good 5 minutes before blowing the fire out so it can smolder and it has plenty of hot pellets coals. Put the tray in on bottom rack, got the dumper tube on the MES pulled out a bit and vent on top wide open for good air flow. Come back a little while later and nothing is smoking in the tray. I've tried loosely packing them and really packing them in the tray. Keeps going out. Thought maybe the pellets have moisture still in them and I dried out an entire amazen tray of pellets in the oven for this next smoke and same thing, it wont stay lit. When I bought the amazen tray it came pre-loaded with amazen pellets and those I lit on 1 end let burn for maybe a minute or 2 and blew the flames out and had no problems for 12 hours after with it staying smoldering all the way through the tray.

So i've tried drying the Pit boss pellets in the oven and even through my last smoking re-lighting the pellets several times I had to keep re-lighting it. You'd think if there was moisture in it the smoker would dry it out and after a while it would stay lit. I've pulled the chip dumper tube on the MES out a bit (2-3 inches) for airflow. tried the tray in different positions in the MES smoker and no difference. I think i've got a bad bag of pellets. Anyone else had issues with Pit Boss pellets? The Amazen pellets that came in my tray burned no problem on bottom rack.

Think I might go to ACE hardware and get a bag of A MAZE N pellets.

 

[schlotz]

Probably not the case but, could meat drippings be putting the pellets out?

 

[BGKYSmoker]

put a couple lbs of the pitboss in the micro for couple mins, then to your tray

 

[SonnyE]

That's quite a head scratcher, Brad.
Sounds like you've tried all the tricks I would have offered.
The last one that comes to mind is to go ahead and get some Amazen Pellets, fill your tray about half a trough with Amazen, then top it up with the Pit Boss.
What that'll do is put a "fuse" under the PB to keep it lit. I've also done that when I want to mix wood varieties, like Hickory Pellets and Oak dust overlay.

Lately, I've taken a liking to Daveomak's dust method. I dissolved down 5 double handfuls of pellets into dust. (Just add water a little at a time to some pellets in an old coffee container, can, or what-have-you) Then dried the dust using my smoker in a steamer pan. (Just heat at 275° until dry)
I fill my AMNPS with that dust and pack it with my big fat thumb. It'll burn, slow and steady, for ~6 hours for me. And makes a nice TBS the whole time.
I know it's a left turn by making 3 rights, but try it with your hoard of Pit Boss. You just might become a convert, and a Born Again Smoker. Do a soup can full, and dry them out.
BTW, my 5 double handfuls made more than 2 gallons of dust. So it really fluffs up good.

Hope that helps.

 

[Brad4x4]

Probably not the case but, could meat drippings be putting the pellets out?

No, I have a tray on the rack below the ham to catch the drippings and the pellet tray is on bottom off to the side out of the way.

put a couple lbs of the pitboss in the micro for couple mins, then to your tray

First smoking i had with the pit boss pellets i had trouble and did the microwave trick for a couple minutes a couple different times and no difference. Second smoking before hand I used a cookie sheet and spread out some and baked them in the oven at 150 for about 30 mins. No difference.

I just went to Ace Hardware and got a 20 lb bag of Treager Hickory/Maple/Cherry mix and threw out the pit boss pellets in the tray that was again out when I got back from the store. They only sell the A MAZE N brand online. Put the Treager pellets in and it was SO much easier to get going. Its been going for 15 minutes now and still going strong.

I may have just gotten a bum bag of pellets from Pit Boss. after this smoking i'm going to put some Pit Boss pellets in the tray and light it, make sure its going good and leave it outside in the open and see if keeps going or goes out again to see if theres an airflow issue in the MES. It maybe the Pit Boss pellets need more airflow but i'll test this after this smoke and let you know.

 

[Brad4x4]

An hour in smoking with the Traeger pellets and still smoking strong. Lots of good blue smoke. Even have a little smoke coming out the wood chip loader tube with the loader 75% in. Figured air flow would be going in through the loader and out the top but there is also the hole in the back of the MES for the drip pan.

 

[gmc2003]

Pitboss doesn't list the type(s) of wood used. I wonder if it has allot of cherry wood which can be more difficult to keep going.

Chris

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

I have 2 mes 40’s abs use trays or tubes in each of them. My gen 2 always had issues staying lit so I added a mailbox mod. Problem solved. Gen 2.5 didn’t need one.

1. Double check for meat drippings.

2. Micro your pellets if you think they are to damp. I only use amazon pellets and haven’t run into this problem much.

3. Pull your “dumper” all the way out. Same with the chip catching tray. I have no idea where mine are. Pulled them out after a few smokes on the 2.5 where the tray went out. Tired of messing with them. No issues with air flow now.

4. I put my tray on the bottom under the water pan.

Good luck
Scott

 

[Brad4x4]

I have 2 mes 40’s abs use trays or tubes in each of them. My gen 2 always had issues staying lit so I added a mailbox mod. Problem solved. Gen 2.5 didn’t need one.

1. Double check for meat drippings.

2. Micro your pellets if you think they are to damp. I only use amazon pellets and haven’t run into this problem much.

3. Pull your “dumper” all the way out. Same with the chip catching tray. I have no idea where mine are. Pulled them out after a few smokes on the 2.5 where the tray went out. Tired of messing with them. No issues with air flow now.

4. I put my tray on the bottom under the water pan.

Good luck
Scott

I've seen the mail box mods but not ready to start modding my MES. I have a Gen 1 MES 140S.
Meat drippings arnt getting it. I have the water pan in it but no water and a foil pan sitting on the rack over the water pan. I put my amazen tray on the pan under the water pan off to the left. When I threw out the Pitboss pellets in the tray and put the Traeger pellets in it today I had no more trouble. It burned good for the last 4 hours with a strong blue smoke.
I've left the wood chip tray out since I got the smoker a couple weeks ago. I'll leave the dumper tube slightly pulled out for now if the Traeger pellets are going to do good so that the heating element isn't fighting to hard against the air flow causing temperature fluctuations.
Now if I could find someone locally that sells AMAZEN pellets i'd be set but I guess I could order a big bag online and hae it shipped to my door. These Traeger pellets burn pretty good though.

 

[PAS]

Brad4x4 check your Inbox

 

[Winterrider]

For some reason I have a hard time keeping pellets (lumberjack) going even after drying and in mailbox mod. I just soak, dry and use dust. Never have to worry about them going out. Have no info on Pit Boss pellets.

 

[Brad4x4]

I smoked a 22 lbs turkey over night for our Christmas dinner. I put some pellets in a double thick freezer ziplock bag and took after it with the spiked end of a meat tenderizer hammer. Turned it into crumbs. not quite dust but crumbs. Worked awesome. packed it in the Amazen tray pretty good and got 7 hours of smoke on a full tray when I lit both ends for more smoke. reloaded more into the tray to finish out the smoke. Turkey turned out incredible.

 

[Meat Fighter]

I think I just discovered why my fire keeps going out.
The first pellets I bought were Kingsford brand. I smoked a brisket for about 10 hours with no problem. When they ran out, I started using a 40lb bag of Pit Boss pellets and the flame keeps going out freqently at low temps.