Problems with my new ZGrill 1000

[shea1973]

I have had my ZGrill 1000 since November of last year. But here recently I have been having issue with it shutting off and having an error code HEr, which my understanding is that the smoker is getting over 550 degrees. So today I was trying to cook chicken thighs and had the temperature at about 300 and went inside and a few minutes later my pellet grill shut off with the HEr again.

But I am wondering if something else is going because when it does shut down a lot of smoke comes out at the part where you load the pellets at. Hopefully with these pictures might point out the problem. If you take a look at the third picture you can tell no smoke is getting to the grill and only coming from where you load it at. This smoke always seems to come from it when I have a HEr error code.

 

[bigfurmn]

I am not very familiar with Zgrills but I usually get that smoke right before an auger fire. How often do you clean the fire pot? Also are you able to verify the temps with an external thermometer? Just trying to eliminate the simple answer first.

 

[TNJAKE]

I don't have a Zgrill but that's happened to me once. Shortly after startup. I immediately turned off my grill and waited for the cool down. I then cleaned out ash pot. Then ran the auger on prime. Was several black pellets in auger. Had I not caught it soon would have been an hopper fire. Never had the issue again but a good reminder to not leave grills unattended

 

[TH-n-PA]

The smoke coming out of your pellet hopper is probably due to fire burning back through your auger tube

Or

The pellets have tunneled out around the auger and are not falling down. Therefore allowing smoke from the grill to come back.

I agree with TNJAKE , vacuum out the fire pot and also the pellet auger to rid of ash and pellet dust.

 

[negolien]

updates?

 

[sandyut]

as stated, smoke coming out of the hopper is indicative of a hopper fire. IE back burn. very dangerous.

Not familiar with the causes, but might want to clean the auger out and look at the burn pot. Make sure all is clean and free of ash/build up.

 

[Smoking Audi]

I just had this with my Traeger 34. I cleaned the pot before cooking yesterday so I know the pot had zero ash to start with. We were just finishing a 9 .5 hour smoke when we noticed it. I will tear it down in the next couple days to see if I can figure out if the auger was starting to catch fire.

My next question then will be how to prevent it from happening again

 

[TH-n-PA]

I vacuumed the fire pot/auger tube/the whole grill!

Within 10 minutes I had smoke coming out of the hopper…..

I got a fire poker and shoved it down to the auger and pulled back up an inch.

So new every 10-15 minutes I rotate the poker to break the tunnel……

I had some yard work planned for today before it got hot….

 

[SmokinEdge]

Don’t know about the Z grill, but I once owned a GMG Daniel Boone and ran it often for 6-7 years with little to no trouble other than maintenance. Then I started getting smoke in my hopper and heat, lots of heat, never a fire but started getting black pellets appearing in the hopper. So I tore things down and cleaned everything including the auger tube everything thoroughly vacuumed out, fired up and same problem. I dug a little deeper and discovered a screened over fan in the hopper that is supposed to maintain a positive air pressure in the hopper. The screen was mostly plugged with dust and lignin. I tore that all apart and manufactured a new screen reinstalled and bingo! No more smoke in the hopper no more fire hazard in the hopper.