Under certain circumstances smoke may be released from the hopper (lid or pellet dump). If this occurs, action must be taken to clear the smouldering pellets from the wood pellet feed tube.
Burn Back Causes
Excessive build up of wood pellets in the fire grate results in the fire creeping up the fire grate to the pellet feed tube. This can happen if wood pellets are not able to burn out fast enough.
This can be due to:
- Poor air flow to the fire due to blocked air holes in fire grate.
- Excessive ash build up, blocking air flow.
- Oak based pellets are much more likely to accumulate ash that Australia hardwood. If doing very long cooks, consider using a mix of these varieties instead of pure oak based pellets.
- Moist pellets that cannot ignite and burn quickly.
Action to Take
- Turn off power to grill, wait 5 seconds then turn back on. This will immediately stop the air flow and pellets from feeding.
- Pull the ash dump handle to release any accumulated pellets and ash into the ash bin.
- Press and hold power button to turn grill back on.
- Press MENU, scroll to FEED PELLETS, press control knob to select, scroll to EMPTY AUGER TUBE, press knob to confirm. This will feed 120 seconds of pellets to clear any smouldering pellets from the exit of the feed tube.
- Dump all wood pellets from the hopper.
- Wait for grill to cool down, then do a deep clean of the fire grates, ash bin and surrounding grill area.
Prevention
- Check to ensure wood pellets are dry
- Dump out ash after each cook