Pellet Fan
Pit Talk -- Comments and Questions Regarding These Pellet Pits => FEC/Cookshack => Topic started by: MadFoodScientist on September 13, 2017, 05:05:10 PM
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I received my PG500 this afternoon. I set it up according the instructions. I started the initial seasoning as recommended in the manual. I set the grill to 400F using the Cookshack pellets it came with. I kept the doors open until I saw a fire start in the fire pot. I shut the doors and walked away. When I checked on the grill after about 10 minutes, I saw smoke coming up between the area between the hopper and the grill body. I opened the grill doors and could see pellets that were lit and burning at the top of the pellet chute still in the auger ready to drop. I opened the pellet hopper and saw smoke coming up through the pellet hopper. I turned off the grill.
I called Cookshack customer service but got a voicemail :( I was wondering if anyone has seen anything like this and if you have any recommendations.
Thanks!
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At higher temps the pellets can start to go just before hitting the pot. You didn't have a hopper. With the fan it'll blow smoke out of everywhere .... by the grease bucket, the top of the pellet hopper. the ash drawer. You name and smoke will come out of it. Do a burn in. It'll be fine.
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Hmmm...I am surprised that having pellets on fire in the auger is normal. If I wanted to continue- what is the best way to restart the grill? Do I let it cool down and then clean out the fire pot or do I just turn back on the grill even if it is still hot? Thanks!
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Were you relying on the PG500 to tell you the pit temperature? Or did you have a remote metering thermometer in there?
I ask because I run my PG500 at much higher temperatures without pellets burning at the face of the auger. I recall reading about a user who received a new unit with the leads to the temperature probe reversed. It was running much, much hotter that the display was showing.
I think an ultra-hot fire or a grease fire may roast and burn those non-dropped pellets but a 400°F pit won't.
EDIT:
:2cents:
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Interesting theory. I was using the PG500 display grill temperature. I just turned the grill back on. I will go get my thermometer and see what the temp reading is. Thanks!
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Thanks for all the advice guys! I checked the temp and it seems to be right at about 400F so I think the PG500 is displaying the right temperature. Cookshack customer service just called me back and they said it would be caused by wind coming into the exhaust (just like InThePitBBQ suggested). Their advice was to turn the grill if possible. That being said it is not super windy here today. The other advice was to go get a flume extension and put a wind cap on it from an HVAC store. Disappointing I have to go buy another part to get it working properly when I spent so much on the grill! I am going to see if I can get used to it/ how bad it is before I go out and get the extension.
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It shouldn't do this. Fire it up on a perfectly calm day, see if it does it. If it does, call then up and complain... I think they have a problem, fan blows too hard, or something like that.
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Don't worry—about smoke coming from the hopper. That's a function of more than one atmosphere of pressure in the pit. The smokey air will find a way out; the chimney, the doors, the grease spigot and up the auger and out the hopper.
Worry—about burning pellets in the auger like you found.
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Thanks for all the advice guys. I used the grill some more this weekend. For the most part it has been awesome (the food coming off has been fantastic), but I do have a few more concerns in addition to the auger fire I saw (which I did not see anymore of this weekend- I was careful on how I positioned the grill with the wind). I did a steak cook and during that cook I saw pellets on fire outside the firebox (not in the hopper). For example, on the rail that the firebox is part of on the side opposite the hopper. I also saw some pellets on fire down in the ash/grease draw. Luckily my steaks did not produce that much drippings on the charbroiler. It seems like a lot of my pellets miss the firebox. The next day, I cooked some hamburgers that had some pork mixed in. I had some grease drippings. Luckily no pellets on fire that I saw in the grease draw but it does concern me of a possible grease fire. Has anyone else seen this? Also, during the hamburger cook, I noticed grease dripping out of the area that holds the draw. The draw was not full. This left a grease stain/spot on my patio. Does anyone else have this problem?
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Respectfully ..... Take a deep breath. Pellets will bounce out of the firepot and everything else you described. Grease will go down in the ash drawer on things like chicken cooks or steaks. Grease can build up in the bottom of the cooker underneath the ash drawer. It happens, and there is nothing to worry about. ..... Don't worry yourself to death. It's an imperfect world. .... But ... It's made of stainless steel. ..... It ain't gonna melt. ..... You can always return it, can't you? ..... Just cook some with it and enjoy it. It's a marvelous machine! ..... Cry wolf to many times and people stop listening. ... Just ask Pinocchio.
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It seems like a lot of my pellets miss the firebox.
I don't know what "a lot" is. I get no more than 5 or 6 in the ash tray from each cook. None are burned.
The next day, I cooked some hamburgers that had some pork mixed in. I had some grease drippings. Luckily no pellets on fire that I saw in the grease draw but it does concern me of a possible grease fire. Has anyone else seen this?
Every once in a while I get a bit of grease below the ash tray. I let it accumulate for months. It's never been a concern.
Also, during the hamburger cook, I noticed grease dripping out of the area that holds the draw. The draw was not fool. This left a grease stain/spot on my patio. Does anyone else have this problem?
I've never had grease drip from mine. I suspect that you can locate the leak, clean the area and seal it with high-temp silicone caulk. It's unfortunate that you are encountering uncommon problems with what must be considered a high-end pit. I wonder if it was racked or twisted during shipment.
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Has anyone from Cookshack gotten back to you?
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I don't do that much direct grilling on mine, but never really noticed grease dripping. My ash drawer covers up probably 98% of the area bellow the direct grill grates, and as far as I know the drawer itself is welded tight and that any greases that does drip down, should stay in the ash drawer ( making some greasy ashes, but I personally would not expect a grease fire to start down there ).
I don't see hardly any pellets that don't make it into the firepot on mine. I'd say one or two pellets over the course of a 8 hour cook that land outside the firepot. If your seeing very many, I would call Cookshack on that issue too. My guess is that maybe the shoot down to the firepot is not aligned very well on yours for some reason.
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That's pretty rare LSJ over an 8 hour cook. I'd say maybe 15 in that time frame. But, they are small ones. Nothing of any size ever hits the ash dump. I know in the past, when I first got my unit there was a lot of discussion about that. Can't say if the chute is misaligned or not. Some of it might be hpellets falling into the pot while the convection air is on. I just dump the usable ones back into the pellet hopper.
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Thanks guys for all the comments. I am not trying to cry wolf. I'm just disappointed I'm seeing these issues with a high end grill and am hoping I am doing some sort of user error that you guys or Cookshack will be able to correct (or identify if I have a faulty unit). I am hopeful I can get this grill working for me cause besides these issues I think it is awesome. I called Cookshack this afternoon and left a voicemail. I will update when I hear back from them. I am trying to get some pictures posted of my issues but am having a hard time getting that working. Sorry- I am new to posting pictures on this site!
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Picture at the end of my cook showing grease problem with ash draw.
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I just spoke to Cookshack customer support. They said they would not be concerned with the pellets that are missing the fire pot. They said they have seen pellets on fire outside the firebox when grilling at hot temperature and that is not a concern. They said they recommend putting some water in the ash/grease draw to prevent any flare up in case the lit pellets land there if you are doing direct grilling at high temperatures.
The customer service did say I should not be seeing the grease coming out on the direct side of the grill as in the picture above. I sent a picture to them so they could see. One other thing I have not mentioned in this thread is that my grease/ash draw wobbles a bit. I am going to take a video of that and send it to Cookshack as well to see if they think that is out of the ordinary.
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I add water to the pan in my Charbroiler to prevent fires. Never had a problem when I had my PG500 but if you are doing high temp cooking it can't hurt.
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You will have to forgive my ignorance, it has been a long time since I did the Performance Test on the 500. Am I correct in assuming you think the leak is coming from this drawer?
If so, I would pull it out and fill it with water and see if you find any leaks. If so, that could be sealed. And yes, somewhat disappointing, but fixed is fixed. The pellets, I also felt not an issue, unless it is an excessive amount. I remember just one incident on PH, someone chute was off and Cookshack did a fix for them.
And I have not felt you were crying wolf, I think you are trying to solve a problem. And this is OK.
Picture at the end of my cook showing grease problem with ash draw.
(https://pelletfan.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=397.0;attach=1596;image)
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After talking to Cookshack, I agree that I do not have any issues except for the grease leak. I think pellets catching on fire in the auger is somewhat concerning but seems to be normal operation according to Cookshack so I am not going to let it bother me (and will be careful to place my grill according to the wind when I cook at high temperatures).
I am not sure if the grease leak is coming from the draw or below the draw (I think more likely). When I cleaned out the draw after the cook, there was grease in the draw (not overflowing but enough that it did not seem to be leaking). I do like your idea for a test Bently and will see if I can use that idea to confirm where the leak is coming from. I am also hoping I will hear back from Cookshack today.
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Will a foil pan fit in that grease drawer like it does on the Memphis grills? I buy WM cake pans. That fit perfect in my Memphis.
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So that this topic does not seem entirely negative- this is a pic of the T-bone I cooked on the grill. The wife and kids loved the steak! Any doubts my wife had on the purchase went out the window when she tried the steak!
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Also a picture of the grill in all her glory in action!
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Fine looking steak. On the direct side, I assume.
Reverse sear or just straight-on grill?
Do you have a feel for the temperature setting and time per side?
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Thanks Paul! It was direct side for the beginning and then finished on the indirect. I was going to do a reverse sear but then did not have enough time and had to get dinner done to get the kids to bed. I plan to do a reverse sear sometime this week! 8) I have been using the 20% rule to estimate my temperatures and it seems to work pretty good. I did a "big" cook where I used the direct side to grill hamburgers and finished on the indirect side. I cooked corn on the cob on zone 2. I used zone 3 to cook vegetables. I also used zone 1 to do some stuffed mushrooms. I will eventually get a review written up and show some pictures- I just wanted to see if I could get these issues worked out first so that I can have a fair review.
I ordered a Fire Board wifi thermometer this week and it is arriving tomorrow! I am very excited for that. It allows you to monitor up to 6 probes over wifi or bluetooth! I am starting with 1 grill probe and 3 food probes. I may add additional grill probes in the future to see the different zone temperatures.
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Update- Using Bentley's test idea (Thanks Bentley!) I was able to confirm a lot of leaking in my grease/ash tray. It looks like i have bad seams on mine. I sent the pictures to Cookshack and we will see what they say. Thanks again for everyone's help! I really appreciate it and I am confident I can get this issue ironed out and have a fantastic pit!
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After speaking to Cookshack and sending them photos/videos of my PG500, they determined that the pellet slide was installed in too steep of an incline. This misalignment has resulted in the pellets missing the fire pot. They are replacing my PG500 with a new unit. Cookshack costumer service has been great to work with so far. I will post an update once I have had a chance to use the replacement unit.
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They are replacing my PG500 with a new unit.
Wow! That's a great deal for you.
It might be troublesome to ready the original one for shipping back, but CookShack's making a sincere effort at meeting your needs.
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Ive had numerous bin fires. My smoker in on my deck and is subject to quite a bit of wind. I got tired of playing the wind and moving the smoker. Im sure the engineers that designed the smoker are cringing. But I designed this plate to reduce the amount of space that sparks could fly up into the auger. Ive had 5-6 smokes since the modification in very windy conditions, and had had no more problem. I used 1/8" steel and closed the gap from Approximately 2" to about 1". I havevent seen any pellets larger than that. Good luck
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Numerous bin fires!!! No pit should do that! No Customer Service spokesperson should treat that as normal and acceptable.
To do so is admitting that they manufacture a faulty device. There would be a class action lawsuit if someone's house burned down.
It isn't a faulty design. You may be correct that sparks ignite the auger pellets. There's a lot of dust or ash in your photograph to indicate that stuff is blowing around in there. That's uncommon. It's usually the result of rough handling making fine sawdust that ignites and blows up. My advice—clean your pellets. There's at least one thread about it here. Stop eating pellet dust and ash.
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I know that feeling. What an awesome idea with that steel plate to block the draft and keep the flames from kissing the auger tube!!
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What the...? I've used my PG500 since 2012 on days when the wind blew so hard that I couldn't pour wine. I've run it in snowstorms, rainstorms and hailstorms. There's never been a hint of an auger fire.
I don't know if my pit is somehow built differently than yours but I think you need to find out why this is happening.
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Hey Paul,
We shared notes on this a few years back @ a different site.
My issues stem mainly from the air gap between the hopper wall and pit body where the auger tube passes through. So this happens when the pit is climbing above 400 and the maintaining anything above 400. IE when the HHT cycle ends and the LHT begins at that temp....poof hopper smolders, destroys whatever pellets are left in there, or the worst case, hopper fire. This is because the pellets heat to the burning point faster than they are dropped during the maintenance (LHT) duty cycle.
Low and slow...fantastic, never an issue, fast high heat burn for a few steaks or burgers, also no issue, but trying to maintain anything over that 350-400 mark....bad news. So much so that the pellet ash drawer and warming drawer overheat and begin to warp, this adds additional draft compounding the issue.
I was treated very well by all the guys at Cookshack (won't include names here) as well as Fast Eddy himself. An outstanding outfit and run a business as it should be run. I have nothing but positive things to say about them as a company.
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Interesting... I personally have had one hopper fire in my PG500, actually it was more of a smolder because I happened to catch it and stop it before it go too bad. Mine happened immediately after grilling steaks, I had been operating at like full speed or close to it, and then shut the grill down and walked away. Every since then, I've been more careful about that... I now, always reduce the temperature and let the grill stabilize at a lower temperature ( like 200F or so ) for a while before I shut it down. So far after I've started letting it gradually cool down with lower set temperature , I've not had any further issues with auger tube fire... I've owned the PG500 for almost two years now.
I've cooked at least 8 times , where I was running at over 600F for more than an hour preheating and cooking pizza... and never had hopper fires afterward. Now, after I did these high temperature cooks, I dropped the temperature down to 200F or so for 10 or 15 minutes before turning the grill off.
Anyway, I do know it's possible to have auger tube fires in a PG500, but for me... I think I've been able to avoid these by merely turning down the heat for a while before shutting down.