Back 5 or 6 weeks ago, I participated in a thread about cold weather cooking.
I made the statement my auger was groaning it's disapproval.
I did this at least 3 times with temps below 10 and as cold as zero.
Each time the machine was complaining until it got warmed up.

Well fast forward to this last Thursday. Fired up the cooker, about half way through I noticed temp was dropping.
Went out to check on grill and was hearing a clicking noise. Ut Oh, this ain't good.
Fired up Kamado to finish cook, and investigated. Well, the auger motor gave it up.
I have no doubt in my mind the bitter cold took its toll on it. Removing the cover of the motor, the grease used is a very heavy
black grease on plastic gears. When wife isn't looking I'm going to put the motor in the freezer to see just what this grease feels
like at 0.

Lesson learned: Don't use the pellet grill when you shouldn't even be outdoors in the first place. Use something else if you must have
a bbq fix.

Secondly, I had started a thread about pit deep cleaning. Wondered about pressure washing.
Well, seeings how I had the pit gutted waiting for parts, might as well get it squeaky clean.

Lesson learned: What a waste of time. Burn it off. My weak pressure washer couldn't budge the nastiness.
Now a steam cleaner would be the ticket 

I've not cooked in temps as cold as you.  I have had my auger scream at me in very cold temps for a few mins prior to combustion of the pellets.   The clicking noise didn't happen until the final failure.    That actually took years.    Also was a quick and easy replacement. 

I suspect the Memphis crew will tell you their pits run fine in freezing temps.   I'm honestly not sure where to take these observations. 

DK

I'm honestly not sure where to take these observations. 

Me either

I've been cooking on pellet grills in very cold ambient temps for 10 years many times below 0 & there were a lot of days when I shouldn't of been out there but choose to because of the added flavor vs the house oven. Yes the grills have screamed bloody murder when starting them up but has always worked well after warming up. Have never had grill failure or problems whatsoever, Not saying it wouldn't happen, sounds like an isolated incident. I've seen many die hard's like myself over the years produce some mighty fine Q in very cold temps.

Its all a personal choice.

I have to make a correction to my previous post.
Only one gear is plastic the rest are metal.
The top right gear which is driven off the motor is plastic.

The grease, is the nastiest grease I've ever seen. I did place the motor in the freezer and it took extreme effort to move
the gears until it warmed up.
The grease had also became solid. The closest thing I can describe it to is Play Doh that has been left out of the container.

I agree on the personal choice. My choice is going to be if it's so cold the auger voicing it's disapproval, I'm shutting it off.

Do you think the grease is the problem at low temperatures?  Those of us that lived in Minnesota or the Dakotas are familiar with this problem.  Aerospace Aerospec makes tubes of grease for extreme low temperatures.  Aerospace 250 Aerospec 250 or 300 might be your answer.  Check the labels to see if they run off when the pit warms them.

With this particular motor I'm leaning that way.
What else would make the motor labor at low temps?
What concerns me more is the way the grease is clumped in there.
Probably 10x more grease in there than needed and 90% of it where it is doing absolutely no good.

With a fan built on the motor I believe manufacturers are more concerned about the grease holding up to
higher temps and who but the few die hards, grill at ridiculous low temps?

I know, I'm giving this way to much thought, but it's raining and I'm waiting on parts 

I wonder if anyone in San Diego has ever changed out a auger motor?

Grill is back in operation.
Started to pull the back off the new motor to see what kind of grease was in there.
Decided against it. Gotta keep my OCD in check.

Do you think the grease is the problem at low temperatures?  Those of us that lived in Minnesota or the Dakotas are familiar with this problem.  Aerospace makes tubes of grease for extreme low temperatures.  Aerospace 250 or 300 might be your answer.  Check the labels to see if they run off when the pit warms them.

It could be they used the cheapest motor that would make it work.  Not enough torque to make it function properly at low temps, thus the grease becomes a problem.  Using beter grease could be a fix, but what if they just spent another $10 for a better motor? 

Do you think the grease is the problem at low temperatures?  Those of us that lived in Minnesota or the Dakotas are familiar with this problem.  Aerospace makes tubes of grease for extreme low temperatures.  Aerospace 250 or 300 might be your answer.  Check the labels to see if they run off when the pit warms them.

At work we are required to operate similar gear reduction drives with tiny motors down to -40F.  The standard grease that is packed in the drives totally kills them at -40F.  We typically clean the grease out and re-lube with Aeroshell 7 which is rated from  -100F to +300F. 

We have successfully tested the drives in our test chamber from -40F to 250F with great performance.  With the Aeroshell 7 they move along at -40F just like it is 70F.  If you are a hardcore arctic smoker I highly recommend it.

"Lesson learned: Don't use the pellet grill when you shouldn't even be outdoors in the first place. Use something else if you must have".

LOL!

I subscribe to this philosophy as well.  However, there were quite a few great suggestions regarding the grease issue.

John