I had tried to start up my Copperhead a few days ago and noticed after about 10 minutes that it wasn't increasing in temp.  Tried again a few days later, and same issue.

Well, today, I was on the patio and went behind the unit and noticed that there were pellets bursting out of the pellet drop door.  I'm guessing they got wet from the rain and swelled up.  Probably are causing an issue with the auger.  Gonna have to look at it before cooking jerky on it next week.  What a pain in the xxx this will be.

Moral of the story is this unit doesn't seem to be a good unit to leave out in the elements.

This is the first I have read anything about the verticals and rain, but the barrels and rain seem not to mix very well, as rain gets in the auger some how and binds everything up.

I wil have to look at mine and see if I can figure out how rain would get in it. I do keep mine in the garage.

Top of the pellet hopper was fine.  It was the door on the back to release pellets where the water got into it.

The only grill of the five on the patio that had an issue.

I had the exact same issue last week!! (Didn't notice to door bulging; started up fine, then steady temp drop.) I had mine covered with a tarp, secured with bungees. Pellets swelled up, auger was feeding sawdust. Was a real chore to clean out. I since received the fitted cover from Pit Boss. We have been getting rain all day today--will have to check tomorrow to see if the smoker fared better with the new cover. I cannot move it into the garage after each use. Plan on adding a covered area for the cookers sometime this year  .

Not sure if the issue is rain splashing up under the unit or what. If I find the same issue after this rain again, I may build a stand on casters with some decking boards for a floor to protect the underside of the smoker. Elevating the unit several inches would reduce the amount of bending over to the controller as well, and better casters will help with moving the unit.

I have a cover on mine which seems to be working good.  I had several days of hard thunderstorms and I did some smoking yesterday.  Mine sits under the eaves of my house which has gutters.

I had close to 20# of pellets in the hopper. I've sifted through roughly 2/3 of them...have a few inches of Pit Boss Comp Blend sawdust now that I can use in the Amazen tray for cold smoking in the bottom of a 5 gal bucket. Gonna have to make the PVC pellet cleaner I think, plastic colander takes a long time!

I haven't unpacked mine yet, but I ordered a cover yesterday. It will sit under a covered patio but could/ will get water underneath. Raising it up sounds like a good plan

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I had the exact same issue last week!! (Didn't notice to door bulging; started up fine, then steady temp drop.) I had mine covered with a tarp, secured with bungees. Pellets swelled up, auger was feeding sawdust. Was a real chore to clean out. I since received the fitted cover from Pit Boss. We have been getting rain all day today--will have to check tomorrow to see if the smoker fared better with the new cover. I cannot move it into the garage after each use. Plan on adding a covered area for the cookers sometime this year  .

Not sure if the issue is rain splashing up under the unit or what. If I find the same issue after this rain again, I may build a stand on casters with some decking boards for a floor to protect the underside of the smoker. Elevating the unit several inches would reduce the amount of bending over to the controller as well, and better casters will help with moving the unit.

What did you have to do to get to the auger to clean it out?  I am going to have to do that this week sometime.

Bar-B-Lew:
I initially used a big flat bladed screwdriver to 'chisel' out the compressed sawdust. I then used an old lever door handle (right angle) to get up the sides some. That drop door is NOT hand friendly! Plus, it's not flush with the bottom of the hopper, making getting the sawdust out trickier. I had a piece of 3/4" wide flat bar that I used to scrape down the sloping sides of the hopper. Once I got the hopper as free of sawdust as I could (didn't try the shop vac--not sure if it would fit thru the little door?), I put in a pound or so of fresh, dry pellets, and went to the front.
I turned the smoker on and turned to High. Held the Prime button for what seemed like an eternity until all of the sawdust cleared and pellets were feeding. So glad they started feeding--I thought I was going to have to try and remove the auger assembly 
I used the smoker on Mother's Day, and it worked fine. I'm not sure if all of the sawdust is cleared out, but I had zero issues with temps for the 3+ hours I was smoking, so I'm thankful for that.
Now, to go check and see if the fitted Pit Boss cover made a difference with the nearly all day rains we had yesterday! (Will report back on that in a bit.)

Skip

did you just clean through the trap door or is there some other way to get to the auger?

I just cleaned thru the door. Not sure how to access the auger. (Glad I didn't have to find out too!)
Like I said above, I had a piece of bar stock long enough to reach from the hopper loading door on top to scrape down the sides, thru that protective grid.

Skip

Well, just checked the smoker...took the cover off and saw this:
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Apparently the seams on the Pit Boss cover are not waterproof. Heart sank. Grabbed a small bucket and went to the back of the smoker, opened the pellet drop door, and dry pellets came out  !
Still may build a small 'deck' with casters, leaving a small gap between the boards for airflow.

I am probably going to remove that protective guard in the pellet hopper and scoop out as many good pellets as I can.  Then I will work on the trap door.  Thanks for the tips.

Be careful with either the drop door or the opening (or both). Some sharp edges down there!
Hope to do some ribs today.

Skip

I didn't go look at mine, but looking at the manual, it looks like there is a louvered piece right under the hopper/pellet dump that covered the auger motor. so it should be easy to get to. Not for me I would have to put it on it's side or something, my days of laying down to fix things are pretty much over.