Is this too much fly ash and/or pellet dust on the rails?

Might be, only cooked in it 3 times, so has no real grease build up or seasoning!  Will go examine it more closely right now.

It is very fine sawdust..  Doing some video and stills to show you all.  Did not taste anything bad on burger, bacon or Calzone.  Will see how the steaks look tonight. 

Only MY theory, so take it for what it is worth.  I think that even when a movable heat diffuser is closed and you have a drip tray that is used to enhance the grilling experience, I wonder if you have more particulate matter that can get above the grates?

Fine wood partials in SG.

Thank you for the question!

It is very fine sawdust..  Doing some video and stills to show you all.  Did not taste anything bad on burger, bacon or Calzone.  Will see how the steaks look tonight. 

That seems odd to me. Ash I can understand. Particulate matter implies that this is unburned pellets.
I can think of a few scenarios that this might happen. Moist pellets? Too much fan? xxxxxx pellets? Combination?

Can you provide an explanation of your graph to help understand which probes were what?  It looks like there was about a 20°+ temp difference between some of the probes but not sure which ones from the graph as I couldnt see the legend.

I am sorry, I did not notice that the graph I used did not show the probes!

Can you provide an explanation of your graph to help understand which probes were what?  It looks like there was about a 20°+ temp difference between some of the probes but not sure which ones from the graph as I couldnt see the legend.

Particulate matter implies that this is unburned pellets. I can think of a few scenarios that this might happen. Moist pellets? Too much fan? xxxxxx pellets? Combination?

My guess, based on what happens in my pit, pellet dust gets augered into the firepot and blown upwards before burning.

In my pit, some of the wood dust burns and the sparks (fly ash) are blown upwards and distributed.  My only alternative seems to be to clean the pellets before putting them into the hopper.

Would be the only way I could see it happening!  And I guess I should have looked more closely at the steaks, completely forgot!

My guess, based on what happens in my pit, pellet dust gets augered into the firepot and blown upwards before burning.

Would be the only way I could see it happening!  And I guess I should have looked more closely at the steaks, completely forgot!

I don't think you'll see it on food.  I think it's there but you can't see it.  I sprinkled some pellet dust on a hamburger and it absorbed the grease and seemed to disappear.

Some people like the oak flavor in Chardonnay.   

EDIT:  This isn't unique to pellet pits.  I have a 10 CFM fan blowing air into my kamado for temperature control (it adjusts the air flow in order to adjust the temperature).  It blows charcoal ash around when it's moving a lot of air.

Kinda as I had expect on temp variance across the grill.  I had expected the right side to be hotter based on the cutouts in the drip pan.  What I didn't expect was that for some reason the back left is the 2nd hottest location at times.