Every time I do the high range of temps I end up with a fire.  Yesterday I made breakfast in a copper pan at 350, decided it was cool out so I'd do a burn off. My "high" alarm starts going off, wickedly ugly smoke coming out of the stack, I opened the lid and sure enough, fire.  I put the cap down and let it sit, I'm sure it fried my temp probe but thats not a big deal.  I clean the grill out maybe not as often as I should, but does anyone have suggestions on how to minimize these flare ups?

What grill do you have?

Daniel Boone

Unfortunately, that is a brand that I do not own.  You may be better served posting in the main board thread first to get some other folks to see your thread.

Some general comments:

1) make sure the drip tray is clean
2) make sure the drip bucket is not full
3) clean ash from fire pot
4) don't go from a slow cook of a greasy food to high heat cook without cleaning drip tray

I'm sure many others will have some good ideas too.

I've got a GMG DB and never had such problem.  It's a 2011 with the upgraded wifi controller and SS heat shield.  Works wonderful unless I don't clean it out when I should.  Sorry that ain't much help.

I have done this several times with my DB without a fire.  I bring up temps slow until I get to the 500 degree range.  Normally between 400 and 450 I can see the smoke from the grease being burned off.  I am right there the entire time just in case.

I have done this several times with my DB without a fire.  I bring up temps slow until I get to the 500 degree range.  Normally between 400 and 450 I can see the smoke from the grease being burned off.  I am right there the entire time just in case.

+1

I also do high temp burn off after I was having soot problem. GMG suggested I do the burn off. As others have said raise temp slowly. It depends on how dirty the grill is. I usually bring up to 350 first then go to 400. I then proceed to raise the temp by 25 only after the majority of the smoke is gone. My opinion is that flareups will happen if the grease gets hotter then the flash point but if you burn off slowly in a controlled matter you will not get the flareups. Yes it will take some time but if you start with a cold grill and scrape the majority off then it will be faster.

Some topics related to this.
https://pelletfan.com/index.php?topic=1528.msg17025#msg17025
https://pelletfan.com/index.php?topic=2804.msg34468#msg34468

Mudflap

Thanks for all the replies.  I cleaned the grill today, it was dirty, but not terrible.  Next time I'll try the 350 and 25 degree increases.

 Is the pit level - front to back/left t o right? If not drainage will be compromised.

 Dirty is relative. One mans dirty may be  clean for an other.   

When I go from a greasy cook to a high temp, I don't exceed 400° until the smoke slows down.  Even though 6" of flame shooting out the stack looks pretty cool, it's likely not good for the grill.     425° seems to be the magic flashover temp most of the time, so don't go that high until the smoke slows down.

Is the temp correct?  I maxed my DB out at 500 and the internal oven therms I had in it went to around 700. It got so hot it started to burn the wire harness on the fan.

Is the pit level - front to back/left t o right? If not drainage will be compromised.

 Dirty is relative. One mans dirty may be  clean for an other.   

Pretty darn close to level.

Never had a problem doing a high temp burnoff on any of the GMG's I've owned/own. I've had a couple fires in my DC but not from a burnoff.

My Louisiana LG800 Elite, That's a story for another day

Just did a burn off last weekend. Let it run for nearly 3 hours at 450. I do remove the deflector and grease tray and scrape out vacuum first,  then do the burn.  Works great. When done and cooled down, I hit it with a wire brush, vacuum the firepit again then prime with a few pellets and put it back together.