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!!

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.

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. 

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.