Pit Talk -- Comments and Questions Regarding These Pellet Pits > FEC/Cookshack
PG500 Flame out and blow out
Gdoubleyou:
Hello all,
I am a new owner of a PG500 and had some troubling issues during my first attempt at cooking on it yesterday. This forum was a great source of information for me in making the decision to purchase it, and I thought maybe some folks here could offer some advice on what I may be doing wrong.
First I'll start by saying that when I received the unit on Wednesday I had no problems running it for an hour at 400 for a burn in. I put some pork shoulder on at 225 yesterday morning and things seemed to be going ok at first. I was monitoring the temperatures using a remote probe I put in and for a while it was a pretty steady up/down from 190 - 250. These seemed like pretty significant temperature fluctuations to me, but I knew that at least some of that was part of the design and being new to using it I wasn't sure if it was out of the ordinary or not.
Seemingly out of nowhere, I noticed it dropping down further than 190, and when it reached 170 I went out to check on it. The unit was billowing a very, very thick smoke out of it and I couldn't see any flames. I wasn't quite sure what to do so I closed the doors and tried letting it go to sort itself out. After another couple minutes, I heard a large WOOSH along with a big puff of the thick smoke expelling and the warming drawer popped out a bit. I unplugged it and saw a significant fire in the cook pot. I let it die down a bit and when the temperature was around 200 inside I tried starting it back up.
Again it worked fine for a few hours with me monitoring it like a hawk. I went for a short walk around the block, and as I was approaching my house I once again noticed the same very thick smoke and within a few seconds of seeing it, I heard the WOOSH again and one of the front doors and warming drawer opened themselves. After this I unplugged it and let it rest and ended up finishing the shoulder in the oven.
I read through this post: https://pelletfan.com/index.php?topic=4654.0 and also the one cited in that thread about the work done by LowSlowJoe here: https://pelletfan.com/index.php?topic=307.msg2886#msg2886. I was using the default settings for LHT and HHT which I believe are 10/50 for 225. Could these settings really be what caused this issue or is there something else that I may be doing wrong here?
Thanks in advance for any advice you may have to offer!
Bentley:
That was the unit relighting and the gasses from the wood pellets finally reigniting!
I can't help. It does sound like the setting and it has been so long since I cooked on one I can't guide you. But...there will be some folks along in the next 24 hours that can!
--- Quote from: Gdoubleyou on May 02, 2021, 02:13:06 PM ---Again it worked fine for a few hours with me monitoring it like a hawk. I went for a short walk around the block, and as I was approaching my house I once again noticed the same very thick smoke and within a few seconds of seeing it, I heard the WOOSH again and one of the front doors and warming drawer opened themselves. After this I unplugged it and let it rest and ended up finishing the shoulder in the oven.
--- End quote ---
Osborn Cox:
It’s never happened to me with my FE, but it did happen to me very early on in my pellet grilling odyssey with my Traeger, it’s quite disconcerting. My guess is that your LHT may need to be adjusted upward by one setting to 15 if it is indeed set to 10. I use 10 on my pg1000, but I know many pg500 owners use 15. It’s the first thing to try, and the most logical solution to the problem.
pmillen:
Consider putting something in there to heat up, like a pan of wet cloth. Then–
* Set the LHt at 15
* Set the HHt at 1/10th of your desired pit temperatureAdjust the HHt based on grate-level temperature readings.
Gdoubleyou:
Greatly appreciate the responses guys. I had a feeling it was probably the settings and lack of experience but I just wanted to make sure there wasn't something obvious I was missing. All my experience in cooking BBQ thus far has been on off-sets so I didn't know if I was making a simple pellet smoker mistake. I'm really excited to master this smoker and get the best out of it!
I'll try changing the LHt to 15 and HHt to 1/10th the set temp and see how it goes. For what it's worth, yesterday was a mild 65 degree day here in Pennsylvania but it was fairly windy.
Thanks again and I'll report back in a few days after I've had a chance to test it out.
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