Hello all! I'm thinking of buying a pellet smoker/grill and am concerned about the humidity here in Florida. I've heard horror stories about pellets swelling and ruining pellet smokers. What is the best way to run a pellet smoker safely in this humidity?

I'm in Texas between Corpus and San Antonio.  I keep my pit and pellets in my barn when not is use with no problems at all with humidity.  I think I'm about on the 28th parallel if that helps.  Bad things happen when pellets get wet though.

Welcome to the forum!

I know that our RH is probably 20-30% lower then yours, but I have never had an issue with it.  Have never really had anyone say that it has been a problem in areas that are high.  If you are not storing them for 2-3 years, you should be OK.  You might consider buying some cheap plastic trash cans like I did and dumping them in those.  Mind hold about 200lbs each and last for about a year, and I see no degradation!

 
Welcome djboca !

 There is an old saying.."Keep your powder dry". This applies to pellets as well.. A high humidity environment simply requires a more common sense to storing anything hygroscopic such as coffee, food, and yes

  wood pellets...  Given common sense care, you shouldn't have any problems.

Thanks for the warm welcome My concern isn't long term storage of unused pellets in general, but the fact that after you are done cooking, there are pellets remaining in the auger and those pellets if swollen can cause a complete failure of the system.

I'm thinking that towards the end of the cook, I should empty the hopper of pellets into a storage container and allow the cooker to burn out all the pellets in the auger. Will take longer to get going on the next cook but may prevent the disaster of losing the entire cooker.

Thoughts and thanks!

 If the pit is kept DRY and the time between uses is days, not months, I don't see a problem.

 Start-up with an empty hopper and auger just isn't that long. Simply fill the hopper, prime the auger + go..Adding a handful of pellets to the fire pot would speed things up if the pit doesn't have a prime

function. That would add a few extra minutes depending on the pit.

 

We have several members from Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and I have never heard them be concerned about this issue.  But maybe some of them will weigh in.  We have some high dewpoints here in the Piedmont of Virginia and we have never taken pellets out of the Memphis Pro even when it has been inactive for months in the summer. Just not an issue.

I'm in NC and have had an issue with humidity. I have been using pellets for 5-6 years.

 My first real post  ever in a forum of any kind and living in the humid south - North Alabama:  Be easy on me!

My MB vertical smoker has a control issue- humidity and moisture issues with the control panel- bought last year.  To clarify - I have covers for all my cooking devices outside, but moisture seems to get inside anyway.  Thinking I've got to cover my cook area or or store in my garage.  My Pit Boss had to be cleaned twice due to swelling of pellets and I kept having burn back issues.  There was a lot of shade until recently in the area where the grills are located until this past year.  I hope sunshine and air help with keeping the

My first real post  ever in a forum of any kind and living in the humid south - North Alabama:  Be easy on me!

My MB vertical smoker has a control issue- humidity and moisture issues with the control panel- bought last year.  To clarify - I have covers for all my cooking devices outside, but moisture seems to get inside anyway.  Thinking I've got to cover my cook area or or store in my garage.  My Pit Boss had to be cleaned twice due to swelling of pellets and I kept having burn back issues.  There was a lot of shade until recently in the area where the grills are located until this past year.  I hope sunshine and air help with keeping the

Unless you have a controlled environment, humidity is uncontrollable. Air movement is the key to reducing its damaging effects. Covers can be bad @ trapping air & humidity. The ground beneath that retains moisture is an other negative.

I live on the east coast of Florida and have never had a problem with the pellets.  I store my pellet smoker in the garage so it's not out in the elements, but the humidity does not seem to be a problem at all.

 Welcome to PF.  I live in a relatively dry climate, so cannot advise.  Hope you are successful in setting up an ideal BBQ pit.