Pellet Fan
Pit Talk -- Comments and Questions Regarding These Pellet Pits => Memphis => Topic started by: glitchy on August 13, 2018, 04:08:12 PM
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Sorry, haven't posted in a while, it's been a busy summer.
Yesterday I had my second fire in my Pro and am pretty much baffled. Before yesterday, the last time I used my grill was to reverse sear some steaks. Because I'd had it super hot and was putting the stock insert back in, I really scraped it the drip pan and stock center insert down well after I ate (the grill was still even pretty warm). This was probably the cleanest my Pro has been since I really cleaned it down after the first fire.
So, yesterday morning I fired up the grill at 275 and put on 4 chuck roasts totaling about 8.5-9 pounds. After a couple hours I turned it up to 325 and continued to cook. A little later the smallest roast was done, so I pulled it, checked the rest and rearranged them a bit and went back inside to take care of some other things. 10-15 mins later, my wife came and said your smoker is really putting out a lot of smoke. So, I ran outside and opened it up to find a decent size fire on the drip tray and even on the grates with temps over 500 degrees (because the sensor was actually getting kissed by some flames).
What did or could I have done wrong here? What am I missing to clean? The grease trays were emptied when I did the steaks (so I didn't even look at them before cooking yesterday because a couple steaks really couldn't put but a few drips of grease in there).
This was my second fire since getting this back in March. I don't remember what I was cooking the first time, but I wrote it off as user error because I had a probe in the first slot and it dropped the temp to 180 when it hit my set temp...and after I realized it I set the temp back up and held down the prime button for like 3-5 seconds to recover more quickly. That was the first and only time I'll use the prime button unless the hopper runs dry and blamed or accepted it as the most likely cause of the fire.
Anyway, I'm getting a little scared now since these were not high temp cooks. I know not to turn it up to 600 degrees after cooking a bunch of bacon and such and hoping someone has some tips.
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I would say that's not unexpected. You are cooking a relatively fatty cut of meat, allowing the fat to render for a few hours, and then increasing to a temperature that will ignite the fat. It's happened to me a few times. Just last week when I was cooking a pork belly. My advice when cooking a fatty cut is just go low and slow.
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For me, this is very unexpected. I've been turning up the heat on cooks of chucks and butts for years and have never had a grease fire previously. Sometimes you can't wait for everything to take it's sweet time at 225-250.
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How thoroughly are you cleaning the pit before starting the cook? Could it be a combination of residual fat from previous cooks + current cook? That's what it was for me.
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The grill was very clean, I had the grill pretty hot on the previous cook before and scraped it down well. There was no previous buildup left on the 'flavorizer' minus the ultra thin layer you don't get without a long burn off or chemical help.
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was one of the pieces of meat placed such that it was not over the drip pan? I once loaded up my pellet grill and the grease dripped into the bottom of the pit because I had it placed past the drip pan. I was lucky not to have a fire, plenty of black grease down there.
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Everything was over the drip pan, I even put one on middle shelf to not get too close to edges and keep a little space between them for more even cooking.
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Call Memphis. They had an issue on the controller on my older model where the temp would spike when you went outside of the smoke temps. If that is still the case, there could have been hot grease drip from second shelf onto a very hot drip pan causing the fire. Just a guess but worth checking into IMO.
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That's a good idea Bar-B-Lew. I'll reach out to them. I just posted here hoping someone would say I had a couple fires and as soon as I didn't this or that they stopped. I'll see if Memphis has any advice.
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I’ve had the same experience with my pro. I clean the pit but still manage to catch it on Fire it seems fairly often. We purchased this new about a year ago, so I’m not sure if the controller issue would apply to this one or not. Basically now only use it when smoking at low temps and anything over 300 goes on our egg.
I’m still relatively new to pellet smoking so if there are any recommendations to try so we could use this grill at full functionality, I’m all ears.
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Just a thought - If what you are cooking secretes a lot of grease, it may overwhelm the ability of the pit to drain it off efficiently..If that is the case, using a drip pan may be in order. The mess will stay in the
pan and not run down underneath where the vapours are exposed to the fire. :2cents:
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CJ, do you put the drip pan on the grill grate or underneath it on top of the grills drip pan?
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I place the drip pan on the grate and use a rack in it to keep the meat high and dry. I don't want it soaking in grease... By placing the pan on the grate, the air space reduces heat thus reducing pan burning.
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I place the drip pan on the grate and use a rack in it to keep the meat high and dry. I don't want it soaking in grease... By placing the pan on the grate, the air space reduces heat thus reducing pan burning.
I’m going to have to give this a try...
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I place the drip pan on the grate and use a rack in it to keep the meat high and dry. I don't want it soaking in grease... By placing the pan on the grate, the air space reduces heat thus reducing pan burning.
I’m going to have to give this a try...
If you don't have a rack to put in the pan, place the meat on one of the top grates w/ the pan on the grate below.
Let us know the outcome please.
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I did contact Memphis support. They reviewed my past cook data looking for any controller issues but found nothing and simply reassured me that if I use the indirect insert I should have nothing to worry about. I was a bit frustrated with the response, but I know that users do the dumbest things too. I had previously confirmed with them though that I was using the indirect insert when the fire happened (and only use the direct insert rarely and on OF mode for steaks and such).
The drip pan idea might work and I might consider occasionally for exceptionally greasy meats. However, we are severely reducing our cooking capacity if we have to frequently cook over a drip pan on the main grid and put all our meat on the middle or top shelves. My last fire was cooking 9 pounds of chuck roast at 325 on a clean grill for 4 hours. I really don't consider that hot cook or chuck roast all that greasy.
I wonder if the deflector was made with a little steeper angle? To keep grease and food particles from accumulating as much on the deflector? I might try getting mine spotless and coating it with grill cooking spray to make it a little more slick, but not sure I can keep up with that because it would need cleaned and reapplied every cook most likely. Has anyone foil lined the Memphis drip tray?
I also want note that I'm in no way trying to bash Memphis. Except for this issue, I really love my Pro. The whole reason for even starting this thread is simply to find ways to eliminate this problem since it seems to be a fairly common thing that I've seen at least a few other users mention. Hoping someone already has the answer.
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I have never looked close enough, but I wonder if the grease fire is from grease in the back of the drawers. I've got to the point that I don't use the grill above 275° due to the fires that I have had.
I should probably go through the recommended burn off process that Memphis has on youtube and see if that helps. glitchy, have you tried that process?
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I haven't gone through the detailed annual cleaning yet (taking off the back, etc). However, I very regularly run the grill for 30-60 minutes around 475-550 degrees and then scrape things down and vacuum out a day or two later. I usually do this after a few shorter low n slow cooks or every one to two long cooks.
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I haven't gone through the detailed annual cleaning yet (taking off the back, etc). However, I very regularly run the grill for 30-60 minutes around 475-550 degrees and then scrape things down and vacuum out a day or two later. I usually do this after a few shorter low n slow cooks or every one to two long cooks.
Well, you are certainly doing a lot more than I am.
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Thought # 2. Is the pit level? Tilting left or right would render the slope of the drip pan almost flat on one side.. A front to back tilt could allow grease to drip into a non intended location closer to the fire.
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Thought # 2. Is the pit level? Tilting left or right would render the slope of the drip pan almost flat on one side.. A front to back tilt could allow grease to drip into a non intended location closer to the fire.
Good thought. I should check that as I know I have a bad wheel that I have a metal shim under.
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Thought # 2. Is the pit level? Tilting left or right would render the slope of the drip pan almost flat on one side.. A front to back tilt could allow grease to drip into a non intended location closer to the fire.
It’s pretty close, but I’ll put a level on it next cook. It’s on a concrete patio, so my guess would be back right slightly lower if not level. I cook pretty much center of patio though. Last fire was on the left side.