I have 40 lb bags of cherry, hickory and maple. I use the competition blend all the time. Dealer was out so I got a bag of each and did my own blend. I noticed that the maple was very dark in color and some of the pellets were 2"-3" long and they didn't break apart real easy.
The reason I bring this up is I was smoking jerky one day and when finished shut by DB down as usually. The next morning did my start up via the app and didn't notice any smoke. I look out out and it is still the same temp. I couldn't hear the auger trying to turn either. I had filled the hopper when I had finished the night before. I knew I had power yet when the fan came on and I could see the auger trying to turn for a split second. I determined the auger was stuck. I vacuumed the pellets out. Took the hopper off, cleaned the ash out of the fire box and took a hammer and tapped along the outside of the auger. I then ubolted the auger and tried to pull the auger out little by little and vac'd the pellets out of the auger. Finally got the whole thing out, assembled everything and it ran again. I wondered if the those long pellets somehow jammed the auger. First time I have every had to deal with a stuck auger.
I use lumberjack pellets all the time. I did another small blend in a two gallon bucket and put the maple in first and took a hammer to try and break the long pellets up more. Those things were tough to break up!! Hopefully I fixed the problem.
Yesterday fired it up again to do wings and thighs and no smoke again.
I could hear the auger turning but no smoke. Thought maybe the fire rod was bad. I opened the hopper and found the problem!! No pellets! (insert face palm emoji). I taped over the low pellet sensor as it is pretty obnoxious. Hopefully when I fire it up on Thanksgiving morning I have no issue. Just thought the maple pellets were long and tough to break down.
