Time for the spring cleaning. First emptied the pellets out and used the prime function to get all the pellets out of the auger. Scraped lots of gunk off the two piece diffuser with a strong metal scraper. Pretty gunked up mainly from a 6 pork butt cook. Scraped the bottom and some sides with the plastic scraper. Got out the cheapo 1600 PSI $80 pressure washer, cleaned the grates and the two piece diffuser.
Covered the inside temp probe with lots of foil to protect the water getting into the seam. Then I went to town with the washer. I used no soap at all. Was pretty careful about the seam areas. Amazing what that little pressure washer got out. Used no soap, washed the outside but no direct spray on the control panel.
That was yesterday. It dried overnight and I put it all together, wiping out the pellet bin, it just had dust, sprayed the grates with PAM and added pellets. It's humming along at a nice 350f for an hour. Started right up like a champ.
In August of 2018 I will have had my Yoder for 5 years. No failures of fans, igniter, temp probe. No burn back/auger fires.
It's a tank and I'm so glad I spent more and bought a quality unit.
Thanks Yoder!