My Traeger Texas Elite 34 with a Savannah Stoker controller started behaving strangely for the past month. The first incident I had a month ago was the smoker did not ignite on a very hot day +100 degF. I started the grill with the lid closed and had no ignition. The lid was opened and the internal temperature dropped and it ignited with a pot full of pellets. This resulted in an auger tube fire. To make a long story short, I emptied the hopper, cleared the auger tube of pellets, and vacuum out the grill. The cook seemed to progress normally after that.
I have had several cooks since then and appear to be getting flame outs from time to time. This is evidenced by charred grease on the grease tray and white smoke observed from time to time during the cook. Yesterday, I moved two pork butts after 5 hours of smoking to aluminum pans. About a half an hour later, I noticed the grill flamed out. The SS appeared to attempted re-ignite a pot full of pellets and got a mild kaboom. The smoker lid lifted slightly and closed. The temperature raced up to 350 degF. I finished the cook in the kitchen oven. Ignition of a pot full of pellets and a mild explosion is pretty well documented. My concern is not the explosion but the root cause of the flame outs.
Later today, I will start trying to figure out why this flame out is happening. There are two things that I plan of looking at first:
1. Did my original auger tube fire damage something in the grill to prevent reliable feeding of pellets?
2. Just before the auger tube fire, I restocked my pellet supply with Traeger Hickory pellets from a Costco roadshow. This is the first time Traeger has been back at Costco since the covid thing occurred. I am wondering if these new pellets have something to do with it.
If anyone has any input, please provide it.
