Pellets anyone ever seen plum pellets?

[Timmy]

@BuckeyeBBQr , I would hold off on using those pellets for baking, in fact, I would advise against anyone using these pellets at any temp. I ordered the combo pack from home depot (bag of almond pellets, plum pellets, spice rub and a couple jars of honey). Used the plum wood on Friday with chicken thighs and drumsticks, smoked for an hour at 225 and then bumped the temp up to 375 to crisp up the skin. Doneness was fine but didn't like the rub (a convo/thread for another time).

The next day, my wife wanted to baked a blackberry pie, also using the plum wood. Set the temp to 425 baked it for about 20 mins, then dropped it to 375 per the recipe. We noticed the berries just weren't bubbling after an hour of cooking which was unusual for my Traeger. Bumped the temp up to 400 about 10 minutes after that and just kept an eye on it.

After an hour and 45 mins pulled the pie. We decided to make some BBQ chicken pizzas with the leftovers from the thighs/drumsticks so I opened the hopper to add more pellets and saw some smoldering coming from underneath the pile, around the auger opening. Weird, I thought, so I added more pellets and turned the temp up to 425.

Came back about 15 minutes later to find yellow, acrid smoke bellowing from the hopper and when I opened it up, it was so thick that I couldn't see any pellets. I immediately emptied the hopper into a metal bowel but the smoke kept pouring out of the auger area. I tried clearing the auger from the menu commands but the smoke didn't recede from the hopper side. At this point I removed the pizza stone, grates and metal shields, exposing the firebox. This is what I found:
View attachment 6814

Hard to tell from this perspective but that box was filled to the top with some sort of slag. I took a spoon and carefully removed as much of this as I could. The part that's not black was ONE single piece of what looked like plastic! It was too hot to handle but a smaller piece had broken off and I took it out of the Traeger to let it cool. Looked just like gray plastic or some kind of cured epoxy. I then primed the auger about 3 times and flaming pellets that had ignited due to the blockage and extreme trapped heat kept falling into the firebox. When the smoke had cleared (literally!) I surveyed the damage. The entire auger is black and there is a strange dark residue on the "tunnel" surface that the auger spins in. The firebox appears to be in tact but the entire inside of the smoker has a terrible plastic, horrible smell to it.

I would have taken more pictures but I was in emergency mode just trying to get the smoke and flames out. I haven't been able to get that smell and taste out of my head since.

Couple things that I think are important to know:

- I routinely vacuum out the ash in the firebox and inside of the grill and had JUST done a full vacuum and wipe down before Friday's chicken

- My wife and I have been using the Traeger all summer long for smoking, baking and searing without ANY issues up till this point

- I've used nothing but Traeger and Bear Mountain pellets with excellent results and nothing like this has happened before

- I removed all the Bear Mountain pellets before cooking the chicken so it was only the plum pellets for both the chicken and the pie cooking sessions

- This smoker has performed flawlessly and as expected since I purchased it last year from the Costco (Silverton 620)

I really don't want to just smear a company, especially since I was so excited to read about their products and try the plum and almond pellets. I like that they sound like a family run business and I will be calling them later this morning to explain the situation. I'll report back with how that goes. I just wanted to give a heads up so that nobody else has something like this happen to them.

But now I'm turning to the community here, as well as Traeger support to ask...what has potentially happened to my smoker and what needs to be done, cleaned, checked, replaced??? I'm really bummed and am worried that all I'm gonna taste going forward is that awful smell every time I cook with my Traeger. Is my auger compromised? How about the channel it rides in? Could the excessive heat travelling down the auger, now that it's been charred, have had a negative impact on the drive motor or electronics?

Thanks for reading my long post folks. I hope to come back with more information soon.

-Steve

Curious, was it raining or very humid outside, like 60% or higher?

 

[sbcrockett]

nope, no rain, we've been dry and warm for a while. both days mid to upper 70s and while I didn't look at a hygrometer, I'd bet humidity was nominal at around 50%.

btw, I have smoked in the rain with other pellets and never had anything like this slag in my firebox and have never seen an accumulation of ash more than an inch after ANY cook.

 

[Murphy's Law]

@sbcrockett - did the company offer an explanation?

 

[Timmy]

Just wondering, I had the SAME issue with Bearmountain on a really LONG cook. It was raining both times, and very very humid. It’s the only times it happened and I haven’t had issue since.

 

[Sterling20]

I have used knotty brand of plum pellets. They also have almond as well. It lends itself to be Fruity and spicy . I would not compare to Apple. That said I also have had an increase of melted resin material after the pellets have burned. Could be natural wood resin however I wonder if they use binders ? My concerns have been confirmed by others. Either way I do not want the plastic, resin like material in my burn box . I do not plan on using again. I will have to focus on the almond I purchased as well. If the same results occur then the burn waste product is from the company’s manufacturing process. Sounds like a great idea to have plum pellets however it could not every type of wood is destined for use as smoking or grilling. I’ll follow up with info on the knotty almond pellets to see if the same .

 

[Murphy's Law]

I don't think I'll take a chance in my grill. I may try burning them outside the grill as a test but if people are getting resin then I wouldn't even want these in a smoke tube!

I think my trash collector may haul off an extra 20 pounds of trash next week. It's a shame, I was looking forward to trying out the plum.

Oh well, not the first $20 I've blown on a whim and certainly won't be the last. Between all the "hey, let me try that.." for my fish tanks, grilling, and home brewing I don't even want to know how much money I've spent on things now sitting in a box or on the shelf collecting dust!

 

[BuckeyeBBQr]

Wow! And I was so anxious to try the plum pellets! Has anyone tried them mixed with other brands that burn well? Just curious if it would reduce the resinous odor and unburned "pellet turds". Please let us know what you find our from the company!

 

[sbcrockett]

Hey everyone, I wanted to report back after talking with the company about my problem with the plum pellets. They told me they don't use any foreign binders but instead, use a high quantity of bark (which you can see by the color of the pellets). The bark not only burns hotter but also contains natural silica which, unfortunately, is the tradeoff producing the residue during pellet cooks. There is a term for this residue and they call it "clinker". Anyone who has purchased from this company should have received a printout explaining what clinkers are and why they occur. When I get home I'll scan mine and upload it here. I believe this issue to be more common in users of pellet stoves for heating than grilling, probably for this byproduct reason.

Their first advice to me was to clean my firebox more often, which I think is a little...absurd. I had just over 3 hours of cook time on my recently cleaned Traeger when this clinker clogged my firebox and caused a backup of burning pellets about 3/4 of the way back through my auger and towards the pellet hopper! Can you imagine how many times you would have to clean out the firebox during an overnight cook??!!

I'm now of the opinion that the horrible smell and yellow smoke that I experienced was from these backed up pellets burning in a place where there shouldn't have been any fire. The result of which is that now my auger channel is bone dry and creaks like my 53 year old knee joints when going up stairs. If any of you fine folks have suggestions for lubrication I'm all ears. Maybe with more use, the pellet dust will supply a dry lubrication and it will make less noise. But it shuddered and moaned all during last nights 2 hour cook, where it was virtually silent before.

The company was apologetic, of course, but more because I didn't like this tradeoff for more heat as they believe this is truly a superior pellet. I also expressed my underwhelmed opinion of their rub and almond blossom honey. Different strokes, I guess. I told them, nothing personal, just that their products didn't check my boxes.

The good news is that they're sending me a check for partial reimbursement rather than have to go through the Home Depot return process (and having to box it all up and pay to mail it back or return to a store). I may still do just that, now that I think of it. That way I'll get a lot closer to receiving my full amount back...

They did offer to send me a free bag of pellets....um, which kinda confused me because I thought I was pretty clear that I had absolutely no interest in using pellets that were going to have this risk of clogging the firebox. During a deep clean yesterday, I also noticed excessive black soot on the walls, close to the firebox so, apparently, their pellets DO burn hotter. Maybe these pellets would be fine in a smoke tube. I just wanted to be clear that the very first cook I did, the smoke I smelled did have the nice plum wood aroma, so maybe it's not a total loss having bought these pellets.

And last but not least, I have my taste and sense of smell back! I gotta say it was so nice to smell those Traeger Cherry pellets last night while I was roasting my wife's lovely parmesan garlic potatoes to go with dinner. Even better to confirm that the Silverton still works and hopefully, once I get the auger lubed, will give us many years of great meals to come

Thanks for all the responses everyone! Let me know if you have any other questions.

-Steve

 

[RustyJake]

Thanks, nice follow-up report.
Very useful information

 

[Murphy's Law]

I just looked through the paper work and they do have a sheet on "clinker". Not sure how I missed that. I guess I don't usually read instructions on pellets.

I may try them in a tube or something but I mainly got these for longer cooks for shoulders and such and really don't feel like running these through the grill.

Thanks for the follow up.

 

[Maddogmikey]

Thanks for posting your story sbcrokett. I ordered some plum pellets from knotty wood that’s on its way to my Home Depot. I think after reading this, I’m taking them straight to the returns desk to get my money back. I don’t see any need to take a chance with them.