Clogged burn pot during cook

[George Costanza]

My first pork butt I smoked took around nine hours to complete. Somewhere within the last hour or so I noticed smoke was coming from inside of the hopper. I opened the lid and a lot of smoke came out. So much was in there that it was making my pellet sensor show it was full when it was actually at 40%. The next day I took the grates out and looked at the burn pot, it was clogged up with a bunch of ash. But the ash was a solid chunk. Kind of crystallized looking. I had cleaned it up before this nine hour cook and had only used it maybe two times prior to this. A friend of mine suggested that maybe the pellets were bad. It was the first time I used that bag of Apple. Previously I used the Signature blend. Does this sound like a pellet issue?

 

[GrillMeister]

I've never experience that. What brand is the Apple pellets? How were they stored prior to using them?

 

[RemE]

One thing I would always try to do is clean and vac the grill before ANY long cook. Even a couple of short cooks may leave residue that can harden in the pot, I have seen that.

Be sure to purge your auger now and clean everything out!

 

[Jim G]

I always wondered why my IW885 didn't have a mesh firepot bottom to let the ash drop out.

 

[JamesB]

I always wondered why my IW885 didn't have a mesh firepot bottom to let the ash drop out.

Are you talking about mesh, as in open to the outside? If so, the back pressure from the fan would also blow nearly all your smoke out that same mesh...

 

[Jim G]

I had a SmokeFire before my 885. That had a mesh bottom firepot and the ash would fall into a tray for removal.

 

[JamesB]

I had a SmokeFire before my 885. That had a mesh bottom firepot and the ash would fall into a tray for removal.

I agree, that would be convenient. Just not sure how that would work with Traegers convection fan.

 

[George Costanza]

I've never experience that. What brand is the Apple pellets? How were they stored prior to using them?

Traeger brand pellets. The bag wasn’t opened until I was ready to use them.

I did vacuum it out before I used it. I did another cook last night for around six hours. I haven’t checked out the burn pot since. I will look at it today and see how it is.

 

[Pogo007]

Traeger brand pellets. The bag wasn’t opened until I was ready to use them.

I did vacuum it out before I used it. I did another cook last night for around six hours. I haven’t checked out the burn pot since. I will look at it today and see how it is.

The bag doesn't protect the pellets from the damp. Was your bag stored in a dry location?

 

[George Costanza]

The bag doesn't protect the pellets from the damp. Was your bag stored in a dry location?

Yeah they were. I used the bag pretty soon after buying them. I’ve used other pellets and cooked for about 10 hours yesterday with no problems. I’m going to say something happened with the pellets. Maybe they got some moisture in them at some point? It was snowing the day this happened and I was cooking.