Fire in the fire pot and slow ignition

[Ginn880]

I just cleaned my Silverton 620 for the first time, I have had this less than a month. I vacuumed the ash out and the next day tried to do a cook. It was stuck on "igniting" for a long time and then a HUGE cloud of white smoke and what appears to be a fire in the fire box, what have I done wrong and how do I fix this? I am 100% new to Traeger and need some help.

 

[RayClem]

If you clean out the firebox completely. All the pellets will be removed.

If you try to ignite the firepot with no pellets, it will take a few minutes for the auger to push enough pellets into the pot for the fire to ignite. It sounds like that is what occurred after your maintenance.

There is a Auger Prime feature that can be used to push a few pellets into the pot before you push the ignite button. There is a recent thread that discusses priming the auger. Some are like me and always prime the auger before every cook. Some only prime the auger after they clean the fire pot. Other have never used the priming feature. I cannot tell you which procedure is right; I only know what works for me.

Although Traeger says to ignite the fire with the lid closed, I always leave mine open until I start to see some smoke pouring out. Then I lower the lid. Again, I can't tell you if my method is the right one, but it works for me.

The one thing you should never do is try to reignite a fire after a flameout or if the grill does not go through the normal shutdown routine. If the pot is full of pellets and you try to ignite the fire with the lid down, sufficient hot gases can build up in the chamber to cause an explosion. If the grill does not go through a normal shutdown, be sure to clean out all pellets from the firepot before reigniting the grill.

 

[Ginn880]

Thanks for the reply. I emptied the hopper and refilled with new pellets. Proceeded with the auger priming and then did a start up. This time, I kept the lid open as you suggested. It took a while, but the grill seemed to ignite and the fire pot did not smoke horribly as before. Once the pot was well lit, I did close the lid, it came up to the set temperature and I did the full shut down procedure. It seems this may have corrected the issue. Fingers crossed, but I think it worked. Thanks again for the help!

 

[Tommymick]

If you clean out the firebox completely. All the pellets will be removed.

If you try to ignite the firepot with no pellets, it will take a few minutes for the auger to push enough pellets into the pot for the fire to ignite. It sounds like that is what occurred after your maintenance.

There is a Auger Prime feature that can be used to push a few pellets into the pot before you push the ignite button. There is a recent thread that discusses priming the auger. Some are like me and always prime the auger before every cook. Some only prime the auger after they clean the fire pot. Other have never used the priming feature. I cannot tell you which procedure is right; I only know what works for me.

Although Traeger says to ignite the fire with the lid closed, I always leave mine open until I start to see some smoke pouring out. Then I lower the lid. Again, I can't tell you if my method is the right one, but it works for me.

The one thing you should never do is try to reignite a fire after a flameout or if the grill does not go through the normal shutdown routine. If the pot is full of pellets and you try to ignite the fire with the lid down, sufficient hot gases can build up in the chamber to cause an explosion. If the grill does not go through a normal shutdown, be sure to clean out all pellets from the firepot before reigniting the grill.

Everything you've said makes perfect sense. I guess I'm one of the lucky few; in my 2+ years with my 620 the only time I've used the priming feature was on initial burn-in. Cleaned it plenty, but never primed it, and it ignites just fine. (I hope I didn't just jinx myself!)

 

[RayClem]

Everything you've said makes perfect sense. I guess I'm one of the lucky few; in my 2+ years with my 620 the only time I've used the priming feature was on initial burn-in. Cleaned it plenty, but never primed it, and it ignites just fine. (I hope I didn't just jinx myself!)

A lot of folks never prime the auger. When you hit the ignition button, the igniter fires up and the auger starts pushing pellets into the fire pot. When there are enough pellets to cover the hot rod, fire will happen. If you prime the auger first, the fire is likely to ignite sooner. If the fire pot is completely empty when you push the igniter butten, the hot rod might overheat. This might shorten the life of the hot rod, but I do not have any data one way or the other. The hot rods are not expensive so it is not a big deal, but replacing one does take some time. If I can reduce the necessary maintenance, I will try to do so.