HotSpringsBBQ
Active member
I want to share my story so others can avoid my headache. This seems fairly obvious, but wood chips and pellets do not mix. I use smoke tubes regularly, so I have many wood chips on hand. I store my chips and pellets in separate bags but in the same large plastic bin. Not a big deal until today, I am doing a long smoke and fill the hopper completely. 2 hours into my smoke i get the auger over current alarm , I didnt notice for awhile my grill had shut down, basically totally ruining my bbq timing etc. So I had to shut down the grill, empty and vacuum out the full hopper, ( royal pain in a mid cook ) all while my meats are sitting idle. I find a single, small wood chip jamming the auger, so i removed it with a pliers while using the clear auger function on the menu, it fixed the problem fortunately, and the Q continued. My lesson is, dont let any wood chips, no matter how small, get close to your pellet storage, keep distinct separate bins. A single wood chip falling into your pellet storage / hopper will bring an otherwise perfect Q to a rapid halt.
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