Rocky buildup in firebox of Silverton model

[Pauljac72]

I've had my Silverton grill a couple of years and recently had an issue. I'm having a slow ignition problem that seems to be caused by a build up of a rocky substance in the firebox. It's like some of the ash has congealed and turned rocky. This seems to block the ignition rod, causes overfilling of the firebox and is just a pain. I cleared it once but it came back pretty quickly. Has anyone else had this problem?

Below is what it looks like. It's rock hard and when I clean these out it starts fine.

 

[MidwestSmoker]

It is known as a clinker. It is caused by a combination of pellet age, brand and humidity conditions. Type "clinkers" in the search button top right and many threads will show up discussing this.

 

[MidwestSmoker]

Also, this is just a coincidence, but today I am doing a cook with Knotty Wood pellets for the first time. They are prone to forming clinkers:

Pellets - anyone ever seen plum pellets?

I cut a bunch of plum wood off of one of my large trees after a pretty severe snowstorm a few years ago and was using it as smoke wood with my weber smoky mountain bullet smoker...before I got my Traeger. I loved the smoke, very similar to apple. It got me thinking, has anyone ever seen plum...

www.traegerforum.com

I am carefully monitoring the cook and so far there are no problems. I will of course carefully look at the firepot afterwards to check for any clinkers.

 

[Pauljac72]

Thanks so much. I've owned Traegers for probably 15 years and never had these. We cook on our Silverton multiple times a week and have only used Traeger pellets (mostly the big bags from Costco). We've had a couple of long stretches of hot weather here lately, so perhaps that was it. I'll do the search--good name for them.

 

[RayClem]

Clinkers are formed when burning pellets that are high in silica. Woods made from whole tree chips containing bark will have a lot more silica than wood that is debarked. Applewood is one wood that is prone to develop clinkers. The Knotty Wood pellets mentioned are produced from whole tree chips.

I have been using some pellets lately made from bourbon barrels. Because the oak used to make the barrels was debarked, clinkers are not an issue.

You should be cleaning your grill thoroughly every few cooks. That includes removing any clinkers from the firepot. If you are using a lot of fruitwood like apple and plum, you might need to clean the firepot more often.

 

[ac7ss]

I had the same question after my first long (11 hour) cook. Easy to clean out, just weird to find for the first time.