What is the Grate in the hopperfiller

[KevinJ]

Finger safety to reduce Darwin awards being given out I think...it annoys me too.

I empty pellets using the cubby door, I bend the grate out of the way and scoop the pellets out the door into my bucket.

I don’t like this setup either, hanging a bucket on the hook doesn’t catch all the pellets flying out of the door. You do need to hold the bucket closer. Seems like the door should be towards the bottom.

It is a stupid design I agree.

 

[trarmour]

Its called either the "Pellet Hopper Interior with Grate" or the "Hopper safety grate", it wants to prevent people from sticking their hands into the auger, getting hurt in the process.
It needs to be removed for a certain tasks, like installing a pellet sensor.

I've just put "blue Loc Tite" on the two screws keeping them just loose enough to lift the grate out when I want to and put it back easily. Blue "Loc Tite" allows the screws to still be removed without heating the screws up. Red "Loc Tite" is called "stud Loc". That will make the screws non removable with heating the screws up. Don't use the red!