GMG smoking black?

Has anyone on here ever had a problem with a Green Mountain grill smoking a very black, sooty smoke? I used to own one and sold it for that reason, and now my buddy who also owns one tells me he has the same issue. In fact, the truth of the story is I used to be a dealer and I sold him his grill. Mine did it from through time it was brand new, and it sounds like his has too. Cleaning the firebox makes no difference, the fans and auger are functioning normally, he has put a considerable amount of time into trying to track down the reason for the black smoke with no luck. In fact he has changed controllers and replaced the auger motor. He showed me some chicken he cooked recently and it had a really ugly dark grey / black color to it, which is something I remember as well - grey chicken, pork chops, even grey pizzas. We live at close to 4000' elevation and I'm convinced it's a combustion issue due to our thinner atmosphere. We've been considering running a switched jumper wire from an always-on power source to the fan wire and once the grill is up to temp and stabilized normally we would then turn the switch on so that the fan runs full time and the temp is controlled strictly by pellet feed like a Traeger. I'm not sure how well this would work, obviously it wouldn't hold within + or - 5 degrees like it does now, but if it maintained within 15 degrees up or down that would be as good as any Traeger and if the food was good it'd be a huge improvement anyway.

Anybody ever hear of this issue, or have any input?

We have another member who recently received a GMG as a gift and is experiencing the very same thing.

Check out this thread: http://www.pelletsmoking.com/my-name-is_______-i-am-pellet-smoker-6/new-pellets-question-7609/


Unfortunately, I've read several reports about this issue lately, and several unhappy customers. There are rumors that GMG is having issues with the Chinese made controllers. You and/or your friend should definitely contact GMG and get them involved in this.

I hope for your friend's sake that GMG gets this straightened out soon!

GMG pellets?


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Yes on his. Made no difference on mine.

Problem solved. Saturday he ran a switched jumper wire from the power source where the cord attaches to the control to the power supply wire to the fan from the control. With the fan running full time instead of cycling on/off the grill still held temps well within acceptable range, really not too much different than stock, and the burn was clean. Three pork tenderloins turned out a beautiful mahogany caramel color instead of blackish grey. He's a happy camper today so if anyone else has a problem with grey food on a GMG they should try this very simple mod.

The fan actually was switching off instead of cycling to a slower speed? The fan should be running all the time or it makes sense that it would burn sooty smoke. That has to be a controller issue.

Nope, that's how they are designed. I should know I used to sell them. The fans are not variable speed. Rather, they run full time when below target temp, then once they hit target the auger shuts off and the fan pulses on and off rapidly. If the temp climbs more than 5 degrees above target the fan pulses slowly. I agree it is a recipe for soot but that's how they work.

Mmmmm said:

Problem solved. Saturday he ran a switched jumper wire from the power source where the cord attaches to the control to the power supply wire to the fan from the control. With the fan running full time instead of cycling on/off the grill still held temps well within acceptable range, really not too much different than stock, and the burn was clean. Three pork tenderloins turned out a beautiful mahogany caramel color instead of blackish grey. He's a happy camper today so if anyone else has a problem with grey food on a GMG they should try this very simple mod.

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Hello - I too am experiencing soot on foods - is it possible for you to supply a diagram of the modded wiring, I like the path you are on to solve this problem. As long as it does not damage the DB why not make it operate like a Traeger. My wife is pretty unhappy with this issue as our Traeger Jr does not have this problem and the fan runs full time.

I know many people that love their GMG .....Actually we are going to be selling the little Davy Crockett anytime now. I have evaluated it and think it is the best portable option out there. My good friend Sterling Smith of Loot n Booty cooks his chicken on a davy crockett in competition and has several 180 perfect scores including a perfect score at the American Royal.

Ok I just corresponded with Jason who is one of the owners of GMG. It is 5:48 in the morning and he is working. He will be signing on later to give a full explanation.

The black smoke issue was a first generation on the Davy Crockett only. I has been addressed and fixed.

There are so many great things about public forums but one of the negatives that I know from my guitar business is the customers going first to a forum and sometimes never to the companies customer service...then urban legends get started and what is usually a simple problem turns into something very bad and hard to fix. We have had two members complain about black soot and so now it is out there as a problem with the entire product line and brand. We have even suggested that there pellets may be the culprit.

It is very hard to bring a product to the market...especially one sourced continents away. The best laid r and d and product testing just is never the same as getting them out there in the field. The measure of a good company is if they address the issue, fix it and take care of the customer. I believe that GMG has done the first two and will do the third provided they are contacted.

The risk and reward is that there is a really nifty little portable pellet cooker out there that runs on three power sources and gets hot and has wifi,

Big Poppa said:

Ok I just corresponded with Jason who is one of the owners of GMG. It is 5:48 in the morning and he is working. He will be signing on later to give a full explanation.

The black smoke issue was a first generation on the Davy Crockett only. I has been addressed and fixed.

There are so many great things about public forums but one of the negatives that I know from my guitar business is the customers going first to a forum and sometimes never to the companies customer service...then urban legends get started and what is usually a simple problem turns into something very bad and hard to fix. We have had two members complain about black soot and so now it is out there as a problem with the entire product line and brand. We have even suggested that there pellets may be the culprit.

It is very hard to bring a product to the market...especially one sourced continents away. The best laid r and d and product testing just is never the same as getting them out there in the field. The measure of a good company is if they address the issue, fix it and take care of the customer. I believe that GMG has done the first two and will do the third provided they are contacted.

The risk and reward is that there is a really nifty little portable pellet cooker out there that runs on three power sources and gets hot and has wifi,

Click to expand...

I'm not sure where you got it that we are suddenly tagging the entire GMG line as having sooting issues. I for one would've never said such a thing as I have owned models that worked perfectly. However, it is a fact that can't be denied that there has been a few that had sooting problems and there is no sense in pretending otherwise. Also, Jason is incorrect in saying it is only first generation Davey Crockett models. My experience predates the Davey Crockett model. I am a former dealer of GMG and I can tell you that most everyone was happy with their products, and this one and an old early model Daniel Boone that I owned personally are the only two I ever saw that had this issue. Both are from the startup days when we were dealing directly with David Baker, the owner of the company, and he was always great to deal with. I never did deal with Jason in those days but my buddy, who is the one referred to in the OP of this thread, had a good experience with Jason. They eventually ended up replacing the entire system front to back, including auger motor and control panel, and the soot issue is 100% resolved. I'm not sure if they replaced the fan motors or not but I don't think so.

The fan circuit modification didn't work. It ran clean at medium and high temps but at lower temps it would blow itself out.

As a potential purchaser of a new GMG DB, it's good to hear it was older models with the issue. Hopefully a new model will not have these issues!

Mmmmm said:

I'm not sure where you got it that we are suddenly tagging the entire GMG line as having sooting issues. I for one would've never said such a thing as I have owned models that worked perfectly. However, it is a fact that can't be denied that there has been a few that had sooting problems and there is no sense in pretending otherwise. Also, Jason is incorrect in saying it is only first generation Davey Crockett models. My experience predates the Davey Crockett model. I am a former dealer of GMG and I can tell you that most everyone was happy with their products, and this one and an old early model Daniel Boone that I owned personally are the only two I ever saw that had this issue. Both are from the startup days when we were dealing directly with David Baker, the owner of the company, and he was always great to deal with. I never did deal with Jason in those days but my buddy, who is the one referred to in the OP of this thread, had a good experience with Jason. They eventually ended up replacing the entire system front to back, including auger motor and control panel, and the soot issue is 100% resolved. I'm not sure if they replaced the fan motors or not but I don't think so.

The fan circuit modification didn't work. It ran clean at medium and high temps but at lower temps it would blow itself out.

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Hi all,

I misunderstood which model we were discussing. The first generation DC had a redesign on this issue in the first month of production. Anything made in 2014 has been resolved on that DC issue. As for the DB, black smoke is a incomplete combustion issue. We find that one of three things is happening. #1- The seal/gasket between the combustion fan assembly has worn and air is escaping. RTV around this area will solve this issue. If the chimney is lowered too much, this can also create incomplete combustion. Raising the chimney or even cleaning the chimney can solve this issue. In addition, both fans are wired together (hopper and combustion fan). If one is not spinning at the same RPM, this can cause incomplete combustion. One of the fans could be on its last leg. The fans are variable speed. Finally, if any of these solutions do not fix the issue, the computer could have a relay not working properly. We would replace the control board through tech support within the warranty period. Feel free to PM me with any questions.

Best
Jason

Pellet Griller 1 said:

Hi all,

I misunderstood which model we were discussing. The first generation DC had a redesign on this issue in the first month of production. Anything made in 2014 has been resolved on that DC issue. As for the DB, black smoke is a incomplete combustion issue. We find that one of three things is happening. #1- The seal/gasket between the combustion fan assembly has worn and air is escaping. RTV around this area will solve this issue. If the chimney is lowered too much, this can also create incomplete combustion. Raising the chimney or even cleaning the chimney can solve this issue. In addition, both fans are wired together (hopper and combustion fan). If one is not spinning at the same RPM, this can cause incomplete combustion. One of the fans could be on its last leg. The fans are variable speed. Finally, if any of these solutions do not fix the issue, the computer could have a relay not working properly. We would replace the control board through tech support within the warranty period. Feel free to PM me with any questions.

Best
Jason

Click to expand...

Extremely good info!

Thanks, Jason, for clearing this up.

Mmmmm said:

I'm not sure where you got it that we are suddenly tagging the entire GMG line as having sooting issues. I for one would've never said such a thing as I have owned models that worked perfectly. However, it is a fact that can't be denied that there has been a few that had sooting problems and there is no sense in pretending otherwise. Also, Jason is incorrect in saying it is only first generation Davey Crockett models. My experience predates the Davey Crockett model. I am a former dealer of GMG and I can tell you that most everyone was happy with their products, and this one and an old early model Daniel Boone that I owned personally are the only two I ever saw that had this issue. Both are from the startup days when we were dealing directly with David Baker, the owner of the company, and he was always great to deal with. I never did deal with Jason in those days but my buddy, who is the one referred to in the OP of this thread, had a good experience with Jason. They eventually ended up replacing the entire system front to back, including auger motor and control panel, and the soot issue is 100% resolved. I'm not sure if they replaced the fan motors or not but I don't think so.

The fan circuit modification didn't work. It ran clean at medium and high temps but at lower temps it would blow itself out.

Click to expand...

MMMM Who said that I said it was you...actually it was others....You are a pellet grill dealer and posting here about a company you used to sell? hmmmm.

Hmmm all you want, it's a fact, but I sold all my inventory of both Traeger and GMG in 2011 so I am not a dealer any longer. David Baker knows me by my first name and can verify directly if we need to get down to brass tacks via PM. Not that it matters, his stand-up company made things right and I'd encourage anyone who was considering purchasing their products to do so without reservation.

great. what pellet cooker are you smokin on thats the most important thing!

Big Poppa said:

great. what pellet cooker are you smokin on thats the most important thing!

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In all honesty, I own my first original Traeger that I first got for demos when I became a dealer. I sold my GMG because I had no need of two pellet grills anymore and the GMG I was using was one that I had sold that had caught fire (due to user error which they wouldn't admit) and David sent me a brand new one to replace it with and told me to keep the burned one and he would give me the parts to fix it. I did and all it needed was a control panel and the rest was smoke damage that just wiped off so when it came time to get rid of one I sold the GMG because it was in a lot nicer shape (read "worth more") than my Traeger, so I sold it to a friend who still uses it. However I have switched 100% to charcoal so my wife is the only one that uses it. I'm actually a regular customer of yours, I make UDS' to sell and I like your vents.

great..........