Fire in the Pot

[RonB]

Good morning fellow MAK users. I'm relatively a new user, loving my MAK General.
Have been using now for about 4 months and have recently started getting an issue every time I start the unit up.

Right now when I start my unit up, it gets up to the smoke temp level, temperature goes higher than it should, I get a fire in the fire pot, warning goes off. Has done it the last 4-5 times I've started it up. The fire goes out after a short period but the temp. goes up to about 240 deg/F, goes out and then drops back down to the proper temp for smoking.

I've made sure the fire pot is clean before every new use so I don't have a build up of old ash or old pellets.

Suggestions or idea's as to what's going on here. Didn't do this during my early uses of my MAK unit.

Thanks Gang.
RonB

 

[TentHunter]

The only thing I can think of is if the temp sensor is dirty, it may not be sensing the temp properly and over feeding pellets into the firepot.

Even if that's the case, I suggest calling MAK on this! They can go over the error code, etc. and will get you straight in no time.

If Big Poppa was your dealer, then they're a good resource as well.

 

[KyNola]

I'm confused by your statement "I get a fire in the firepot". Can you elaborate on that please, describe what you mean by a fire in the firepot? Also, after "the fire goes out" and the temp drops back down to your setpoint does the MAK function properly afterwards?

Like Cliff, I would encourage you to thoroughly clean your thermocouple with one of those green Scotch Brite scrubbing pads and also contact the good folks at MAK.

 

[RonB]

I get a alarm and it says "Fire in Pot" or something to that effect.
I pulled out the heat diffuser, and instead of the pellets smoking, they were burning and on fire, hence the increased temperature I'm sure. Also, yes once the fire goes out, it does go back to normal operation and works just fine. It only does it during the start up phase. Hasn't done it after its been operational for a while.

I did go back and clean the temp probe after cooking session. Going to go back and give the grill a good overall cleaning anyways. Let you know what happens on the next cooking go around.

Thanks for the assistance.

I'm confused by your statement "I get a fire in the firepot". Can you elaborate on that please, describe what you mean by a fire in the firepot? Also, after "the fire goes out" and the temp drops back down to your setpoint does the MAK function properly afterwards?

Like Cliff, I would encourage you to thoroughly clean your thermocouple with one of those green Scotch Brite scrubbing pads and also contact the good folks at MAK.

 

[RonB]

Thx TentHunter. I'm going to give it a good cleaning this week and will be cooking again this coming weekend.
appreciate the input.

 

[Big Poppa]

if you bought it from us give us a call 877 828 0727 we will hook you up with mak

 

[RonB]

Will do. Thx so much. I'll try to give you a call tomorrow.

 

[Big Poppa]

thanks Ron

 

[MAK DADDY]

The newer versions of the Pellet Boss have a "fire alarm" feature. The idea is to have the grill let you know if there is a flare up on your grease pan when grilling. If the grill climbs beyond 100 degrees from the set point it will sound the alarm and flash the display. It doesn't change the control or operation and any button will dismiss the alarm.
Example: Set for 400 to grill steaks and one of the super fatty steaks has a flare up, the grill will detect the higher temp once past 500 and trigger the alarm notifying you.

My guess is your TC has become a little dirty over time causing the grill to take longer to ignite and adding more pellets than usual. This causes the grill to climb 100 degrees or so past smoke setting triggering the alarm before falling back down into range.

If you have anymore issue contact us at [email protected].