OK, I'll make it quick. In a bit of a dilemma here as my Daniel Boone GMG had a little fire this weekend. Long story short, due to the high heat we have been having (107 yesterday) I have found it tough to keep the smoker down at 150 for holding and keep the auger moving to prevent the very thing that happened. It idled at 150 for about two hours (do not know if auger was turning as I was prepping inside), I looked out and noticed white smoke, a little every now then is one thing but this was very pronounced and it was beginning to come from the hopper as well. So I immediately went out to check it and could we had a big problem. The fire had worked back into the auger then to the hopper. I immediately shut it off, unplugged it, and began scooping out pellets when a little flame shot up through the hopper. At this I point I just grabbed the hose and doused the inside of the hopper to get the flames down and extinguish it. After doing this cleaned out the hopper (the pellets at the bottom of the hopper were black), stripped out the guts to see what was happening in the firebox and clean it out. Basically the fire had somehow worked back into the auger. The combustion fan had no blades as it was melted away. After plugging back in and repeatedly going through the prime process to clean out the auger I discovered that about half the auger was full of pellets that had already cooked with the other and hopper right behind. I digress...so I ordered a new combustion fan today to see if the unit will still work successfully.
Now my dilemma. I have a BBQ catering biz that is starting to take off and have multiple parties booked from the 12th of July on, but a hesitance to drag this smoker out with due to this apparent design issue. I cannot afford to be down waiting on combustion fans or other parts and really don't want to purchase multiple quantities of parts just to have on hand in case this happens again(never happened in well over a thousand smoke sessions to date with a pellet smoker). Time is short for me and I am attempting to wade through the morass of info out to try and hit the mark on a smoker. So here is what I am attempting to fulfill in a smoker.
Pellet ( yes i do love to stick burn, but for catering pellet is money)
Budget is about $1500 max give or take. (looking at Yoder YS640)
Need it here by the 10th at the latest. (probably have to ship it as the only dealers I am finding in NorCal are GMG and Traeger.
Needs to be able to take a pounding. Have my doubts about GMG holding up for more than a year.
Capacity needs to be good as I typically cater to about 30 max now with the GMG DB at 480 Sq. In, but will upgrade to 640 no problem, then can tackle about 50 people.
I really like what I have seen in the Yoder especially with the upper rack, the extra capacity can take me to probably 70 or so people. Depending upon what I cook.
Finally, safety! While all smokers regardless of type have their flaws and can be dangerous I am very hesitant to spend good money on an auger system that can so easily work back to box.
I appreciate the feedback and realize the opinions will be diverse, but at the moment I am on short time and needing to make a buying decision ASAP.
Thanks for taking the time to read this quick
post.
Now my dilemma. I have a BBQ catering biz that is starting to take off and have multiple parties booked from the 12th of July on, but a hesitance to drag this smoker out with due to this apparent design issue. I cannot afford to be down waiting on combustion fans or other parts and really don't want to purchase multiple quantities of parts just to have on hand in case this happens again(never happened in well over a thousand smoke sessions to date with a pellet smoker). Time is short for me and I am attempting to wade through the morass of info out to try and hit the mark on a smoker. So here is what I am attempting to fulfill in a smoker.
Pellet ( yes i do love to stick burn, but for catering pellet is money)
Budget is about $1500 max give or take. (looking at Yoder YS640)
Need it here by the 10th at the latest. (probably have to ship it as the only dealers I am finding in NorCal are GMG and Traeger.
Needs to be able to take a pounding. Have my doubts about GMG holding up for more than a year.
Capacity needs to be good as I typically cater to about 30 max now with the GMG DB at 480 Sq. In, but will upgrade to 640 no problem, then can tackle about 50 people.
I really like what I have seen in the Yoder especially with the upper rack, the extra capacity can take me to probably 70 or so people. Depending upon what I cook.
Finally, safety! While all smokers regardless of type have their flaws and can be dangerous I am very hesitant to spend good money on an auger system that can so easily work back to box.
I appreciate the feedback and realize the opinions will be diverse, but at the moment I am on short time and needing to make a buying decision ASAP.
Thanks for taking the time to read this quick
post.
