New to pellets with a question

D

dbleyepatches

New member
I recently received a GMG as a gift. I have been smoking out of a home made charcoal smoker for about 10 years. Pellet smokers are brand new to me and today is the second time I have used it. Both times the poultry has been completely covered in soot. Is there a way around this? The first time I put the turkey in as it was heating up which I thought was my problem. Today I let the smoker stabilize at 325 degrees and the chickens had been sitting out for an hour and a half or so. :confused:
 
D

dbleyepatches

New member
Here is a pic of the ugly bird.

unnamed1-3.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]
 
TentHunter

TentHunter

Moderator
Tatonka3A2 said:
Can you post a pic of the grill and then the inside cooking chamber? This seems really odd?
Click to expand...

I agree something is not right. You should not be getting soot like that.

Some things I'd check:

Is the fan running properly, nothing obstructing airflow, and the firepot clean so air can get in properly?


What type of pellets are you using?


And last but not least...

Welcome to the forum, Daniel!
 
D

dbleyepatches

New member
I will get some pictures up a little later today, my phone is dead right now. I am wondering if the new "optional draft shields" that Green Mountain just started putting on their grills are to blame. They cover the firebox on both sides. The grill was completely cleaned and vacuumed out before this cook. I was using Green Mountains premium pellets so hopefully that isn't the problem. More to follow....
 
D

dbleyepatches

New member
Alright, here are the pictures of the new grill. This is a pic of the grill itself.



Here is the grease tray with the cooking grates removed.



This is after the grease tray is removed. This includes the mandatory heat shield and the optional side shields.



Here is the grill with the mandatory heat shield.



..and last but not least here is the fire box with everything removed (sorry it posted sideways).



With all of that said, Green Mountain has been terrible to work with. The blower motor/fan assembly on the grill was defective from the factory. My local dealer didn't have the parts but the manager took the motor out of his personal grill to get me going (hell of a nice guy) even though it was bought for me as a gift from another dealer. Green Mountain has given me the runaround and 9 days after they said that they were sending the parts "right away"......... I have seen nothing and keep getting blown off when I call.

When I took the grease pan and the heat shields out, the bottom side of all of them were covered in fine soot. I think I am going to try taking the optional shields off and see if the added airflow helps. Any other suggestions are appreciated. I guess I expected pellet smokers to be a little easier than the old charcoal method!
 
Last edited:
Diverreb

Diverreb

New member
Were there any oils on the parts, sometimes used in the Manufacturing process in stamping parts out, that weren't removed, cleaned or burnt off with a long curing burn? To me that's what that soot looks like it may be from.... No clean Pellet Smoker does that with normal pellets... The other thing to try is a different brand of Pellets, just to see if the batch you got was bad.

Richie
 
TentHunter

TentHunter

Moderator
dbleyepatches said:
I guess I expected pellet smokers to be a little easier than the old charcoal method!
Click to expand...

You guessed correctly. this SHOULD be easier than a charcoal burner, and a heck of a lot cleaner cooking. It sucks that GMG isn't taking care of you better. This doesn't bode well for their customer service.


Soot, like you're experiencing, is indicative of a dirty burn from not enough air. Does the borrowed fan assembly seem to be working properly? It should be blowing plenty of air.


Also double check the chute/channel where the air flows into the firepot to be absolutely sure that packing material or something didn't fall or get jammed in there somehow.

Keep us posted on your progress, and hang in there.
 
D

dbleyepatches

New member
Today we received our replacement blower (only took 10 days) and got that installed. When installing the new fan assembly we checked the air box and everything seemed normal and there wasn't anything in there that shouldn't be. We cleaned all of the soot off of the inside of the grill and fired it up to 325 for about 1/2 an hour. I did leave the new draft shields off this time. After shutting it down and letting it cool, there was no soot to be found. This was done with the same GMG premium pellets.

My dad and brother also got one of these at the same time. They both have had some soot problems. My dad had one potato get covered in soot and the rest of the food was fine. My brother had one cook where shepherds pie was "all sooted up" but all of his other cooks have been fine. This is strange to me but all of us had the new draft shields installed. My dads old traeger has burned just about any kind of cooking grade pellet out there and has never done this. Hopefully we can get this figured out.

Oh, and as for the oil on the parts, I ran the grill for an hour at 375 prior to the first cook. Then made turkey and chicken. The pictures from above are from the third cook. Wouldn't think that the oil could hold on that long but, at this point, who knows....
 
D

dbleyepatches

New member
Well I thought I was onto something but the "Soot Monster" has returned. I bought a different bag of pellets, removed the optional draft shields, preheated the grill to 350 degrees and let it rest for 20 minutes before putting the chickens on, let the chickens sit out for 2 hours, put the chickens on and waited an hour to add the potatoes in a cast iron pan. Everything is covered in soot!! The dealer we purchased the grills from is involved and sounds sincere about fixing the problem. On the verge of giving up and going back to charcoal!

 
TentHunter

TentHunter

Moderator
One more question, which may seem silly or obvious, but I'll ask anyway. Have you done a high temp seasoning (or burn-in) at around 450° - 500° for at least a half hour?
 
D

dbleyepatches

New member
TentHunter said:
One more question, which may seem silly or obvious, but I'll ask anyway. Have you done a high temp seasoning (or burn-in) at around 450° - 500° for at least a half hour?
Click to expand...

There is nothing silly or obvious given my pellet grill experience! I did a 30 minute burn in at 350 degrees which is what the GMG manual said to do. I did cook a few burgers at 425 the other night but it was only for about 20 minutes. Maybe that wasn't hot enough?
 
TentHunter

TentHunter

Moderator
You've ruled out pellets, so that's good.

I would go ahead and do a thorough wipe down inside the grill, and do a 450° burn-in for at least 30 minutes. With the issues you've had, I'd go for an hour - just to be sure.

That temperature for an hour should burn off any possible oil in the grill or parts. Then I'd let the grill cool, wipe it down again, and try another sacrificial chicken, or tray of sliced potatoes.

Like Chili said, I sure hope you get this figured out. Hang in there.
 
D

dbleyepatches

New member
Today I was contacted by one of the head guys at GMG. He said that once in a while they have a board/fan combination that causes the fan to run just a little too slow which causes the soot. We are getting new boards for all three of the grills and we will go from there. I will keep you posted so we can all spread the word. I will definitely do the burn in when the new board arrives. Thanks for all of the brain power, I appreciate it.
 
scooter

scooter

Moderator
patches, something you said has me curious,

preheated the grill to 350 degrees and let it rest for 20 minutes before putting the chickens on,
Click to expand...

What do you mean you let your grill "rest"?
 
D

dbleyepatches

New member
scooter said:
patches, something you said has me curious,



What do you mean you let your grill "rest"?
Click to expand...

Sorry, that was a little confusing. I left the grill set at 350 degrees for 20 minutes after it had reached that temperature. I just wanted to rule out that it was burning a large amount of pellets to get heated up and then by cutting way back it would cause the soot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom