What went wrong????

R

Russ203

New member
Need to know what caused this problem. I fired up my MAK 2 star with the flame zone covered and was roasting a chicken . Setpoint at 325 and after an hour chicken was cooking a little too fast so I drop temp down to 295. A half hour later yellowish/white smoke began to billow out of the 2 Star. When I opened the cover flames could be seen. I shut the unit down and took the internal parts out of the grill. I found the fire box to be over flowing with pellets . What will cause the fire box to over flow?
The grill had been completely cleaned two weeks ago so there was not much ash except for the pile of pellets that were half burned.
I let grill cool down and cleaned it again and started it up and let it heat to 350 with no problem.
 
Pappymn

Pappymn

New member
Yikes. Hopefully Mak Daddy will weigh in. I have not had that happen. Had my first and hopefully last grease fire a couple of weeks ago. My fault for not cleaning on a regular basis.
 
Big Poppa

Big Poppa

Administrator
the pellet hopper was full of ash with the restricted air the pellet boss keeps feeding it pellets to get to the set temp...YOu have to make sure your fire pot is clean and the vent holes are clear....how many times did you cook in the last two weeks and are you sure it was two weeks ago...Im not being mean but this is the cause 98% of the time.
 
R

Russ203

New member
I used grill six to eight times in last two weeks for probably a total of 12 hours burn time. Now you have me thinking I must have missed emptying the fire pot, thank you for your replies and advice. I will make sure this does not happen again.
 
Big Poppa

Big Poppa

Administrator
Yeah and I dont mean to be rude...it is just usually the story when we hear this happen...keep on smokin!
 
smokenovice

smokenovice

New member
Russ203 said:
I used grill six to eight times in last two weeks for probably a total of 12 hours burn time. Now you have me thinking I must have missed emptying the fire pot, thank you for your replies and advice. I will make sure this does not happen again.
Click to expand...

With such infrequent usage, it seems you may have had an over abundance of ashes produced over those 12 hours, not so much you didn't clean your hot pot. Normally, I was able to burn through 60 - 80 lbs. of pellets before having those problems. When you get excessive ashes levels in the hot pot, the PB continuously tries to re-ignite while dumping more pellets in the hot pot (aka flame out). Those excessive ashes levels completely covers the hot rod that is trying to ignite those pellets.

I recently encountered a similar problem when I switched to a different brand of pellets than my norm. Those particular brand of pellets produced those excessive ashes levels in a very short time (9 hours, 7 lbs. of pellets used after starting from a clean hot pot while doing a full packer brisket). I was informed by the manufacturer's rep. their pellet formulation used the entire round log without debarking any of it to produce those pellets. They even went one step further, on some of their other 100% hardwood varieties by adding additional bark for more flavor. The rep. said, it's unlikely their company will change their production procedures; since, it only affects the intolerance of some pellet grills.

Bark will produce a significant amount and heavier ashes that the BP's variable fan is unable to blow out efficiently. Bob Tucker, MAK Grill recommendation was to switch brands of pellets, if you recently switched brands causing this type of issue. My personal recommendation is to use maufacturers who debark heartwood for their sourcewood. It's understandable that some bark may still get in on hardwood varieties having smaller round wood (ie. apple, mesquite); but, this would minimize your chances of a flame out or roaring fire if those pellets eventually caught on fire. After all, we are not stick burners and bought pellet grills with the benefit of burning clean wood IMO.

FYI, I went back to my previous pellets and have had no problems since. My MAK2 #700 tolerates Bear Mountains, BBQr Delight, and CookinPellets without any excessive ashe levels.
 
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muebe

muebe

New member
This is why I clean my Memphis pellet chamber after every cook. The genie tool makes it a 2 second job to move the ash out of the pellet chamber.

Cleaning the pellet chamber at least after every other cook is a must for all pellet grills IMHO.
 
TentHunter

TentHunter

Moderator
Echoing what BP & Muebe said, we clean the firepot before every cook. We just made it part of our normal start-up procedure, and takes less than a minute.

This seems to prevent a lot of issues. I also believe it will extend the life of your hot rod.
 
H

HoDeDo

New member
OK, here is what I think it was... The Key here is that he dropped the temp on the controller....

When he changed the set temp from 350/325 down to 295... the cooker will feed less pellets as it drops down to the new lower set temp.
I believe that it burnt through what was there, so when the next few dropped, what was left in the pot was hot ash vs. a hot pellet base.
It would feed pellets for a while, they smoulder, but while it feeds more it keeps them from igniting fully... and now you have a pot full of unburnt pellets with the ones at the bottom smouldering. The hot rod can try to reignite them, but there is just too much mass to allow them to light. That provides that acrid yellowish smoke.
It happens in pits that are well insulated because you can get to a point where too few pellets are feeding, then once the temp finally gets below where you wanted it, and it triggers the re-ignition, you have too many pellets there to allow for that.

I usually try to bleed some heat off with the open pit, or spritz the probe with water to allow it to evaporate off and trick the pit into keeping feeding pellets if I do a 50 degree temp drop. Insulated/dbl walled pits just take longer to bring down. so it can happen.

I think if you are dropping the temp in the pit, you need to open it, and let it get closer to the temp you punch in. Or it might burn through it's reduced pellet load, as it is trying to lower the temp on it's own.
 
R

Russ203

New member
Thanks everyone, looks like I will be cleaning the fire box prior to start up and cooling the pit whenever I drop the temp on the BP. I will be staying with the same pellets I got when I ordered the unit from Big Poppa.
 
scooter

scooter

Moderator
Russ, in the 6-8 times you used the MAK in the last 2 weeks, when you shut it down each time did you let it go completely through the cool down phase or did you force quick shutdowns?
The cool down phase eliminates a lot of ash buildup in the firepot.
 
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