Skip to main content

Hey guys, I have an FEC 120, love the smoker!!!! I smoked some pork roast for a wedding last weekend and put the meat on at 9:30 pm as usual and everything worked normal till I happened to get up around 2:00 am and checked the smoker. Good thing I did as the smoker was running but it looked like the pellets had “backed up” on the chute and caused a dam. This dam was making the pellets fall off the side of the chute and not go into the pot. I had about 4 inches of pellets on the bottom of my fire box. I vacuumed the box and the chute, re-started the smoker and it did it again around 6:00 am. I vacuumed it again, this time it did fine. Any ideas on what I can do. I really do not like babysitting the smoker all night long… Thanks for your help. Steve Payne
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

I've had the mysterious "pellet dam" happen over the years, maybe 2 or 3 times in 10 years.

"Something" causes the fire to go cold/out and then the pellets back up and snuff it out basically. It's all about air flow. Like you when I clean and restart everything works fine.

If it repeats, it's usually a bad fan (not working) so there is no airflow through the firepot.

I would still call Tony/Bill just to follow-up and maybe they have a list of what to check.
I've had the 'dam' happen to me a couple times in the first year or so I had my FEC-120. I haven't had it happen for the last couple years and I hope I discovered the culprit.

There's a flange created by the metal tube housing the auger where it enters the firebox area at the top of the chute. Ash builds up on top of that flange. If you don't think to vacuum the top of that flange (as I failed to do in the 'early' years of my FEC-120) I think the ash build up eventually falls down onto the chute and blocks pellets from making it to the pot while the igniter is providing 'fire'. By the time the weight of built up pellets break through the dam and get to the pot, the igniter is either no longer igniting, or the sudden, large rush of pellets dowses any flame. I vacuum that flange area consistently now and have not had a dam problem since. My two cents worth.

Add Reply

Post
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×