ash on meat?

Don't mean this to be a smug or silly question but you are using the drip pan, right?

I've never seen ash on food, only some in the bottom of the FEC cabinet.

Yea, I have only seen minimal ash that makes it higher up in the FEC100. How fine is it? I get some really fine ash that makes it up there but I also get fine ash in my BGE's. I use my FEC only for competitions and I have never had an issue with ash on the food.

When you opened the dorr during the cook, did you notice anything flying around inside the cooker.

What temp were you cooking??

I have had mine for several years and have gone through nealry 2000lb of pellets and have not noticed this.

RandyE

Seems like when we all got the first of the new IQ4 s,there was a little conversation about the change in fans,or not keeping the pots clean,etc could maybe cause a little more ash on the floor?

Like Randy,we used all of them on the comp trail and never noticed.

We typically ran them about 24 hrs,also.

At home,I run larger loads,longer cook days,but other than maybe a little on the floor,never paid any attention.

I guess door openings could be a thought,but we get pretty good breeze here by the ocean.

Thanks, guys, for the ideas. It could be from opening the door quickly I suppose; from now on I'm gonna try opening slowing so there is no "whoosh" of air.

It's a really fine coating of ash, but definitely ash. Up to about the 3rd rack down. The cook was a 14 hr brisket cook @ 160 to 250. (My 1st cook with the FEC 100, and very successful). However, I did do some chicken after that and now I can't remember if I noticed the ash only after the chicken, or before the chicken. For the chicken I kicked it up to 375, and maybe that extra fire plus of course I had not cleaned the ash out after the 14 hr brisket cook yet, so there was plenty of ash on the floor of the box. So it may be a combination of all 3 factors.

Again, I didn't notice it when devouring the food, so it may not be a problem. Anyway hardwood ash is good fiber for the diet, right?

I'll see if I get it again this weekend. Memorial Day = bbq-ing marathon. Cheers.

My brother was having the same problem with his FEC100 and called CS Support a few days ago. He's been using a 90 degree elbow with a straight pipe (3-4') attached to the elbow for exhaust. Tech Support informed him that his exhaust pipe set up was impacting the air flow in his cabinet and possibly resulting in the ash getting blown around inside the cook chamber. He'll be running his FEC this weekend to test this theory, removing all but the 90 degree elbow. He was also told that using pellets that have gotten wet will cause the same problem. I'll let you know what he finds out after the weekend.

Go with a different pellet. I'd almost bet you're using traeger pellets, they're HORRIBLE for ash.

dixie,

I think you just stated the answer.

1, You didn't clean out the fire pot after a long cook. There will be a fair amount of ash left from the long burn.

2, Then you went to a cook with high temps. The unit will feed alot of pellets and air into the fire pot to crank up the temp. The pot will look like a litle blow tourch when it is trying to crank up the temp. And the air would have also blown arond the ash from the previous cook. the air to fuel the fire will come into the pot with some force and stir up the ash.


I think you answered your own question. I just take my hand while it is cool and scoop out all the ash I can, or use a vac.

Puting 4 butts on at 10:00pm for a birthday party, myself.

RandyE