I bought my smoker in July and today I lit it up after being dormant for 3 weeks (been on a diet that I'm still on but I'm trying whole chickens now instead of beef or pork). It started by tripping the outlet after a minute or so of use and then started tripping various breakers the outlets I tried it on were hooked to. Finally, I got it to stay on after running it to various spots in the house (trial and error.)
3 hours in, the fire went out and it never lit up again. It's trying to light the fire as I can hear the blower going and feel the air moving in the unit. The pellets are even dropping down the chute but the heating area is cold as can be. I dug out the ash (it was clean when I started it up today by the way) and found hardened chunks of what looked like coal in the burner area. It was full of wood too since it was feeding a non-existent flame.
I cleaned it out completely again, replugged everything in, and tried about 5 times (unplugging each time.) Every time it started up the fan and auger, and fed pellets down to the fire pit but it never lit up. I've read that the heating elements can go out on these things so I will be calling customer service tomorrow morning. I am a bit disappointed that it has this kind of a problem after only owning it for 2 months. I'm hoping the customer service lives up to its name tomorrow and rectifies the problem.
I'll post what I find out or have to go through tomorrow when I get in touch with them. I will say that I've absolutely enjoyed the unit to date and have cooked in it over a dozen times since buying it without a single problem. The only "problems" I've had with the unit are that the exhaust pipe was slightly dented (I guess from moving) and the power cord under the electronics console is not sealed to the bottom of the unit (the little silver ring that screws in was dangling under the control box.) Hopefully my problem can and will be fixed rather quickly. Wish me luck!
Thanks,
Gamer Outfit
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