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Yes, Yes, it's my fault. I had one rack of brined Chicken in cruising along at 200 to get a little smoke. I boosted the temp to 400 and to get it going a little faster, I stoked it with a few pellets. It hit 340, and I stoked it again. I really had a lot of juice falling off the chicken, onto the grease slide. It was mostly brine, but it caught. Luckily, I noticed a whole lot of smoke coming out right before it shut itself down (I'm guessing it hit the rev limiter)., I took some old towels and shoved them in the smokestack and the fire went out. I opened the door and the inside of the door was warped and the bottom gasket melted. Luckily, when it cooled, the door went back to it's original shape so I'm just left with trying to get a gasket for it, which I know cook shack sells. I pulled up all the tinfoil and I think she'll be good to go for next smoke, once I find the reset button.

By the way, that's one tough machine!!! The chicken was even good. Two of the pieces didn't make the internal temp, so I had to throw them in the wife's oven. I love retirement
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My one and only FEC fire was also chicken related and resulted in damaged seals. Cookshack sells them and they're very easy to install.

The easiest access for the reset button...remove the screws at the top of your control board housing. The bottom is hinged, allowing the top to fall back a few inches. You'll see the button once you have access.
Bill,
Are you sure it was grease on the slide that caught fire? You may have smothered the fire pot between the bump in temp & extra pellets you threw in by hand. If the pot fills with pellets and then catches on fire it's impressive (just ask anyone who had a cast iron pot). I bump in small increments & watch like a hawk.
Joe M
When I had mine, I was taking a nap so it was out before I even knew I'd had one. I think I had 30-40 lbs of leg quarters on two shelves and grease was missing the grease slide and running down the sides of the smoker. It burned out the bottom seal.

I had four sets of seals in reserve, but I went ahead a cooked on it for another four or five months before I bothered to replace it.
The water pan should help reduce the chance of fire especially with chicken (high heat/high fat). Another trick if you want to increase the temp fast is to reset the control panel instead of just bumping the temp control up. Doing this will reheat the hot rod so the pellet dump that occurs doesn't snuff out the fire.
I know this is an old thread but, in the fall at the World Food Championship Eddy told me the best way to cut down on grease fires (other then keeping the cooker clean) is to have the cooker tilt a little from back to front.

This makes sure that the trough drains. I keep a piece of clapboard (home wood siding) under the rear casters. seems to work but the cleanliness is most important

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