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Had a fire in my auger

FM Former Member
Not sure how this happened but it was near the end of a 14 hour brisket cook. I noticed the meat temperature begin to rise quickly so I went to check on it. The unit was shut down and the fire was almost out in the firebox. I noticed smoke coming out of the pellet hopper and a nasty burning smell so I quickly removed the pellets. It was very warm in the hopper but no signs of actual fire in the hopper but it was close to it.

I needed to reset the high temp switch to start it. Everything seems to be working fine. The auger was initially making a slight grinding noise at one spot in the cycle, but it worked quickly through it and may have been caused by ash. The nasty burn smell that was slightly present in the beginning is gone now.

Any thoughts on what may have happened? I thought the new design was supposed to prevent this from happening? I have an elbow and stack with a cap on it and there was only a slight breeze today. My unit is cleaned after every smoke including removing excess grease from the walls, washing everything removable, refoiling everything and vacuuming the firebox and wiping down the chute. No sign of pellets stuck on the chute. Unit had not been opened since the cook began.

I’ll be calling Cookshack in the AM but wanted to get a jump on what may have happened.
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FM Former Member
The fans are working properly. This was not just a case of smoke blowing into the hopper. There was a fire in the auger chamber and it got so hot it tripped the high temp switch.

There is also some damage on the wall and door by the auger and lower right inside corner of the door. Just some bubbling of the metal from it getting so hot. Not a big deal but aggrevating on a 7 month old unit.
Last edited by Former Member
FM Former Member
If you had to reset the high temp switch, then obviously you had a fire or really high temp. Such a high temp could possible catch the pellets that are in the auger on fire if it got hot enough, but you sit need some airflow for those to burn.

A normal burn won't have the pellets in the auger on a ramp system catch fire. That's why the ramp system came into being.

The may "smolder" but without a steady airflow they won't really catch fire. But that only happens with a really, really high temp/fire like it sounds from your description.
FM Former Member
I spoke with Bill in tech support. He thinks and I tend to agree that the fire was created by a back draft that sent the flames into the auger. The smoker is in a new location and this was only my second cook in this location. Its a few feet from my garage wall (which it has always been), but now it's on the corner of the building and the air flow could get mixed up and create a swirling effect even though the breeze was light.

Cookshack recommends that the stack be a few inches taller than the highest point if it's within 10 feet of a wall. Not sure my neighbors would appreciate that so I may move it back to the previous location where I never had an issue in 25 or so cooks or remove the stack and just go with an elbow and cap ( I think there would be less opportunity for swirling in the current location if I didn't have the stack).

As Bill stated, "It's all about airflow with these units". I'm glad these units have a high temp breaker or the damage could have been much worse.

SJ
FM Former Member
Update

I spoke with Fast Eddy and if it's not the airflow issue it may be related to a pellet dump from a controller board. In this scenario, the board would malfunction continue to dump pellets and eventually the unit would get so hot that it would trip the switch. The high heat would cause the burn back in the auger.

The firepot didn't look over full or filled with un-burnt pellets when I opened it, but this may be due to the fact I didn't open it up for some time after the switch tripped.

Now I'm thinking this is most likely the culprit. There was simply not a big enough change in my location and with virtually no wind the first scenario seems unlikely.

The question is what caused it to keep cranking out pellets? Controller board or something else? Solution will be to monitor the internal smoker temp and see if it replicates itself again.
FM Former Member
Update 2

After further discussions with Bill (and Bill with Fast Eddy), CS is going to swap out my control unit. I feel much better about this solution as the thought of another overheat and the potential for it to cause a grease fire had me very concerned.

Fast Eddy, Bill, and the rest of the Cookshack team THANK YOU. You guys are top notch and your service is 2nd to none!

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