Mak one star exploded

Same problem more or less that any other consumer grade pellet cooker has when a flame out happens and the electronics are still feeding pellets into the firepot for an extended time and they don't burn.

Pot spills over with excess pellets, they accumulate everywhere on the sides of the pot until the grill owner comes back and performs a restart.

Grill ignitor gets hot, fans come on and whatever's in the pot starts burning and temps go back up. All the pellets that overflowed the pot start to smolder and produce volatile flammable gas that goes bang sooner or later.

This is why there is such a huge price difference in the electronic controllers on consumer grade pellet pits versus something like a Cookshack with a 2K price tag that senses temperature drops and automatically powers the igniter rod back on without user input until temps go back to where they need to be.

Saw a Pitboss go kaboom a few years back after a restart, that was one hell of a bang when the lid blew open.

I think Bob nailed it.

I find it interesting that the flame out occurred when you cranked the temp, That happened too me a couple weeks a go but I aborted the cook and finished on the weber, glad I did.

The pellet pooper farted?

I almost had that happen once. Anytime you restart you need to hang out and keep an eye on the cooker. Mine started billowing white smoke. I opened the lid and turned it off. Once it cleared I was able clean out the pot and started it properly.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Isn't a Mak supposed to be a higher end cooker?

Av8er said:

Well I don’t know what happened but it scared the hell out of me. I put two pork butts on my Mak this morning at 6:45 running on smoke for 2 hours then up to 290 for the remainder of the cook. I had a flame out at about 3 o’clock, I restarted it and about 20 minutes later I heard a loud bang and the lid flew up and back down. I open the smoker and flames were going everywhere so I closed the lid back to smother the fire with the smoke. I emptied the pellet hopper In case the flames went back through the auger. As of right now she is still smoldering. Any idea what could have caused this? I am glad I was home and around when it happened, it could’ve been bad. I had just cleaned it out real good this morning as well so that shouldn’t be an issue. I’m gonna be honest and say I’m kind a gun shy right now using it again especially whenever I’m away from the house or asleep as I’ve done in the past. Luckily I was able to salvage the butts but they are finishing up in the oven right now.

Click to expand...

Wow. I've heard of this happening with pellet smokers. That's scary.

Not to be the farker who adds....err...pellets...to the fire....but,

I had that happen with my Traeger. Also had flameouts due to pellet cavitation that empties the augers when pellets stuck to the sides. Had a blower fan short out. Had a controller board go bad. Had to cancel smokes when it rained or the electric went out.

Know what always works, every time? Charcoal and wood. Even more reliable than propane.

Part of the reason the (retired) tag is on that Traeger and you don’t see another pellet smoker.

I had a pellet explosion on my pit boss a couple hours into the cook and I didn’t even relight it. The fire went out and smoldered then had an explosion which I recorded on my iPhone. I have used it a couple times since then but won’t trust it unattended anymore so I won’t back to my WSM for most cooks.

I’m hoping Weber found a way to solve this problem with their new pellet grill.

Yeah....I’ll stick to charcoal

Av8er said:

Well I don’t know what happened but it scared the hell out of me. I put two pork butts on my Mak this morning at 6:45 running on smoke for 2 hours then up to 290 for the remainder of the cook. I had a flame out at about 3 o’clock, I restarted it and about 20 minutes later I heard a loud bang and the lid flew up and back down. I open the smoker and flames were going everywhere so I closed the lid back to smother the fire with the smoke. I emptied the pellet hopper In case the flames went back through the auger. As of right now she is still smoldering. Any idea what could have caused this? I am glad I was home and around when it happened, it could’ve been bad. I had just cleaned it out real good this morning as well so that shouldn’t be an issue. I’m gonna be honest and say I’m kind a gun shy right now using it again especially whenever I’m away from the house or asleep as I’ve done in the past. Luckily I was able to salvage the butts but they are finishing up in the oven right now.

Click to expand...

This is going to be a long post, but very helpful... Firstly, Flameouts can occur with any make and model of pellet grill as verified by the earlier posts, so it’s always wise to never take shortcuts in the proper operation and understanding of One’s pellet grill. 2. If possible, make sure Your Pellet Hopper is full of pellets and weighted to prevent the possibility of pellet cavitation and channeling within the hopper. 3. Excessive pellet dust from prior cooks within the pellet hopper can also cause the pellets to stick and channel, so always shop vac the pellet hopper when possible and inspect each new bag of pellets for excessive pellet dust. 4. Make sure the burn/fire pot is cleaned of ash from prior cooks. The buildup of ash can cause the burning pellets to smolder and flameout. 5. Keep and eye/ear out for low temp warnings... For the average pellet grill, temps below 150* F. degrees. If one does occur, safely look and check for any spilled and overflowing pellets within burn/fire pot and barrel of the cooking camber. If this has occurred, unplug your grill to prevent more pellets from being fed via the Auger and safely remove/extinguish any smoldering pellets... Safely... and also safely dump/remove any pellets from the pellet hopper to prevent the possibility of a burn back fire as well. 6. After the smoldering pellets have been safely removed, prime the Auger to remove any remaining pellets and completely clean out the burn/fire pot. 7. Inspect your grill for any possible damage and check to make sure the Auger and Auger Motor are working properly... Don’t just restart your grill and continue cooking... Give it a good inspection to insure everything is working properly. 8. Flameouts and possible explosions don’t have to happen and can be prevented if steps 1-4 are followed. If a flameout does occur, follow steps 5-7. I hope the info and tips help and good luck.

All of these posts have been very helpful, indeed. I had been on the fence about pellet cookers for a while now.

/takes pencil and draws a question mark beside "would really like a pellet grill" on my list "types of cookers" I'd love to own.

I am a big fan of "simple" and "easy". The ability to dump in some pellets, set a temp like on an oven and turn out some good product is very appealing. I am also a big fan of my keeping my eyebrows. Explosions (even if small) are something for me to avoid.

I have several drum smokers and a vertical direct wood fired cabinet. About the only things that can go sideways on them are: The fire gets too hot or the fire gets too cool. Neither make 'em go "Boom".

I will ponder on it some more.

I've got a Mak 1-star and also a GMG Davy Crockett. I've also had several Traegers in past years. My practice is to vacuum the fire pot and inside of the cooker after each cook. I can tell you that my Mak will leave a lot less ash in the fire pot than my Davy Crockett on similar cooks (time & temp & pellets). Like a piece of meat, each pellet grill is different and the brand of pellets will also affect the amount of ash. It's good practice to vacuum the fire pots after each cook - it only takes a minute.

My WSM sounds more "set it and forget it" than any pellet smoker.

Set it and forget it for 20 hours and let me know how that works out for you :thumb:

Why on earth why would I ever need 20 hours? (Longest I have gone without refueling is 13 hours). Plus no kaboom (or electronics to worry about).

exploding pellet cooker??

Av8er said:

This is the first issue I have had with mine. Up until now I have loved it. I think I will gain confidence once again, it may just take a while.

Click to expand...

Probably so - but until then, I think I'd be careful working around it. A smart alec sneaking up behind you and popping a paper bag might leave you with stains in your BVD's :razz:

My Pit Boss has not exploded yet but I did have flame travel up the auger tube. I had another cooker going because of the number of ribs I had to cook. Moved Pit boss ribs over and cleaned all the pellets out cleaned the burn cup and restarted. It was a little exciting to see more smoke coming out of the hopper than was coming out of the stack.
I don't wander far when cooking on anything after a lesson years ago. Anyone else ever try to cook a butt on a gas grill with lava rocks. Lucky the aluminum hood on the grill did not melt.