PSA: Pellet grill and smoke tube warning

This was probably something that should have been obvious but it didn't dawn on me what was happening for a while so I thought I'd offer a public service announcement on the issue in case it tripped anyone else up.


Recently my Camp Chef Smokepro XT had started to give me a lot of problems with the fire going out altogether. This grill is just about 1 year old so I was concerned it was already falling apart.


Then something occurred to me.



I always use a smoke tube loaded with pellets placed on the cooking grate to kick the smoke flavor up a notch. To further the smokiness a couple months ago I had moved the tube to the opposite side of the cooking surface to force the smoke to go further before getting to the chimney (top vent).


What dawned on me is that this was extremely close to the internal therm probe that the controller relies on to measure grill temp. I take a look and sure enough that probe was covered with sticky, black residue (is that creosote?). I clean it off thoroughly with alcohol and some light elbow grease, move the smoke tube back to the other side of the chamber and what do you know, grill works perfect again.


So that's the PSA, clean your internal thermometer probe semi-regularly, and if you use a smoke tube as well, keep it away from said thermometer probe to avoid creating issues with the feedback it sends to the controller. It seemed it was failing to feed enough pellets then when the fire went out and the temp dipped way off, it would fill the cup in response.



:-o

Joshw said:

That's going to happen even without a smoke tube. You want the tube on the opposite side of the smoke stack. If not, most of your smoke is going to go straight out the stack, instead of toward your meat.

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My experience has been that the tube puts out enough smoke that it doesn't make a significant difference if you have it on the opposite side or don't.