Out of Control Yoder 640s

[Plata-O-Plomo]

I purchased a Yoder YS 640s several months ago. It was manufactured 6-27-19 and I received it 7-5-19. On 7-10-19 I did the initial burn in as directed in the manual. The 640s over shot the 350 default temp to about 413 @ about 20 minutes in. It slowly came down and hovered in that 355-360 range until I shut it down about an hour later.

So today I started the YS 640s up for an afternoon smoke. Once it started showing smoke I went inside for about five minutes. When I returned to it my entire room was filled with smoke and the YS640s was emitting smoke from every orifice . I have run stick burners, UDS's, other pellet grills, and ceramics but have never seen so much smoke. I was really concerned about a hopper fire so I stayed with it and monitored the hopper. The smoke cleared after I started room fans and the smoker appeared to be operating normally with just a faint hint of smoke coming out of the exhaust. Its now about 10 minutes since I started it and its running and climbing from about 200. I went inside for five or six minutes and came back out to discover the YS 640s was at 400 and climbing. Thinking it was just the overshoot I just watched the temp gauge. Within another 4 minutes or so I shut it down at 605 and it was still climbing.

I just have a feeling something is amiss in my Yoder.

Anyone with anything similar?

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any comments.

[mike243]

On my pit boss I have to leave the lid open till it establishes a fire, it will build smoke big time till they light off then it clears up, also I start on smoke,they recommend taking it to 350 to start then adjust to the temp you want to cook at. not sure on yours though. they can go bang when lighting if the lid is left closed, throwed a rack of baby backs on about 1hr 45min ago at 250, also started a smoke tube also ,had 5 brats that needed cooked so they joined the party, hope ya don't have nothing wrong, them Yoders have a good reputation

[Joshw]

A few things. Did you dump your firepot before the cook? Is your grill clean? What Startup mode did you use?

I have had an issue with my Yoder, where I didn't dump the firepot, and there was some ash blocking the holes in the pot, the pot to an extra long time to ignite, so there were way more pellets then there needed to me, so the temp overshot drastically. My fault. I now dump my pot before every cook, then vacuum it out after every hopper of pellets.

I also had an issue one time where I let my diffuser plate get too much buildup on it, and the grease on it caught on fire. Not fun.

Only other thing I can think of, is that you selected one of the more aggressive startup modes, and it will overshoot temps with them.

[Plata-O-Plomo]

Thanks guys!


I did fail to clean the fire pot before I started it. I did not think that would be an issue in that I only ran it for 1 hour during the burn in. There was about 1/8 cup of ash. I was only going to run it to cook a pizza so I was not stressing about it. Maybe I should in the future.



I did keep the lid open during the lite up process until I saw and smelled smoke and that's when I closed it.


I did not change the start up program from the default setting; unless I did it without knowing.



Maybe I will clean out the pot and try again to see if it was due to that; but I still cant see it climbing up to 600 plus because of ash build up. I would think that the temp would be low.



Uuggh

[Joshw]

Originally Posted by Plata-O-Plomo

Thanks guys!


I did fail to clean the fire pot before I started it. I did not think that would be an issue in that I only ran it for 1 hour during the burn in. There was about 1/8 cup of ash. I was only going to run it to cook a pizza so I was not stressing about it. Maybe I should in the future.



I did keep the lid open during the lite up process until I saw and smelled smoke and that's when I closed it.


I did not change the start up program from the default setting; unless I did it without knowing.



Maybe I will clean out the pot and try again to see if it was due to that; but I still cant see it climbing up to 600 plus because of ash build up. I would think that the temp would be low.



Uuggh

What happens is there is not enough air getting to the area of ignition, and the auger keeps feeding pellets based on normal ignition time, and then you have way more pellets than you need, then they finally light, and you have too big of a fire. I can't say that is what happened, but it can. I have not dumped it 100 times with no problems, but that one day, they had caked up just right to cause a problem. I highly recommend taking the few seconds it takes to dump it.

[Plata-O-Plomo]

I will clean it out and give it another go this evening. I want to smoke that damn pizza!

[rwalters]

I do not have a Yoder but have done plenty of reading. The overwhelming consensus is that the fire pot really needs to be cleaned after each and every cook. I have a MAK, and it just does better when starting clean. Seems Yoder is the same way.

[Plata-O-Plomo]

It’s boogered up. I cleaned it out (thoroughly) and went through the start up process as described in the manual. It failed to stop, or even slow down at the default 350 start up temp. At 450 I turned the temp down manually to 225. It kept feeding pellets. Within minutes it was crossing 550 and by the time I could shut it down it was at 575.

Will call Yoder tomorrow. My guess is that there is a disconnect between the temp reading and the ability to control it.

Thanks all for your input.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Woody1911a1]

default start up temp is 350 ? wow ! my gmg is 150 , let it settle in then ramp up to whatever . also the last time i cleaned my firepot was ? last year maybe 2 years ago and i use mine at least once weekly year round .

[rmr24]

Are you unplugging between startups? Not sure if the 640S is the same, but on the original 640 you need to unplug it between startups.

[Joshw]

Originally Posted by rmr24

Are you unplugging between startups? Not sure if the 640S is the same, but on the original 640 you need to unplug it between startups.

Absolutely! Forgot all about that, just second nature. Unless things have changed, this will also cause weird behavior.

[gtsum]

Agree with unplugging it...but a call to yoder seems to be in order. Joshw hit all the necessary things to check above (I was guilty of each of those happening to me as well). I’m sure yoder will get you straight


Memphis Elite





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[SlowmotionQue]

Originally Posted by rwalters

I do not have a Yoder but have done plenty of reading. The overwhelming consensus is that the fire pot really needs to be cleaned after each and every cook. I have a MAK, and it just does better when starting clean. Seems Yoder is the same way.

I have to agree.

It's to the place now to where I clean my Rec Tec each time I use it. I just like to start out with a clean grill and feel that at the very least, if I ever do have any problems, well it won't be due to lack of maintenance and cleanup.

[rwalters]

Originally Posted by SlowmotionQue

I have to agree.



It's to the place now to where I clean my Rec Tec each time I use it. I just like to start out with a clean grill and feel that at the very least, if I ever do have any problems, well it won't be due to lack of maintenance and cleanup.

A healthy fire is a happy fire :)

#startashfree

[ss4825]

tagging along.