First cook on the Grill, pass/fail

[bowhnter]

I guess I have a learning curve being new to the pellet world.

Turned on and set temp to 250 in pro mode.
Temp went to 300 and stayed there for 1/2 hour.
So I dropped it to 240 and set to PID mode.
Temp went to 160 and stayed there.

After 3 total hours, I gave up and lit the freshly cleaned Weber kettle to finish the ribs.
Shut down and unplugged the Grilla. I guess that amount of time kicked an airflow, and the pellets in the burn pot caught! It smoked, and heated up for the next 2 hours. I figured I just as well throw the ribs back in, it wasn’t even plugged in.

Grilla CS thinks it was a bad batch of pellets. :noidea:

Gonna ditch the pellets, vac it out and try another bag today.

Anyway, the ribs were good, and the bride was a fan of the first time use of the cherry rub.

 

[Greygoose]

Good recovery,,,,,
I’d eat ‘em
The kettle soldier always at the ready !!!

 

[Big George's BBQ]

Looks good to me Sounds like you had a good approval too

 

[jzadski]

At least your ribs turned out good. Running for another 2 hours sounds worrisome. I would try a test cycle to see if it happens again. What it seems to me is grill upon the shut down/cool down cycle dumped a whole lot of pellets in the firepot and it smoldered. I have had something similar happen a couple of times but, it's only that there was still a slightly lit pellet left and only a few caught. I simply just take a spoon or whatever and scoop out or separate lit from unlit and let keep everything open until it stops. I was never worried about a back feed fire or anything similar though since it was such a minuscule amount. So in short if it happens again take apart everything and see how many pellets are in the firepot and just to see more of whats going on.

 

[Stingerhook]

Lemonade out of lemons Mike.

 

[bowhnter]

I think when I had it open to transfer ribs, I also had the pellet hopper open too, and it created enough airflow to start them up again.
Gonna try another quick cook today, at 250 in PID mode and not touch the temp at all to see how it acts, with a new bag/brand of pellets.

 

[4ever3]

Ribs look FANTASTIC!!!

But bad pellets?

 

[mcyork28]

I'm no expert but I would be really surprised if you got a bad bag of pellets.

 

[cowgirl]

Looks fantastic!
Love your cooking area too!

 

[ss4825]

Rib look fantastic. I keep the Weber at the ready always.

 

[BuffettFan]

The ribs look killer!

Curious to see what you figure out on the new grill Mike.
Please keep us posted!

 

[1Gradymaci]

Looks good..Most importantly is..If the Wife is Happy We’re All Happy..Good Job.

 

[onemanlan]

What a nice, level grilling place you have. Looks like a great hang out. I pretty much live on a slope/incline & wish I had more flat space for grills.

Ribs turned out looking good despite the snafu you mentioned. Hope ya find out the cause.

 

[bowhnter]

I'm no expert but I would be really surprised if you got a bad bag of pellets.

Ribs look FANTASTIC!!!

But bad pellets?

That is what two different Grilla CS reps told me it could be…one in MI and one here in TX.

We will see. It could have been driver error when I lowered temp and switched modes.

 

[tom b]

good looking ribs Mike, like you said let that grill do its thing

 

[DarkStar11]

Ribs look like they came out great despite the difficulties.

I also have a hard time believing the "bad bag of pellets" response. Sorta think that's in every pellet grill's CSR playbook for first thing to suggest. Weber goes so far as to suggest that their magical Weber pellets will fix all ills in the SmokeFires - at least on the first call or two. I hope whatever the issue is, it gets worked out and that, if needed, Grilla's customer service lives up to their reputation.