MidTNDawg
Found some matches.
First of all, I want to say a big thank you to this community - I lurked and learned a lot over the last few months while trying to decide which pellet grill to get. It quickly became apparent that a MAK would be the best for me, so I finally committed to a 1 Star when the Black Friday sale came along. I also added the mobile/Wifi for convenience.
The grill arrived last week and I assembled it, did the quick first burn, and then did my first cook of a simple fatty - man was it delicious.
After making sure the firepot was clean, I loaded the hopper with Bear Mountain bold bbq pellets and started my second cook - a pork butt. I followed rwalter's suggestion of low and slow at 210 on the upper rack. I started it at 11pm and then went to bed. Woke up the next morning and saw that the MAK was happily billowing. Checked my phone at 7:30am and the butt was at 152. The IT hadn't budged much by 9am, so I decided to raise the grill to 225. By 11am, the butt was still only 162ish. At this point, I started to spritz every hour. I began to worry that it might not finish in enough time to rest before dinner, so I decided to increase the grill to 250. This seemed to nudge it along nicely - by 1:45, the IT was up to 181. I decided to use my Thermapen to verify the IT, and it matched the MAK's reading and told me that parts of the butt were pretty tender but generally it wasn't there yet. At that point, I had to run an errand but planned to keep an eye on my phone (not while driving, of course). Then, about 2:15, my wife called saying the MAK was beeping loudly with a Flameout message on the pellet boss. I had her turn it off and put the butt in the oven at 250. When I got home, I checked the firepot, and there really wasn't that much ash in it but it was full of unburned pellets. Checked the hopper and there were still plenty of pellets in it. The butt ended up okay, not quite as tender as hoped but definitely had a great flavor and left me determined to try again.
So where I am hoping for help is figuring out what might have led to the flameout. Like I said, there didn't seem to be enough ash buildup to cause an issue - surely 15 hours isn't too long of a cook? I used Bear Mtn pellets, which I seem to recall aren't particularly ashy. There wasn't anything blocking the fan, I didn't raise the temp a lot right before, the firepot was definitely clean to start, it wasn't a windy day. Hopefully it wasn't because I left my house (and router that the MAK was connected to)? I suppose it's also possible it was just a fluke?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Everyone on here is awesome - I've already learned so much from y'all, so sorry to ask for more. Thank you!!
The grill arrived last week and I assembled it, did the quick first burn, and then did my first cook of a simple fatty - man was it delicious.
After making sure the firepot was clean, I loaded the hopper with Bear Mountain bold bbq pellets and started my second cook - a pork butt. I followed rwalter's suggestion of low and slow at 210 on the upper rack. I started it at 11pm and then went to bed. Woke up the next morning and saw that the MAK was happily billowing. Checked my phone at 7:30am and the butt was at 152. The IT hadn't budged much by 9am, so I decided to raise the grill to 225. By 11am, the butt was still only 162ish. At this point, I started to spritz every hour. I began to worry that it might not finish in enough time to rest before dinner, so I decided to increase the grill to 250. This seemed to nudge it along nicely - by 1:45, the IT was up to 181. I decided to use my Thermapen to verify the IT, and it matched the MAK's reading and told me that parts of the butt were pretty tender but generally it wasn't there yet. At that point, I had to run an errand but planned to keep an eye on my phone (not while driving, of course). Then, about 2:15, my wife called saying the MAK was beeping loudly with a Flameout message on the pellet boss. I had her turn it off and put the butt in the oven at 250. When I got home, I checked the firepot, and there really wasn't that much ash in it but it was full of unburned pellets. Checked the hopper and there were still plenty of pellets in it. The butt ended up okay, not quite as tender as hoped but definitely had a great flavor and left me determined to try again.
So where I am hoping for help is figuring out what might have led to the flameout. Like I said, there didn't seem to be enough ash buildup to cause an issue - surely 15 hours isn't too long of a cook? I used Bear Mtn pellets, which I seem to recall aren't particularly ashy. There wasn't anything blocking the fan, I didn't raise the temp a lot right before, the firepot was definitely clean to start, it wasn't a windy day. Hopefully it wasn't because I left my house (and router that the MAK was connected to)? I suppose it's also possible it was just a fluke?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Everyone on here is awesome - I've already learned so much from y'all, so sorry to ask for more. Thank you!!
