Let's Talk BBQ
Outdoor Cooking Equipment => Grills & Smokers => Pellet Grills and Smokers => Topic started by: txpops on September 29, 2013, 04:46:12 PM
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Hi all, I have the outdoor gourmet pellet grill I bought at Academy about a year ago. I loved it up until a couple of months ago. Now it is unreliable and very frustrating. Here's the problem. It always fires up just fine but sometimes, not always, the auger motor stops running after 20 to 30 minutes. The fan is still blowing, temp display is still on so I can watch the temp drop and drop.
At first I thought the auger was getting jammed so I would turn it off and unplug it, empty all the pellets and vacuum it out. This worked but I never really saw anything "jammed" so the last couple of times it happened I just turned it off and left it unplugged for 20 minutes or so while I moved whatever I was cooking to another cooker. I plug it in and turn it on and everything works fine, so I know the auger is not getting jammed. But I don't know what is causing this.
It happened today so I unplugged it and moved the ribs to my Bradley. Then i plugged it back in and fired it up and it has been running over 2 hours now with no problems. Has anybody seen this before?
Thanks for the help.
Mike
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Try jiggling the connectors on the circuit board under the hopper. There are 12 screws to remove the bottom panel. If I remember correctly, the connectors are white. Just move them around a little because it sounds as if there might be an intermittent contact in the auger connector probably caused by oxidation. Good luck.
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Sounds like a faulty controller. Double check the wiring connections as Don advised first.
The way to verify if the controller is faulty would be to check the output voltage at the controller connector for the auger when the problem starts. If there is voltage coming on then it is the auger motor that is overheating if not then it is the controller. You can upgrade to a Ortech or SSII. Or make your own PID.
The warranty may cover the replacement parts however.