rec tec mini disaster!

[rhltechie]

holy moly!!  sooo...I put my ribs on at noon. it felt like they were taking a good longer than I had ever thought...i put my head out the door and noticed the temp was going down instead of up..so i was like, what the heck.  i unplugged the little guy and plugged it back in. when it came on, massive amounts of smoke came pouring out, and it did not stop.  the temp rose to 400 degrees and was climbing when i had it set to 225.  I opened the lid and I saw a huge fire in the bottom.  yikes!!  I unplugged the guy and yanked my ribs off. the entire inside of the grill is black...i have no idea what went wrong. i had just changed the foil today, so it cannot be grease fire.  i called rec tec...waiting on a call back. scared the heck out of me.  not sure if i am more upset about the grill at present or the fact that my baby backs are probably ruined.

[teesquare]

Good save!
Foil your ribs and spritz them with som apple juice before sealing the foil - and throw them in the oven.
Now - when the Rec Tec cools - pull the grill grate, and the pan, and look in the belly of it.

My guess is that you had a flame out due to either too much ash accumulation, or similar.

when it is cool to the touch - and the ashes are cool tot eh touch - vacuum it out, and turn it back on, leaving the innards out so you can watch the hot rod in the bottom of the fire pot. It should start smoking pellets within a few minutes.

Let us know what you find. Heck - post some pics of what you find ....

[TMB]

I bet it was a flame out.   I clean my Rec Tec every other cook because I had a flame out with my home built pellet pooper and just about lost a breakfast fattie I was cooking while camping.

If there is a lot of ash left over you will have issues no matter who makes the cooker

[rhltechie]

eesh....thanks guys.  I did pop the ribs in the oven but i'm worried they might have gotten over smoked.  I guess we shall see a little later.

I'm waiting for it to cool and then take a look.  I've used it three times, the manual said "Clean the ash from the interior of your grill every fifth bag of pellets"  i'm only a half bag in..lol

 I guess I did not know I needed to clean the ash after every cook....lessons learned! Hope I do not have any long term side effects. right now everything in the grill is black...the drip tray, the heat deflector.  bah!

[TMB]

eesh....thanks guys.  I did pop the ribs in the oven but i'm worried they might have gotten over smoked.  I guess we shall see a little later.

I'm waiting for it to cool and then take a look.  I've used it three times, I guess I did not know I needed to clean the ash after every cook....lessons learned! Hope I do not have any long term side effects. right now everything in the grill is black...the drip tray, the heat deflector.  bah!

not every cook but if you do long cooks that just adds more ash

If you did 4 quick cooks you may not have that much ash.  But remember you did butts and that did take some time vs a quick  burger cook

[rhltechie]

eesh....thanks guys.  I did pop the ribs in the oven but i'm worried they might have gotten over smoked.  I guess we shall see a little later.

I'm waiting for it to cool and then take a look.  I've used it three times, I guess I did not know I needed to clean the ash after every cook....lessons learned! Hope I do not have any long term side effects. right now everything in the grill is black...the drip tray, the heat deflector.  bah!

not every cook but if you do long cooks that just adds more ash

If you did 4 quick cooks you may not have that much ash.  But remember you did butts and that did take some time vs a quick  burger cook

hm....i have not actually done any butts in this guy, I just got it thursday evening. I've done a few very short cooks...seems like a short time to build up enough to have problems.

[Savannahsmoker]

Unfortunately most all the mini pellet grills are very temperamental.
Hope ya got the ribs saved.

[TMB]

eesh....thanks guys.  I did pop the ribs in the oven but i'm worried they might have gotten over smoked.  I guess we shall see a little later.

I'm waiting for it to cool and then take a look.  I've used it three times, I guess I did not know I needed to clean the ash after every cook....lessons learned! Hope I do not have any long term side effects. right now everything in the grill is black...the drip tray, the heat deflector.  bah!

not every cook but if you do long cooks that just adds more ash

If you did 4 quick cooks you may not have that much ash.  But remember you did butts and that did take some time vs a quick  burger cook

hm....i have not actually done any butts in this guy, I just got it thursday evening. I've done a few very short cooks...seems like a short time to build up enough to have problems.

sorry I though you did.   Anyway look and see if there is a lot of ash in the burner.  I wonder if the pellets you have may be the issue.   But I'm thinking you are using B&B which I use and never had that issue so far.     Well the home built pooper had B & B but I used it for long cooks at the camp ground and didn't clean out like I knew I should have

[muebe]

Clean out the ash from the firepot after every cook to prevent a flame out.

I am sure the grill is fine. Probably just black from soot....

[rhltechie]

ugh....well, it will be a little while before I can clean it as its still pretty hot.  with that said....I just gobbled up a few ribs.  They were just on the cusp of being flavored by soot.  I will still eat them but I can tell they were in a fire!

[TMB]

ugh....well, it will be a little while before I can clean it as its still pretty hot.  with that said....I just gobbled up a few ribs.  They were just on the cusp of being flavored by soot.  I will still eat them but I can tell they were in a fire!

Wrap them and send them here.   Kimmie loves burnt meat and believe me they can't be burnt bad enough for her

[rhltechie]

ugh....well, it will be a little while before I can clean it as its still pretty hot.  with that said....I just gobbled up a few ribs.  They were just on the cusp of being flavored by soot.  I will still eat them but I can tell they were in a fire!

Wrap them and send them here.   Kimmie loves burnt meat and believe me they can't be burnt bad enough for her

hahaha....my parents would love them...just a tinge of burnt.  they are edible

[Savannahsmoker]

hahaha....my parents would love them...just a tinge of burnt.  they are edible

Great, just call the tinge of burnt BARK.

[rhltechie]

a very nice gentelman from rec tec called me back. he said the same things you smart fellas said. i had a flame out...he said something about the new grills having a tackiness to the auger or pot or something sticky that disturbed the correct pellet feed.  I do not own my own shop vac, i use my neighbors but he is missing..lol.  he told me to use a small spoon and scoop some of the ash...fill er back up and let it go.  i did that...it appears to have worked itself out and seems to be holding the correct temp.  thanks for the help....i feel a little silly saying the sky was falling..ha!  i will be sure to post some of my burnt ribs

[muebe]

They make a really small shop vac that I use. It works great...

https://smile.amazon.com/Shop-Vac-2021000-Micro-Wet-Dry/dp/B004UQVQ0I/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1465771479&sr=8-3&keywords=Small+shop+vac