Flagship 1100

[Newbiesmoker]

I got it assembled and did a 400° burn in. After a little over an hour I cranked it to 500°, just to see how long it would take. When I turned back down to 225°, the hopper has smoke coming out of it. I hurried and scooped out all the pellets I could. Did it do this because I lowered temp too quick?

 

[Gonefishin]

At what point did you get smoke, when it got to 225? Need to describe the situation a little more.

 

[TheRicker]

From my experiences, high heat runs can provide suspicious results. That goes back about 15 years when I started with my Traeger. But I do hold to my golden rule to reduce my RT-700’s temp level about 100 degrees at a time until I get it down to 200F before I do a shutdown.

My concern is the logic used in these more modern controllers may turn off the fan intermittently essentially trying to stop stoking the fire and reduce the grill’s temp. The reality is if that fan stops blowing into the fire pot, then the fire will seek seek air or fuel from any direction…that’s the nature of fire. The bigger, hotter fire has nowhere to go but into the auger chamber. And guess what’s in the auger chamber? More fuel (wood pellets).

If you decrement the temperature at a moderate pace, I think you’ll avoid the problem you encountered. And, from experience, it can take a while to get it down 100 degrees and, ultimately, to a level where the shutdown sequence doesn’t result in the same sort of situation.

I recommend watching how your grill/smoker responds to a significant temperature setting reduction to see if you hear the fan pause. It’ll come back on and turn off again. I believe it’s not feeding any more pellets but using the fan (turning off and on) to stop stoking the fire to reduce the fire/temp.

I also suggest watching the actual shutdown sequence. It stops feeding pellets but keeps the fan running a few minutes to help the fire burn itself out…which is easier for it to do at 200F than 500F.

 

[Newbiesmoker]

At what point did you get smoke, when it got to 225? Need to describe the situation a little more.

Yeah I had smoke right away. I ran it today at 225° for 5hrs and didn't have any issues.

 

[Newbiesmoker]

From my experiences, high heat runs can provide suspicious results. That goes back about 15 years when I started with my Traeger. But I do hold to my golden rule to reduce my RT-700’s temp level about 100 degrees at a time until I get it down to 200F before I do a shutdown.

My concern is the logic used in these more modern controllers may turn off the fan intermittently essentially trying to stop stoking the fire and reduce the grill’s temp. The reality is if that fan stops blowing into the fire pot, then the fire will seek seek air or fuel from any direction…that’s the nature of fire. The bigger, hotter fire has nowhere to go but into the auger chamber. And guess what’s in the auger chamber? More fuel (wood pellets).

If you decrement the temperature at a moderate pace, I think you’ll avoid the problem you encountered. And, from experience, it can take a while to get it down 100 degrees and, ultimately, to a level where the shutdown sequence doesn’t result in the same sort of situation.

I recommend watching how your grill/smoker responds to a significant temperature setting reduction to see if you hear the fan pause. It’ll come back on and turn off again. I believe it’s not feeding any more pellets but using the fan (turning off and on) to stop stoking the fire to reduce the fire/temp.

I also suggest watching the actual shutdown sequence. It stops feeding pellets but keeps the fan running a few minutes to help the fire burn itself out…which is easier for it to do at 200F than 500F.

Thanks, this is basically what happened. Today I ran it at 225° for a smoke and it shut down just as you described.

 

[TheRicker]

Sounds good. But don’t be afraid to crank it up when you’ve got something to cook at a high heat setting…just remember to incrementally decrease the temperature in about 90 degree increments until you get down into that low-200’s temp range before shutting down.

I do burgers on mine because I like the wood cooking flavor…same with steaks. You don’t get that slow-smoked flavor at that high heat but, frankly, I don’t want that flavor on my burgers anyway. But I like that wood-fire flavor…better than a gas grill and somewhat close to cooking burgers over charcoal.

 

[v1per95]

So, I'll offer my thoughts on this that I can tell definitely go against the grain based on everyone elses replies.

I am one of the few that does more high temp cooks than low and slow on my grill. In my experience (over a year with my RecTeq used probably twice a week, before that a Camp Chef for about 4 years, and before that a cheap Masterbuilt pellet I got from Sams) I have only ever seen this issue when slowly lowering temps as described by others, rather than just initiating the shutdown when you're finished.

For context, I've made zero mods to my grill. No gasket around the lid or the hopper lid.

I open the lid, leave it open, set temp, wait the ~5 minutes it takes for ignition, and then wait for the smoke to clear, then I close the lid, hit temp, cook, then reopen the lid, leave it open, and start shutdown. So far, zero issues with this method. I've never had any backburn, and I haven't EVER seen smoke come from the hopper doing it this way.

I have had a single time I saw smoke coming from the hopper, and it was the one time I slowly lowered temps after a full cook based on others recommendations.

Sometimes you might see a small amount of smoke coming from the back vents after shutdown because the grill pushes fresh pellets into the firepot on shutdown, but thats it. Never seen it from the hopper doing it the way I do.

 

[TheRicker]

So, I'll offer my thoughts on this that I can tell definitely go against the grain based on everyone elses replies.

I am one of the few that does more high temp cooks than low and slow on my grill. In my experience (over a year with my RecTeq used probably twice a week, before that a Camp Chef for about 4 years, and before that a cheap Masterbuilt pellet I got from Sams) I have only ever seen this issue when slowly lowering temps as described by others, rather than just initiating the shutdown when you're finished.

For context, I've made zero mods to my grill. No gasket around the lid or the hopper lid.

I open the lid, leave it open, set temp, wait the ~5 minutes it takes for ignition, and then wait for the smoke to clear, then I close the lid, hit temp, cook, then reopen the lid, leave it open, and start shutdown. So far, zero issues with this method. I've never had any backburn, and I haven't EVER seen smoke come from the hopper doing it this way.

I have had a single time I saw smoke coming from the hopper, and it was the one time I slowly lowered temps after a full cook based on others recommendations.

Sometimes you might see a small amount of smoke coming from the back vents after shutdown because the grill pushes fresh pellets into the firepot on shutdown, but thats it. Never seen it from the hopper doing it the way I do.

Maybe it’s the leaving the lid open during that high heat shutdown that does the trick. I’m no “fire engineer” but maybe that open lid provides the oxygen the fire needs to burn itself out in addition to the fan blowing during that shutdown process. That’s makes sense to me.

Really appreciate your input on this so we’ll all know about other options for a safe shutdown. I’ll give it a try next time I cook at bc a higher heat. It would save a good bit of time and pellets using your method.