PittBoss PBV4PS2 - Back burn from auger to hopper.

[Chaz]

Has anything like this happen to anyone?
Back burn from fire pit-through auger and into hopper? Turned pellets in hopper on fire. I had to take the garden hose to it. Well, when this happens, it turned this smoker used 3 times into a garbage collection item. Smoked 2 times without issues. Perfect smoked ribs and pork. 3 rd smoke. BANG!!

Seems like I don’t have any options here as Pitt Boss doesn’t stand behind product flaws or malfunctioning equipment. They said that it should work fine with new controller board, scraping and painting will look like new. Lol

Buyer Beware!!! PITT BOSS FAIL!!!

 

[jstueve]

Curious question: how level is your grill? How much draft is being generated (open or closed chimney?)

 

[Chaz]

Curious question: how level is your grill? How much draft is being generated (open or closed chimney?)

Hi jstueve. Grill is perfectly level. Chimney was open - not fully.

 

[Mike From R.I.]

Was the level of pellets that low when you put the hose to it?

 

[mixed up]

wow that crazy I guess I put to much faith in my unit and cook while I sleep .I did have a pellet heater in my barn do that

 

[Chaz]

Was the level of pellets that low when you put the hose to it?

Mike. I started the smoke with a hopper about 3/4 full. It smoked and worked perfectly at 200 degrees for a few hours until that happened. Thick Smoke was pouring out of hopper all of a sudden. Knew that wasn’t right and when I noticed the black pellets in the hopper with the red glow and then the controller stopped and the grill shut down. But continued to smoke /burn for long after that b4 the hose. Had to finish butt in oven. Lol but not funny. Will have to try a different smoker.

 

[Steve In Pa]

Has anything like this happen to anyone?
Back burn from fire pit-through auger and into hopper? Turned pellets in hopper on fire. I had to take the garden hose to it. Well, when this happens, it turned this smoker used 3 times into a garbage collection item. Smoked 2 times without issues. Perfect smoked ribs and pork. 3 rd smoke. BANG!!

Seems like I don’t have any options here as Pitt Boss doesn’t stand behind product flaws or malfunctioning equipment. They said that it should work fine with new controller board, scraping and painting will look like new. Lol

Buyer Beware!!! PITT BOSS FAIL!!!View attachment 2919View attachment 2918

Wow, that’s something. Trying to figure that out I would say that the fire has to work it’s way back through the feed tube which suggest the auger not turning and pushing pellets to the pot. Hmm.
Could the fire be crawling it’s way back via dust in the tube?
I check my CP now and then. Ive seen where the auger is inactive, but then is active later when the computer says fuel is necessary. I assume that’s the process.

 

[jstueve]

I agree with the possiblity of a malfunctioning auger. Defintely chat/talk with Customer Support to get their opinion.

 

[hankhill11]

If the ash can is full the pellets that are burning sit on top and could catch the tube on fire i guess.\

on that note, I wish there was a safe way to empty it while the grill was still running.

 

[smokenoob]

As Hank stated, I could see if your firepot was full of ash and the pellets were burning on top that eventually allowed the fire to travel up through the auger. Did you clean the ash prior to the cook? Have you ever taken the large cover off the burn pot and cleaned the bottom of the smoker?
After a long cook or 3-4 shorter ones, I'll take the cover off and clean the bottom of the smoker out, I get a lot of build up in there.

 

[Barefootdog]

Known issue. I've started a thread and other threads are readily available. I don't think it has anything to do with you doing anything wrong. Happened repeatedly with my Brunswick...just cleaned, burn pot empty prior to start. Hopper fuller or less full. My unit is level. Pit Boss is replacing parts...fan and controller so far....no help...getting sick and tired of the problem. Still working on it but using the Brunswick less and less....been over a month since my last smoke (and last fire).....wish I had something helpful to say other than you are not alone with this problem.....Pit Boss will help with tech support but that unit is toast and Pit Boss should replace it.....this is a known problem...That was much worse than my fires but I learned to never ignore my Brunswick and never ever use it backed up against the house....this has me sort of pissed off at this point. More than a little actually.

I have never been so disappointed in a product that looked so promising.

If you find a solution please share it...

 

[Mike From R.I.]

Known issue. I've started a thread and other threads are readily available. I don't think it has anything to do with you doing anything wrong. Happened repeatedly with my Brunswick...just cleaned, burn pot empty prior to start. Hopper fuller or less full. My unit is level. Pit Boss is replacing parts...fan and controller so far....no help...getting sick and tired of the problem. Still working on it but using the Brunswick less and less....been over a month since my last smoke (and last fire).....wish I had something helpful to say other than you are not alone with this problem.....Pit Boss will help with tech support but that unit is toast and Pit Boss should replace it.....this is a known problem...That was a much worse than my fires but I learned to never ignore my Brunswick and never ever use it backed up against the house....this has me sort of pissed off at this point. More than a little actually.

I have never been so disappointed in a product that looked so promising.

If you find a solution please share it...

I wonder if contacting a product liability lawyer with a class action lawsuit would wake Pit Boss and their developers / engineers up?

 

[Micbrody]

I had issue once. It was a very low and slow smoke. At about 14 hrs, I noticed smoke coming out of hopper. I immediately poured just a little water on pellets to existinquish.
Cleared out damp pellets; ran the auger on restart without burn pot to have auger push out rest of damp pellets. Emptied burn pot (which was at least 1/2 full of ash). Filled hopper. Restarted without any issues ; and have smoked since without issues.
I checked out the fans -which were working.
My hypothesis:
1) the hopper was close to empty- where I could almost see auger
2) the burn pot was the most full I’ve seen it- probably because it was the longest smoke.

So I think the level of ignited pellets were high - resting on the large pile of ashes- so at level of auger. And since hopper close to empty, some of the combustion heat pushed into hopper because close to no resistance of air flow (no large pile of pellets ). This ignited pellets in auger and combustion followed path into hopper.

So:
1) I now empty burn pot ashes after 8-10 hrs of smoke.
2) make sure hopper always have a few inches of pellets above auger

 

[Micbrody]

I had issue once. It was a very low and slow smoke. At about 14 hrs, I noticed smoke coming out of hopper. I immediately poured just a little water on pellets to existinquish.
Cleared out damp pellets; ran the auger on restart without burn pot to have auger push out rest of damp pellets. Emptied burn pot (which was at least 1/2 full of ash). Filled hopper. Restarted without any issues ; and have smoked since without issues.
I checked out the fans -which were working.
My hypothesis:
1) the hopper was close to empty- where I could almost see auger
2) the burn pot was the most full I’ve seen it- probably because it was the longest smoke.

So I think the level of ignited pellets were high - resting on the large pile of ashes- so at level of auger. And since hopper close to empty, some of the combustion heat pushed into hopper because close to no resistance of air flow (no large pile of pellets ). This ignited pellets in auger and combustion followed path into hopper.

So:
1) I now empty burn pot ashes after 8-10 hrs of smoke.
2) make sure hopper always have a few inches of pellets above auger

This is not unique to PitBoss. All pellet smokers can have this issue.

https://support.traeger.com/hc/en-us/articles/4407212995995-SMOKE-COMING-OUT-OF-HOPPER

 

[Bryan459]

Has anything like this happen to anyone?
Back burn from fire pit-through auger and into hopper? Turned pellets in hopper on fire. I had to take the garden hose to it. Well, when this happens, it turned this smoker used 3 times into a garbage collection item. Smoked 2 times without issues. Perfect smoked ribs and pork. 3 rd smoke. BANG!!

Seems like I don’t have any options here as Pitt Boss doesn’t stand behind product flaws or malfunctioning equipment. They said that it should work fine with new controller board, scraping and painting will look like new. Lol

Buyer Beware!!! PITT BOSS FAIL!!!View attachment 2919View attachment 2918

Yes it happened to me when I changed to a pellet that produced more ash . Needless to say but I didn’t realize the new pellets created lots of ash after each cook and I still cleaned the burn out about every 3 cooks and with this pellet I needed to clean the burn pot after each cook. The burn pot was full and backlit into the auger and hopper.