Lew Newby
R.I.P. 1/26/2024
Everyone has their idea of why The Smokefire has problems. My theory is immature software in the controller. I think it causes many of the flameouts and I base that on observing a temp excursion 30 minutes into a cook from 250 to 190. Some blame it on wet pellets but I haven't had a problem with pellets sitting in the hopper so I want to find out if I'm just lucky or the pellets are more hardy than folks think. I live in central Florida, 30 miles from the Atlantic. For 3 weeks our humidity has averaged about 90%. This morning 94%. 10 days ago I put Weber pellets in the hopper and during both cooks since an afternoon shower rained on the grill. I took a handful of pellets out of the hopper. Still shiny and in good shape. I put them in a Stainless cup and ignited with a propane torch. I acted as the controller. Once they started smoldering I kicked on the fan. That means I blew on the pellets and they reignited. I would have more pics but my camera battery died after the smoldering shot. 3 times I reignited the pellets by blowing on them. Third time took high velocity fan. I now have a bunch of Pit Boss pellets in a pan sitting on the hopper and every 10 days I'm going to test them to see if they burn. The experiment will conclude when they won't burn or 40 days, whichever comes first.
