My first flame out, error code E3. EX6.


 
Bob Erdman

Bob Erdman

TVWBB All-Star
Total surprise, I was not monitoring my cook with the app, not sure if it would have notified me anyway. Everything was going fine for about 5 hours during a rib smoke. When I went to sauce the ribs I discovered the E3 error code. Opened the lid, first thing I noticed was a pile of pellets on the sides of the burn pot.

Ribs turned out great in spite of the flame out. Lucky me, I think, now it was time to see what went wrong. Pellets all over the ramp, in the fire pot, and sides. Close inspection revealed a lot of pellet dust mixed with pellets on the ramp and in the fire pot. Broke out the shop vac and vacuumed up all the pellets. Inside the fire pot on the bottom of the grate I saw what looked like caked on ash or pellet dust. The fire must have been starved for oxygen and flamed out.

I'm usually real anal when filling the hopper with pellets to make sure I'm not introducing any dust from my pellet storage container. I use a a kitty litter scoop and sift the pellets before adding them to the hopper. I recall one bag recently with more than usual amount of dust that may be the culprit.

I think pellet dust and high humidity in NJ may be at play here. Not sure though.

After I cleaned the inside yesterday it fired right up.IMG_2502.JPGIMG_2505.JPGIMG_2506.JPGIMG_2513 (1).JPGIMG_2517 (1).JPGIMG_8763.JPG Today, I'm going to empty the hopper and look at the other end of the auger and vac and or remove the auger. Lilly supervised the entire operation as usual when I'm near the grill.
 
Update. Pellet dust accumulated around the auger. I think my auger bolt looks a little odd. Looks like it's missing the nut. Going to look in the manual after I get tonight's dinner prepped. Collected a lot of dust. Think I'm going periodically vacuum out the hopper as part of the maintenance routine.IMG_2525 (2).JPGIMG_2519 (1).JPGIMG_2522 (2).JPG
 
It does look like the bolt is missing the nut. I wonder if the missing nut got the whole ball rolling. Did you say in another post that this was a new EX6? Did the nut just vibrate off and where did it go?
 
Jon B said:
It does look like the bolt is missing the nut. I wonder if the missing nut got the whole ball rolling. Did you say in another post that this was a new EX6? Did the nut just vibrate off and where did it go?
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That bolt head might be crushing more pellets and creating more dust by not being flush with the shaft?
 
The nut is missing. I contacted Weber support. Pellets are jammed under the bolt, keeping it in place for now.
 
Darian Hofer said:
That bolt head might be crushing more pellets and creating more dust by not being flush with the shaft?
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I think that is certainly possible. Look at the wear on the auger tube. I tried removing what was stuck under the bolt but decided to leave it since it was holding the bolt in place.IMG_2525 (2).JPG
 
Mine broke awhile back, I replaced it with cotter pin, it broke too. So I used a nail to fix it. I'm probably taking my chances as it's unlikely the nail will break if bound and I'll be in the market for a new auger motor

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Broken Auger Pin

Anyone know what screw holds the auger in place to the motor. Mine sheered off. Also does anyone know what size the two screws that hold the pellet chute in place, looks like I lost them while moving the SF around to see better
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Dangit Bob, hate to see but should be a fairly simple repair at least! Should be up and running soon.

Did you get it pre assembled? I wonder if the nut just wasn’t there to begin with, the bolt worked out and it’s been chewing up pellets as it’s grinding the auger chute, which would not be turning as well as the unit wants it to and maybe it’s working harder to turn? I doubt there’s a sensor for load on the auger but it wouldn’t be getting the pellets fed as soon as it thinks it should, thereby dumping more pellets as it thinks it’s out?
 
Chuck, they are sending auger hardware. I assume it's just the nut and bolt. The auger was installed from the factory. I think the nut fell off recently and contributed to my flame out. Bolt was chewing up the pellets. IMG_2506.JPG
 
I'm willing to bet a soda pop that the flameout was caused by a pellet void. I never sifted pellets and ran Pit Boss through it for a year and the pellet dust was consumed by the fire in the fire pot. In my mind pellet dust doesn't cause all of the problems attributed to it. Bob, what you found is what I saw when I deliberately induced a flameout and reintroduced pellets after the flameout during a test burn. I watched the auger feed pellets and pellets ended up on both sides of the fire pot and up the slide. I also doubt that the missing nut contributed to your event.
 
Lew Newby said:
I'm willing to bet a soda pop that the flameout was caused by a pellet void. I never sifted pellets and ran Pit Boss through it for a year and the pellet dust was consumed by the fire in the fire pot. In my mind pellet dust doesn't cause all of the problems attributed to it. Bob, what you found is what I saw when I deliberately induced a flameout and reintroduced pellets after the flameout during a test burn. I watched the auger feed pellets and pellets ended up on both sides of the fire pot and up the slide. I also doubt that the missing nut contributed to your event.
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Lew, you are right about a pellet void causing the flame out. No fuel, no fire. But I still believe the dust might have played a part in it though. There was a lot of dust, more than what I expected considering how careful I am when adding pellets to the hopper. I think dust in the pellet hopper could have contributed to the bridging of pellets and caused a void. I also think, dust from the hopper and pellets being ground up from a loose auger bolt could have caused the fire to burn faster than fuel was being added to the pot. That's just a theory, sometimes I just over think things. Lol.

The dust accumulation at the top of the ramp and under the pellets on the ramp in addition to some caking in the fire pot have me scratching my head.

About that soda pop, you take IOU's?
 
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