Searwood jams?

[Bill Sneed]

Hi folks. I haven't heard from anyone on my intro post so let me put it out there via a new post. I was thinking about buying the Searwood 600. (it's just me and the wife) For anyone that owns one can you tell me if it jams a lot? And if it jams, how hard is it to "unjam" it? Also: Is it easy to remove the pellets from the hopper? I've seen a few reviews on YT for it but they don't talk about these subjects. Anyone?

 

[JohnTak]

I have never had a jam but I try to stay away from pellets that are short, broken or a lot of dust in the bottom of the bag. If there are a lot of broken small pellets and dust in the bottom of the bag I throw that stuff away. Some people sift out the cruddy stuff, it seems to settle in the bottom.

 

[JimK]

Hey Bill,

Saw where you'd asked me these questions in another thread. Apologies for the delayed response, as I've been traveling a lot and not on much in the last few weeks. Mine has never jammed (knock on wood) and I'm in the humid mid-atlantic with pellets kept in the hopper or in the garage. Very easy to empty the hopper too.

Jim

 

[Edward Lee]

Hey Bill,

Saw where you'd asked me these questions in another thread. Apologies for the delayed response, as I've been traveling a lot and not on much in the last few weeks. Mine has never jammed (knock on wood) and I'm in the humid mid-atlantic with pellets kept in the hopper or in the garage. Very easy to empty the hopper too.

Jim

600 XL owner for about a year, and I ditto Jim’s experience of no jams and ease of emptying the hopper.

 

[Chris in Louisiana]

I noted in another thread that I saw a YouTuber who had a jam on his Searwood that wrecked the grill. Weber replaced the parts.

He later called RecTeq customer service about an issue with one of their cookers, and the rep asked him what pellets he used. They customer rattled off a few, but when he said Kirkland the rep suggested he not use them because they are made by Pit Boss and are significantly longer than other brands and can cause issues.

The YouTuber theorized that Kirkland/Pit Boss pellets caused his Searwood jam, but who knows?

Interestingly, the Lowes near me sells Searwoods and lots of other Weber products, but they currently have only Pit Boss pellets in stock.

 

[LMichaels]

My experience is the so called "experts" saying the slightly longer pellets are issues is they're full of it. First off: Why on earth would PB want to sell or make (though I seriously doubt they make them) so we'll say distribute, pellets that can cause issues with their own products. Also the parent company Danson's owns Louisiana Grills and distributes the pellets for them as well.
Again why would they use a mfg technique that would even remotely possibly cause issues in either brand grill? Now I will say the ONLY brand of pellets that has given me some small issues are the Bear Mountain brands. They are so tiny they jam up sometimes and clog and they have tons of dust. And this is NOT due to where I might buy them as I've bought them through a variety of retailers.
They're ok but not anything I will rave about. So in all honesty the 2 brands of pellets I have used that I have found to be most consistently sized, least amount of sawdust (so no need for straining), and feed well with NOT clogging the chute is Traeger and Kirkland (and I've been burning a lot of pellets). Also less dust and ash in the bun pot.
I've not tried Weber pellets (as I've never seen them) and not tried any other brands i.e. pecan shell ones (WAY WAY WAY too expensive) or others.
Bottom line when my Bear Mountain made pellets are gone I will likely go over to using only Kirkland/Pit Boss and Traeger.

 

[Darryl - swazies]

Where is all the jam I came looking for?

 

[Bob Bailey]

I think most jams are related to handling and storage issues. Like lump charcoal, throwing bags around or moving them a lot it can break up the pellets, causing a lot of small pieces and dust. High humidity can also be a problem, especially over longer periods of time. As for large pellets causing problems, I agree with @LMichaels.

Over the years, I've probably used more Pit Boss pellets than anything else but have also used Bear Mountain when I find them locally, as well as many other brands and haven't had any of them cause a jam. The only jams I've had have been after leaving the grill uncovered during severe thunderstorms. The fact that I don't sift out dust or small pieces may have been a contributing factor. I do live in the high desert, so humidity generally isn't a problem.

I can't speak specifically about Webers, as my only pellet grill is a 12 year old Traeger. Most pellet grills use the same, or similar auger configuration as Traeger, so those who use different pellet feeds may well have problem more related to the grill's ability to feed pellets with certain characteristics.

Many manufacturers recommend using their own brand of pellets. Some even say that using other brands will void their warranty, even if they don't make their own. I understand the blame game and am pretty sure it was started by Traeger and proliferated by many other manufacturers, primarily to sell more of their brand of pellets. I've never heard of any manufacturer voiding a warranty because other pellets were used.