Yoder Smokers Community Forum

Just received my 480 Competition and finished the burn in. All went well. Was going to do some Jerky at 170 degrees however Yoder does not seem to want to start up. Tried the automatic setting of 350 and it worked well then reduced temperature back down to 170 degrees but it dropped below 150 degrees and there does not appear to be a burn. Turned it off and then set the temp at 170 and can hear auger dropping pellets but no burn. Question is do I have to start at the auto setting of 350 each time I use the smoker or will it fire at a lower temp setting.
Appreciate any help that is out there

Best to start at 250+ I have learned to preheat for smoking at 225f or so, I have started at 220 with no issues. Did you check to see if the pellets actually went out when you dropped to 170f?

Dunno, just some thoughts....

Yes they went out at 170. It is cold here today so maybe I am just not giving it enough pellets to heat up. Have it now set at 250 in order to get 170 degrees and it seems to be holding.
Thanks for the response.

Left it on at 250 degree setting and thermometer showed around 150 degrees. On for a few hours at that temp and it stopped burning pellets and
went out on it's own.

Any suggestions?

Sounds like you have moisture contaminated pellets. Time to empty out the hopper and try a known good bag of pellets.

Never store pellets directly on the floor, or against an outside wall.

These are brand new BBQ Delight from the dealer. Any chance that I need to adjust the igniter? Maybe bring it out a bit further from the igniter tube? Right now it looks like it is sitting flush with the tube but I read it should be out 1/8 inch.

Thanks so much

It can be out 1/8", but should not come in contact with the burn grate. The igniter only comes on for the first 4 to 5 minutes after pressing start, and has nothing to do after that.

If the fire is going out, and you have unburned pellets in the burn grate, this historically suggests that the pellets are moisture contaminated. I had my cooker set to 400 yesterday for an hour after cleaning, then dropped it to 170 degrees and had no issues. The cooker can, and will, do this without issue, if, the pellets are good and the cooker is clean and maintained.

You can check to make sure both fans are working: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=354

Make sure that there are no obstructions to the air flow (foil).

Sorry for my ignorance but think I only have one fan on the 480 and it appears to be working. My pellets were all burned down when it went out last time. I just adjusted the igniter a bit from the tube and removed the foil from the diffuser in case it was obstructing air flow . I tried to light it at 250 and could see the igniter glow red but by the time the hopper had enough pellets in it the igniter went off. At 350 it lit well. Have just turned it down to 170 to see how long it will last.
Appreciate the help

Again the pellets went out after about an hour. Outside temp is -5 degrees Celcius with strong wind so is their a possibility that the outside temp is just too cold to hold it at 170 degrees at that setting? Should I have raised the temp and just concentrated on the grill thermometer as a gage instead of the controller?

Sorry to be a pain!

I just replied to your email as well.

Let me explain further...from your description; both of your fans are working, the igniter is working, and pellets are dropping into the burn grate...this tells me that the cooker is performing as it should, but pellets are hard to ignite and the fire goes out when the temperature is dropped from the default.

This points to moisture contaminated pellet fuel. Here is why; when pellets are manufactures they contain between 6 to 8 percent moisture. This means that, in simple terms, that they are dry sponges. The bags that pellets are packaged in are not moisture or water proof, and will allow moisture, condensation and water into the bag. If the bags are stored directly on the floor, especially a concrete floor, or stored against an outside wall, they will wick moisture into the bag. On a concrete floor, they will actually draw enough moisture to leave a wet spot when the bag is lifted up. Raising the moisture content above 10% is enough to cause the pellets to start performing erratically, i.e., hard to ignite, low temperature output, and hard to maintain a flame.

From all indications, from your descriptions, the cooker is working like it should. I have seen this hundreds of times, and in 99% of the reported cases, the pellets are moisture contaminated, probably before you received them. The pellets are hard to start, once started, the temperature is erratic, and if the temperature is dropped from a high temperature to a low temperature, the pellets dropping will actually extinguish the flame, as they can't catch fire quickly enough to sustain the flame.

The first step is to try some different pellets, some known good pellets, i.e., from the top of the stack that have been stored inside.

Coffeebob wrote:Again the pellets went out after about an hour. Outside temp is -5 degrees Celcius with strong wind so is their a possibility that the outside temp is just too cold to hold it at 170 degrees at that setting? Should I have raised the temp and just concentrated on the grill thermometer as a gage instead of the controller?

Sorry to be a pain!

The cooker doesn't care what the outside temperature is, and it will just feed more and more pellets, if required, to maintain the temperature that you set on the controller. I think that the dropping pellets are smothering the flame and putting it out. Again, if the cooker is working properly, as you describe, this points to bad pellet fuel, and any pellet brand can become bad if not handled or stored correctly.

Before cleaning the cooker, take a picture of the ash pattern in the bottom of the cooker, and then of the residual ash in the burn grate, and email them to customerservice@yodersmokers.com, or post them here.

Also, if the fire went out, there should be unburned pellets in the burn grate, as the auger will continue to feed pellets in an attempt to maintain temperature, as it does not know if there is an active fire or not.