Yoder Smokers Community Forum

I started up my 640 (about 7 years old) and the fan wasn't running during start up like I am used to hearing. I actually hadn't noticed except for huge amount of smoke was coming out from the pit. I closed the lid and about 2 minutes later there was a substantial explosion. It opened the lid about 1-2 feet high then closed. After the explosion I noticed a large amount of pellets had stacked up. My guess is without being stoked by the fan, the pellets overloaded the pit and eventually the glow plug/igniter ignited the un-burnt fuel gasses that had collected inside the smoker after I closed the lid.

I opened up the unit and thoroughly vacuumed all pellets after extinguishing the now burning remnants. I went on to cook 4 shoulders for the next 9 hours with no further issues. Would it be fair to guess I may have a faulty fan assembly? Anyone else had this happen? I am going to zero time the smoker with a thorough cleaning no matter what but I worry it will happen again.