Funny smell

[MAJ]

I have had my Austin XL for one year . I absolutely love it . However , yesterday during some basic grilling , I couldn’t help but notice the smoke coming out of the chimney did not have a pleasant smoke smell but rather one like burnt plastic or something . I’m currently using mesquite pellets and usually the smoke has a pleasant aroma , regardless of which pellets I’m using . I clean out the insides on a frequent basis . Any thoughts ??

 

[Peaches66]

I had the same thing today! I cooked ribs for about 3.5 hours, removed them and upped the temp to 350 to grill some vegetables.... when I came back out to use the grill smoke was pouring out of it! Thick horrible smelling smoke! The temperature wasn’t regulating properly so I shut it off and started over! The squash tasted like burnt plastic! I use competition blend pellets and this is about the 12th time I’ve used it in the 3 weeks I’ve had it.... no problems prior to now’

 

[MAJ]

I had the same thing today! I cooked ribs for about 3.5 hours, removed them and upped the temp to 350 to grill some vegetables.... when I came back out to use the grill smoke was pouring out of it! Thick horrible smelling smoke! The temperature wasn’t regulating properly so I shut it off and started over! The squash tasted like burnt plastic! I use competition blend pellets and this is about the 12th time I’ve used it in the 3 weeks I’ve had it.... no problems prior to now’

 

[MAJ]

That’s interesting . Do you normally do a burn off like they recommend ? I just know that when I do a burn off at about 350 , a considerable amount of smoke will come out until it burns off all the excess “gunk” on the inside . I did take off my cap to the smoke stack and thoroughly cleaned all the residue that had built up and after that my smoke was smelling good again.
I did have a glitch last weekend . I was doing a long smoke on ribs and sometime between the 2 and 3 hour mark , my fire had gone out . I had it set on 200 . Not really sure why that happened as this was a first for me . Maybe since I didn’t thoroughly clean my fire pot beforehand , that may have caused it ? I have since cleaned everything out and all seems to be working like normal now .
Keep on smoking !! ?

 

[Peaches66]

That’s interesting . Do you normally do a burn off like they recommend ? I just know that when I do a burn off at about 350 , a considerable amount of smoke will come out until it burns off all the excess “gunk” on the inside . I did take off my cap to the smoke stack and thoroughly cleaned all the residue that had built up and after that my smoke was smelling good again.
I did have a glitch last weekend . I was doing a long smoke on ribs and sometime between the 2 and 3 hour mark , my fire had gone out . I had it set on 200 . Not really sure why that happened as this was a first for me . Maybe since I didn’t thoroughly clean my fire pot beforehand , that may have caused it ? I have since cleaned everything out and all seems to be working like normal now .
Keep on smoking !! ?

I’ll definitely try cleaning it all out! It’s new and I’ve cooked on it a dozen times. The smoke was just a terrible smelling thick smoke.... kinda greenish in color! I’ll sure try a good Spring Cleaning!