PS850II hopper/pellet issue

[jaijason]

Now that I have a few longer smokes under my belt and wanting to do longer brisket smokes overnight i'm concerned about the hopper design feeding pellets into the auger. After about 5-6 hours the pellets are all gone from the middle and are stuck on the sides. I have to use something the push the pellets back to the center. When this happens I begin to lose my temps. Are there any fixes for this?

 

[Sparky]

I use a paint stir stick to move the pellets. I'm an old stick burner and I just can't make myself leave a smoker unattended.

 

[MKinHB]

take the grate off and periodically use your hands to move the pellets around to prevent bridging.

 

[jaijason]

I do that during day smokes but if I want to smoke overnight I don't want to get up in the middle of the night to move pellets.

 

[Jimsmokes]

Over fill it right before leaving it overnight. I set a low and high temp alarm on my grate temp probe.

 

[JerryM]

Now that I have a few longer smokes under my belt and wanting to do longer brisket smokes overnight i'm concerned about the hopper design feeding pellets into the auger. After about 5-6 hours the pellets are all gone from the middle and are stuck on the sides. I have to use something the push the pellets back to the center. When this happens I begin to lose my temps. Are there any fixes for this?

I start my brisket about 11:00 p.m. I feel the hopper and set my smoker on 180. That is my smoke mode on my 1150 pro. I have a a probe that I set at about 160 for the low temperature and it has an alarm. It worked just fine and I had no problems. I did get up a few times through the night though.

 

[Jimsmokes]

I know we all like low and slow and need extra time in smoke with pellets. To achieve the smoke flavor we crave.
As a cook though we need to be sure to follow the. 40-140-4 rule especially if we've injected a thick cut.

 

[JJJ]

Same problem here. Is pitboss going to address this? I know some guys who actually fabricated their own inner hopper with a better slope. Over $700 smoker should not have this kind of design flaw.

 

[jaijason]

Same problem here. Is pitboss going to address this? I know some guys who actually fabricated their own inner hopper with a better slope. Over $700 smoker should not have this kind of design flaw.

Seems like everything people "engineer" these days they fail to actually test it.

 

[Powderhorn01]

Pit Boss, does make a hopper extension that fits the 850.

 

[Redoctapus]

Now that I have a few longer smokes under my belt and wanting to do longer brisket smokes overnight i'm concerned about the hopper design feeding pellets into the auger. After about 5-6 hours the pellets are all gone from the middle and are stuck on the sides. I have to use something the push the pellets back to the center. When this happens I begin to lose my temps. Are there any fixes for this?

I've experienced bridging a couple times. On my PBV5 it happens when the pellet hopper gets below the last 1/3, so before I leave it unattended I top it off. I have a huge screwdriver/pry bar that reaches down into that hopper. On my barrel smokers I have this type of hopper extentions:

Check this out!
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I bought mine several years ago before they were available on Amazon. 5 years ago I found them on ebay. This cured my problems! With the extended hopper I used RTV and aluminum duct tape. GMG smokers have a hopper fan to keep positive air pressure in the hopper and auger feed path.
On over night cooks I sleep with one eye open and I check my smoker about every 2 hours. My butcher is proud of his meat, I can't "set it and forget it" especially if I have a loaded smoker!

 

[Redoctapus]

I know we all like low and slow and need extra time in smoke with pellets. To achieve the smoke flavor we crave.
As a cook though we need to be sure to follow the. 40-140-4 rule especially if we've injected a thick cut.

This rule is why ovens for our home have a lowest setting around 155F. New Commercial ovens like Alto Shaam cook-hold ovens are like this too, (which sucks) I found an older cook-hold oven so I can use lower temps than "the powers that be" have regulated us to.

Costco now sells meat that has been mechanically tenderized, so this meat is like meat cuts that we inject. The process has the possibility of introducing pathogens into (below) the surface of the meat. I wouldn't buy a steak or roast that I want medium rare from them, but stew meat yes.

Hamburger that you grind from a large primal cut of meat, like a brisket or top round is "ok", but grinding "beef trim", "not ok." The idea of grinding your own primal cuts allows you to trim and discard the outer portions then sanitize tools and boards, and chunk the meat and grind it for rare-midrare burgers.

Pork and wild game have some inherent problems... What is trichinosis? Trichinosis is a food-borne disease caused by a microscopic parasite called Trichinella. People can get this disease by eating raw or undercooked meat from animals infected with the parasite. Often these infected meats come from wild game, such as bear, or pork products. Pork trichinella has been seldom seen in America in the last 40 years due to our better food handling and processing practices.

Somehow we all get by, like searing a steak and eating it with a cool internal temp and sushi. Some restaurants serve sashimi like a tuna steak flash seared then sliced with various accouterments.. And "eat raw oysters at your own risk."
The only items I cold smoke are edible raw.

Putting a prime rib in a cook hold oven works because the first step sterilizes the iven and the external areas of primal cut by roasting at 220F for 2-3 hours then without opening the door lowering the temp to 122F for 8-24 hours.

I start my cook timer when I pull the meat from the refrigerator.

I've been known to prep my briskets and pork butts on my tailgate on newspaper or peach paper or foil pan.

My Granny cooked her turkeys low and slow all night in her Oster table top roaster, but Butterball warns everyone about doing this. I have one now.

Still crazy after all these years.