ABT MELTDOWN

[car54]

Yesterday I had 40 ABT's in the smoker when I noticed a HUGE amount of smoke coming out of the Bradley. The door thermometer was at 350 degrees. I figured the the bacon grease might be on fire. I cautiously opened the door and a fire began. I closed the door immediately and the fire stopped because of lack of oxygen. I immediately unplugged the Bradley and let it cool down. About 5 minutes later it was cool enough to open with out the fire starting again.

Here is what I think happened. I bought some bacon that was on sale. When wrapping it I noticed that it was a regular cut and not a thin cut. It was probably the fattest bacon that I have seen. I put them in the smoker when they were cold. The heater was on continually  because of the cold ABT's. An immense amount of fat was melting and landing on the V tray right above where the heater is. Because the heater was on continuously the V tray was extremely hot causing the fat to smolder. When I opened the door the fire began due to increased oxygen.

Next time I will use thin cut bacon with less fat and I will allow the ABT's to come up to room temperature before putting them in the smoker.

The smoker appears to have no damage but I will open up the back to check the insulation and wiring.

Brad

[pensrock]

You may want to wipe down the inside of the tower in case any of the burned fat got onto the walls. It may cause a rather nasty taste to other foods. I would not make it shiny new clean but at least wipe it off some.

[Mr Walleye]

Brad

Good catch and thinking!

Just a thought... If you are ever concerned that something will drip too much fat what you can do is put a tin foil roaster on the bottom rack, about the size of the item your smoking, to catch the fat drippings before it lands on the V-pan. I guess you could also make one out of tin foil as well.

I have never found the need to do this even when I have 2 or 3 butts in and some of the time my V-pan has a ton of goo on it when I'm done. I do completely clean my V-pan after every smoke for that reason though.

Mike

[westexasmoker]

Brad

Sounds like it could have been alot worse, wonder why the temp ramped up so high?

C

[Habanero Smoker]

Sorry to hear about the Bradley catching fire, glad you were able to extinguish it.

This is a good time to post this link: Is there any fire hazardous using this smoker, and how do I prevent it?

[car54]

Pensrock,
I will thoroughly clean and reseason it. I ran it today with nothing in it and it did not smell good.

Westexasmokerer,
I checked everything out including the high temperature cut off and it is working as it should. I firmly believe that the temperature gain was a result of opening the door about 4 times and each time a fire flared up for about 2 seconds until  I closed the door and shut off th oxygen input.

I think everything will be OK.

I have learned from this and I hope others can also.

Brad

[Consiglieri]

Glad to hear that you caught this in time.  I turned my back on some dinosaur bones that I had transferred from the smoker to the grill.  Took awhile for that one to burn off.