How To Clean A Traeger Pellet Hopper

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by Chef Jason from 5280 Culinary

We get a lot of questions about how to clean and maintain our Traeger Pellet Hopper, so we thought it was time for a video and some tips.  These tips will help you ensure your hopper is running smooth and not full of sawdust or debris.

How To Clean ATraeger Pellet Hopper

Chef Jason K. Morse, CEC  |  Ace Hardware Grill Expert  |  Owner, 5280 Culinary

Cleaning Tips:

  • When to clean your grill
    • I clean mine every 3-5 cooks, more often if I’m cooking higher fat foods
  • Steps to clean your Traeger Pellet Hopper
    1. Make sure grill is cool and unplugged
    2. Open Pellet hopper lid, place 5 gallon bucket under the back pellet door and drain pellets into a bucket. Save for re-use
      1. If your Traeger doesn’t have a pellet hopper drain door, use a smaller plastic cup and scoop out ALL the Pellets
    3. Vacuum out the hopper to remove any excess sawdust, vacuum out down into the auger as well
    4. Verify inside hopper is clean and all parts/bolts are tight and everything is in working order
    5. Spray some shop towels with Traeger spray and wipe down the inside of the hopper and hopper door
      • Vacuum out any leftover dust if needed
    6. Check hopper and grill for visual cues
      • Is the Hopper Clean
      • How much saw dust is in the auger entrance?
        • Do I need to clean out the auger too?

Is the auger tight or does it have excessive play?

  1. Is the hopper lid on tight?
  2. Is the hopper dump door tightly attached?
  1. Once you have verified the internal hopper and its cleanliness
  2. Refill pellet hopper with pellets
  3. Re-prime auger if you emptied the auger when you emptied the hopper
    1. On WiFire grills there is a prime auger mode in the menu
    2. On other model Traegers, run the grill thru low temp start up and when pellets start to reach the fire pot, turn grill into shutdown mode
  4. Plug grill in (good time to check the cord), Turn on the grill, turn to 200 degrees and ignite. Once grill reaches 200 degrees, verify operation and place grill back into shutdown mode
    1. You can skip this part and wait until your next cook to do it

Grills / Grill Gear Used:

 

For more recipes, go to Tips.Acehardware.com.

  
Published: 3/4/2020