In this video, I am showing you how pellets can be mixed with wood chips (up to 50%) in the LSG Pellet Smoker. If you own another brand of pellet grill, try this at your own risk.
I think what helps it work in this cooker is the tiny length of the auger. Definitely would be interested in others being the Guinea pig for cookers with long style open center augers.
Thanks Greg! I have done this type of cook for a while now and it is nice to see that you have covered what so many people have considered me crazy for doing lol
I found the best use of smoker pellets. I use processed smoker pellets and place them around my property in smoke tubes. I usually have 4-6 smoke tubes burning around my property to prevent mosquitoes. Mosquitoes hate the smell of all smoker pellets. Try it. Cheers!!
I appreciate you following up with people's questions. The closeup of the wood ashes was very informative. Good to know the 50/50 pellets and wood chips improves the smoke flavor.
After your first video I ordered a box of chips from LSG. Used a 50/50 mixture in my 7 year old Rec Tec 1250 over the weekend smoking some pork steaks. 6 hour cook (225 degrees) and they turned out fantastic! Pellet consumption seemed about normal.
How’s the Rec teq been for you ? I’m leaning the 1250 or going with the lone star grillz pellet smoker. Tough choice but the Rec teq is way way cheaper
I’ve had similar success using 50% LSG wood chips in my Memphis Grills Pro Elite 36” and cook on it 2-4 times per week. I suspect the over-engineered, powerful augers are the reason I’ve had no issues whatsoever. Further, the auger feeds a long slide that feeds the firebox, so there’s no chance of burn back (my original concern , as straight wood chips generally combust more easily than pellets). I love the added smoke flavor and deeper smoke ring! Thanks for your comprehensive review!
Every time you put your hand in the hopper without the "idiot guard" I cringed because I expected that the auger would pull your fingers through 14" of wood pellets and chips and grind them up like your meat grinder. The lightning speed of the auger wouldn't give you a chance to get your hand out in time. Where is the outrage for not having such a vital safety device installed? 😂😂 Great stuff Greg!! Thanks for staying at the leading edge of new and unique techniques. Prayers for your son!
I am confident that this method will work. However, in your situation, when it came time to cut into the ribs and take your first bite, it was apparent... Very apparent that the ribs could have gone for at least 1.5-2 more hours. The first cut alone told the tail. then the bite confirmed it. It not only looked, and sounded like it needed more time, the rubbery sound that was I heard when you were chewing it was also an indicator. I have no doubt that adding chips to your hopper will work, but in this case., 8hrs just wasnt enough. As always, Thanks for sharing sir. You are absolutely on my top 5 list for bbq and out of the box grilling techniques. Thanks for sharing your creativity brother :)
Very thorough video brother. I have to agree when I say that I notice a difference as well and I haven’t even gone with a 50-50 mix yet I’ve been doing more like 30% wood but it’s a noticeable difference. I haven’t seen a pellet cooker yet with an auger that I think could feed those chips or at least I don’t think I would try. I’m sure it would lead to some type of failure, but the LSG’s design is perfect for this. Great video as always! Cheers 🍻
I did a test run, 4hrs of the 50/50 blend in my GMG Davy Crocket. Ran like a champ. Will try a rack of ribs to see if I can tell if there is any more some flavor. Thanks for the info.
After your first video on this, I immediately went online to the LSG web site and bought 3 bags of wood chips. On my first cook, I was too lazy to empty out the wood hopper so I was just guessing at the 50-50 mixture. Unfortunately, I ended up using too many wood chips and the pit had a hard time getting up to temp. I've now got the hopper balanced out pretty well. I think the pellet\wood chip combo leaves more ash in the bottom of the pit, and especially more debris in the firepit. Previously, I was able to go 8 or 9 cooks without vacuuming out the pit, but I don't think I'm going to be able to that long with the new combo. As of now, I've done only reverse sears using the combo, but today, I'm smoking jerky for 4 to 41/2 hours, so we'll see how that goes. I expect the jerky to have a very strong smoke flavor. Thanks for turning us all on to the availability of using wood chips on the LSG Pellet Grill.
Great video! #1. You said “Jankey” not once, but twice! #2. Your LSG door squeaks like mine I like you 👍🏻 Looking forward to running chip’s through mine very soon.
I tried this twice today on my Yoder 640s with approx. 50/50 mix of the LSG wood chips (oak) and Lumberjack Hickory pellets. First time the auger jammed after about 20 minutes. Little piece of wood chip lodged between the auger and cylinder right at the inlet. Cleaned everything out, made sure it was running smoothly, and then loaded it again. Second time it went about 1.5 hrs before it jammed. Until then it was holding a nice steady temp (had it set for 250 deg). Then it fell off a cliff. Was running without food to prove the concept so no idea about flavor. Would NOT recommend it with a Yoder. Auger isn't very long, but there seems to be just enough room for the small wood pieces to get lodged. Oh well...
Tried this on my pitboss after watching your last video. Smell and flavor were almost exactly as good as a stick smoker! Did get 1 jam though. I'll be using this method from now on anyways!
New to pellet grilling. Found your blend video by happenstance. Loved it. Appreciate you. 4k! Thanks. Subscribed. Looking forward to my new pellet grill journey... and seeing if this blend idea will work on my Zgrill. Bravo!
I just got my box of wood chips delivered from LSG. Gonna give this a go in my Memphis Elite this week! Similar to the LSG, the Memphis is built like a tank, so I think the augers can handle it. The chips are nice and small, so I don't forsee a lot of jamming issues. UPDATE: I successfully tested my Memphis Elite pellet grill with this technique today. I ran the smoker for 3.5 hours at 250 degrees, 50/50 mix wood chips and pellets. Pellet consumption was pretty close to normal, temp was rock-steady, no unusual sounds or strain from the augers, no jamming. I checked the burn-pot every 45 mins to make sure it was burning clean and consistent, no issues. Ash production was very consistent with what Greg showed in his video. Produced very consistent thin blue smoke throughout the test. I will smoke a couple of racks of pork ribs this weekend, can't wait to taste the smoke profile. NOTE: This technique worked for me, but try this AT YOUR OWN RISK. It most likely goes against your manufacturer's recommendations.
Well, how did the ribs turn out? I'm gonna try this on my P.O.S. Traeger. I have new fans,auger, etc, anyways waiting for another failure... (Common with those).
@@Blackheart7-5 The ribs were decent. I was expecting more smoke flavor, honestly. For ribs it was just fine, since I don't care for heavy smoke flavor with pork ribs. I just did a brisket last weekend, and same thing, the smoke flavor was pretty light. For beef, I prefer a little heavier smoke profile. The Memphis handled the wood chip mixture just fine on this long cook (250 degrees for 11 hours). It produced clean smoke for the entire cook, no jamming, no unusual ash production.
I tried these chips on my Traeger 885 and the auger had trouble pushing them through. It worked for a while, but you could hear the auger squeaking like it was having a hard time passing them through. Maybe I’ll make more of a 70/30 mix next time.
Great follow up video, answered a lot of my questions but also left me with a few more. The biggest one comes from the very end of the video where you show what is left in the hopper and it seems to me that there is way more wood chips than pellets. That leaves me with this question. With pellets being more uniform and probably heavier then the wood chips, was there a separation of the two as they made their way to the auger? Did more pellets go through the hopper than wood chips?
Great video and the use of chips is very interesting. It's tough to know if different pellet types would have similar results. That said, Chris and the crew at LSG are awesome. I absolutely love my LSG Pellet Grill.
…Greg, would you say that the smoke flavor is the same as a off set stick burner? If not have you tried to close the smoke stack that only a quarter is open to keep even more smoke in as well as putting meat on the top shelf so more smoke hits it? Regards, Tony
We all have been wondering about the wood chips so thanks for putting this together Greg, very informative. When I do beef plate ribs like before I carve the meat I will slide the bones out which allows you to do brisket type slices (.25"ish) rather than cutting between the bones. This is easier to serve a few people......thanks again.
I'm half tempted to try this except I'm almost willing to try full on wood chips versus mixing. my grill is a pit boss so there is that. But i do totally agree that you don't get the smoke flavor with pellets that you would get with unprocessed wood. I've always lived in a natural forest wooded area and when i first began BBQing with charcoal I immediately knew that i'd rather use wood freely supplied wood from the forest versus buying charcoal. I've never used strictly one type of wood. So basically I'd grab whatever size piece wood was close to whatever length of cook time I felt I needed. Anyway that's why I'm curious to try straight up chips.
I did this 3 nights ago for a pork butt cook. I have the 42" LSG pellet grill as well. I used about 62% pellets (BBQer's Delight) and 38% wood chips (Western brand Hickory from Walmart) by weight. I did fill the hopper from bottom to top. Took about 2 hours and they jammed. I noticed in this video the wood chips you are using are about a third to half the size than the biggest pieces from the western brand. I agree with your statement of not buying just any wood chip off the shelf. I thought the pellets/chips created a wedge in the hopper causing the flame out but discovered a longer wood chip jammed between the end of the auger where it dumps inside and the steel "Back Board" that keeps the pellets falling down into the firepot. There was literally a 2" diameter wedge of pellets/chips jammed there. I'll give it another try with Chris' wood chips when he gets them back in stock. Thank you for this followup video, I should have paid closer attention to the first one regarding chip size LOL.
I am so sorry your son has been so ill. How would you compare the flavor to the Camp Chef that has the wood box? I know you own both. I am looking to get my first pellet but have been holding off because the food I have tasted from pellets has just not tasted as smoky to me.
I bought a box of the wood chips and made a mixture of 50% pellets to 50% wood chips. I placed this mixture in my Pit Boss Austin XL, but when I ran my grill it resulted in an auger jam - the mixture never made it to the burn pot. I will try one more time by diluting the mixture with more pellets and hope the outcome will work. My guess my PB has too long of an auger and/or too weak of an auger motor to properly feed the pellets/wood chips. No matter what, I think the idea is wonderful and others find success!
I ran a couple bags of Weber chips through my pit boss pellet smoker last year because I was totally out of pellets……..the auger managed fine Here in the U.K. I can get 40 pounds weight of pellets for 40 pounds money to roughly a pound a pound but chips run roughly 20 pounds money per pound weight smoking chips so I’ll be sticking to the smoke tube above the burn pot and 2 smouldering hardwood sticks above the grease trap which works out fine
I love how everything is advancing in this industry. That said, I would never try this with my SmokeFire. It's finicky when it comes to pellets and I can see wood chips sheering the bolt off the auger or jamming it at the least. Nice video!
You are absolutely correct. I've owned numerous Weber grills and when they came out with the SmokeFire I decided to pull the trigger. It's basically a replacement for a gas grill with a wood chip tube. It won't ignite with many brands of pellets. I've tried six different types of pellets thus far and the only one that works reliably is Jealous Devil Jax Legendary Blend. I live in Florida so maybe it's the high humidity. If I want to really smoke something, I use my Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker. I know that's comparing peaches to apples but, I expected more out of the SmokeFire. I was excited to see the smaller wood chips available and have been testing them. I started with a 50/50 mix and immediately jammed the auger. I restarted the smoker 4 times in an hour. I next tried a mix of to 60% pellets / 40% wood. That did work better but, still jammed about 2-3 times per hour. I'm down to 80% pellets / 20% wood and it's still jamming irregularly. I know the SmokeFire is NOT a wood chip burner and I'm not talking smack about it, I was just hoping for more smoke flavor.
@@billkelly1793 I use Lumberjack and have had great success with them. Also used Bear Mountain which stressed the auger but worked okay. BBQ Delight worked good as well. It might not give the awesome smoke flavor but it does produce awesome bark and smoke rings. Char Hickory has produced the strongest smoke for me, actually pretty good for a pellet cooker. It's been a good cooker for me for almost 3 years but it's like almost every other pellet grill. They give ease of use and let you get along with your day but trade off smoke flavor. Looks like LSG found a formula to fix that. Thought Camp Chef might have but head to head tests still look like it don't compare even to a gravity fed like Master Built.
I tried these with my 36" Traeger. I did a 50/50 blend of pellets and chips. Got an auger jam after 2 hours. Reduced it to 70% pellets, 30% chips, got an auger jam after 4 hours. You could really hear the auger straining to move the pellets through the auger tube. I've never had an auger jam in the 5 or so years I've had the Traeger. I would definitely not recommend this with longer augers. I noticed the same thing with the ash and the flavor. I'm really bummed this didn't work out better because it had a better flavor, even in those limited amount of hours than pellets alone.
I tried it with my Traeger, it ran for about 30 mins. Then it clogged. Lucky me it was right at the start of the auger and I was able to get it out. Could have been worse. But I love the idea.
Sup Greg, wow that was in-depth lol. Ribs looked awesome too. Last year made with a sweet hot pepper mustard BBQ sauce🤤😢, (2 ingredients. Inglehoffer sweet hot pepper mustard and cattleman's BBQ sauce 50/50😂), should try inglehoffer line of mustards made in Oregon I think? Friend is gonna live this video, it's everything he asked when saw last time mixing chips in the smoker 👊, tyvm tc 🍔🥩
I have a question about the auger motor in the grill, what kind is it and what is the rpm speed and torque rating. Cutting thru wood chips with the auger will require more torque. I would like to run chips with pellet mix thru my pellet grill.
Great video - I’ve been a long time user of mixing chips in with pellets on a smoke tube but never thought of just running them through the hopper. I have a YS640 which also has a beefy auger and I may try running a lean blend using if I can get ahold of some LSG’s chips :)
Great video but I have a quick question. Ive had that same grill for almost a year and cooked on it about 10 times and I get about a 35+ degree temp difference between the displayed "Pit Temp" and the guage on the lid as well as a probe at the center of the grate. Did you have any similar issues? What can I do besides runnimg the thing at 300 to cook at 250. Thanks
There is an option in the settings menu of the Fireboard controller to offset the Fireboard's pit probe (channel 7) so that it will match the Tel-Tru in the center of the pit. You can't adjust it from the app, you must do it on the Fireboard controller itself starting with a long press of the knob. The fireboard probe is located above the firepot and likely sees direct rising heat even with the deflector plate in place. I've noticed about a 25° difference between the probe and the Tel-Tru on a long brisket cook after the pit has been thoroughly heat soaked on my LSG. The down side is when the pit is off and cool, it'll read below ambient outside temps as much as you've offset it. That's the trade off, but it's worth it to me to be able to log accurate cook temps. If you're trying to really low temp smoke, (like smoking salmon) you might want to set the offset back to 0 to keep the temps down so the albumin doesn't bleed out.
@@aim4squirrels Thank you so much for replying, I thought I had gotten a very expensive lemon lol. Chris from LSG briefly explained that same fireboard feature for adjusting the channel 7 temp, I just have not seen anyone talk about this issue on the internet. It really surprises me that a high end smoker would need tampering in order to work decently. I've used used several cheaper pits without this issue. Still like the LSG though 😀
It's entirely possible many other pits with a temp controller have this exact same issue and the controller is simply pre-programmed with the offset already set and there's no option to adjust it. I prefer to have the granular adjustment ability offered to calibrate it. It does vary a bit in the hot Texas summer versus our winter temps.
yea , and thats a no in a pitboss Autson XL . wood chips got wedged in the auger . Good concept . but if it gets wedged in be prepared to get them out and sort them from the pellets
I'm curious, since the size and shape of pellets vs chips are so different, can you tell if they dispensed equally. It seems to me the pellets might be favored over the chips as gravity pulls them through, much like sand would fall through gravel. Just curious.
Well, this is a follow up comment to my original post, which I can’t find. I bought a bag of cherry wood chips from Home Depot and lightly mix them with some pellets. I pulled out some of the longer chips that were probably finger length and splintered, whatever needless to say, I heard my auger, struggling/popping sounds, but by the time I could turn it off, I shared the shear pin on a woodwind 24 classic. It’s pretty obvious that the wood chips we’re not small enough. Needless to say I will not be trying this again because I don’t have the patience to go through a whole bag of wood chips and sort them out. I’m totally not thrilled with the smoke flavor on a pellet grill. I came from egg style cooking and I will be going back to charcoal/ wood next season. Looking at the Masterbuilt gravity 850 from Costco.
Sadly, LSG is chronically sold out of the chips. Are there any other companies that sell similar sized chips? I have considered making my own using a chainsaw, but without the bar and chain oil, of course. Thanks for the great video!
Greg, I think you should share a little more info on what kind of chips they were possibly. It seems like everybody’s breaking their augers trying this. I remember a company a while back that used to sell trays that you put your wood chips in and lit the end of it and it’ snaked around burning. I have never been able to get my smoke tube to work either.
Hi John, I mean I talked about the size of the chips, measuring them and showing a good closeup. LSG sells these specially-sized chips (as I explained), but I am open to suggestions on how to make this better. Please let me know specifically how I could make this happen. Thanks!
I tried just throwing a few chips into a recent cook and it sounded like death, the auger was obviously struggling with something in there. It also produced an eventual back burn near the end of the cook. I personally wouldn't do it again tbh and just use my charcoal grills if I wanted to introduce actual wood.
I tried it on my LSG. I don't recommend trying it with heb wood chips. Hour and 1/2 into the cook, the temp was dropping. I had a jam. Their chips are at least double the size you show here. Not all but most. I'll habe to run to Lone Star and grab some of theirs.
Sooo, what is the ultimate benefit from this? Better smoke flavor? Cheaper fuel? Can you mix cheap pellets with quality chips for good flavor? Longer burn time with the chip mix? More quality smoke?
First hand account, these did not work well wit my traeger timberline 1300. The auger could not handle the size of the chips, and the temperature fluctuated wildly until I removed them and cleared the auger. I was hoping they worked, back to tube smokers to augment the smoke flavor
Doubtful. Weak auger motors and hardware(bolts shearing) and too tight of tolerances cause jams. If the industry would shift to wood chips vs. The pellets....or I should say wood chips and or pellets, these type of grills would be much more popular.
Another very informative video, great job! One thing you missed - what flavor does the dime give the cook?😵💫. Seriously, your videos are great, keep’ ‘em coming!
I have a Mak grills smoker and can DEFINITELY say these DO NOT work with a MAK. I'm going to start trying to see if there's a ratio that will even work at all. Can confirm that 50/50 doesn't work. 40/60 doesn't work, 30/70 doesn't work.
@@BarryMunkasy jam city. That's why I mentioned lowering the percentage over and over. The smell was fantastic right up until it jammed. And it's not fun at all getting those pulled out.
@@BarryMunkasy since Mak has extremely good customer service, I sent them a message asking if there's a more powerful auger motor or possibly a way to sharpen the auger. I'll let ya know what they said.
I did. Was making a brisket last week and it jams the auger frequently. You can hear the auger squeaking a lot like it’s having a hard time passing it through. Really wish it went better. Maybe use less chips next time. Like a 70/30 mix. You should really pay attention to it and be there to clear the auger jams, or as it displays, “auger overcurrent”.
In this video, I am showing you how pellets can be mixed with wood chips (up to 50%) in the LSG Pellet Smoker. If you own another brand of pellet grill, try this at your own risk.
I think what helps it work in this cooker is the tiny length of the auger. Definitely would be interested in others being the Guinea pig for cookers with long style open center augers.
Thanks Greg! I have done this type of cook for a while now and it is nice to see that you have covered what so many people have considered me crazy for doing lol
@@richbennett6577 an LSG pellet?
@@txfieros no a cheap ass master built one I bought at Lowe’s for $179
@@txfieros it’s the size of the wood chips that is what makes it work or not
I found the best use of smoker pellets. I use processed smoker pellets and place them around my property in smoke tubes. I usually have 4-6 smoke tubes burning around my property to prevent mosquitoes. Mosquitoes hate the smell of all smoker pellets. Try it. Cheers!!
I appreciate you following up with people's questions. The closeup of the wood ashes was very informative. Good to know the 50/50 pellets and wood chips improves the smoke flavor.
After your first video I ordered a box of chips from LSG. Used a 50/50 mixture in my 7 year old Rec Tec 1250 over the weekend smoking some pork steaks. 6 hour cook (225 degrees) and they turned out fantastic! Pellet consumption seemed about normal.
How’s the Rec teq been for you ? I’m leaning the 1250 or going with the lone star grillz pellet smoker. Tough choice but the Rec teq is way way cheaper
@@chicity6134it’s been perfect! I have no regrets.
@chicity6134 the LSG produces more smoke
I’ve had similar success using 50% LSG wood chips in my Memphis Grills Pro Elite 36” and cook on it 2-4 times per week. I suspect the over-engineered, powerful augers are the reason I’ve had no issues whatsoever. Further, the auger feeds a long slide that feeds the firebox, so there’s no chance of burn back (my original concern , as straight wood chips generally combust more easily than pellets). I love the added smoke flavor and deeper smoke ring! Thanks for your comprehensive review!
Every time you put your hand in the hopper without the "idiot guard" I cringed because I expected that the auger would pull your fingers through 14" of wood pellets and chips and grind them up like your meat grinder. The lightning speed of the auger wouldn't give you a chance to get your hand out in time. Where is the outrage for not having such a vital safety device installed? 😂😂 Great stuff Greg!! Thanks for staying at the leading edge of new and unique techniques. Prayers for your son!
Great info and a great idea from Chris to incorporate wood chips with pellets. Beef ribs looked tremendous bro!!!! YUM! Cheers!!!
I am confident that this method will work. However, in your situation, when it came time to cut into the ribs and take your first bite, it was apparent... Very apparent that the ribs could have gone for at least 1.5-2 more hours. The first cut alone told the tail. then the bite confirmed it. It not only looked, and sounded like it needed more time, the rubbery sound that was I heard when you were chewing it was also an indicator. I have no doubt that adding chips to your hopper will work, but in this case., 8hrs just wasnt enough. As always, Thanks for sharing sir. You are absolutely on my top 5 list for bbq and out of the box grilling techniques. Thanks for sharing your creativity brother :)
Very thorough video brother. I have to agree when I say that I notice a difference as well and I haven’t even gone with a 50-50 mix yet I’ve been doing more like 30% wood but it’s a noticeable difference. I haven’t seen a pellet cooker yet with an auger that I think could feed those chips or at least I don’t think I would try. I’m sure it would lead to some type of failure, but the LSG’s design is perfect for this. Great video as always! Cheers 🍻
I did a test run, 4hrs of the 50/50 blend in my GMG Davy Crocket. Ran like a champ. Will try a rack of ribs to see if I can tell if there is any more some flavor. Thanks for the info.
The ribs turned out great. Quite a lot of juice. I hppe your son gets better, as soon as possible. Cheers, Greg! 👍🏻👍🏻✌️
After your first video on this, I immediately went online to the LSG web site and bought 3 bags of wood chips. On my first cook, I was too lazy to empty out the wood hopper so I was just guessing at the 50-50 mixture. Unfortunately, I ended up using too many wood chips and the pit had a hard time getting up to temp. I've now got the hopper balanced out pretty well. I think the pellet\wood chip combo leaves more ash in the bottom of the pit, and especially more debris in the firepit. Previously, I was able to go 8 or 9 cooks without vacuuming out the pit, but I don't think I'm going to be able to that long with the new combo. As of now, I've done only reverse sears using the combo, but today, I'm smoking jerky for 4 to 41/2 hours, so we'll see how that goes. I expect the jerky to have a very strong smoke flavor. Thanks for turning us all on to the availability of using wood chips on the LSG Pellet Grill.
Updates please!
Great video!
#1. You said “Jankey” not once, but twice!
#2. Your LSG door squeaks like mine
I like you 👍🏻
Looking forward to running chip’s through mine very soon.
Thanks for answering so many of the questions that were thrown at you in the last video. It is appreciated 👍
Those might be the best looking beef ribs I've ever seen. Greg is the goat 🐐.
Great video. Would love to see a brisket cook with the 50/50 mix.
I'm sure that it was a total coincidence that the burn ended at 420 🙂 The ribs looked righteous, Greg, and the explanation was thorough. Thanks!
I tried this twice today on my Yoder 640s with approx. 50/50 mix of the LSG wood chips (oak) and Lumberjack Hickory pellets. First time the auger jammed after about 20 minutes. Little piece of wood chip lodged between the auger and cylinder right at the inlet. Cleaned everything out, made sure it was running smoothly, and then loaded it again. Second time it went about 1.5 hrs before it jammed. Until then it was holding a nice steady temp (had it set for 250 deg). Then it fell off a cliff. Was running without food to prove the concept so no idea about flavor. Would NOT recommend it with a Yoder. Auger isn't very long, but there seems to be just enough room for the small wood pieces to get lodged. Oh well...
Those ribs looked amazing! That LSG pellet grill is my dream. I will get it one day
Be interested how a 50 50 blend of wood chips and the charcoal pellets would taste.
Great video as usual Greg. I wonder if this might work on my Grilla Silverbac?! Hope your son is feeling better!!
Tried this on my pitboss after watching your last video. Smell and flavor were almost exactly as good as a stick smoker! Did get 1 jam though. I'll be using this method from now on anyways!
Thanks for your reply as I too have a PIT Boss and I really want to try this method. How did you clear the jam
Please update this thread, pit boss user as well here and would love to try this method
@@jarvisdudley3772 drained the hopper and used a little screwdriver.
New to pellet grilling. Found your blend video by happenstance. Loved it. Appreciate you. 4k! Thanks. Subscribed. Looking forward to my new pellet grill journey... and seeing if this blend idea will work on my Zgrill. Bravo!
I just got my box of wood chips delivered from LSG. Gonna give this a go in my Memphis Elite this week! Similar to the LSG, the Memphis is built like a tank, so I think the augers can handle it. The chips are nice and small, so I don't forsee a lot of jamming issues.
UPDATE: I successfully tested my Memphis Elite pellet grill with this technique today. I ran the smoker for 3.5 hours at 250 degrees, 50/50 mix wood chips and pellets. Pellet consumption was pretty close to normal, temp was rock-steady, no unusual sounds or strain from the augers, no jamming. I checked the burn-pot every 45 mins to make sure it was burning clean and consistent, no issues. Ash production was very consistent with what Greg showed in his video. Produced very consistent thin blue smoke throughout the test. I will smoke a couple of racks of pork ribs this weekend, can't wait to taste the smoke profile. NOTE: This technique worked for me, but try this AT YOUR OWN RISK. It most likely goes against your manufacturer's recommendations.
Well, how did the ribs turn out? I'm gonna try this on my P.O.S. Traeger. I have new fans,auger, etc, anyways waiting for another failure... (Common with those).
@@Blackheart7-5 The ribs were decent. I was expecting more smoke flavor, honestly. For ribs it was just fine, since I don't care for heavy smoke flavor with pork ribs. I just did a brisket last weekend, and same thing, the smoke flavor was pretty light. For beef, I prefer a little heavier smoke profile. The Memphis handled the wood chip mixture just fine on this long cook (250 degrees for 11 hours). It produced clean smoke for the entire cook, no jamming, no unusual ash production.
I tried these chips on my Traeger 885 and the auger had trouble pushing them through. It worked for a while, but you could hear the auger squeaking like it was having a hard time passing them through. Maybe I’ll make more of a 70/30 mix next time.
Great follow up video, answered a lot of my questions but also left me with a few more. The biggest one comes from the very end of the video where you show what is left in the hopper and it seems to me that there is way more wood chips than pellets. That leaves me with this question. With pellets being more uniform and probably heavier then the wood chips, was there a separation of the two as they made their way to the auger? Did more pellets go through the hopper than wood chips?
I think this has a lot of possibilities! - Thanks for the experimation Greg! - Cheers!
Hope your son is better now. Great video.
I just received my shipment of wood chips and am excited to try them in my Yoder.
Great video and the use of chips is very interesting. It's tough to know if different pellet types would have similar results. That said, Chris and the crew at LSG are awesome. I absolutely love my LSG Pellet Grill.
Prayers for your boy
…Greg, would you say that the smoke flavor is the same as a off set stick burner? If not have you tried to close the smoke stack that only a quarter is open to keep even more smoke in as well as putting meat on the top shelf so more smoke hits it? Regards, Tony
We all have been wondering about the wood chips so thanks for putting this together Greg, very informative. When I do beef plate ribs like before I carve the meat I will slide the bones out which allows you to do brisket type slices (.25"ish) rather than cutting between the bones. This is easier to serve a few people......thanks again.
How about the pellet/chips mix along with heavy D difuser?
I'm half tempted to try this except I'm almost willing to try full on wood chips versus mixing. my grill is a pit boss so there is that. But i do totally agree that you don't get the smoke flavor with pellets that you would get with unprocessed wood. I've always lived in a natural forest wooded area and when i first began BBQing with charcoal I immediately knew that i'd rather use wood freely supplied wood from the forest versus buying charcoal. I've never used strictly one type of wood. So basically I'd grab whatever size piece wood was close to whatever length of cook time I felt I needed. Anyway that's why I'm curious to try straight up chips.
I did this 3 nights ago for a pork butt cook. I have the 42" LSG pellet grill as well. I used about 62% pellets (BBQer's Delight) and 38% wood chips (Western brand Hickory from Walmart) by weight. I did fill the hopper from bottom to top. Took about 2 hours and they jammed. I noticed in this video the wood chips you are using are about a third to half the size than the biggest pieces from the western brand.
I agree with your statement of not buying just any wood chip off the shelf. I thought the pellets/chips created a wedge in the hopper causing the flame out but discovered a longer wood chip jammed between the end of the auger where it dumps inside and the steel "Back Board" that keeps the pellets falling down into the firepot. There was literally a 2" diameter wedge of pellets/chips jammed there. I'll give it another try with Chris' wood chips when he gets them back in stock. Thank you for this followup video, I should have paid closer attention to the first one regarding chip size LOL.
Why not 39% and 61%....? 😋
Anyway, joking aside great test! Thanks for sharing that info. It's all about trial and error.
i started following you for your burger channel but recently got into smoking meats and found this one! your videos are great keep it up
I am so sorry your son has been so ill. How would you compare the flavor to the Camp Chef that has the wood box? I know you own both. I am looking to get my first pellet but have been holding off because the food I have tasted from pellets has just not tasted as smoky to me.
Tried this on my yoder YS640 .. and it jammed my auger , cleared the jam pretty easily . Just an fyi for yoder owners.
I bought a box of the wood chips and made a mixture of 50% pellets to 50% wood chips. I placed this mixture in my Pit Boss Austin XL, but when I ran my grill it resulted in an auger jam - the mixture never made it to the burn pot. I will try one more time by diluting the mixture with more pellets and hope the outcome will work. My guess my PB has too long of an auger and/or too weak of an auger motor to properly feed the pellets/wood chips. No matter what, I think the idea is wonderful and others find success!
You need the right size wood chips
Great information, excellent looking ribs. Thanks for sharing.
I ran a couple bags of Weber chips through my pit boss pellet smoker last year because I was totally out of pellets……..the auger managed fine
Here in the U.K. I can get 40 pounds weight of pellets for 40 pounds money to roughly a pound a pound but chips run roughly 20 pounds money per pound weight smoking chips so I’ll be sticking to the smoke tube above the burn pot and 2 smouldering hardwood sticks above the grease trap which works out fine
I love how everything is advancing in this industry. That said, I would never try this with my SmokeFire. It's finicky when it comes to pellets and I can see wood chips sheering the bolt off the auger or jamming it at the least. Nice video!
You are absolutely correct. I've owned numerous Weber grills and when they came out with the SmokeFire I decided to pull the trigger. It's basically a replacement for a gas grill with a wood chip tube. It won't ignite with many brands of pellets. I've tried six different types of pellets thus far and the only one that works reliably is Jealous Devil Jax Legendary Blend. I live in Florida so maybe it's the high humidity. If I want to really smoke something, I use my Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker. I know that's comparing peaches to apples but, I expected more out of the SmokeFire.
I was excited to see the smaller wood chips available and have been testing them. I started with a 50/50 mix and immediately jammed the auger. I restarted the smoker 4 times in an hour. I next tried a mix of to 60% pellets / 40% wood. That did work better but, still jammed about 2-3 times per hour. I'm down to 80% pellets / 20% wood and it's still jamming irregularly. I know the SmokeFire is NOT a wood chip burner and I'm not talking smack about it, I was just hoping for more smoke flavor.
@@billkelly1793 I use Lumberjack and have had great success with them. Also used Bear Mountain which stressed the auger but worked okay. BBQ Delight worked good as well. It might not give the awesome smoke flavor but it does produce awesome bark and smoke rings. Char Hickory has produced the strongest smoke for me, actually pretty good for a pellet cooker.
It's been a good cooker for me for almost 3 years but it's like almost every other pellet grill. They give ease of use and let you get along with your day but trade off smoke flavor. Looks like LSG found a formula to fix that. Thought Camp Chef might have but head to head tests still look like it don't compare even to a gravity fed like Master Built.
What brand of pellets do you recommend
I tried this, my auger plugged on my PitBoss Platinum 2150. I couldn't get it to work unfortunately.
Do you plan on upping the percentage of wood chips to see if you can get more wood flavor?
I tried these with my 36" Traeger. I did a 50/50 blend of pellets and chips. Got an auger jam after 2 hours. Reduced it to 70% pellets, 30% chips, got an auger jam after 4 hours. You could really hear the auger straining to move the pellets through the auger tube. I've never had an auger jam in the 5 or so years I've had the Traeger. I would definitely not recommend this with longer augers. I noticed the same thing with the ash and the flavor. I'm really bummed this didn't work out better because it had a better flavor, even in those limited amount of hours than pellets alone.
You used the LSG chips?
@@OscarHTX yes.
I tried it with my Traeger, it ran for about 30 mins. Then it clogged. Lucky me it was right at the start of the auger and I was able to get it out. Could have been worse. But I love the idea.
I wonder if this will work on my new Camp chef wwpro24
Sup Greg, wow that was in-depth lol. Ribs looked awesome too. Last year made with a sweet hot pepper mustard BBQ sauce🤤😢, (2 ingredients. Inglehoffer sweet hot pepper mustard and cattleman's BBQ sauce 50/50😂), should try inglehoffer line of mustards made in Oregon I think? Friend is gonna live this video, it's everything he asked when saw last time mixing chips in the smoker 👊, tyvm tc 🍔🥩
Nice…. Currently running hickory pellets & charcoal pellets.. We do a lot of chicken it’s a win for us🍻🍻
I have a question about the auger motor in the grill, what kind is it and what is the rpm speed and torque rating. Cutting thru wood chips with the auger will require more torque. I would like to run chips with pellet mix thru my pellet grill.
Great video - I’ve been a long time user of mixing chips in with pellets on a smoke tube but never thought of just running them through the hopper. I have a YS640 which also has a beefy auger and I may try running a lean blend using if I can get ahold of some LSG’s chips :)
I have a 640 also, let me know how it goes :D
Great video but I have a quick question. Ive had that same grill for almost a year and cooked on it about 10 times and I get about a 35+ degree temp difference between the displayed "Pit Temp" and the guage on the lid as well as a probe at the center of the grate. Did you have any similar issues? What can I do besides runnimg the thing at 300 to cook at 250. Thanks
There is an option in the settings menu of the Fireboard controller to offset the Fireboard's pit probe (channel 7) so that it will match the Tel-Tru in the center of the pit. You can't adjust it from the app, you must do it on the Fireboard controller itself starting with a long press of the knob.
The fireboard probe is located above the firepot and likely sees direct rising heat even with the deflector plate in place. I've noticed about a 25° difference between the probe and the Tel-Tru on a long brisket cook after the pit has been thoroughly heat soaked on my LSG.
The down side is when the pit is off and cool, it'll read below ambient outside temps as much as you've offset it. That's the trade off, but it's worth it to me to be able to log accurate cook temps.
If you're trying to really low temp smoke, (like smoking salmon) you might want to set the offset back to 0 to keep the temps down so the albumin doesn't bleed out.
@@aim4squirrels Thank you so much for replying, I thought I had gotten a very expensive lemon lol. Chris from LSG briefly explained that same fireboard feature for adjusting the channel 7 temp, I just have not seen anyone talk about this issue on the internet. It really surprises me that a high end smoker would need tampering in order to work decently. I've used used several cheaper pits without this issue. Still like the LSG though 😀
It's entirely possible many other pits with a temp controller have this exact same issue and the controller is simply pre-programmed with the offset already set and there's no option to adjust it. I prefer to have the granular adjustment ability offered to calibrate it. It does vary a bit in the hot Texas summer versus our winter temps.
Great video, Greg!!!!
How much are the wood chips and how big is the bag
yea , and thats a no in a pitboss Autson XL . wood chips got wedged in the auger . Good concept . but if it gets wedged in be prepared to get them out and sort them from the pellets
The pellets were once wood chips also. Will they come out with a different style grill called a wood chip smoker?
Is it by volume or weight on the 50/50?
Has anyone tried this on a Yoder?
Where do I get ty wood chips for trying it in my treager smoker
Need a short free style auger to work
I think you could use one of those smoking tubes for the chips. I guess that would take some trial and error to find out what works.
I tried it with chips from LSG on my Yoder YS1500. Auger stuck after about 15 minutes.
I'm curious, since the size and shape of pellets vs chips are so different, can you tell if they dispensed equally. It seems to me the pellets might be favored over the chips as gravity pulls them through, much like sand would fall through gravel. Just curious.
It will happen. The question is, will it make a noticeable difference. That will depend on the difference in size and shape.
Great idea!
Well, this is a follow up comment to my original post, which I can’t find. I bought a bag of cherry wood chips from Home Depot and lightly mix them with some pellets. I pulled out some of the longer chips that were probably finger length and splintered, whatever needless to say, I heard my auger, struggling/popping sounds, but by the time I could turn it off, I shared the shear pin on a woodwind 24 classic. It’s pretty obvious that the wood chips we’re not small enough. Needless to say I will not be trying this again because I don’t have the patience to go through a whole bag of wood chips and sort them out. I’m totally not thrilled with the smoke flavor on a pellet grill. I came from egg style cooking and I will be going back to charcoal/ wood next season. Looking at the Masterbuilt gravity 850 from Costco.
I would be very nervous using wood-chips in my Traeger. I don't think the hoppers on Traegers would cope.
This is sounding promising
Sadly, LSG is chronically sold out of the chips. Are there any other companies that sell similar sized chips? I have considered making my own using a chainsaw, but without the bar and chain oil, of course. Thanks for the great video!
Greg, I think you should share a little more info on what kind of chips they were possibly. It seems like everybody’s breaking their augers trying this. I remember a company a while back that used to sell trays that you put your wood chips in and lit the end of it and it’ snaked around burning. I have never been able to get my smoke tube to work either.
Hi John, I mean I talked about the size of the chips, measuring them and showing a good closeup. LSG sells these specially-sized chips (as I explained), but I am open to suggestions on how to make this better. Please let me know specifically how I could make this happen. Thanks!
@@BallisticBBQ I guess I missed that, my bad
@@johnmccaffery5186 No worries John, this is a long video and I understand that most people jump around. Cheers
I tried just throwing a few chips into a recent cook and it sounded like death, the auger was obviously struggling with something in there. It also produced an eventual back burn near the end of the cook. I personally wouldn't do it again tbh and just use my charcoal grills if I wanted to introduce actual wood.
Traeger used, for clarity.
Man, this has been highly debated on the podcasts
I know... In this video, I tried to emphasize that this in not be for every pellet grill. Hopefully other manufacturers will take note however.
This should work with a rectec since it has a short auger.
Comment back if you try this.
@@jt5747 just ran a 3hr test cook on recteq with 40% chips to pellets. ran fine. temp was stable. no jams.
@@kl90210 Thanks! I'm going to give it a try. Did you notice any more smoke flavor?
Great video Greg! Might have to be the Guinea pig 😄
I tried it on my LSG. I don't recommend trying it with heb wood chips. Hour and 1/2 into the cook, the temp was dropping. I had a jam. Their chips are at least double the size you show here. Not all but most. I'll habe to run to Lone Star and grab some of theirs.
Clogged my auger immediately on my Traeger
That thing is a tank!
I would like to see a 80% pellet/20% wood chip cook to compare the flavor to a 50/50 blend.
Sooo, what is the ultimate benefit from this? Better smoke flavor? Cheaper fuel? Can you mix cheap pellets with quality chips for good flavor? Longer burn time with the chip mix? More quality smoke?
AHHH LSG are sold out of the woodchips!
Anyone tried this with a GMG peak? Very interested in trying this
My thought exactly
I will be trying this on my Peak
First hand account, these did not work well wit my traeger timberline 1300. The auger could not handle the size of the chips, and the temperature fluctuated wildly until I removed them and cleared the auger. I was hoping they worked, back to tube smokers to augment the smoke flavor
Has anyone tried this on a rec tec?
I wonder if sharpening the edges of the auger would help the chip size not be soo critical?
Doubtful. Weak auger motors and hardware(bolts shearing) and too tight of tolerances cause jams. If the industry would shift to wood chips vs. The pellets....or I should say wood chips and or pellets, these type of grills would be much more popular.
What a out a trainer
Another very informative video, great job! One thing you missed - what flavor does the dime give the cook?😵💫. Seriously, your videos are great, keep’ ‘em coming!
Not jamming my pellet grill up I’ll use my Weber for stick or chunk wood we don’t all have the money to break a 1000 grill
anyone tried it on the Grilla grill?
The juices...
Instant auger jam with Yoder. Don’t try it 😂
Anyone try this on a traeger?
I wouldn't recommend this in a Traeger. I've heard mixed results, some not good, like a broken auger.
Why not use 100% wood chips?
Why not just use a smoke tube with wood chips
I have a Mak grills smoker and can DEFINITELY say these DO NOT work with a MAK. I'm going to start trying to see if there's a ratio that will even work at all. Can confirm that 50/50 doesn't work. 40/60 doesn't work, 30/70 doesn't work.
What does “DO NOT work with MAK” mean? Auger gets jammed? No smoke enhancement? No taste improvement?
@@BarryMunkasy jam city. That's why I mentioned lowering the percentage over and over. The smell was fantastic right up until it jammed. And it's not fun at all getting those pulled out.
Thanks for saving me the frustrations. May your next brisket have a choice cost and be a wagyu experience!
@@BarryMunkasy since Mak has extremely good customer service, I sent them a message asking if there's a more powerful auger motor or possibly a way to sharpen the auger. I'll let ya know what they said.
@@chrishall1407 Thanks for helping us out. I was searching to see if anyone tried this on a Mak!
Has anyone tried this with a Traeger?
I did. Was making a brisket last week and it jams the auger frequently. You can hear the auger squeaking a lot like it’s having a hard time passing it through. Really wish it went better. Maybe use less chips next time. Like a 70/30 mix. You should really pay attention to it and be there to clear the auger jams, or as it displays, “auger overcurrent”.
@@jonah327 Thanks for the information. I'd really like to get some more smoke flavor out of my Traeger, but this may not be the way to go.
@@billfreiberger1627 yeah, maybe try a smoke tube and put wood chunks in it. I’m just gonna buy an offset smoker to have also.
🙂👍🍺
Going to try it on my 640
And they're sold out of all their wood chips 😢
Has anyone tried this with a campchef?
I just added a post. Don’t do it you’ll break the auger pin, pita to change.
Yup! Just destroyed my auger gear reducer…I even too special care to smash all the chips into pellet sized chunks. Guess I wasn’t careful enough