Yoder Smokers Community Forum

I have had my 640 for about a month now and am starting to get things figured out. I have had one thing happen twice now at higher temps. It seems like ether my cooking chamber warps a little or my grates expand when it gets hot. Tonight I was grilling burgers and my grated buckled up on me. The temperature read out was only 435. It wasn't the grill grates it was the regular grates. And yes I had them set in right. Is this normal or do I have some kind of a problem. Just wondering.

The heat diffuser plate should be removed for extended cooking at temperatures above 400 degrees. The heat diffuser plate can warp up in the corners from extended use at high temperatures, holding the grates up off the grate rail. Is your heat diffuser plate warped?

For grilling at high temperatures (above 400 degrees) the optional Grill Grates will provide much better performance with the heat diffuser plate removed, and are required for higher temperature grilling and searing.

Yoder_Herb wrote:The heat diffuser plate should be removed for extended cooking at temperatures above 400 degrees. The heat diffuser plate can warp up in the corners from extended use at high temperatures, holding the grates up off the grate rail. Is your heat diffuser plate warped?

For grilling at high temperatures (above 400 degrees) the optional Grill Grates will provide much better performance with the heat diffuser plate removed, and are required for higher temperature grilling and searing.

It has happened to me twice once with no defuser plate in and with the grill grates in and i had to use a screw driver to get them up so i could slide them over and spray them. Last night i was going to smoke some burgers instead of grill them. I didn't check to see how many pellets i had in the hopper and it ran dry( i will never do that again). Added more pellets and primed a couple of times and got to many pellets in the burn pot . That is why i got a temp spike to 435ish and the grates buckled up Not because the defuser was pushing them up. The defuser looks fine and as the grill cooled down the grates came back into place. I understand I am not suppose to leave the defuser in place when cooking over 400 and have never done it on purpose.

Try swapping every other grate, end for end, to see if you get a less tight fit.

Where do the grates buckle? Do you have pictures? Measure all the grates to see if they are all the same size.

I'm wondering if I should remove my control board from my YS640 during the winter months as I do keep my yoder covered outside. I'm concerned about the electronics in the board corroding.