Every pellet grill runs on the same basic mechanism — an auger feeding wood pellets from a hopper into a firepot — and that mechanism has exactly one enemy: water. This draws on the printed owner’s manual for a Pit Boss PB820D pellet grill and three official support articles from Traeger, covering how each manufacturer describes keeping pellets dry, clearing a jammed auger, and cleaning out the firepot.
Why Moisture Is the Root Cause of Almost Every Jam
Pit Boss’s owner’s manual states the mechanism plainly: if a grill is “stored outside during the rainy season or seasons of high humidity, care should be taken to insure that water does not get into the pellet hopper,” because wood pellets “when wet or exposed to high humidity, expand greatly, break apart, and could jam the feed system.” Traeger’s support article on removing and replacing pellets lists the warning signs of pellets that have already absorbed moisture: they’re “dull and have no sheen,” they “easily crumble,” and a bag or hopper may show visible moisture, clumping, or loose sawdust. Both manufacturers point to the same underlying fix — keep pellets dry before they ever reach the auger — rather than treating a jam as a mechanical problem to solve after the fact.
Storing Pellets Between Cooks
Pit Boss’s manual tells owners to keep pellet fuel “moisture free,” storing opened bags in an airtight container and emptying the hopper if the grill won’t be used for a longer stretch. Traeger doesn’t put a number on how long “long-term” storage is, but its cleaning guidance treats hopper moisture as an ongoing inspection item, not just a seasonal one: after a damp stretch of weather, Traeger recommends inspecting the hopper for “any signs of moisture or mold buildup” and wiping it clean with a dry cloth. Neither source suggests leaving pellets sitting in the hopper by default; both treat an emptied, dry hopper between uses as the safer default, especially with the grill stored outdoors.
Clearing a Jammed Auger
This is where the two manufacturers’ instructions diverge the most, mainly because their hardware differs. Traeger publishes a separate support article for clearing an auger jam on its WiFIRE-enabled grills, which this article could not load to confirm the exact steps — so treat that model line as needing its own manufacturer instructions rather than the process below. For Traeger’s AC-powered grills, the support article describes a manual teardown: emptying the hopper completely, removing screws to access the hopper assembly and auger, then working the auger back and forth by hand, using a shear pin release and, as a last resort, tapping a block of wood against the auger motor with a mallet until the jam breaks free.
Pit Boss’s manual doesn’t describe an equivalent digital clearing function; its printed instructions focus on prevention and on periodic checks — the manual instructs owners to check the burn grate for obstructions and foreign objects “in the grill and the hopper” after any period of storage or non-use, before firing it up again. Where Traeger gives owners a documented mechanical teardown procedure for a jam that’s already happened, Pit Boss’s manual is built around catching the moisture problem before it becomes a jam in the first place.
What Creosote Looks Like Before It Becomes a Problem
Pit Boss’s manual gives an unusually specific warning sign: “DO NOT operate the appliance if the flame becomes dark and sooty or if the burn pot overfills with pellets.” According to the manual, soot or creosote forms “when pellets are burned without the correct amount of air to fuel or incomplete combustion,” producing a tar-like residue, and the fix it specifies is to turn the unit off, let it cool completely, then inspect it before running it again — rather than continuing to cook through a sooty flame.
Cleaning the Firepot Itself
Both manufacturers treat the firepot as a component that needs regular attention separate from the rest of the grill. Pit Boss’s manual instructs owners to “always clean or check your burn pot before each use” and, two or three times a year, to remove the cooking grids and flame broiler to clean in and around the burn pot area with a shop-vac, only once the grill is completely cold. Traeger’s cleaning guide is similar in substance but names the tool explicitly: “a dedicated vacuum cleaner is the best way to remove ashes from the firepot,” and Traeger adds a caution Pit Boss’s manual doesn’t spell out in the same words — this “must be done with extreme care to avoid the risk of fire,” and the grill needs to be cold, not just cooled, before starting.
Where the Two Manufacturers Agree Without Reservation
Strip away the differences in hardware and wording, and Pit Boss and Traeger are describing the same three-part discipline: keep pellets and the hopper dry, don’t ignore a dark or sooty flame, and vacuum out the firepot on a cold grill rather than scraping or hosing it. Where they part ways is procedural detail — Traeger documents a full manual teardown for AC-powered grills and a separate procedure for its WiFIRE-enabled line, while Pit Boss’s manual leans on prevention and routine checks rather than a published jam-clearing sequence of its own.
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