I had been using the Bear Mountain exclusively up until I had smoke pouring from the hopper. On another occasion I had an explosion which blew the door off the smoke box breaking the welded hinge and popping the lid on the smoker. Recteq RT1250.
I found that the hopper and auger tube had quite bit of dust in it. I just dump the bag of pellets in the hopper, so the dust accumulation finally built up? When this occurred, I inspected the partial open bag of Bear Mountain pellets and it had a lot of dust and the pellets crumbled; perhaps a fluke faulty bag?
Since then I have been using Cookin' Pellets PM40. They have a much harder pellet by feel, a bit longer compared to Bear Mountain, and virtually no dust in the bag. They burn well, smell great, and the food tastes good. I have to buy them online as there is no local retailer near me.
I want to find a small hand scoop with slots in it for filling the hopper vs dumping the bag in. Thought being it would leave any and all dust behind.