Kids gifted us a smoker grill...fun and tasty food, but being amateurs and not knowing what to use , we bought a sack of pellets from WallO China mart. It seems to me these cheap pellets have an awful lot of dirt in them. I have to take the shop vac and suck that silt out of the firepot after almost every use. Is that normal? I expect ash of course, but this seems like dirt, and eventually it builds up and restricts the air draft.
Any recommendations or tips greatly appreciated. It is a Green Mtn grill and we mostly do pork, lamb and occasionally beef if that makes any difference.

Pellet only ?

Or....can you burn real wood ?

Mine is a home built unit burning fruit wood

Low & slow.......225-250*

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Use a higher quality pellet like Bear Mountain.

Pellet only...your homebuilt would be the ideal, but it was a gift and as such, I'd be a flaming bastard to go after it with a cutting torch.

I got a elec smoker

Thanks, google says Home Depot carries it. We go to the city with a HD a couple times a month.

I bought a few bags of Bear Mt from the local Cash and Carry. Always burned decent, but I just used them in an AmazN smoker tray. Never owned a pellet grill.

How I stored them had a huge impact on how they burned. Over winter when it’s wet as schit and humidity is up, gotta put them somewhere dry. Garage had too much moisture and they burn poorly.

I’d microwave a bowl of them before lighting them up just to get moisture out.

Maybe clay was used as a binder?