# Masterbuilt 560 grease fire



## Smkryng (Aug 22, 2020)

I’ve done tons of bacon and burgers on my Austin Xl without much more than flare ups but I threw some bacon and chicken thighs on the 560 yesterday at 400 degrees and had a raging inferno of a grease fire. Like fire licking out of the rear vent kinda fire. Not real sure how this thing has any paint left afterwards. Had to pull everything and let it burn itself out and lost half my bacon. Is anyone else having this issue and is there a fix. I know on my pit boss or charcoal grill I can just close the lid or damper and smother out the fire.  I’m thinking I may need to mod the rear vent to be able to smother grease fires at higher temp cooks.  Also want to mention that the grill was cleaned and the last cook started out at 400 for some pizzas but I ended up bumping to 550 for the remainder of that cook so any residual grease from previous cooks was definitely burnt off.


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## TNJAKE (Aug 22, 2020)

I also have an Austin xl and fires are easy to smother. Know nothing bout the 560 but yeah you're gonna have to figure out how to shut off airflow quickly. Something to cover the vents or something


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## mike243 (Aug 23, 2020)

Chicken or large amounts of burgers can cause some ugly fires when your cooking hot, looking at the fitness of the lid on 1 the other day at walmart and theres a lot of gap to try to seal, a water squirt bottle is my go to when using the gas grill. Coarse you have to baby sit it .


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## Smkryng (Aug 23, 2020)

mike243 said:


> Chicken or large amounts of burgers can cause some ugly fires when your cooking hot, looking at the fitness of the lid on 1 the other day at walmart and theres a lot of gap to try to seal, a water squirt bottle is my go to when using the gas grill. Coarse you have to baby sit it .


I’ve for sure used the squirt bottle method before on flare ups, works pretty good. I feel like that trick  on the fire I had may have resulted in a loss of eyebrows though  
I actually went to harbor freight and got an 18 inch magnetic tool holder to use as a damper on the rear vent. If it works out it’ll be a 5 dollar fix.


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## Smkryng (Aug 23, 2020)

TNJAKE said:


> I also have an Austin xl and fires are easy to smother. Know nothing bout the 560 but yeah you're gonna have to figure out how to shut off airflow quickly. Something to cover the vents or something


It’s got about a 1X17 inch vent along the top rear. 
	

		
			
		

		
	







Went to harbor freight and got a 5 dollar magnet to use as a damper.


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## SmoKeto_702 (Nov 27, 2020)

I had this happen the other day with a couple of pork butts... Crazy fire! I ended up holding a baking tray over the rear vent and that worked pretty good... Had to take the pork butts off though. Probably have to put a grease catch pan under fatty meat... Seems like a waste of valuable cook space. Anybody got any other ideas?!


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## JWFokker (Nov 28, 2020)

Use a baking pan and wire rack to cook birds and burgers on. No loss of cooking space.


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## mike243 (Dec 5, 2020)

I will probably be getting a MB with the charcoal tray shortly, hope to not have any issues like this with it


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## Bkemke (Dec 6, 2020)

Grease drips into the manifold.  Raise the temp above the flash point if grease and the first spark blown in will result in a fire.  The grill doesn't seal well enough to effectively smother the fire.  I think a fire blanket would be possible way to smother but I haven't tried.

The manifold cover mods go a long way in preventing grease from dripping into the manifold.  I haven't had a bad fire since I installed mine but I rarely take it above 350F.  This cooker shines as a smoker and I have other grills for searing and high temp grilling.


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## whistlepig (Dec 6, 2020)

I have had one grease fire. The fan seemed to feed it and make it worse.  I keep the grease scraped off and use aluminum drip pans when I can.


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## SmoKeto_702 (Dec 7, 2020)

Bkemke said:


> Grease drips into the manifold.  Raise the temp above the flash point if grease and the first spark blown in will result in a fire.  The grill doesn't seal well enough to effectively smother the fire.  I think a fire blanket would be possible way to smother but I haven't tried.
> 
> The manifold cover mods go a long way in preventing grease from dripping into the manifold.  I haven't had a bad fire since I installed mine but I rarely take it above 350F.  This cooker shines as a smoker and I have other grills for searing and high temp grilling.


What mod and where did you get it?! I was doing a 8-9 hour smoke at 285 at about 5 hours with no issues...I added some chicken wings on the bottom grate and within 20 minutes I had a grease fire ...I took the manifold out today and scraped it clean... But I don't want to have to be doing that after every smoke...


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## Bkemke (Dec 7, 2020)

SmoKeto_702 said:


> What mod and where did you get it?! I was doing a 8-9 hour smoke at 285 at about 5 hours with no issues...I added some chicken wings on the bottom grate and within 20 minutes I had a grease fire ...I took the manifold out today and scraped it clean... But I don't want to have to be doing that after every smoke...


https://lss-mods.square.site/ offers one.  I bought one from Nathan Kloter on Facebook.  I like Nates a little more as it extends 1/2" past the manifold edge.  Both are overpriced IMO, but so goes hobby cottage industry.  It would be easy enough to bend one up with a brake or even foil folded into a few layers extending past the edges would be sufficient (and easy cleaning).


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## Bkemke (Dec 7, 2020)

Smkryng said:


> I’ve for sure used the squirt bottle method before on flare ups, works pretty good. I feel like that trick  on the fire I had may have resulted in a loss of eyebrows though
> I actually went to harbor freight and got an 18 inch magnetic tool holder to use as a damper on the rear vent. If it works out it’ll be a 5 dollar fix.


For the most part water and grease don't mix.  On the other hand oil storage building are protected with wet sprinkler systems :). 

The key is misted water to cool the fire and knock out that leg of the fire triangle.  If the water reaches the grease it will flash to steam pretty violently carrying grease droplets with it up into a fireball. 

So don't use water.  But it can work well.  But don't do it :D. 

I keep thinking up picking up a fire blanket to toss over the grill next time I have a fire.  Mostly I've changed how I grill with the 560 so I don't have fires anymore (collect grease, don't render tons of fat then crank it up, etc)


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## nipster (Dec 8, 2020)

I'm at a loss to understand how this happens on a 560. This is, for all intents and purposes an offset cooker. The smokebox is off to the right and there's no ignition source directly under the grates. Does the manifold get significantly hot that it can ignite grease? I was under the impression that only extreme heat and/or flame could/would ignite grease...


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## Bkemke (Dec 8, 2020)

nipster said:


> I'm at a loss to understand how this happens on a 560. This is, for all intents and purposes an offset cooker. The smokebox is off to the right and there's no ignition source directly under the grates. Does the manifold get significantly hot that it can ignite grease? I was under the impression that only extreme heat and/or flame could/would ignite grease...


The flash point of a lot of animal fats is in the 500Fs (I would have to look it up).  So if the grill is running at 400F, the air coming through the manifold is probably 500 or above.  Forced draft (fan controlled) carries more embers than natural draft (not to mention that there are volatiles within smoke that can result in flame propogation out of the burn chamber into the manifold).

Most offsets aren't run above 300F, don't have forced draft and maybe don't collect grease efficiently in the supply hot air path.


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## Bkemke (Dec 8, 2020)

Bkemke said:


> The flash point of a lot of animal fats is in the 500Fs (I would have to look it up).  So if the grill is running at 400F, the air coming through the manifold is probably 500 or above.  Forced draft (fan controlled) carries more embers than natural draft (not to mention that there are volatiles within smoke that can result in flame propogation out of the burn chamber into the manifold).
> 
> Most offsets aren't run above 300F, don't have forced draft and maybe don't collect grease efficiently in the supply hot air path.


Unrelated but I have always wondered why home kitchen ovens are limited to 450F, when many people would love an oven that could go above that for pizzas and steaks.  I think common grease flash point is the answer.


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## negolien (Dec 10, 2020)

I love hearing the I cleaned it and did one cook of bacon and it burst into flames LOL.. yeah sure you did.. At 400 a clean grill shouldn't be bursting into flames with some bacon


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## mike243 (Dec 10, 2020)

I am not sure how hot my whirlpool gas ranges oven will run, I have set it at 500 before, none of our others would do over 450 I think


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