Well, like any grill, you have to be careful of hot surfaces when in use, and the grills need to be cleaned sufficiently of grease to avoid a grease fire.

When it comes to safely starting a pellet grill/smoker its advisable (even if the manual doesn’t state it) to leave the lid open until the pellet fire is established.

The reason is that as the pellet fire is being established and the pellets smoulder, the smoke being produced contains unburnt gases (carbon monoxide).

If the lid is down and the pellet burn pot is smoking excessively on start-up due to a dirty burn pot (full of ash) or damp/wet pellets then when the pellets do finally ignite, that combustible smoke will also be ignited, leading to an explosion.

Therefore, leaving the lid up on the cooking chamber while the pellet fire is established is always best practice.