Hopper cleanout and pellet handling mechanism
AssigneeW.C. Bradley Co.
InventorsDan Corso, Brad Gillespie, Anthony Hamilton, Ramin Khosravi Rahmani, Sleiman Abdallah, Michael Parsons
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system having a hopper that receives fuel pellets and direct the pellets under gravity feed to an auger that moves the pellets into a firepot inside a cooking chamber of a grill. The system includes a door below the auger that has a closed position that retains fuel pellets in the auger such that the fuel pellets feed to the auger, and has an opened position to allows the pellets to empty from the hopper and away from the auger. A closing mechanism allows a user to selectively open or close the door.
Claims30
A system comprising:
- a hopper that receives fuel pellets and direct the pellets under gravity feed to an auger that moves the pellets into a firepot inside a cooking chamber of a grill;
- a door below the auger that has a closed position that retains fuel pellets in the hopper such that the fuel pellets feed to the auger, and that has an opened position to allows the pellets to empty from the hopper and away from the auger;
- a closing mechanism that allows a user to selectively open or close the door.
A system comprising:
- a cooking grill having a firepot in a cooking chamber thereof;
- an auger within an auger tube that moves fuel pellets into the firepot from outside the cooking chamber;
- a hopper situated over a portion of the auger and providing fuel pellets to the auger;
- a drain chute under the auger that catches fuel pellets not captured by the auger and feeds by gravity into a receptacle;
- at least one door having a closed position whereby pellets are prevented from flowing away from the auger and into the drain chute, and an open position whereby the fuel pellets are allowed to flow into the drain chute.
A system comprising:
- a hopper feeding fuel pellets to an auger for delivery to a firepot inside a cooking chamber;
- a cabinet retaining the hopper and locating a bracket in fixed relationship with respect to the hopper;
- a receptacle removable retained by the bracket in a fixed position below the hopper;
- and
- a drain chute below the auger that directs fuel pellets leaving the hopper, but not transported by the auger, into the receptacle;
- wherein a gravity flow pathway from the hopper, to the drain chute, and into the receptacle drains substantially all of the fuel pellets from the hopper into the receptacle.
A system comprising:
- a bracket in a fixed relationship with respect to a hopper drain chute of a pellet grill;
- the bracket further comprising a pair of spaced apart downwardly extending walls each having an inwardly projecting flange thereon;
- a receptacle defining a substantially rectilinear horizontal cross section and having a width less than a distance between the inwardly projecting flanges;
- wherein the receptacle provides an outwardly projecting ridge sized to rest upon the inwardly projecting flanges when the receptacle is placed between the two spaced apart walls.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.