Traeger problems

[dane2992]

Ok so today I cooked more ribs, after three hours the fire pot filled with pellets and so I restarted the traeger, now my temps are well above 50°+ of where its at on the selector. Could my controller be going bad? It's only about 6 months or so old and I've done about 15-20 cooks on it so far

[Smokin Don]

Ok so today I cooked more ribs, after three hours the fire pot filled with pellets and so I restarted the traeger, now my temps are well above 50°+ of where its at on the selector. Could my controller be going bad? It's only about 6 months or so old and I've done about 15-20 cooks on it so far

Was not sure what you meant by the fire pot filled with pellets? It should never be full when you start the Traeger; it should be empty whenever doing a start. Don

[muebe]

Sounds like you had a flame out.

You need to clear out the fire pot before restarting or the excessive amount of pellets will cause high temps when it restarts.

[smokeasaurus]

You got some good advice from these pellet veterans 

[dane2992]

Ok so today I cooked more ribs, after three hours the fire pot filled with pellets and so I restarted the traeger, now my temps are well above 50°+ of where its at on the selector. Could my controller be going bad? It's only about 6 months or so old and I've done about 15-20 cooks on it so far

Was not sure what you meant by the fire pot filled with pellets? It should never be full when you start the Traeger; it should be empty whenever doing a start. Don

It wasn't full when I started. I believe it was a flame out, like what was said after your post

[dane2992]

Sounds like you had a flame out.

You need to clear out the fire pot before restarting or the excessive amount of pellets will cause high temps when it restarts.

Once I caught the flame out I emptied the pot and  restarted, that's when I had the high temps.

[Smokin Don]

Good glad you emptied the fire pot. What temp did you go to after restarting? I always start at a low temp and then ease it up to what my final temp will be. Like I will start at 180 deg. and if I want to go to 300 deg. I will ease it up at 20 deg. jumps. As soon as it settles I take it up one more notch. You should be able to go from 200 to 300 in about 15 minutes and when you get there the overshoot will be less.
Still some days it was not uncommon for my Traeger with the 180 controller to run 50 deg. hotter at grill level. After I got my Maverick ET732 and could monitor grill level temps that is what I cook with. Even though my new Savannah Stoker V3 holds temps closer I still cook by grill level temps and I ease it up too when I want to raise the set temps.
Hope this helps you Dane! Don

[dane2992]

Good glad you emptied the fire pot. What temp did you go to after restarting? I always start at a low temp and then ease it up to what my final temp will be. Like I will start at 180 deg. and if I want to go to 300 deg. I will ease it up at 20 deg. jumps. As soon as it settles I take it up one more notch. You should be able to go from 200 to 300 in about 15 minutes and when you get there the overshoot will be less.
Still some days it was not uncommon for my Traeger with the 180 controller to run 50 deg. hotter at grill level. After I got my Maverick ET732 and could monitor grill level temps that is what I cook with. Even though my new Savannah Stoker V3 holds temps closer I still cook by grill level temps and I ease it up too when I want to raise the set temps.
Hope this helps you Dane! Don

I started it on the smoke setting and once it got smoking it seemed to me that the auger kept feeding pellets and I put the heat shield on and I noticed flames being blown out and saw the traeger at almost 400°. The traeger actually stopped and thru an error and I had to restart it again.  Started over and thru high temps but didn't go out. But while during the cook I noticed 50° more or so then what was selected and I had my maverick at the other end and was getting almost 70-100° more then the other side

[dane2992]

Any ideas?

[Smokin Don]

Any ideas?

The only thing I can notice is you sound like you did a restart with all insides removed since you said you replaced the heat shield and then noted the extra high temps. I would do a restart the same way as a regular start up. After you make sure the fire pot is empty replace the heat shield and grease pan do a start with the lid open and as soon as you see some smoke close the lid. Leave the lid closed and it should settle to near the set temp in a half hour. Anytime you open the lid you will see a temp spike before it settles down. If you continue to have problems call Traeger, they have always been great in helping me. Don

[dane2992]

Any ideas?

The only thing I can notice is you sound like you did a restart with all insides removed since you said you replaced the heat shield and then noted the extra high temps. I would do a restart the same way as a regular start up. After you make sure the fire pot is empty replace the heat shield and grease pan do a start with the lid open and as soon as you see some smoke close the lid. Leave the lid closed and it should settle to near the set temp in a half hour. Anytime you open the lid you will see a temp spike before it settles down. If you continue to have problems call Traeger, they have always been great in helping me. Don

Thanks I'll give that a shot in my next cook