Thoughts on my Traeger after 3+ Years

[Smokin Don]

I have a Traeger 07E and after using for over three years I love this smoker grill. During the second summer I built a small covered deck and cook year around. For safety if you use your smoker or any grill on a wood deck it should be on a fireproof mat or pad. You should also have a class III fire extinguisher close by.

Using the Traeger is like using any other smoker or grill the most important thing is to know your pit. Know how it cooks on all the temperature settings; have knowledge of any hot spots or one side being hotter than the other. I have found my right side is hotter than the left. I have the Traeger 180 deg. controller and I have learned to maintain temps I want.

My RTD, (real temperature device) is located on the center left side and my grill level temps at the center are about 25 deg. hotter than my LED readout. If temperature is important in my cooks I am aware of this. In the smoke mode setting the temperature is determined by the P# settings, P0 thru P9.
P0 is the hottest and P9 is the coolest, I very seldom go above P5; and only use P6 on extreme hot days.
Each P# should vary the temp about 10 deg. A more detailed use of the P#’s should be in your manual or I have an article under INFO here. Ambient temps and wind will have the most effect on maintaining a temperature in the smoke mode. I never let mine get below 160 deg.

At first I had a lot of trouble with large temp swings above and below the set temp and after reading, a lot of people were adding firebricks in the bottom of the pit. They act as a heat sink and do help temp swings some. The Traeger 070 and 07E will hold 5 bricks. After learning more about my pit I only use the firebricks in the winter and remove them in the summer.

In the second year my heat shield warped and would not set flat. To remedy this I bolted ¼ inch plate to the underside and that straightened it out.  This also acts as a heat sink.

I have a hard time maintaining temp settings 180 thru 250 deg. and find I can usually get less temp swings by using the smoke mode and the P# settings. For temp settings of 275 deg. and above I can usually hold within plus or minus 5 deg. I found if you go directly from smoke mode to say 300 deg. you will get a large overshoot; sometimes as high as 50 deg. and then it takes some time to settle down. I found if you ease it up to temp in the 25 deg. increments and let it settle out before going higher, when you reach your desired temp it will only overshoot 5 or 10 deg. I can go from smoke mode and ease up to 300 deg. in about 20 minutes. I usually want my smoker to preheat about a half hour anyway so this does not take any more time or use more pellets.

I have used my Traeger from smoking meats to baking desserts. Anything you can bake in your inside oven you can do on a pellet smoker; they are a convection oven. I have found that with the addition of grill grates I can do some good steaks and burgers. The right side gives good grill marks to steaks and I like to use the back side for burgers that is like using a flat iron grill that browns the burgers all over.

A pellet smoker does not give you an overpowering smoke taste; it’s more like a kiss of smoke and that’s what the wife and I like. For some meats especially pork butts and beef briskets I do like a little more smoke and A-Maze-N Products makes a tube smoker that provides extra smoke. The tube smoker is perforated stainless steel that you fill with pellets, place it in your smoker and light. I have their 12 inch tube and it will provide about 4 hours of smoke.

There are a lot of good pellet smokers out there now to choose from. Traeger started it all and after a few others got into it the Traeger was still the most reasonably priced one. Their quality did suffer after moving their manufacturing process to China. Considering that I think it still is a good smoker for the money.

There are a couple of aftermarket controllers that offer better control for Traeger smokers. One is the Ortech Controls unit, they manufactured the original controllers for Traeger and now offer one that is an upgrade and does a better job of controlling the Traeger. The other one is a Savannah Stoker PID digital controller. Many who have bought the Savannah Stoker rave about it. As long as my controller works I can’t see replacing it but if it ever goes out I will probably get the Savannah Stoker.

After using gas fired water smokers over 25 years, I went through two Master Built, round bullet type and had a Smokey Mountain chest type when I got my Traeger. I love the pellet smoker; it’s so easy to use and clean. I usually clean mine every cook or two. That consists of removing the grate, drip pan, and heat shield and vacuuming out the bottom and burn pot.  I change the foil on the drip pan. All this only takes 10 to 15 minutes. Spring cleanup is just a simple scraping the barrel with a putty knife and vacuuming out. I clean the outside and wipe down with a coat of mineral oil.

Over the 3 plus years of using my Traeger I probably average cooking on it 3 times a week. It is suited to my way I like to cook, almost just set the temp you want and let it cook. I have a Maverick Et 734 remote temp probe. I cook almost all of my meats to internal temperature and can remotely keep track of the meat temp and the pit temp.

This turned out longer than I thought. Just hope there is some good info someone will use.
Smokin Don

[teesquare]

Don - nice write up. It is always useful to hear/read  actual user experience with any product. While there are more expensive and, arguably - more feature rich pellet grills, we have seen from your use that YOU know your Traeger and it's "personality, thus you make it do what you want. THAT is the single most important factor in sucess with our equipment regardless of brand. Know it well. Understand what it excels at and what it's limits are.

And you - my friend - know very well how to get the most from your Traeger. I am always impressed with seeing what you have cooked up. Keep up the fine food Don!

[sliding_billy]

Great review Don.  I was at the mall the other day with my family (not sure how long it has been since I was in a real mall) and saw a Traeger kiosk with about 6 cookers.  I have to admit it was a bizarre site.

[muebe]

Good review Don!

I started on a Traeger Junior for my first pellet grill. Was a great little cooker. I made a lot of great food on it. And now I have a PTG and it is a great portable grill.

The fact is that it is because of Traeger I even own a Memphis pellet grill. Their low price point on the entry level Junior is the reason I gave pellet grilling a chance. Before I owned a pellet grill I would not have imagined paying as much as I did for my Memphis. But after cooking with the Junior for a year I was so impressed with the results that the upgrade to the Memphis was a no brainer.

People get so concerned about temp swings and yet if they were to truly monitor their own home oven they would be shocked on the swings they find. Older ovens that have a modulating thermostat can sustain a constant temp but most modern ovens depend on temperature averages. You take the highest and lowest readings as the burner comes on and off then you get your average.

If you take the highest and lowest swing temp on your Traeger then add those two numbers together and divide by 2 you will get your average temp. I think many people would be pleasantly surprised to find how close the average temp is to what they set it at.

Swings on short cooks and things like Salmon can affect the outcome of the food but things that cook over longer periods are not really affected all that much. Some people concentrate too hard on the temps swings. Your results are what is important.

Pellets burn very efficiently when introduced with air by a blower. This creates a very clean burn and very little smoke. The swings cause more smoke to be produced by affecting the burn rate. By having a constant speed fan you have to create swings in order to create smoke. The more out of control the swings the more smoke.

My Memphis has a variable speed fan to help create smoke and regulate temps when under 300F by shutting off the fan and bellowing air as pellets are dropped into the burn pot. It does a pretty good job maintaining a very even temp while creating smoke while minimizing the pellet consumption. This technology does come with a hefty price tag however.

And adding a tube smoker allows me to give a great smoke flavor also. This can be used in any pellet grill if you like a heavier smoke flavor.

[pz]

Excellent information Don and muebe

My wife was the one that came home from Costco with the Traeger, and at first I was not overly optimistic, but I've now cooked ribs, salmon, and brisket all of which turned out reasonably well.  The fact that it is so simple to use is the icing on the cake when I'm busy doing other things and cannot babysit the cooker.

I'm bookmarking this post for future reference (I tend to forget details as I age  )

[tnjimbob]

Thanks Don & Muebe for the Traeger advice. My 07E has been problematic with the exact temp swings you mentioned. Every time I get frustrated with it and want to sell it, something tells me to keep it... namely a handful of chicken calls @ competitions this year. While I am not opposed to keeping it and maybe upgrading the controller, I will try the gradual ramp-up to desired temp & smoke mode with P-setting changes to see if it works better that way. My initial frustration stems from paying more than all the other four grills on the patio combined for the one Traeger, and therefore it should work as advertised w/o a lot of futzing around and/or buying a different controller just to make it work. Also, a friend of mine has the Texas model and it works flawlessly with the 180° controller, staying within 10° of set temp regardless of temp selected. That makes me think that mine should work as advertised along with a few tips as Don suggested.

Maybe my frustration stems from my cheapskate nature, but when I bought a 13 yr. old Weber kettle last year, it exceeded expectations. Of course a stone axe will exceed expectations too, as long as you use it as designed. Maybe the Traeger learning curve is steeper than the "set it & forget it" appeal that it has, and it will be worth a little futzing around to see if it can perform as expected.

I may still end up selling my Traeger, but only for a larger size. Thanks again Don & Muebe for your ideas.

[muebe]

One issue is the location of the RTD on a Traeger is to the left of the grill. It is measuring the air temperature at the location. Because a pellet grill is forced draft there is a ton of air being moved through the grill. The reaction speed of a RTD is very fast so when watching the controller you will see drastic changes in air temps quickly. You are not seeing true temps because the RTD is not getting radiant heat from below. Just air temperature.

The thing is that the temps at where your cooking is most important. The temps at grate level or even above the grate will be more stable due to the drip pan emitting heat and there is less direct air movement there.

Using a ET-732 to measure temps at grate level will give you a better idea on actual temps.

A pellet grill is slow to react and not an easy thing to control because there is a delay between the time fuel is added and energy is released. Also pellets are not the exact size and can burn at different rates. plus ambient temps, wind, humidity, sunlight, food load, etc. can all play a major factor.

The standard Traeger digital controller is not smart. It just runs a pre-set timing based on conditions it is reading from the RTD so swings are just what it does. The Ortech is a better choice and the SSII or custom PID is the best choice. The SSII has a low and high fan speed setting. The low setting really helps when running under 300F. Less air movement = more stable temps at lower temps. At higher temps you need more combustion air to the flame to obtain those higher temperatures.

The fact that a SSII is able to control my PTG with minimum temp swings is impressive. To be able to anticipate what will happen with temps on the fly and adjust the amount of fuel required is a lot of on-the-fly calculations. But that is what PID controllers can do and do really well.

Again though I would not dwell on the temp swings too much especially if your results are proving that the swings although annoying do not change the fact that your food is turning out the way it should.

[sparky]

my whole pellet grill life started at Costco w/ a little tex elite 070E.  was walking thru w/ the wife w/ a flat bed dolly instead of a shopping cart.  big mistake because the big box fit nicely.  i just love the barrel design.  reminded me of old time stick burner smokers.  i was in love.  ya mean I could put ribs and butts and not have to feed it charcoal or do nothing.  i did't like that it didn't have a shelf.  so i made one for myself and it worked great.  it did eat a lot of pellets but i just put one of my wife's wool blankets on it.  only did that once.  the next day i had her credit card at harbor freight getting a welding blanket.  worked like a charm.  using my little tex was like a drug.  i was always using it.  when i would get home from work on Friday at 1 pm i would fire it up and it wouldn't be shut off until sunday night.  i would cook ribs, butts, chuckies, briskies, chicken, little fudge cakes, baked enchiladas.  my wife would fine me under the patio in the dark sitting next to it.  "what the h#ll are you doing?"  sitting next to my smoker dear.  i use to put a maverick in it to check temps.  would chase temps using the p settings all the time.  i hated it.  so i fixed the problem.  i took the maverick out of it.  if the little tex said it was at 275 i believed it.  waa laa, problem solved.  after that i used it for over a year before i went on a pellet smoking grill journey.  i now have a mak 1 star that i just love.  but, it all started w/ a walk down the isle at Costco.  if i ever come across a American made traeger i am buying it.  i always loved that grill.   

[Hub]

Nice report, SD 

I've had my Traeger 075 Texas (new old stock, American) for a little over two years and have really gotten to know its quirks.  It has the el cheapo 225 controller that barely controls at all, but that's okay because I only use it for low smoking and I don't mind the swings and occasional overshoots.  I know the hot and cold spots and adjust accordingly.  Among pellet cookers it is a simple machine and very easy to maintain and repair.  I don't use it for competition but for "friends and family" cooking it has a lot of capacity and is very reliable.  I'll probably hang on to it until it rusts away.

Hub