8 month old Traeger not firing up or heating - Do I just return to Costco?

[BBQ365]

Not thrilled.

Cooked a brisket 2 weeks ago and an incredible success. Last week a steak and gave up when temp didn't reach 350.

Pellets in hopper were sawdust, so emptied hopper, replaced & shop vac'd the unit.

Starts up okay, but barely heats and then an error reading coming up and barely 120 degrees, but frankly don't want to fool around & trouble shoot.

Bought from costco & have receipt. I do not spend $1,000+ to be fiddling around.

Any easy suggestion or do I just pack it up & return?

Love the Traeger, but it it was expensive & way more expensive with pellets then propane.

Hate to give it up, but frankly the idea that in 8 months this has happened is disconcerting.

 

[Slimpicker]

You can CLEAR your errors, at the very LEAST you got to call Traeger's CS and talk to someone... I'm sure you'll get a suggestion, new part or something.

 

[traeger860]

Which model and which error?

 

[BBQ365]

Silverton & error Ler (or something similar). Tried again this morning and see it is not igniting and no pellets fed from the hopper.

First smoker and the idea I need to troubleshoot, doesn't please me.

 

[traeger860]

I'm thinking the sawdust might have clumped up and caused a gap in the auger. Can you see anything stuck in there? Doing the PRIME AUGER step might work.

Here are some other troubleshooting recommendations from Traeger:

https://www.traegergrills.com/support/ler

 

[RemE]

OK, I'll toss in some thoughts;

Pellet grills are more "fiddley" than propane and charcoal. They have controllers, fans, auger motors, ignitor rods, and temperature probes. Depending on where they live, more or less care is needed, but always more care than the other type grills.

1- If the pellets turned to dust in the hopper, something I've never seen in my 10 years with pellet grills, they got wet. I would like to know how where the grill is stored and used?

2- I would clean the firepot and take extra care to make sure the hotrod igniter in the firepot was clear of all debris. After cleaning, I would put in fresh pellets and run the auger with the firepot open and watch for only fresh pellets coming out. Once good, Vac them out and put shields back in place.

3- After 8 months, it might be a good idea to look under the hopper, take the bottom grill off and make sure that the fan intake is clean and all is good in there.

Where I live, in temperate Calif, I only need to vacuum the grill 99% of the time, very little maintenance required. This will vary based on location. But if it worked great for 8 months, it just needs some love most likely.

Ferrari's cost more than Fords, so they need less maintenance, right?

 

[BBQ365]

Too much dust from Pellets. Emptied the hopper and did a thorough vacuuming. Seems okay now. Will see next time I use it.

 

[traeger860]

Are the pellets the exclusive bulk bags from Costco? If so, I've seen other people say that they had a lot of dust in them too. Might just need to filter them out before you fill the hopper.

 

[Slimpicker]

Are the pellets the exclusive bulk bags from Costco? If so, I've seen other people say that they had a lot of dust in them too. Might just need to filter them out before you fill the hopper.

And don't ever just DUMP a bag into your hopper or any crumbs at the bottom go right in... scoop out from the top and watching for junk as you go...

Also another tip... don't just DUMP a bag into a bucket either, the bottom of the "bag" is now on TOP of your bucket. We might all need to learn to just throw away the bottom of the "cereal box" affect and count it as something that could harm our rigs.

 

[RemE]

I agree, I got one of those sifter pans someone linked to here. I now sift all new bags of pellets when transferring into the storage bins. Some have a surprising amount of dust.

 

[BBQ365]

Moral of the story is be very careful if there is sawdust in the pellet bag.

 

[primeone]

I drilled holes in a plastic cup and use that as my scooper/strainer. It works pretty good.

 

[Slimpicker]

I agree, I got one of those sifter pans someone linked to here. I now sift all new bags of pellets when transferring into the storage bins. Some have a surprising amount of dust.

Check this out...

Pellet Bucket Kit

The Oklahoma Joe's® Pellet Bucket Kit includes a filter and scoop in a bucket with an airtight lid to keep your hardwood pellets fresh, dry and ready to use.

www.oklahomajoes.com

Amazon.com : Oklahoma Joe's 5159038W01 Pellet Bucket Kit, Black : Garden & Outdoor

Amazon.com : Oklahoma Joe's 5159038W01 Pellet Bucket Kit, Black : Garden & Outdoor

www.amazon.com

I just bought one... gonna use it to sift the days' smoke, pour in a mix, shake it a bit, add it to the hopper with the scoop... looks pretty cool really

 

[OldMayfield]

Same happened to me. Too much dust in the hopper, auger and firebox. Had to clean it all out, vacuum everything, and clear the auger (see Auguer commands on the Menu). I held the vacuum nozzle to the auger exit and sucked out all the dust in there: took a while.

This was after 4 or 5 days of straight rain in which I had not used the grill. Now I keep an eye on the hopper when we've had a lot of rain. Plus I watch the status of the pellets in the bag and sift them (I use a standard plastic kitchen pasta colander) if there is a lot of dust. And I don't overfill the hopper so pellets don't sit in there too long.

I vacuum it all out about once a month or so. No problems since.