Fire went out after reducing temperature

[ScottSmith]

My first cook was an 11 lb prime brisket! It was about a 15 hour smoke at 225. At one point, the brisket was cooking a little faster than I wanted it to, so I reduced the smoker temp from 225 to 210. This made the fire go out, and the temperature continued to drop. I could not get the fire restarted and had to finish the cook in my kitchen oven. To get the fire restarted, I had to go through full shut down, reprimed the auger, and it started up fine.

Any advice from anyone?

 

[RemE]

They sometimes do this. What pellets were you using? My 850 hasn't done this but my older Traeger did. I quickly wrapped the meat, pulled the plug, cleaned the grill and restarted. On a long cook it worked out.

I would start with a clean grill on a long cook.

 

[ScottSmith]

Thanks for the reply. It was my first ever cook, so the grill was clean other than the startup seasoning they have you do... I used Traeger Texas Beef pellets...

 

[ScottSmith]

I assume it should be OK to reduce the temperature during a cook?

 

[traeger860]

Yes it's OK to reduce the temperature during a cook.

Any chance the cover was open for a long time and wind or a spill knocked the fire out? I'm not sure if/how these are designed to re-ignite if the fire does go out. Longest cook I ever did was about 8 hours. Only time I ever lost the fire is when I ran out of pellets.

 

[ScottSmith]

Good question. I definitely opened the lid to take a temp on the brisket..

So I guess the question becomes: does anyone know how to restart the fire mid-cook if it goes out, preferably without going through a full shutdown?

 

[RemE]

Good question. I definitely opened the lid to take a temp on the brisket..

So I guess the question becomes: does anyone know how to restart the fire mid-cook if it goes out, preferably without going through a full shutdown?

In an emergency you can switch off power, this will cancel the shutdown cycle. Open the lid to drop the temp. When I long cook on the middle rack I remove the bottom rack to keep it clean. This also allows quicker access to the firepot if needed to check/clean, then restart.

 

[traeger860]

Did you get any errors on your screen or app when it happened? Low Temp Error, Temp Sensor Out, Failed to Ignite, etc?

Check page 32 in the manual. Item number 7. I just read it and it's a little confusing to me. But seems like they are saying to power off the grill, unplug it, and clean out the excess pellets in the fire pot. Has a few other steps after that as well. Most of this manual is a huge CYA for Traeger. It seems time consuming so I'm not sure it would have helped you in the middle of a cook. All the shutdown cycle is supposed to do is burn the excess pellets that are in the pot. But if you had no fire, that wouldn't really happen anyways.

Wonder what would have happened if you just unplugged it and powered it back on after clearing the fire pot. I guess that's what you'd have to do if you lost power during a cook and had to start the grill again.

 

[RemE]

BTW, it's OK to open the lid to take temps, flip, etc. If you leave the lid open too long, the newer grills go into a "keep warm" type mode instead of going full blast because of the temp drop. But just popping in and out is fine, obviously you want to keep it closed as much as possible.

 

[ronnasboy]

Which grill do you have? My new Timberline 1300 has done the same thing to me twice. Never had the problem with my first edition Timberline . one recommendation: DONT try to restart it without going through the shutdown cycle. I tried it and had a huge flameout. Seems it just kept adding pellets to the firepot until it caught, and by then the firepot was half full. The fan blew flaming pellets all over the bottom of the grill. Apparently the hot rod never comes on again after the initial ignition, so you have to shut down and start over.

 

[ScottSmith]

New Timberline 850... Fortunately it has not happened again.... knock on wood (pellets, that is...)

 

[GrillMeister]

I would start with a clean grill on a long cook.

This ^^^^^^

I ALWAYS clean out the grill before a long cook. Pellet or Ceramic.

 

[RemE]

Which grill do you have? My new Timberline 1300 has done the same thing to me twice. Never had the problem with my first edition Timberline . one recommendation: DONT try to restart it without going through the shutdown cycle. I tried it and had a huge flameout. Seems it just kept adding pellets to the firepot until it caught, and by then the firepot was half full. The fan blew flaming pellets all over the bottom of the grill. Apparently the hot rod never comes on again after the initial ignition, so you have to shut down and start over.

Actually, to my surprise, my 850 did in fact perform a re-start. I had a power meter on the grill checking watts used during ignition, and when up and running.

Then I opened the hood for a while and the fan dropped to idle and then began running again, sure enough the watts went up to startup level for the duration of an ignition and then back down.

But if I ever get a flameout on mine, I'll pull the plug and clean the firepot first.