Half Blind Alchemist
New member
Hi All, and welcome to my first forum post. I am new to Traeger and new to griddling. Have a Napoleon grill, Masterbuilt smoker and Ooni pizza oven in my outdoor ‘man cave’, so am used to cooking outdoors. But, have lusted for a griddle for quite a while and finally decided that it was a ‘gotta-have’, not a ‘nice-to-have’. Bought the Flatrock from Home Depot and it was delivered last week. Assembly was going fine, until I got to the shelves. Both of them were crushed/smooshed. I don’t even see how it could have happened, since the outer and both inner boxes showed no damage. They really do a nice packing job. After a call to customer Support and a video review of the damage, Traeger sent out two replacement shelves, which arrive Monday. In the meantime, I have gone forward with the rest of the set-up. Here is where I encountered my next issue, with which I could use some help.
Two of the three knobs stick. This is not the bushing issue that is addressed in the troubleshooting guide. Without the knobs the posts move in and out fine. The problem is that the control panel is very slightly out of alignment with the knobs, maybe 1/32 of an inch. But, it is enough that the knob stems on the right and center knobs rub the control panel at the 12 o’clock position. I can pull them out, but they don’t spring back normally, and they squeak. The left knob is fine, so the misalignment is progressive from left to right. I took off the control panel to see, if I could make an adjustment. There was a lot of pressure on the right screw that made it hard to turn, but it released, when the screw came out. I tried to adjust the control panel, raising it on the right side, before putting the screws back. It helped very slightly, but both knobs still stick.
Has anyone else run into this issue? If so, do you have a solution? I can put a Dremel to the holes in the control panel. It would not take much to remove enough material to allow the knobs to spin freely. But, I would like to make sure that this is not symptomatic of another problem. Between the shelves and the control panel it would seem that the griddle took a pretty good jarring. Again, there was no visible damage to the packaging or to the pallet on which it arrived. The battery went in fine and is staying in place, so am guessing this is not an old unit with old problems. The tank gauge calibrated fine and shows a full tank. All three burners light fine and show even, blue flames. No obvious chipping or other damage to the interior paint. Cover closes smoothly and evenly. Griddle itself sits flat on the unit without wiggle or wobble and seems level. Have not seasoned it, yet. So, assuming the replacement shelves are undamaged, the only issue is with the knobs sticking. I have not reached out to Traeger about it, yet. Thought I would check with the experts here before deciding what to do next. I hate the idea of putting a Dremel to a brand new griddle, but if the problem is just that the holes are slightly misaligned, and taking off a bit of metal will resolve the issue, then I am fine with doing it, especially since it will not be visible, once the knobs are on.
Thanks in advance for any and all ideas.
Bill
Two of the three knobs stick. This is not the bushing issue that is addressed in the troubleshooting guide. Without the knobs the posts move in and out fine. The problem is that the control panel is very slightly out of alignment with the knobs, maybe 1/32 of an inch. But, it is enough that the knob stems on the right and center knobs rub the control panel at the 12 o’clock position. I can pull them out, but they don’t spring back normally, and they squeak. The left knob is fine, so the misalignment is progressive from left to right. I took off the control panel to see, if I could make an adjustment. There was a lot of pressure on the right screw that made it hard to turn, but it released, when the screw came out. I tried to adjust the control panel, raising it on the right side, before putting the screws back. It helped very slightly, but both knobs still stick.
Has anyone else run into this issue? If so, do you have a solution? I can put a Dremel to the holes in the control panel. It would not take much to remove enough material to allow the knobs to spin freely. But, I would like to make sure that this is not symptomatic of another problem. Between the shelves and the control panel it would seem that the griddle took a pretty good jarring. Again, there was no visible damage to the packaging or to the pallet on which it arrived. The battery went in fine and is staying in place, so am guessing this is not an old unit with old problems. The tank gauge calibrated fine and shows a full tank. All three burners light fine and show even, blue flames. No obvious chipping or other damage to the interior paint. Cover closes smoothly and evenly. Griddle itself sits flat on the unit without wiggle or wobble and seems level. Have not seasoned it, yet. So, assuming the replacement shelves are undamaged, the only issue is with the knobs sticking. I have not reached out to Traeger about it, yet. Thought I would check with the experts here before deciding what to do next. I hate the idea of putting a Dremel to a brand new griddle, but if the problem is just that the holes are slightly misaligned, and taking off a bit of metal will resolve the issue, then I am fine with doing it, especially since it will not be visible, once the knobs are on.
Thanks in advance for any and all ideas.
Bill
