Hello, first of all

[hickoryrokcih]

Hello fellow Traeger Users,

I'm new here, I was not sure where to start with my issue, this was my best guess you could say.

About 4 days ago I received my Woodridge Elite from Ace Hrdwr. Brought it home and proceded to put it together. It took me about 5 hours with a couple of breaks. I got the wifi and bluetooth squared away while I was near/in the house. All went well. I put the grill where I was going to use it under an awning with some wall protection, weather wasn't bad except temp in mid/low 30's. No big deal. I did the seasoning of the grill as per instruction booklet. All went perfectly. 350, then 500 degrees for 45 min, then shut down. App working ok with my samsung phone, new model. I am using Lumberjack Pellets, hickory variety. I had already purchased a $70 brisket from the local butcher, angus with point and flat.

Day before yesterday, I started the grill @ about 5:30 am. All went just fine so far. I started with 225 degrees with super smoke. Everything was going fine until about noon. Oh, I also purchased a set of 2 of wired temp probes. Those were installed in the point and the flat as well. Any way, at around noon things were looking pretty good, temp stalling a bit so I went out to check things and decided to turn up the heat a little to get it up to around 170 for the wrap. At this time the meat temp on the point was about 5 degrees lower than the flat. No big deal. I went back in the house to keep an eye on things and noticed that the temp in the cooker was not rising, meat temps had stopped if not declined.

I went out to find the flame had gone out, the cooker had reset and wanted to be restarted. The app on my phone went gray and rest to the homepage with the grill icon. Hmmm! What the ell just happened. The REMC didn't glitch or fail. I reset the grill with the power button on the pellet container and restarted the app on my phone. Restarted the cooker, it said it was preheating or something like that on the app. I thought ok, good, well a half hour later and the cooker was not even up to 190. I thought well, now what. I went ahead and pulled the brisket and took it in and wrapped it in foil and put it in the oven in hopes I could save my cook. BTW, the meat did turn out really good anyway.

Ok, I called Traeger and was on the phone with them for over 2 hours checking the operation of the cooker and the tech came to the conclusion that it was ok mechanically. He had me take it apart as far as the grates, drip pan, and the flame spreader to look in the flame pot. The grill did what it was suppose to do and he had me do a shut down on it. Could not give me a reason as to why my Brand New Cooker! just shut off during my first cook.

We did determine that the Firmware needed to be updated as I had read in the assembly manual, which before purchase I had read twice along with the owners manual, so I expected to see the update screen or have notice of it and it never updated. The tech told me to leave the unit on but let it sleep overnight and it would update. Current firmware is 02.05.01, he said the newer version is 02.11.02 .

I called again yesterday after noon and no action on the update. I did try to preheat the cooker again and it did work and I also went through the shutdown procedure. The cooker seemed to work ok. So now I am here trying to beg some help from someone that is maybe a bit more knowledgeable and can help.

What I want to know before I use this cooker again is How Can I Get The Firmware Up To Date? Is it possible to force and update?

I had prepared my wifi and I also have a robust fiber optic system feeding my home for phone, internet, etc. I had disabled the 5.0ghz so the cooker could find the 2.4ghz connection.

Any suggestions, additional questions that need to be answered so I can get an answer about this issue? I am skeptical about starting another cook or possibly even returning the cooker for a refund because I am not sure it is going to work correctly. I did research on many cookers before I purchased this one. I was lucky enough to find it discounted when I did the purchase so I got lucky there.

In parting, HELP

An unsure Traeger Elite Owner.

Edit: I talked to the support team again, they rechecked everything with wifi, app, wifi network in my home. Said all was copasetic. Leave the grill on for 48 hours to see if it updates. I have the upmost confidence.

Hmmm, now lets see, what to plan for my next project. Beer can chicken, ribs, pork roast? Soooooo many things to smoke and eat. Alot of great looking stuff on the Traeger app.

 

[RayClem]

When cooking a brisket, you will generally need more pellets than the hopper typically holds. Some people have modified their hopper with an extension to increase capacity. Another issue with the hopper is that the pellets tend to stick to the sides such that a cone is developed over the auger inlet. If the auger is not feeding pellets, the flame in the fire pot will go out. That can be avoided by adding more pellets to the hopper, or raking pellets from the sides of the hopper down into the auger. I do not know if this is what happened to you, but the timing of the flameout was about what I would have expected for such an issue.

 

[hickoryrokcih]

Great! I will keep that in mind. I had that situation in the back of my mind. I have a wooden long handled spoon that I can stir it with. The handle end will get past the safety grate to get a bit deeper in the hopper to kind of poke them around. I will keep a closer eye on that. That spoon also helps me get the remainder of the pellets out of the hopper and back into the bucket. Thanks

 

[hickoryrokcih]

UPDATE:

All is well in Traegerland at this home!
Update complete to firmware 02.11.02 !

Thank you to all involved at Traeger Support! I am testing at this moment and all is going well with a probe measuring barrel temp as well as the internal temp sensor. Seems to be holding neck and neck through warm up.

Woo Hoo. Hmm, smoked pork chops? mmm, could be.

 

[Shawnbbqman]

Great! I will keep that in mind. I had that situation in the back of my mind. I have a wooden long handled spoon that I can stir it with. The handle end will get past the safety grate to get a bit deeper in the hopper to kind of poke them around. I will keep a closer eye on that. That spoon also helps me get the remainder of the pellets out of the hopper and back into the bucket. Thanks

Just take that safty grate out. I take it out of every grill I work on. That is the thing that traeger settled on that had to be there. Lol
30 years and still have all of my fingers

 

[IEJoe]

Just take that safty grate out. I take it out of every grill I work on. That is the thing that traeger settled on that had to be there. Lol
30 years and still have all of my fingers

Don't do that, ever seen a hand after and auger in a meat grinder gets ahold of it. Same thing, may not be you but a kid watching what you do, you selling it or giving it away without guard would not be good. I've never had to loosen anything in the hopper, but do use it at least twice a week if not more.

 

[Shawnbbqman]

Don't do that, ever seen a hand after and auger in a meat grinder gets ahold of it. Same thing, may not be you but a kid watching what you do, you selling it or giving it away without guard would not be good. I've never had to loosen anything in the hopper, but do use it at least twice a week if not more.

Funny how they made these for 20+ years without that stupid grill and they only put it in there for people who aren't smart enough to not stick their fingers in that auger and leave it there long enough to get caught by it. At 2.0 rpm you would have to leave your finger there awhile to get caught. But that is just my observation after 30 years of dealing with traeger grills.

 

[RayClem]

I used to work in a paper mill and I have seen the results of fingers, hands and arms being caught in machinery. In such cases, those who lost a finger can count themselves blessed. I have seen much worse.

Under normal circumstances, you could reach into the hopper every day for 40 years without injury, but in unusual circumstances, you might reach too far. It only takes a momentary slipup to change your life forever. The guard is there for a reason. Do not disable a safety feature; one day you might regret it.

 

[Shawnbbqman]

I used to work in a paper mill and I have seen the results of fingers, hands and arms being caught in machinery. In such cases, those who lost a finger can count themselves blessed. I have seen much worse.

Under normal circumstances, you could reach into the hopper every day for 40 years without injury, but in unusual circumstances, you might reach too far. It only takes a momentary slipup to change your life forever. The guard is there for a reason. Do not disable a safety feature; one day you might regret it.

Like I said before these were made for 25 years without that guard. They only put it on for a safety rating to make sure they dont have liability in the long run. Kind of like the sticker that on a hair dryer that says not to use it in the shower.
Use common sense and there won't be a problem. The real problem is it isn't very common anymore