I have had it with Traeger

[Dr Dave]

I have had it with Traeger! I am sorry this is so long but I think you have a right to hear the whole story, I just hope this gets posted.
I have had a Traeger Traveler for just over 2 years. I got the Traveler so we could carry it with us in our RV. I have gotten good service from their support group over the years. My first call was about the fire going out and they talked me through adjusting the P setting. Then last Christmas I was trying to smoke a Boston Butt overnight when the fire went out and on Christmas Eve they diagnosed the problem as a bad fan, even though I could hear it working. End result, because the butt had been on the grill with no heat or refrigeration for several hours I had to throw it out.
Now last night I put on a 18 pound packer at midnight. I had started the grill around 11:30 with the lid closed for 20+ minutes, then turned it up to 225. The hopper was filled with Traeger Signature pellets. but within 10 minutes the temp had gone up to over 300 degrees. I have an external temperature indicator and it was showing 360+ as was the Traeger itself, although there was a significant difference in their readings.
When I checked on it at 1:30 it was cold and I had a Ler error, so I opened up the grill and found the fire pot overflowing. I unplugged and cleaned the grill, removed all the pellets from the firebox and restarted the grill, this time with the lid open {I know this is NOT the proper method, but the recommended method had not worked, so I wanted to try it the other way). The fire restarted, after the appropriate time I put the packer back on and although there were wild swings in the temperature for over an hour (from 145 to over 300) it was cooking and kind of averaging somewhere, around 225. I continued to watch it until 4 AM when I checked and refilled the hopper, then went to bed. I got up at 7:20 and looked at my remote temp sensor and it showed the grill was at 49 and the packer at 61 degrees. When I looked at the hopper it was filled to the top, but not overflowing. So I again unplugged the grill, cleaned the fire pot and restarted it. By 8 AM it was back out with the fire pot over flowing, so I called Traeger. I was connected to Viv, she found my record and started helping me. She told me she was sending me a troubleshooting email and that I would get it in a few minutes. When I had not received it in 10 I asked her and she told me they were having trouble with their mail server and it might be several hours so she suggested a Streem video call. She watched me open the grill, remove the grate and pan then the deflector. She checked to see if it was warped, which it was not, and looked at the pan, again not warped and had me pick up the pellets and break some, all looked good, so she said it must be the RTD, she had earlier asked me what the local temperature was (59) and the Traeger showed the start up temp was 75. At this point while I agree that there is a temperature inconsistency, I would think if the RTD was reading high it would cause to few pellets to go into the hopper, not too many, so I asked for her supervisor. It was over 18 minute before Ryan came on the phone and he proceeded to tell me that after looking at the Streem video he thought the pellets were too long and jamming in the auger. He went on to say that he was going to send me a new RTD and for my inconvenience he would also send me some pellets, seasonings or bucket/pan. That is when I lost it. I told him it was much more than an inconvenience, it was costly. My brisket had been sitting on the grill for hours without heat or refrigeration so I was going to have to throw it out. At this point I have had to throw away over $150 (the packer and the butt) in meat because I would not risk our health. I told him that sending me the RTD alone was not acceptable, they would have to send the controller also. He said he could not do that. That is when I asked for the Director of Customer Service.
He has told me he has done an executive escalation and I should expect a call in 2-3 business days and since he escalated the case he COULD NOT ship any parts. As I am sure you are aware there is much I have not included, because this is running too long, and there are 2 sides to any story, but I was on the phone for over 90 minutes and was having to disappoint friends and my wife by not having the brisket I had promised this evening.
So as I said before, I have had it with Traeger. I will not sell this grill on Craigslist, I don't want a buyer to inherit my headaches. I would like to drop it on Traeger's front steps, but I will not waste the freight charges to Salt Lake City. Although I could buy a Savanah Stoker, what I will do is start looking for a new smoker, maybe Rec Tech, or go back to my Weber bullet, a great water smoker that I used for over 20 years and did not have these problems!

 

[Sheri Chavez]

I have had it with Traeger! I am sorry this is so long but I think you have a right to hear the whole story, I just hope this gets posted.
I have had a Traeger Traveler for just over 2 years. I got the Traveler so we could carry it with us in our RV. I have gotten good service from their support group over the years. My first call was about the fire going out and they talked me through adjusting the P setting. Then last Christmas I was trying to smoke a Boston Butt overnight when the fire went out and on Christmas Eve they diagnosed the problem as a bad fan, even though I could hear it working. End result, because the butt had been on the grill with no heat or refrigeration for several hours I had to throw it out.
Now last night I put on a 18 pound packer at midnight. I had started the grill around 11:30 with the lid closed for 20+ minutes, then turned it up to 225. The hopper was filled with Traeger Signature pellets. but within 10 minutes the temp had gone up to over 300 degrees. I have an external temperature indicator and it was showing 360+ as was the Traeger itself, although there was a significant difference in their readings.
When I checked on it at 1:30 it was cold and I had a Ler error, so I opened up the grill and found the fire pot overflowing. I unplugged and cleaned the grill, removed all the pellets from the firebox and restarted the grill, this time with the lid open {I know this is NOT the proper method, but the recommended method had not worked, so I wanted to try it the other way). The fire restarted, after the appropriate time I put the packer back on and although there were wild swings in the temperature for over an hour (from 145 to over 300) it was cooking and kind of averaging somewhere, around 225. I continued to watch it until 4 AM when I checked and refilled the hopper, then went to bed. I got up at 7:20 and looked at my remote temp sensor and it showed the grill was at 49 and the packer at 61 degrees. When I looked at the hopper it was filled to the top, but not overflowing. So I again unplugged the grill, cleaned the fire pot and restarted it. By 8 AM it was back out with the fire pot over flowing, so I called Traeger. I was connected to Viv, she found my record and started helping me. She told me she was sending me a troubleshooting email and that I would get it in a few minutes. When I had not received it in 10 I asked her and she told me they were having trouble with their mail server and it might be several hours so she suggested a Streem video call. She watched me open the grill, remove the grate and pan then the deflector. She checked to see if it was warped, which it was not, and looked at the pan, again not warped and had me pick up the pellets and break some, all looked good, so she said it must be the RTD, she had earlier asked me what the local temperature was (59) and the Traeger showed the start up temp was 75. At this point while I agree that there is a temperature inconsistency, I would think if the RTD was reading high it would cause to few pellets to go into the hopper, not too many, so I asked for her supervisor. It was over 18 minute before Ryan came on the phone and he proceeded to tell me that after looking at the Streem video he thought the pellets were too long and jamming in the auger. He went on to say that he was going to send me a new RTD and for my inconvenience he would also send me some pellets, seasonings or bucket/pan. That is when I lost it. I told him it was much more than an inconvenience, it was costly. My brisket had been sitting on the grill for hours without heat or refrigeration so I was going to have to throw it out. At this point I have had to throw away over $150 (the packer and the butt) in meat because I would not risk our health. I told him that sending me the RTD alone was not acceptable, they would have to send the controller also. He said he could not do that. That is when I asked for the Director of Customer Service.
He has told me he has done an executive escalation and I should expect a call in 2-3 business days and since he escalated the case he COULD NOT ship any parts. As I am sure you are aware there is much I have not included, because this is running too long, and there are 2 sides to any story, but I was on the phone with backwoods phone case for over 90 minutes and was having to disappoint friends and my wife by not having the brisket I had promised this evening.
So as I said before, I have had it with Traeger. I will not sell this grill on Craigslist, I don't want a buyer to shop my goods. I would like to drop it on Traeger's front steps, but I will not waste the freight charges to Salt Lake City. Although I could buy a Savanah Stoker, what I will do is start looking for a new smoker, maybe Rec Tech, or go back to my Weber bullet, a great water smoker that I used for over 20 years and did not have these problems!

Thanks for sharing this. It is really good story of yours.

 

[mikeytee]

Totally understand your frustration, but I would have at a minimum saved the brisket by throwing it in the oven wrapped in foil.

 

[Dr Dave]

Well, the saga continues. Fed up with not hearing from anyone at Traeger I called back on Friday, 4/16. The rep I spoke to could not find an order at first, then after 20 minutes he did, it was hung up! I asked for a supervisor and got Ryan, after about 10 minutes of looking he found the order and got it freed up, supposedly it is on the way. He also told me the “supervisor I spoke to 10 days ago is no longer with the company! If what he did for me is any example, that might have been a good move on their part. I will update this thread as things progress.

 

[Dr Dave]

Totally understand your frustration, but I would have at a minimum saved the brisket by throwing it in the oven wrapped in foil.

Miley, the brisket had not been “cooking”, just sitting on the grill for about 4 hours when I discovered the problem, it was not worth the chance.

 

[GrillMeister]

Sad to say, this is a prime example of setting the LOW threshold for those Fireboard owners for overnight cooks so it will wake you up to a problem before your meat is ruined from sitting for hours at improper temps. Been there, done that. When in doubt, throw it out.

 

[Switz]

Dr Dave: I feel your pain and frustration.

On impulse on 4 December 2020 at the local CostCo store Traeger kiosk, I ordered the CostCo variation of Traeger, a Century 885 which arrived 19 January 2021. Three days later it was operational and connected to WiFi and had a software update. I also had a Thermoworks Signals four port temperature device and a Mk4 Thermapen. I had temp probes at both ends of the pit as well as beside the meat. The temperature variance was over 35 degrees from beside the pellet storage on the right to the chimney on the left. The cooking pit temperature never matched any of the numbers in the Signals display. I spent over 8 hours trying to keep a uniform temp to no avail. Similar experience on second cook with ribs.

Much time with Traeger support resulted in two new probes, both pit and meat temperature. Installed new pit temp with a signals probe ¼" away from the new Traeger probe, Still a 20 degree variance. These two more cooks were with low expectations. I was already planning a resolution.

I went to a local Grill store and inspected a Yoder YS 480S and a YS 640S. I put my name and a deposit down for an August delivery of a YS 640S. The next day I returned the Century 885 to CostCo for a full refund of purchase cost and sales tax. The following Monday I called and the Grill store had an availability of a yellow competition cart model YS 640S due in on the next shipment a week out.

My yellow competition cart Yoder YS 640S was built on 31 MAR 2021 and delivered to the Grill dealer on 2 April and to my place on 8 April 2021.

The China made Century 885 scales 215 pounds whereas the Yoder made in Kansas with USA steel scales 414 pounds. Lots better design on the Yoder.

The Century 885 fire pot is in the middle with air flow going from right to the left to the chimney. There is no thermal way the heat wants to go right when the airflow is left. Yoder has there fire pot at the bulkhead on the left and the air flows to the right where the chimney is located. Somebody at Yoder understands the theories of heat transfer and air movement.

I have lots more $$$ tied up in the Yoder, but the satisfaction and quality is worth every penny.

The old question is: Why is there always time to do the job over? Yoder had Fireboard design their controller for the grill. It interfaces with my Fireboard 2 Drive so all nine probes display on the same iPhone screen in the Fireboard app. A job well done.

 

[Murphy's Law]

Dr Dave: I feel your pain and frustration.

On impulse on 4 December 2020 at the local CostCo store Traeger kiosk, I ordered the CostCo variation of Traeger, a Century 885 which arrived 19 January 2021. Three days later it was operational and connected to WiFi and had a software update. I also had a Thermoworks Signals four port temperature device and a Mk4 Thermapen. I had temp probes at both ends of the pit as well as beside the meat. The temperature variance was over 35 degrees from beside the pellet storage on the right to the chimney on the left. The cooking pit temperature never matched any of the numbers in the Signals display. I spent over 8 hours trying to keep a uniform temp to no avail. Similar experience on second cook with ribs.

Much time with Traeger support resulted in two new probes, both pit and meat temperature. Installed new pit temp with a signals probe ¼" away from the new Traeger probe, Still a 20 degree variance. These two more cooks were with low expectations. I was already planning a resolution.

I went to a local Grill store and inspected a Yoder YS 480S and a YS 640S. I put my name and a deposit down for an August delivery of a YS 640S. The next day I returned the Century 885 to CostCo for a full refund of purchase cost and sales tax. The following Monday I called and the Grill store had an availability of a yellow competition cart model YS 640S due in on the next shipment a week out.

My yellow competition cart Yoder YS 640S was built on 31 MAR 2021 and delivered to the Grill dealer on 2 April and to my place on 8 April 2021.

The China made Century 885 scales 215 pounds whereas the Yoder made in Kansas with USA steel scales 414 pounds. Lots better design on the Yoder.

The Century 885 fire pot is in the middle with air flow going from right to the left to the chimney. There is no thermal way the heat wants to go right when the airflow is left. Yoder has there fire pot at the bulkhead on the left and the air flows to the right where the chimney is located. Somebody at Yoder understands the theories of heat transfer and air movement.

I have lots more $$$ tied up in the Yoder, but the satisfaction and quality is worth every penny.

The old question is: Why is there always time to do the job over? Yoder had Fireboard design their controller for the grill. It interfaces with my Fireboard 2 Drive so all nine probes display on the same iPhone screen in the Fireboard app. A job well done.

So let me get this straight...your $2600+ grill is better than the $1000 you took back? Who woulda thought!

 

[Switz]

Suggested CostCo retail was $1,499 for the Century 885. The so called discounted price was $1,099.

As the problems unfolded with no solution in sight for the 885, I was thinking a Timberline 1300 might work at their suggested $1,999 list price at the local Ace Hardware. The YS 640S on a stand is also a $1,999 list price. For my convenience in getting the Yoder in place in the back side yard, the competition cart made that an easier process. There is more Yoder at $1.999 weighing 318 pounds than there is a robust grill at 226 pounds for a 1300 Timberline at the same price. The Yoder controller is designed and built by the Fireboard folks who also make the six port temperature probe system often referred to here in this forum.

I am presetting the Fireboard app for tomorrow morning using the grill's three ports and four ports on the external device. All connections show on the one screen of my iPhone.

Just saying, we all can make our choices usually based upon some set of information. I knew literally nothing about smoking meats on 4 December at the CostCo store when I decided to try this new to me process. In the time since last December, I have learned more information and have changed my.mind based upon new data,

Many folks can get good results with their Traeger, I was not one of them. So I am trying a different made in the USA product and hopefully will get better results for me.

 

[Rattlesnake Hunter]

Thanks for sharing this. It is really good story of yours.

I’m with you on Traeger. The damn thing rarely smokes, the same meal is never consistent, it’s tempermental as hell....I’m selling my unit and getting an egg, or a weber like the good old days. My time is more important than trying to figure how to grill or smoke a meal. I must admit, they do a good job of marketing their products.

 

[Olds442]

Miley, the brisket had not been “cooking”, just sitting on the grill for about 4 hours when I discovered the problem, it was not worth the chance.

i've eaten some questionable things in my day, i'd have probably chanced it.

def would have back in my college days when i knew everything.

*not recommended for anyone who isn't me.

i'm sorry to see that people had issues and aren't happy with their grills. i had issues early on and they took care of me. my experience is 100% different from these people's.

 

[xxmartinxx]

I have a Traeger Pro Series 34 that I'm having issues with. I had an issue with when trying to run at below 250 degrees it would fill the pot and I'd have to clear it out and start over again. Sometimes it would work and sometimes it would do the same thing. They sent me out a replacement controller, which worked fantastic for a while, but now it's doing the same thing about a year and a half later.

At this point, I'm considering ordering a Yoder YS640S, too. I just want this thing to work. I don't think it's that much to expect.

 

[Switz]

My competition cart Yoder YS 640S works as advertised. The temperature graphs show steady temperatures during the cook once at the set temperature. We had a windy day the last cook so the controller was working hard to maintain the temperature due to external factors.

Calling Yoder on a Saturday during the cook with questions, the chap at Yoder has had the same model at home for over five years and knew the answers to my newbie questions from his own experience. By the way he was at the factory so there was no baby screaming in the background like on some of my Traeger support calls.

As I mentioned above, the 1300 Traeger lists for the same price as the regular stand (which does have wheels adequate in my opinion for a paved patio versus gravel) Yoder YS 640S. American steel and designed controller versus Chinese built and probably designed controller for the same bucks. The Yoder has the ability to also grill over the firebox flame if desired using GrillGrates.

 

[FrankinTraeger]

Dr Dave,
Your story is similar to mine. But I bailed out earlier. Temp swings on a 225 setting often got over 300. Worse then that, the fire would go out. My first experience with that was when, because I had not read the instructions carefully enough, I just turned it on again and that resulted in an explosion and enough heat to damage the barrel and other parts. In their defense, Traeger quickly sent me a bunch of parts. But the problems remained. When I answered their survey with saying service was good, but I would never recommend their product, I never heard from then again. And that's OK.

But I still have it and now it works fine. I have confidence when I start a butt at midnight, it will be cooking properly in the morning. A new Smoke Daddy controller was the start of the solution. Panels added to the hopper gave me confidence the fire would not go out because of tunneling. Changing the burn pot to a 9-hole stopped burn back. (The burn back was probably caused by the Smoke Daddy not having the fan constantly on, and not a fault of the Traeger.) Can't remember what Smoke Daddy's recommendation to change to their auger motor corrected, but I remember it was important And the holes in the back of my Costco Traeger, just did not look right, so I covered them and added a chimney. Maybe that just makes it look like a real smoker, and it didn't cost much. It didn't make it work better when I added three lights to indicate when the igniter, auger, and fan were powered, but it made it interesting to watch.

After these changes, I like my smoker and have had several successful cooks. It's amazing that more people don't report the problems you and I had. In my opinion, a Traeger with the controller with P settings and no fan control, will never give satisfactory results. Fortunately, a new controller and something (panels of vibrator) to stop tunneling can make it useful.