If you want to do burgers and brats or sear steaks, you need to get something like GrillGrates to enhance the temperature. Even at max temperature, the Traeger is barely hot enough to trigger the Maillard reaction. the Traeger is great for low and slow cooks, but just does not get quite hot enough for a proper sear. .
I have both a Traeger Ironwood and a Chargriller Flat Iron griddle. I use the pellet grill for low and slow cooks and the griddle for hot and fast. For cooks between 300-400F, either can be used.
Before getting the griddle, I had an old gas fired grill that I used for burgers and brats and for searing steaks. I got rid of the gas grill and now use the griddle.
When doing steaks, you can either use conventional searing or reverse searing. For a conventional sear, start your steak off with a quick sear at high temperature, then place the steak on your smoker set to low temperature (for me that is 200-225F). Then allow the internal temperature of the steak to come up to your desired level. The advantage of conventional searing is that the steak will finish exactly at your desired level of doneness. The disadvantage is that the sear will block some smoke absorption.
For reverse searing, allow your steak to cook low and slow on the Traeger until it reaches an internal temperature below your desired doneness. Then move the steak to a hot grill and sear the steak until it is at your desired temperature. The advantage of this method is that you get more smoke flavor. The disadvantage is that you might not end up with the steak cooked exactly as you desire as there is some uncertainty as to when you should remove it from the Traeger.
Try both searing methods and see which works best for you.
