- Joined
- Jun 10, 2019
- Messages
- 1,776
- Reaction score
- 1,578
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Corona Del Mar, California
- Grill
- Timberline 850
Just replaced my trusty Junior grill after many many years of good service. We love the wood fired food so much that I decided to spring for the 850 this time around as this is the only way to grill. It is the vista cruiser of grills for sure, I could barely assemble it alone, it weighs a TON. I'm really impressed with just how well thought out the unit is. The double insulation and sealed door is night and day better that what I've been using. Having 4 wheels is also a real help as I need to move mine around.
Here are my observations;
1 - What firmware is current? I called both numbers in the manual for Traeger support, The main number yielded a call center with someone with basically no technical ability. I then called the WiFire number and they seemed to be reading the same script, they were also non technical. I was asking about push notifications to my phone, that the messages were quite delayed, like 5-10 minutes. They had no clue, told me to update the firmware by leaving the grill plugged in on standby. I read in the forum about Wi-Fi signal strength, in my grill location it was -60db, I had a spare access point sitting around so added it to that corner of the house, now I have -21db very strong signal. Current firmware on my unit reads SW VER 01.01.00, CONFIG VER 08.001 but I don't know what is "current". The support girl mentioned 02.000 which doesn't make much sense. I'll leave it plugged it for a couple of days just in case to see what happens.
2 - Cooking, after the initial burn -in, startup seems to take just about 15min. As far as I can tell, the grill beeps when start-up temp is reached BUT it doesn't send a push notification, this would be very helpful as that's what WiFire is all about!
First cook was a reverse sear Tri-Tip with super smoke. I used the internal probe and found that you must set an alarm on the grill itself, setting a probe temp in the app does NOT alarm when the temp is reached. The super smoke worked great, love to hear that fan cycling. Then up to 500 degrees for the sear, again it worked great and the meat was awesome!
Second cook was boneless skinless chicken breasts and thighs with dry rub. With my old Junior grill this was a 30min cook at 350F with great sizzling action. The 850 experience was completely different. The Junior ran hotter on the bottom to keep the set temp because it "leaked" heat everywhere. The 850 held a solid reading of 350F but at this temp the chicken (on bottom rack at lowest position) was not sizzling at all. I upped the temp to 385F and cooked longer, used a fast thermometer to check till done. The chicken was awesome but I will need to dial-in the best temp on the 850 to get back to my 30min routine, looks like it will be closer to 400F setting. I love the grill so far, the double insulation makes it quiet and consistent for sure.
3- WiFire, need to play with this more. I was at the grill and it beeped about low pellets, it was at 25%. I grabbed a new bag and found that the hopper could hold the whole bag on top of the stated 25%. The pellet level then read 100% but strangely, 10 minutes later I get a push notification to my phone that the pellet level is at 25%. Not sure what's up with the long delay but that's what prompted my call to Traeger. I found their support to be very disappointing, their call center folks seemed to not even know what was printed in the manual, let alone provide any additional expertise. Giving this kind of service 7day 365 is pointless, I'd settle for an expert with limited hours! Anyhow I decided to pump up my Wi-Fi coverage to the grill location to give the 850 solid signal.
All-in-all I love the unbelievable build quality of this grill, the internal grease pan, no smoke stack, huge pellet hopper with pellet level, quiet sealed cooking chamber, ultra heavy duty stainless grill grates, cutting board, and Wi-Fi connectivity, basically every wish I had for a next gen grill. So far I'm a happy camper.
Here are my observations;
1 - What firmware is current? I called both numbers in the manual for Traeger support, The main number yielded a call center with someone with basically no technical ability. I then called the WiFire number and they seemed to be reading the same script, they were also non technical. I was asking about push notifications to my phone, that the messages were quite delayed, like 5-10 minutes. They had no clue, told me to update the firmware by leaving the grill plugged in on standby. I read in the forum about Wi-Fi signal strength, in my grill location it was -60db, I had a spare access point sitting around so added it to that corner of the house, now I have -21db very strong signal. Current firmware on my unit reads SW VER 01.01.00, CONFIG VER 08.001 but I don't know what is "current". The support girl mentioned 02.000 which doesn't make much sense. I'll leave it plugged it for a couple of days just in case to see what happens.
2 - Cooking, after the initial burn -in, startup seems to take just about 15min. As far as I can tell, the grill beeps when start-up temp is reached BUT it doesn't send a push notification, this would be very helpful as that's what WiFire is all about!
First cook was a reverse sear Tri-Tip with super smoke. I used the internal probe and found that you must set an alarm on the grill itself, setting a probe temp in the app does NOT alarm when the temp is reached. The super smoke worked great, love to hear that fan cycling. Then up to 500 degrees for the sear, again it worked great and the meat was awesome!
Second cook was boneless skinless chicken breasts and thighs with dry rub. With my old Junior grill this was a 30min cook at 350F with great sizzling action. The 850 experience was completely different. The Junior ran hotter on the bottom to keep the set temp because it "leaked" heat everywhere. The 850 held a solid reading of 350F but at this temp the chicken (on bottom rack at lowest position) was not sizzling at all. I upped the temp to 385F and cooked longer, used a fast thermometer to check till done. The chicken was awesome but I will need to dial-in the best temp on the 850 to get back to my 30min routine, looks like it will be closer to 400F setting. I love the grill so far, the double insulation makes it quiet and consistent for sure.
3- WiFire, need to play with this more. I was at the grill and it beeped about low pellets, it was at 25%. I grabbed a new bag and found that the hopper could hold the whole bag on top of the stated 25%. The pellet level then read 100% but strangely, 10 minutes later I get a push notification to my phone that the pellet level is at 25%. Not sure what's up with the long delay but that's what prompted my call to Traeger. I found their support to be very disappointing, their call center folks seemed to not even know what was printed in the manual, let alone provide any additional expertise. Giving this kind of service 7day 365 is pointless, I'd settle for an expert with limited hours! Anyhow I decided to pump up my Wi-Fi coverage to the grill location to give the 850 solid signal.
All-in-all I love the unbelievable build quality of this grill, the internal grease pan, no smoke stack, huge pellet hopper with pellet level, quiet sealed cooking chamber, ultra heavy duty stainless grill grates, cutting board, and Wi-Fi connectivity, basically every wish I had for a next gen grill. So far I'm a happy camper.
