New Ironwood 650

[joshuajock1983]

New here just got an ironwood 650. If anyone has any pro tips I’d love to hear. Excited to be part of the Traeger family.

 

[dsmero]

New here just got an ironwood 650. If anyone has any pro tips I’d love to hear. Excited to be part of the Traeger family. View attachment 1389

Welcome! Nice setup! I have an IW 650 myself and like it (use it almost every day). Definitely can't live without the front shelf and cover. Also very happy with the GrillGrate sear kit that will provide a much better sear. I found the meat probe to be horribly inaccurate so I use a Weber iGrill2.

There's quite a few of us with the Ironwood 650. Feel free to ping me if you have any questions. What's your first cook after seasoning?

 

[RustyJake]

Welcome. I am a new 650 owner as well.
Lots of information available in the posts on the forum. They have already helped me spend a little bit more to enhance my experience with the 650 ??

 

[chiefsmikestl]

Hello - new here as well. Just seasoned my new Ironwood 650 yesterday. I have so many questions. Until I receive my drip liners is there a good link for how to keep my new grill clean? Use foil? Also, where's the best place to start looking for tips and favorite recipes? Plan on doing wings and ribs this weekend. Can't wait to do some butts and briskets. Thanks, Mike

 

[dsmero]

Hello - new here as well. Just seasoned my new Ironwood 650 yesterday. I have so many questions. Until I receive my drip liners is there a good link for how to keep my new grill clean? Use foil? Also, where's the best place to start looking for tips and favorite recipes? Plan on doing wings and ribs this weekend. Can't wait to do some butts and briskets. Thanks, Mike

Some members here seem to wrap the drip tray in heavy duty foil. I've wrapped my liners with a sheet of heavy duty foil if I'm cooking something that might drip more like burgers. Seem to be able to get a little more life out of them. Otherwise I'll get a lot of uses out of the liners themselves since I'm a neat freak and clean them pretty well after cooks. Aside from that, you just have to vacuum it out with a shop vac or a vac with a hose attachment. It's fairly easy to clean if used properly and youll spend more time removing the baffles than vacuuming.

There's some good tips in the recipes section. Some recent ones about 3-2-1 ribs and pulled pork in the past week. I just did some wings the other day and they came out great. I used MeatChurch Honey Hog rub on a couple dozen wings and smoked them for an hour at 200 with super smoke. I then kicked it up to 375 and took the wings to internal temp of 185-190 so they had a really nice crisp but still juicy. I know chicken is done at 165 but I always take my wings up to 190ish. I made the bourbon bbq sauce in this https://www.meatchurch.com/blogs/recipes/bourbon-bbq-wings

 

[Coug86]

I have been wrapping my drip tray with heavy foil for 10 years on my old Traeger. Usually replace it every five or six cooks when I clean out the ash. I do not like the pre-made trays as they do not cover the entire tray.

 

[joshuajock1983]

Hello - new here as well. Just seasoned my new Ironwood 650 yesterday. I have so many questions. Until I receive my drip liners is there a good link for how to keep my new grill clean? Use foil? Also, where's the best place to start looking for tips and favorite recipes? Plan on doing wings and ribs this weekend. Can't wait to do some butts and briskets. Thanks, Mike

Did yours not come with a couple of drip tray liners? Mine came with the tray liners and bucket liners. JUST missed out of the free cover and bag of pellets and another dealer I was working with had just sold his last grill/cover/front shelf/pellet/utensil combo. But luckily I did get the liners. I am waiting for my cover that I ordered to come in (damn stimulus checks, ppl are buying this stuff right up)

 

[joshuajock1983]

Welcome! Nice setup! I have an IW 650 myself and like it (use it almost every day). Definitely can't live without the front shelf and cover. Also very happy with the GrillGrate sear kit that will provide a much better sear. I found the meat probe to be horribly inaccurate so I use a Weber iGrill2.

There's quite a few of us with the Ironwood 650. Feel free to ping me if you have any questions. What's your first cook after seasoning?

Thank You. I had read another post where you mentioned the GrillGrate sear kit and they are very tempting (father's day gift, maybe? From me, to me) I started out simple last night and smoke some burger patties at 225 for 30 minutes and cranked her up high to sear them afterward. Went a little long on the sear I think, came out a little more done then I'm used to. But, like anything, it's a learning curve I suppose.

I have actual food service thermometers that I have always used since I bought my Masterbuilt Electric smoker and they seem pretty fool proof and never really had any issue. But I do like the iGrill and the fact that you can monitor on the phone just like the WiFire app

 

[dsmero]

Thank You. I had read another post where you mentioned the GrillGrate sear kit and they are very tempting (father's day gift, maybe? From me, to me) I started out simple last night and smoke some burger patties at 225 for 30 minutes and cranked her up high to sear them afterward. Went a little long on the sear I think, came out a little more done then I'm used to. But, like anything, it's a learning curve I suppose.

I have actual food service thermometers that I have always used since I bought my Masterbuilt Electric smoker and they seem pretty fool proof and never really had any issue. But I do like the iGrill and the fact that you can monitor on the phone just like the WiFire app

Yeah the GrillGrate sear station is probably my favorite accessory because I do a lot of steaks and burgers and coming from gas, the Traeger wasn't cutting it for me in the sear department. But I kind of knew this going in and intended to use my Weber to sear. I haven't touched the weber since buying the GrillGrate. Promo code SHARE20 if you wanted to save a few bucks.

I like my iGrill2 overall. Bluetooth range is just okay but I wish it was Wifi and cloud connected. The app is nice and easy to use. It has a nice chart to record progress but you have to stay in range. I have a Fireboard on the way and excited to try that. I had my iGrill for some time now and it's accurate and has never given me an issue. Definitely need a reliable meat probe since I've found the Traeger probe to be horrible. Weird because the ambient probe seems accurate. I always doublecheck with my Thermapen Mk4. I really didn't need a new expensive hobby

 

[chiefsmikestl]

Did yours not come with a couple of drip tray liners? Mine came with the tray liners and bucket liners. JUST missed out of the free cover and bag of pellets and another dealer I was working with had just sold his last grill/cover/front shelf/pellet/utensil combo. But luckily I did get the liners. I am waiting for my cover that I ordered to come in (damn stimulus checks, ppl are buying this stuff right up)

No, mine did not come with drip tray liners. I ordered some, but I will not get them until next week. I am trying the heavy duty foil wrap on my drip tray today for my first cook. I did get the front shelf and cover with mine.