Prairie 572 temp swing problems

crewser3x

New member
Joined
Aug 27, 2021
Messages
6
Reaction score
2
Points
3
Location
Tulsa, Ok
Grill
Prairie 572
Hi I am new to pellet grills and my grill is giving me problems with consistent temps. Traeger has sent a new controller, had me replace the pellets, quit using aluminum foil and start using their drip trays. they had me adjust the chimney stack, which made the biggest difference. My problem is that when I am smoking at any temp mostly i cook at 225 but the grill will respond well for an hour or 2. then all of a sudden it will drop to around 189 degrees. Then it will smoke really heavy and the temp will still be dropping the you can hear the burner pot sound like a jet engine roaring and them will start to climb slowly but will go past target temp of 225 and go al the way up to the high 300 degree range then back to 189 and smoke real bad. Then back up to the high 300s again. One time when it dropped temp and started smoking real bad it ignited and burped the lid open on the grill and started smoking back thru the pellet hopper. I had to put the grill into shutdown and when it finally cooled took apart and found that it had burnt the pellets half way back into the auger. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Traeger Tech support does not seem to have the answer.

Thanks
Jim
 
I would try replacing the temp sensor if you haven't already. It's cheap and easy to do. If that doesn't work and Traeger doesn't have any other recommendations, return it or ask for a replacement. I'm not familiar with the model you mentioned, so I'm not sure which sensor version it would need.

The drip trays vs. aluminum foil shouldn't have any impact. Save your money there.
 
I would try replacing the temp sensor if you haven't already. It's cheap and easy to do. If that doesn't work and Traeger doesn't have any other recommendations, return it or ask for a replacement. I'm not familiar with the model you mentioned, so I'm not sure which sensor version it would need.

The drip trays vs. aluminum foil shouldn't have any impact. Save your money there.
Thanks for the reply, The Prairie 572 is a spin off from what I can see of the Pro 575 and is only available thru QVC or HSN, I have actually mounted my own probe next to the temp probe for the gill and they are 1 degree difference between the two. So don't think it is the probe. What really gets me is how far it burns the pellets back into the auger when this happens. Almost like it fills the fire pot with pellets trying to get the temp back up, then the auger stops turning.
 
When you emptied the pellets, did you clear out the auger as well? What type of pellets are you using?

The probe could still be a problem even if it's displaying an accurate temp. The way I understand it is that the probe tells the controller the temp. Then the controller manages the auger and basically tells it what it needs to do to maintain the temp you have it set to. If the probe is reporting bad info back to the controller, the controller is going to pass that bad info along to the other components.

Do you have the same controller as the Pro 575? If so, do you get any errors on the display?

Only other part I think it might be is the hot rod.
 
When you emptied the pellets, did you clear out the auger as well? What type of pellets are you using?

The probe could still be a problem even if it's displaying an accurate temp. The way I understand it is that the probe tells the controller the temp. Then the controller manages the auger and basically tells it what it needs to do to maintain the temp you have it set to. If the probe is reporting bad info back to the controller, the controller is going to pass that bad info along to the other components.

Do you have the same controller as the Pro 575? If so, do you get any errors on the display?

Only other part I think it might be is the hot rod.
When I called Traeger about the grill model they told me it was compatible in size with the Pro 575, when I look at their models it does not have the same controller as the 575, It more like the Pro 22, with a left side hopper and that same controller. Has never given any error codes at all. I am using Traeger pellets straight from them. Keep them in 5 gallon plastic buckets and covered at all times. I use an old flour sifter before putting the pellets into the hopper to remove any dust, because Traeger tech support said that dust could be affecting the temp swings. All pellets are dry and have a good snap to them when you break them.
Thanks for your replies. I will try a few more things this weekend. Just hate to have to shut the grill down all the way when these temp swings start to happen
 
Let us know how it goes.
 
hi crewser,

how often do you clean out the firebox? are you seeing "clinkers", chunks that come out as one piece, consisting of ash, natural resin (silicon, actually)? or is it mostly ash? are the firebox holes all clear and open? maybe take a photo of the firebox/augur and post here. I was not aware that Traeger started selling via QVC/home shopping networks.

sorry to hear about your difficulties. I haven't experienced temp fluctuations like you're describing with my costco Silverton but I am familiar with augur fires...totally sucks! but that was when I tried some pellets that used high bark content. I will say that if I open my lid for too long, it can send the controller into a bit of a tizzy where the blower actually stops. it's like the controller takes a moment to asses the temperature and restart the augur feed and firebox initialization. but it always starts blowing and returns to the set temp pretty quickly.

hope you can get it resolved soon. when they're working correctly, they really can be nice.

-Steve
 
hi crewser,

how often do you clean out the firebox? are you seeing "clinkers", chunks that come out as one piece, consisting of ash, natural resin (silicon, actually)? or is it mostly ash? are the firebox holes all clear and open? maybe take a photo of the firebox/augur and post here. I was not aware that Traeger started selling via QVC/home shopping networks.

sorry to hear about your difficulties. I haven't experienced temp fluctuations like you're describing with my costco Silverton but I am familiar with augur fires...totally sucks! but that was when I tried some pellets that used high bark content. I will say that if I open my lid for too long, it can send the controller into a bit of a tizzy where the blower actually stops. it's like the controller takes a moment to asses the temperature and restart the augur feed and firebox initialization. but it always starts blowing and returns to the set temp pretty quickly.

hope you can get it resolved soon. when they're working correctly, they really can be nice.

-Steve
Thanks for the input Steve, I clean the fire box, after every use, also vacuum out all the dust from inside the smoker. All holes in the fire box are open and there is never anything but ash in there. I remove all the pellets from the pellet box and auger and store away after every use. It gets pretty humid here so hate to leave the pellets in the hopper. I have been using all traeger pellets. I went to look at some more pellets today at Home Depot and they just fall apart in your hand so I am going to try some Bear Mountain pellets I found at Tractor Supply, when you break them they have a really nice snap to them. Going to do another brisket this weekend so it has a long working time ahead of it. I have a friend using them and he says there Gourmet Blend is awesome.
 
Well did a brisket this past weekend and used the Bear Mountain Gourmet pellets. First 2 hours went pretty well. Temp set at 225 degrees, would go from 235 to 215 back and fourth. Then all of a sudden the temp went to 235 degrees and started to drop. When it hit 224 degrees it started to smoke really bad and during this time while it was smoking bad, the temp continued to drop, it made it down to 188 degrees when the smoking stopped and you could hear the fire pot roaring. Temp went up to 317 degrees before the fire pot quit roaring and then dropped to 224 degrees again and started smoking really bad and dropped to about 183 this time before you could hear the fire pot roar again and back up to 325 this time. It did this several times and then steadied back out with the temps. Cooked another 3 hours and started the same thing over again. At about the 7 hour mark it steadied back out and stayed that way the rest of the cook. I had another probe mounted right next to the internal grill temp probe to see if the temps between the two were the same and they were. Brisket came out really great but the set it and forget it goes out the window.
 
Let us know how it goes.
Last weeks cook went ok but still had several temp swings and a lot of smoke when the temps would drop way low then go way high several times. So I started looking into replacing the hot rod to see if that would make a difference. I watched several videos on how to replace it and found when installing the rod it should extend out of the pot an 1/8 to a 1/4 of an inch. I looked at mine and it was bearley extending past the edge of the pot. I adjusted it out just a little over a 1/4 of an inch. No more temp swings. Set at 225 degrees to do some ribs, cooked for 6 hours and never dropped below 218 degrees and never went over 235 degrees the whole cook except, when I pulled the ribs to wrap. Then it dropped and went high then settled backdown. I think the rod was not protruding enough to light the pellets fast enough and would start over filling the burn pot. Taking longer for the pellets to ignite just a lot of smoke and no heat. then once thy lit there were so many pellets in the fire box it could not control the temp rise. Sure worked good this weekend. Will try a brisket again next week and see if it can sustain the temps for 11 to 12 hours.
 
Set at 225 degrees to do some ribs, cooked for 6 hours and never dropped below 218 degrees and never went over 235 degrees the whole cook except, when I pulled the ribs to wrap.

That's as normal as it gets
 
Back
Top