Silverton Ambient temperature accuracy

[Bob K]

I hope someone can help with this...this is my third Traeger. The previous didn't have the new controller or WiFire. I was told this was significant upgrade. I seasoned and then ran a couple cooks, assuming at least close accuracy. Bear in mind I'm very used to these grills. I noticed the wings looked far less cooked than the hundreds of times I've done them before. That led me to put two other very good ambient thermometers inside as well. The Traeger ambient reading was constantly higher than the other two, which were within 3 degrees of eachother. Yesterday, when roasting turkey, the Traeger probe was consistently at LEAST 30 degrees higher than the other two. To get to a temp of 325 I had to set the grill to 385. I contacted Traeger support (they're always courteous, helpful, and pick up quickly). After staying on the phone with me from start up he said the grill ambient was accurate. When I mentioned the other THREE monitors (Fireboard, I Grill, and Old School Oven Thermometer) indicated a much lower temp his response was "yes but the traeger probe (ambient) is calibrated and programmed to the grill, so the Traeger is accurate!? My reply was
"isn't it supposed to tell me the internal temp of the grill , to which he replied yes. He said I couldn't rely on the other three sources. Hello? THE TEMP IS THE TEMP. I even asked him..."so if the Traeger reads 300 but the others read 180 and I can lay my hand on the grate, you're tellling me it's accurate? He was polite, but just reverted back to "ours is calibrated and programmed, so it is correct". Hey, Physics is physics! Does anyone have any input or similar experience? I want to keep the grill, but I shouldn't have to use other probes and guesstimate what temp I'm really getting. $1400 grill should not require this
-- Hope there's a good answer

 

[Don C]

Lots of posts here Re the temp variances.

Here is a recent 1 to get you started.

My variance is that the Traeger runs about 25 degrees lower than it shows.

We can't all be wrong. Traeger is wrong!

.

Confused about temp probe...

New here and am strongly considering purchasing a Traeger, but I've read quite a lot about how everyone runs 3rd party temp probes. How does this work with the Traeger app? Is the idea to have a 3rd party meat probe and 3rd party ambient temp probe, and adjust grill temp using that? For...

www.traegerforum.com

 

[CMTiger]

I hope someone can help with this...this is my third Traeger. The previous didn't have the new controller or WiFire. I was told this was significant upgrade. I seasoned and then ran a couple cooks, assuming at least close accuracy. Bear in mind I'm very used to these grills. I noticed the wings looked far less cooked than the hundreds of times I've done them before. That led me to put two other very good ambient thermometers inside as well. The Traeger ambient reading was constantly higher than the other two, which were within 3 degrees of eachother. Yesterday, when roasting turkey, the Traeger probe was consistently at LEAST 30 degrees higher than the other two. To get to a temp of 325 I had to set the grill to 385. I contacted Traeger support (they're always courteous, helpful, and pick up quickly). After staying on the phone with me from start up he said the grill ambient was accurate. When I mentioned the other THREE monitors (Fireboard, I Grill, and Old School Oven Thermometer) indicated a much lower temp his response was "yes but the traeger probe (ambient) is calibrated and programmed to the grill, so the Traeger is accurate!? My reply was
"isn't it supposed to tell me the internal temp of the grill , to which he replied yes. He said I couldn't rely on the other three sources. Hello? THE TEMP IS THE TEMP. I even asked him..."so if the Traeger reads 300 but the others read 180 and I can lay my hand on the grate, you're tellling me it's accurate? He was polite, but just reverted back to "ours is calibrated and programmed, so it is correct". Hey, Physics is physics! Does anyone have any input or similar experience? I want to keep the grill, but I shouldn't have to use other probes and guesstimate what temp I'm really getting. $1400 grill should not require this
-- Hope there's a good answer

If you aren’t willing to utilize a fairly simple workaround for this problem you definitely need to take it back. There’s no fix for it. It sucks, yes, but it is what it is. I came to terms with it and it doesn’t even bother me anymore.

 

[EyeGuy]

I worried about this temperature thing in my new Costco Traeger for a while, but then I placed several probes around the grill and found many variables affecting the readings. The vertical displacement of a probe can affect the reading. Placing a probe over the edge of a pan can affect the reading. Placing a probe in front of a vent can affect the reading. I gave up worrying about the these variances and occasional swings because there was little consequence at my level of BBQ competitiveness. The meat always cooked just fine and fussing over a few degrees of occasional variation was ruining my fun.

My offset smoker swings wildly too (the sun goes in, it starts to rain, some hunk of unburied charcoal suddenly starts up). In the end, I don’t believe it matters that much because the bigger variable is the meat itself—fat content, marbling characteristics, quality, etc. What’s most important is the meat probe and it’s placement. All in all, the pellet grill is a vast improvement in temperature control over my experience with an offset smoker.

Here is what finally alleviated my worries about the ambient probe “accuracy” for my grill. I went outside on Thanksgiving Day. The grill was cold. It was 34 degrees. The Traeger read 34 and my grill grate probe read 34 degrees. So, the Traeger probe agrees with my secondary probe in a cold grill with nothing blowing around or baffling the air flow. After firing up the grill, shoving a cold Turkey in the grill in a pan, and putting it on the grill, I began to see some discrepancy. I then moved my secondary probe to a new location, the discrepancy diminished. In the end, the meat probe read 170, the turkey was fantastic and everyone raved.

Don’t sweat it.

This whole debate I went through reminded me of another situation in my life where I worried about nonsense noise. I like to do woodworking. I wanted a band saw. One band saw was a solid product with industrial type adjustments and no frills. The other band saw had blade tension meters and fancy dials. After reading articles about how important blade tension is on a band saw, I splurged and bought the unit with the fancy tension meter. After a week of messing around I finally determined that you could tell all you needed to know by just using finger pressure—and +/- 5 or 10 or 20 on some dial meant nothing. About a month later that fancy dial broke—and I haven’t missed it. You learn what to really watch as you learn the art. Life’s too short to worry about the noise of temperature dial discrepancies—especially when you find out that much of this problem is an artifact of probe location.

Smoke that, have fun, and yes, I am a real scientist who does serious BBQ. At least my wife and friends say so!

 

[Bob K]

Eyeguy, thanks for the response. Very much appreciated!!!