Some issues with my new Ironwood 650

Beaser

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Location
Barrie Ontario
Grill
Ironwood 650
Minor annoyances become more serious as the price goes up.
After putting the 650 together ( an easier job than expected) I chose to wait until the next day. I did the initial burn as outlined in the manual. It was getting late so I threw some honey garlic snausages with onions and red peppers on the large grate in the higher position . As I took the snausages off the grill I noticed grease had dripped from the left corner of the door . . There was a 1/16" gap from the bottom up about 2/3 of the door height and the left side of the grate was touching the door when closed I figured I'd call about that on Monday. I checked level left to right and front to back. The left front was actually a hair higher than the right side and front to back on the grate was a slight down bubble, so any grease migration due to improper level will be away from the door corner. I'm expecting stupid arguments from customer service.

On a $500 junior I'd bend something or give it a whack with BFH but not on something this new to market and 3 times the price.
Saturday I put on some back ribs using 3-2-1 timing and apple pellets. 3 1/2 hours @180 with super smoke, wrap for 2 hours and glaze for about 30 min. I was impressed! I loved the way that quality of smoke has priority over temp. And no drips, mind you everything was low temp (max 225 deg F)

Tonight, put burgers on, the same way I've done with my junior. 450 deg F for 7-8 min a side with the rack in sear position. Getting ready to take the burgers off and there a woof and a total sheet of flame across the drip tray. I got the burgers off, killed the power and closed the door. When the grease stopped flaming, I re energized and put it through it's shutdown cycle.

When every thing cooled down I pulled the racks off and inspected the bottom cavity. There was no grease and all the components were in their place and with only 3 cooks there wasn't much ash. The aluminum tray liner was dry. There was a thick coating of soot adjacent to the gap in the door. It seemed the grease from the burgers flamed across to the grease trough. I'm pretty sure that 1/16 gap in the door was part of the cause

Tomorrow I'm going to restart and check the accuracy of the temp control. The reason I'm being so careful is I consider this to be a DOA issue where they fix it . If I change anything then I own it. 47 years of being a manufactures field engineer makes me very careful. Talking to unskilled help with a script doesn't cut it. Software glitches I expect but starting at a negative on mechanical build isn't where I want to be.

There are some pretty experienced people on this forum. I'd like to hear if anyone has experienced these issues. I had a junior and ran it just about every day (weather permitting). I had some controller issues but mechanically the grill was sound.

I haven't been able to connect yet , I'll have a better look at it later in the week, I have an asus AC1900 modem in my office upstairs above the deck. There is a large window with aluminum mini blinds. I'll have to raise the blinds otherwise we have a pretty efficient reflector blocking the signal. I had a signal strength meter app on my tablet that gave me the strongest channels on the 2.4 ghz band, gotta find one for my phone.
 
All of my experience is with the little Traeger Junior and I never had any grease fires with it but the Ironwood is a totally different grill. I had used one of the included aluminum foil drip pan liners and I did have trouble keeping it flat. Grease could have pooled and reached it's flash point but if that is the case, even fully flat or without the liner grease may flash anyway. I've used the liners with my little junior with no issues.. I'll finish cleaning, put it together and check temps with my type K meter.
 
I've run over 100 lbs of pellets through my Ironwood 885 so far in the last 2 months, cooking burgers, brisket, pork but, steaks, fish, chicken, & even chicken nuggets, but have never had an issue with the drip tray pooling grease. I use a liner too and then lay a piece of heavy duty foil on top of that which I change between every cook. It works out well and the liners last longer.
 
I have the IronWood 650. Have put 120lbs of pellets through it. I too have the gap on the sides of the lid. I’ve cooked everything from bacon to 500 degrees pizza cooks. No issues with grease management so far. I do plan on installing the gasket on the lid to help seal it up better.
 
I've cooked for over a year on my little Junior. Steaks, ribs, pork and beef roasts and lots of burgers and no grease fires. I used aluminum foil as a liner. The little fella's doors fit perfectly as well. Hopefully everything will fall in line.

I've noticed a few have bought gasket material, how big a gap did you fellows have?
I have the IronWood 650. Have put 120lbs of pellets through it. I too have the gap on the sides of the lid. I’ve cooked everything from bacon to 500 degrees pizza cooks. No issues with grease management so far. I do plan on installing the gasket on the lid to help seal it up better.
 
I've run over 100 lbs of pellets through my Ironwood 885 so far in the last 2 months, cooking burgers, brisket, pork but, steaks, fish, chicken, & even chicken nuggets, but have never had an issue with the drip tray pooling grease. I use a liner too and then lay a piece of heavy duty foil on top of that which I change between every cook. It works out well and the liners last longer.

I do exactly this is well with over 100 lbs of pellets run through also. No issues.
 

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