Hello everyone,
I purchased my first ever pellet grill from Costco a few weeks ago - The highly acclaimed Traeger Silverton 810 Wood Fired Grill available only through Costco Wholesale.
While I am new to pellet grills, I’m familiar with most other forms of cooking, grilling, barbecuing, smoking, and with the SousVide method of food preparation. I’ve done lots of protein cooking and was ready to put aside my reservations about pellet grills.
I was ecstatic the day my Traeger Grill arrived. I had viewed assembly videos, cooking tips etc.
Traeger’s packaging design was fantastic and made assembly quick and easy. My son came over and helped flip the assembled unit and I was ready to go...until I found one or two imperfections, and one potentially major flaw.
I’m not sharing my frustrating experience with Traeger’s customer service center, because in the end, Traeger graciously arranged for a return and replacement unit. Yeah, I felt a little guilty in the end.
My replacement unit arrived; we had it assembled; seasoned, and ready for Super Bowl eve. My first brisket would be the star of Super Bowl dinner...or so I thought. Upon opening the lid I found tons of ash everywhere. Essentially sawdust residue everywhere. I called Traeger’s customer service, did a few live streams with them, and ultimately removed all the pellets, cleaned and vacuumed as instructed, reloaded the hopper and started anew.
All seemed great until the smoke appeared - everywhere. Thick white smoke emanating from inside, outside, from storage drawers - everywhere. Another phone call, more live streaming ensued and we had pizza delivered.
But I’m not pulling the plug on Traeger just yet. Upon receipt of some replacement parts I will give it another go.
Anyone have similar experiences?
p.s.
Traeger’s Customer service department was empathetic and remorseful.