Temperature incorrect

[Big CC13]

I purchased my Timberline XL in Nov 2022. First 2 damaged in shipping. Third grill when cooking noticed cook times way off. 12 hr brisket took 18 hrs. Spatchcocked Turkey that normally takes 2 hr 40min took 5 hr 40 min and was ruined. The grill temp reading reads and maintains temp on the screen but actual temps using an oven thermometer and wired temp probes on rack clips to keep in the air are 50* lower than desired temp. Customer Service is friendly but no help at all. They replaced probes, hotrod and thermal coupler. No change. They say the grill is correctly working…. Set to 350* but both “Third Party” thermometers read 50* lower. No calibration function on TXL grill I know about. Am I going to have to monitor temps myself or does anyone have a cure? I have a smaller Traeger 750 Pro and all thermometers are close to desired temp and all cooking times are what you would expect.

 

[caper11]

Welcome to the new generation of traeger smokers, not grills. This is a common theme with the new style of grill. I also have the new XL and the ironwood L performs the same. Only thing you can do is set the temp hotter than you normally would. I actually have a thread on here about this.

 

[AndrewSilver]

I purchased my Timberline XL in Nov 2022. First 2 damaged in shipping. Third grill when cooking noticed cook times way off. 12 hr brisket took 18 hrs. Spatchcocked Turkey that normally takes 2 hr 40min took 5 hr 40 min and was ruined. The grill temp reading reads and maintains temp on the screen but actual temps using an oven thermometer and wired temp probes on rack clips to keep in the air are 50* lower than desired temp. Customer Service is friendly but no help at all. They replaced probes, hotrod and thermal coupler. No change. They say the grill is correctly working…. Set to 350* but both “Third Party” thermometers read 50* lower. No calibration function on TXL grill I know about. Am I going to have to monitor temps myself or does anyone have a cure? I have a smaller Traeger 750 Pro and all thermometers are close to desired temp and all cooking times are what you would expect. paybyplatema

Sorry to hear about your grill troubles. I think monitoring temps manually might help until a solution arises.

 

[RayClem]

If you search the forum, you will find dozens of threads like yours. The chamber temperature thermocouples are notoriously inaccurate.

Since you have 3rd party thermometers, just set your controller so that the temperature is what you desire.

BTW: I have a Ironwood 885 that is 18 months old. I set the controller to 225F to get a cook temp of 200F. I set it to 335 if I want to cook at 300. I set the temperature to 450 to cook at 400. Unfortunately, that discrepancy means the highest temperature I can achieve is around 440F.

Thus, set the temperature of the controller to give you the actual cook temperature you desire. Never rely on time and temperature for any cook. Always cook to internal temperature as measured by a 3rd party instant read thermometer you know to be accurate.

 

[YYCRed]

It really is disappointing to see that they haven't fixed this issue in the new models. Every grill is off by a different amount, and the difference varies based on the temperature range. I need to set it to 230 to run at an actual 200 but set it at 365 to hit an actual 350.

Unfortunately, you need to use third-party probes and learn how your grill works. As I said, this is disappointing, but good luck.

 

[caper11]

Its not a thermocouple problem its a scaling proble. I would be happy with 20-30deg off like my 885, not the 70-100f off on the next gen grills. Traeger does not see it as a problem. Running the grill at 500f to get it to cook introduces other issues like temp overshoot that leads to a high temp shutdown.

 

[midwest]

Couple things. In my experience this is not strictly a traeger issue. I have one friend with a high end Pitts and Spitts grill and a family member with a Rectec and both experience the same. It definteily sucks to spend that kind of money on a grill and have to buy an after market temp gauge. But as you have learned, with the cost of meat, it only takes a couple screwed up cooks to cover the cost of an Inkbird.
My Treager probes slides on a scale. Under 250 it is spot on, the higher the temp is set the further off it gets. Close to 50 degrees of when I crank it to 450.

 

[RayClem]

Couple things. In my experience this is not strictly a traeger issue. I have one friend with a high end Pitts and Spitts grill and a family member with a Rectec and both experience the same. It definteily sucks to spend that kind of money on a grill and have to buy an after market temp gauge. But as you have learned, with the cost of meat, it only takes a couple screwed up cooks to cover the cost of an Inkbird.
My Treager probes slides on a scale. Under 250 it is spot on, the higher the temp is set the further off it gets. Close to 50 degrees of when I crank it to 450.

No matter whether you are using pellet grill from Traeger or other manufacturer, a wood-fired offset smoker, or even your kitchen oven, the temperature will vary from location to location throughout the cooking chamber. A thermocouple can only measure the temperature at one specific location. A permanently mounted thermocouple cannot be mounted in the center of the chamber where you are placing your food as you have to be able to remove grates to clean the grill. I did the next best thing and drilled a hole in the lid of my Ironwood and mounted a large analog thermometer like are used on offset smokers, gas and charcoal grills. There will always be temperature variations right to left, back to front and top to bottom, but the lid mounted thermometer is about as close to central as you can get.

I realize that people have mounted 3rd party thermocouples an inch away from the Traeger thermocouple and have found discrepancies. It does not really matter as you should be able to adjust your controller to achieve the cook temperature you desire. It is like cooking on a gas stove. You have no idea what temperature the burner is achieving, but you learn from experience where to set the dial to achieve the cook temperature you need.

 

[Guest7909]

I purchased my Timberline XL in Nov 2022. First 2 damaged in shipping. Third grill when cooking noticed cook times way off. 12 hr brisket took 18 hrs. Spatchcocked Turkey that normally takes 2 hr 40min took 5 hr 40 min and was ruined. The grill temp reading reads and maintains temp on the screen but actual temps using an oven thermometer and wired temp probes on rack clips to keep in the air are 50* lower than desired temp. Customer Service is friendly but no help at all. They replaced probes, hotrod and thermal coupler. No change. They say the grill is correctly working…. Set to 350* but both “Third Party” thermometers read 50* lower. No calibration function on TXL grill I know about. Am I going to have to monitor temps myself or does anyone have a cure? I have a smaller Traeger 750 Pro and all thermometers are close to desired temp and all cooking times are what you would expect.

Here’s a secret I learned from any Traeger pro. Try covering the thermocouple temperature probe with a small amount of aluminum foil compressed around the probe. Run the Traeger for about 20-30 minutes at say 300 degrees. Then check temperature inside Traeger with an oven thermometer and compare it to the temperature setting on the controller. Be sure to place the oven thermometer close to the foil-covered probe. Try testing at different temperatures. Allow the Traeger run about 20 minutes at each new temperature setting before checking temperature inside. Hope this helps. It did for my Pro 575.

 

[Shedd]

Exactly. When I first got my pro 780 it drove me nuts trying to figure out why it varied significantly. I was used to my green egg sitting at a constant temperature for hours and it didn’t occur that the Traeger uses a fan to control the temperature causing it to spike up then down.I normally only cook low and slow and since I’ve gotten a vacuum sealer and a Sous Vide circulator I can cook days, weeks even months ahead on my time so I don’t have to worry about smoking that butt or ribs and getting it completed before guest arrive. The best part is by doing this you cannot tell the difference in taste, it truly tastes like I just smoked it. So now I set it at 230 degrees and only monitor the temp of the meat, I don’t care how long the cook takes. On long cooks I don’t have to get up at night checking on anything. I can work in my shop that’s a couple hundred yards away from my house and not worry. This is the way it should be, took me my whole life to figure it out! Lol

 

[caper11]

The OP has a XL. You realize you are commenting on totally different generation of grills.

The only time the temp is accurate is when it’s at ambient temp. I have tested this and I have two next generation grills, and have mounted the exact same thermocouple exactly where the traeger one is, and have a discrepancy of 70-100f. Hard to cook at 500f when the grill will overshoot its temp setting and go into a high temperature shutdown.

My 885 is 20-30f out doing the same test and its a rockstar compared to my new ones.

 

[The Visitor]

Are these probes thermocouples or RTD probes?

If the probe changes resistance based on temp I would have thought there must be a way to calibrate the probe. As it gets hotter the resistance increases. So by putting a proper resister in series or parallel with the probe will alter the resistance for any given temperature. Ideally these would be variable resistors with the correct range. Some testing/measuring would be needed to see just what the probes resistance is at say 300 dF. I would have thought that there would be some pots on the circuit board already, just for this purpose.

Would be nice for a service kit to be available. A small board with some pots on it that you plug the probe into and then plug the service board into where the probe was plugged.

Or insulating the probe, so that the smoker must get hotter for the probe to sense the temperature. Or placing the insulation between the probe and sidewall, so that it will be more sensitive to internal temperature.

Hmmm, things to ponder...

I have never check my Timberline for accuracy. Now I am afraid to!

 

[Shedd]

Are these probes thermocouples or RTD probes?

If the probe changes resistance based on temp I would have thought there must be a way to calibrate the probe. As it gets hotter the resistance increases. So by putting a proper resister in series or parallel with the probe will alter the resistance for any given temperature. Ideally these would be variable resistors with the correct range. Some testing/measuring would be needed to see just what the probes resistance is at say 300 dF. I would have thought that there would be some pots on the circuit board already, just for this purpose.

Would be nice for a service kit to be available. A small board with some pots on it that you plug the probe into and then plug the service board into where the probe was plugged.

Or insulating the probe, so that the smoker must get hotter for the probe to sense the temperature. Or placing the insulation between the probe and sidewall, so that it will be more sensitive to internal temperature.

Hmmm, things to ponder...

I have never check my Timberline for accuracy. Now I am afraid to!

If it’s been cooking good for you, I wouldn’t worry about it. I got everything going good but know that my 780 varies on actual pit temps and I don’t use Traeger’s meat probe, just my Meaters and I never cook to a set timeframe when cooking low and slow. One of my buddies sent back 2 Yoders over a 50 degree variation, I don’t understand.

 

[caper11]

I am back to using my old 885, can’t stand the performance of the other two in colder temps.

 

[Sportsguy23]

The OP has a XL. You realize you are commenting on totally different generation of grills.

The only time the temp is accurate is when it’s at ambient temp. I have tested this and I have two next generation grills, and have mounted the exact same thermocouple exactly where the traeger one is, and have a discrepancy of 70-100f. Hard to cook at 500f when the grill will overshoot its temp setting and go into a high temperature shutdown.

My 885 is 20-30f out doing the same test and its a rockstar compared to my new ones.

It's comments like this why I just bought an 885 instead of the new XL. Thank you.