Timberline 850 slow to heat

[Fort384]

Hello,
I’ve had my Timberline for about 4 years and love it. It gets a lot of use and I clean It out regularly.

The last 6 months or so it has become noticeably slower to heat. It takes roughly 30 minutes to heat above 350-400.

i have searched up and down but couldn’t find any definitive advice to fix. Are there any common replacement parts or fixes I should look to? Everything on the grill is original. It will still reach 500 but it just takes so long that I know something is going on. It holds both low and high temps once heated but I’d like to get it back to reaching any temp in 10 minutes or so like it would when new.

 

[RemE]

My guess is you need a new Firepot/Hot Rod assembly. Mine was just over a year old and began having slow startup issues. Traeger sent me this assembly and I was immediately back to 10min startups. It's worth a call to Traeger support.

 

[Fort384]

My guess is you need a new Firepot/Hot Rod assembly. Mine was just over a year old and began having slow startup issues. Traeger sent me this assembly and I was immediately back to 10min startups. It's worth a call to Traeger support.

Thanks Reme. I’ll check it out. Was it hard to install?

 

[RemE]

Thanks Reme. I’ll check it out. Was it hard to install?

Pretty easy, here's what I did;
How to Replace the Firepot/Hotrod assembly | Traeger Owners Forum | Traeger Grill (traegerforum.com)

 

[Fort384]

Thanks again! Doesn’t look too awful bad. My grill is about a year out of warranty but I did find a fire pot/hot rod on Amazon for less than $30. It’ll be here tomorrow so will install and see if it cures my woes.

final question: that front shelf in your avatar, was that off the shelf or a custom mod? It looks sweet! The tiny stock shelves are my biggest complaint with this grill.

 

[RemE]

The shelf was something I whipped up;
(4) Timberline 850 gets a Covid project, Folding Shelf, on Steroids! | Traeger Owners Forum | Traeger Grill (traegerforum.com)

 

[Fort384]

Received and installed new fire box and hot rod. Install took 10 mins or so. I fired it up and it took about 18 minutes to get to 400F, but ambient temp is 25F and quite windy. Does that time seem about right? I do think it’s improved as it was more like 30 mins before replacement.

thanks for all the great help.

 

[RemE]

I would say yes, I time ignition from start button press until visible smoke, that's usually 5-7min. In your case the fire then has to initially heat a lot of cold metal inside, with those double walls to get up to set temp.