Traeger has really dropped the ball.

[Bruce N]

I have to say that Traeger has turned one of their biggest supporters against them now. I loved my first grill, purchased from QVC 2 years ago, it could do no wrong. My cooks for friends and people were getting larger, and I decided to up my grill and go to a Pro 780. Within 2 days of purchase, I lost my own custom cooks, because of a firmware change. My first big cook was a prime rib roast. Noticed right off the bat no smoke. Now I went into this knowing it had no smoke setting, or super smoke. But I figured I will set a lower temp. the same way the old grill would use on the smoke setting. No real smoke at a sustained level, just a little at first. The prime rib came out good, but almost no smoke taste. Next came a pulled pork. I left it at a low temp again for 2hrs. not a lot of smoke from the grill. By the way, this is one of my custom cooks I lost. Once again, the shoulder came out perfect except for almost no smoke in it at all, and the friends I shared it with, noticed right away. I made a few smaller things and it tastes like I just put it into a regular oven. This past weekend I did a cook for some friends. Smoked deviled eggs, and baby backs. The deviled eggs were on of my friends favorites, I have made them many times on my old grill. The color of the eggs was not even close to what they looked like before. There was NO SMOKE flavor on them at all. Now the ribs. I did the 3-2-1 cook. 3hrs. at 180 NO SMOKE. These things had NO smoke ring at all, and my friends asked me if I even put them into the smoker, they thought I cooked them in a regular oven with rub and sauce. I have lost two accounts so far because they didn't like what I cooked. They pay me for the cooks. I ended up giving them back their cash. Now I am getting a " CLEAN GREASE TRAP" message on the display. I have tried 10 times to clear it, and it will not go away. Even went into DEMO mode which resets the grill, and no luck. still there. I sunk a grand into this thing, and all I have is a WIFI outdoor oven...

 

[dunawayfamily]

I have to say that Traeger has turned one of their biggest supporters against them now. I loved my first grill, purchased from QVC 2 years ago, it could do no wrong. My cooks for friends and people were getting larger, and I decided to up my grill and go to a Pro 780. Within 2 days of purchase, I lost my own custom cooks, because of a firmware change. My first big cook was a prime rib roast. Noticed right off the bat no smoke. Now I went into this knowing it had no smoke setting, or super smoke. But I figured I will set a lower temp. the same way the old grill would use on the smoke setting. No real smoke at a sustained level, just a little at first. The prime rib came out good, but almost no smoke taste. Next came a pulled pork. I left it at a low temp again for 2hrs. not a lot of smoke from the grill. By the way, this is one of my custom cooks I lost. Once again, the shoulder came out perfect except for almost no smoke in it at all, and the friends I shared it with, noticed right away. I made a few smaller things and it tastes like I just put it into a regular oven. This past weekend I did a cook for some friends. Smoked deviled eggs, and baby backs. The deviled eggs were on of my friends favorites, I have made them many times on my old grill. The color of the eggs was not even close to what they looked like before. There was NO SMOKE flavor on them at all. Now the ribs. I did the 3-2-1 cook. 3hrs. at 180 NO SMOKE. These things had NO smoke ring at all, and my friends asked me if I even put them into the smoker, they thought I cooked them in a regular oven with rub and sauce. I have lost two accounts so far because they didn't like what I cooked. They pay me for the cooks. I ended up giving them back their cash. Now I am getting a " CLEAN GREASE TRAP" message on the display. I have tried 10 times to clear it, and it will not go away. Even went into DEMO mode which resets the grill, and no luck. still there. I sunk a grand into this thing, and all I have is a WIFI outdoor oven...

On our PRO 780, when we cook between 170-185, we definitely get a decent smoke ring and flavoring ... the pork shoulder we cooked about 2 weeks ago went 170 for 2 Hours, then 230 for the remainder (total of 17.5 Hours cooking) - there was a visible smoke ring at least a quarter inch into the pulled pork, and the bark on the outside was very flavorable ... when we cook chicken breast at 350, the smoke ring/flavoring is very minimal ... the loss of Custom Cooks is related to the App Update to 2.x ... there is another thread about it on here where their response was tied back to analytics saying less than 1% of all cooks done on WiFIRE Controllers utilized this feature, so they decided to focus their development energies elsewhere for the time being ... they were going to add the ability to add 2 custom cooks via the WiFIRE Controller Display with the May Update release ... you can clear the message on the WiFIRE Controller display - look for Clear Notifications - the clean your "stuff" message pops up every 15-20 hours of cook time ...

 

[Bruce N]

On our PRO 780, when we cook between 170-185, we definitely get a decent smoke ring and flavoring ... the pork shoulder we cooked about 2 weeks ago went 170 for 2 Hours, then 230 for the remainder (total of 17.5 Hours cooking) - there was a visible smoke ring at least a quarter inch into the pulled pork, and the bark on the outside was very flavorable ... when we cook chicken breast at 350, the smoke ring/flavoring is very minimal ... the loss of Custom Cooks is related to the App Update to 2.x ... there is another thread about it on here where their response was tied back to analytics saying less than 1% of all cooks done on WiFIRE Controllers utilized this feature, so they decided to focus their development energies elsewhere for the time being ... they were going to add the ability to add 2 custom cooks via the WiFIRE Controller Display with the May Update release ... you can clear the message on the WiFIRE Controller display - look for Clear Notifications - the clean your "stuff" message pops up every 15-20 hours of cook time ...

I am the one who posted about the upgrade. I am not sweating the cook thing right now. They have their hands full with the rest of the upgrade. I did go to the clear notifications 10 times, to no avail, still showing on the screen. When I got the clean your grill message a couple of weeks ago it cleared the first try. I tried the low temp on the ribs, and like I said, no smoke ring at all, and no taste at all. The smoke ring will not always show, I know that, but no smoke taste at all.

 

[RustyJake]

I found the "clean grease trap" message went away for me when I started a new cook. It would not clear with the clear notifications in the menu

 

[dunawayfamily]

I am the one who posted about the upgrade. I am not sweating the cook thing right now. They have their hands full with the rest of the upgrade. I did go to the clear notifications 10 times, to no avail, still showing on the screen. When I got the clean your grill message a couple of weeks ago it cleared the first try. I tried the low temp on the ribs, and like I said, no smoke ring at all, and no taste at all. The smoke ring will not always show, I know that, but no smoke taste at all.

If the Notifications are not clearing anymore, something is definitely amiss with the WiFIRE Controller - out of curiousity, what Firmware / Config Version is currently installed (wondering if they "added" a BUG with the most recent update relative to clearing Notifications)?

Has the PRO 780 ever created the smoke ring / flavor / taste to your clients satisfaction, or is this something new?

 

[RustyJake]

My clean grease trap would not clear for me either. But went away when I started a new cook.

 

[Bruce N]

If the Notifications are not clearing anymore, something is definitely amiss with the WiFIRE Controller - out of curiousity, what Firmware / Config Version is currently installed (wondering if they "added" a BUG with the most recent update relative to clearing Notifications)?

Has the PRO 780 ever created the smoke ring / flavor / taste to your clients satisfaction, or is this something new?

Firmware Ver. 02.01.02

Config Ver. 03.010 This was the first cook I have done for anyone other then my family with the new Pro 780 . Smoke ring was present in the pulled pork I made for us a few weeks ago, but smoke taste was weak. Like I stated, even with the prime rib, and the pulled pork, the smoke was weak, and barely noticeable on the prime rib. I do not look to kill it with smoke, and the old grill was perfect with 2hrs on the smoke setting, and then bringing up to the 225-250 range for how ever long it took to come up to temp before foiling.

 

[dunawayfamily]

Firmware Ver. 02.01.02

Config Ver. 03.010 This was the first cook I have done for anyone other then my family with the new Pro 780 . Smoke ring was present in the pulled pork I made for us a few weeks ago, but smoke taste was weak. Like I stated, even with the prime rib, and the pulled pork, the smoke was weak, and barely noticeable on the prime rib. I do not look to kill it with smoke, and the old grill was perfect with 2hrs on the smoke setting, and then bringing up to the 225-250 range for how ever long it took to come up to temp before foiling.

May Updates are installed - I will monitor our 780 to see if the Clear Notifications option is no longer working the next time it pops up ... my wife is not a big fan of overly smokey tasting food, so the 780 has worked well so far in that regard ... I don't have any experience with smoke tubes, but I know others who've had issues with this on the PRO Series Grills have started using those to compensate ...

 

[IslanderTim]

May Updates are installed - I will monitor our 780 to see if the Clear Notifications option is no longer working the next time it pops up ... my wife is not a big fan of overly smokey tasting food, so the 780 has worked well so far in that regard ... I don't have any experience with smoke tubes, but I know others who've had issues with this on the PRO Series Grills have started using those to compensate ...

That's exactly what I did for my 780 Pro. Amazon has a Pellet Smoker Tube that sells from anywhere between $15 and $21 bucks. It works pretty darn good, but to me I simply purchased the wrong model and did not conduct my due diligence.

 

[RustyJake]

My clean grease trap would not clear for me either. But went away when I started a new cook.

And the notification came back the next time the grill was started.
Guess it won't clear until their next update.
Can't wait to see what that one will break.
Seems they are better at that then fixing issues.
I shouldn't complain I guess, my grill is still usable, so I am fortunate there

 

[PaulyPaul]

I got the message after the March update. Cleared it but came back. Ran a couple of cooks and it went away.

 

[splinervision]

I've had Bradley smokers over the last 7 years, and recently switched to Traeger. I'll admit, there's less of a smoke flavor with the Traeger. Even if you leave it set on smoke, or lower temps there's less smoke flavor than what I experienced with my Bradley smokers. However, I do love the Traeger. I can cook at higher temps, and that means cook things much faster than I could with the Bradley. I can get home at 5pm and make chicken wings at 375 for an hour if I want and get it done by dinner time. I can do everything I could do in my oven in an hour with the Traeger. The old Bradley maxed at about 250F, and although the flavor was better, it meant I was sequestered to only using it on weekends and days off.

There's an easy solution though, and it's inexpensive. Go over to Amazon and buy a Z-Smoker. It's a stainless steel mesh tube, you fill it with the same pellets you're using in the traeger and light it on one end with a torch. Lay it inside the Traeger while you cook your food and you'll have plenty of smoke. You'll get a nice smoke ring as well with most meats. The Traeger pellets burn pretty clean, so they create very little ash. If Traeger could do anything to improve their smokers it would be to add one of these to every order. With Amazon prime you can get one delivered under $20 in the US.

 

[strollin]

I've been satisfied with the smoke flavor I get with my Pro 575 up 'til now but you piqued my interest so I ordered the Z-Smoker to see what I've been missing. One thing I am really interested in from its description is cold smoking. Would like to try smoking some cheeses.

 

[RustyJake]

I've been satisfied with the smoke flavor I get with my Pro 575 up 'til now but you piqued my interest so I ordered the Z-Smoker to see what I've been missing. One thing I am really interested in from its description is cold smoking. Would like to try smoking some cheeses.

I have smoked cheese using a smoke tube. Turned out quite well.

 

[splinervision]

I have not tried cold smoking with it yet, but plan to in the fall. I've cold smoked with an adapter on my old Bradley smoker before, which worked great. In the summer when it's 90+ outside even if I don't turn on the Traeger the temps will get a bit above 100F with the Z-Smoker over time. It's not terribly hot for cheese but I think in the winter it'll be easier. I've smoked cheese and many spices in the past like Paprika, Kosher Salt, even Black Peppercorns. Makes wonderful smoked seasonings which are also good for making your own rubs. Love the Traeger so far, it's just that it's different than what I'm used to. The Z-Smoker seems to have given me the best of both worlds using it with the Traeger pellets.