Traeger or Something Else?

[Jdceller]

I am looking to purchase a pellet smoker and I like everything about the Timberline 850. I have looked at one at my local dealer and it seems like a very good smoker. I’ve never owned or used a pellet smoker before, I currently have a Smokin It 2D Electric smoker and I would like to move up to a pellet smoker. I’ve read a lot of reviews on the web and most of the bad ones seem to be with the WiFIRE and the app. I also have seen some talk of a soot issue with some grills. My question is , should I buy this grill or look at another brand. I spent an hour looking at the grill at the store today but I just couldn’t buy it because of several bad reviews.

 

[Walleye Hunter]

I am looking to purchase a pellet smoker and I like everything about the Timberline 850. I have looked at one at my local dealer and it seems like a very good smoker. I’ve never owned or used a pellet smoker before, I currently have a Smokin It 2D Electric smoker and I would like to move up to a pellet smoker. I’ve read a lot of reviews on the web and most of the bad ones seem to be with the WiFIRE and the app. I also have seen some talk of a soot issue with some grills. My question is , should I buy this grill or look at another brand. I spent an hour looking at the grill at the store today but I just couldn’t buy it because of several bad reviews.

I have a Pro 575 and everything works great except that I have a 30* difference in temp readings between my grill probe and my Fireboard temp probe. I don't like it but am able to adapt until it gets rectified, or not.

 

[dblcrona]

I have a Pro 575 and everything works great except that I have a 30* difference in temp readings between my grill probe and my Fireboard temp probe. I don't like it but am able to adapt until it gets rectified, or not.

If your meat probe is off you can calibrate it and or set an offset to bring it into the correct reading

 

[dblcrona]

I am looking to purchase a pellet smoker and I like everything about the Timberline 850. I have looked at one at my local dealer and it seems like a very good smoker. I’ve never owned or used a pellet smoker before, I currently have a Smokin It 2D Electric smoker and I would like to move up to a pellet smoker. I’ve read a lot of reviews on the web and most of the bad ones seem to be with the WiFIRE and the app. I also have seen some talk of a soot issue with some grills. My question is , should I buy this grill or look at another brand. I spent an hour looking at the grill at the store today but I just couldn’t buy it because of several bad reviews.

I’m new to pellet grilling and recently purchased a Traeger Pro 575. I have zero complaints or regrets. It is amazing. I would highly recommended Traeger.

 

[Dzacco]

Weber has an awesome pellet grill, brand new. That’s the route I would go if I could. Another very interesting option is the Masterbuilt charcoal smoker with gravity feed and WiFi.

 

[jp9724]

Love my Ironwood, no complaints. It was between a GMG Jim Bowie and the ironwood 885. I wanted more shelf space and a heavier gauge steel at a trade for poor app and wifire where GMG has had the app and wifi for years without issue.

 

[Walleye Hunter]

I would wait a year or more before I bought that shiny new Weber. I saw some things I didn't like about it's design in their video and new offerings are always a crap shoot whether or not they'll work right.

 

[SmokinCW]

I have purchased 5 Traegers. Until the past few days I would have highly recommended the Traeger Timberline. My newest Timberline has been a disappointment. If Traeger steps up and takes care of things I will continue to recommend them. Right now I'm waiting for their response. Good luck.

 

[primeone]

I am looking to purchase a pellet smoker and I like everything about the Timberline 850. I have looked at one at my local dealer and it seems like a very good smoker. I’ve never owned or used a pellet smoker before, I currently have a Smokin It 2D Electric smoker and I would like to move up to a pellet smoker. I’ve read a lot of reviews on the web and most of the bad ones seem to be with the WiFIRE and the app. I also have seen some talk of a soot issue with some grills. My question is , should I buy this grill or look at another brand. I spent an hour looking at the grill at the store today but I just couldn’t buy it because of several bad reviews.

I've really enjoyed my Traeger Ironwood over the past year. It's been a learning process and while I had issues with temp swings for the most part it's been a great grill.

What did you decide?

 

[easchmitz]

I will say I personally own two Pro 575's, and a GMG Davy Crockett, and if you simply are looking to make great tasting food you can do it on any grill. With that being said I have learned that paying attention to the temps. I'm probably wrong as a noob in regards to saying this, but everything I cook is to a temp (I don't use the meat probe for final temp checks only ball park) not a time. Now with that being said when smoking I run it on 165 on the Traegers and smoke on, but when I'm "grilling" I crank it to the max and everything has turned out great. I think far to many people get caught up in this world on how far off or not off the temps are. Now Traeger customer service been absolutely great when I needed them, and I haven't had anything upsetting happen yet. I would say if looking at Traegers buy one with WiFi, and don't look back.

 

[RemE]

I have a Timberline 850 and its build quality is fantastic, it's also the heaviest grill I've ever assembled!

I have been critical of the WiFire performance from day one of owning mine, delayed or missing alerts to my phone made it useless. Traeger has been slow to correct this but they have finally reworked the architecture of how the grill communicates with your phone and it's much better now. The recent complaints about WiFire is the poor roll out of the update, it broke the communications between the app and grill and in some cases, grill to network (thereby preventing recovery). Many of us managed to get updated and are back up and running while others are stuck at various stages in the process. This will settle down fairly soon I think.

The grill performance for cooking has been stellar, I have cooked in very windy and cold (not freezing) conditions and the double insulated Timberline with gasket sealed lid has worked perfectly, recovers temps very fast after opening the lid. The super robust stainless grids are holding up great. The shelves are made well but are poorly designed, I'd much prefer a larger, folding front shelf as the stock one is pretty much a joke. I really like the Timberline's sleeker design with internal grease trap, never liked the outside bucket that my previous grill had. Also the internal convective swirling of the smoke, and super smoke settings are nice refinements to these newer models. The cover is expensive (as is the grill) but so far my grill still looks like new after six months outside.

I'm currently a very happy user.