Traeger Texas Elite issue

[tfitzgerald89]

Good afternoon,

I hope you guys are doing well.

I have had a look through the posts on this forum, and have found some interesting tips and tricks to try and resolve the issue that I’m having, but unfortunately, this one is being persistent.

If this has been solved somewhere and I missed it, please point me in that direction, and my apologies for the duplicate thread.

I recently picked up a very slightly used Traeger Texas Elite 34 (model TFB65LZB)

When I purchased the unit, it had about a half hopper worth of pellets inside.

I brought the smoker home, inspected it, all was in really good shape, fire pot was pretty clean, not a lot of debris or ash in the box.

I did a 6 hour cook at 225 F yesterday, and noticed that I was having intermittent issues with regulating the temperature and with the smoke.

I’d say, I would get maybe 5 minutes of thin blue smoke, and temperature holding around 225 F.

Then I would notice a change in the smoke, to a thick white smoke, and at the same time would notice that the temperature had dropped down to 195 - 205 F.

Within a few minutes, it would correct itself, and temp would level out, and back to thin blue smoke.

This occurs with the desired temp set to 250 F as well. When hovering around the 250 mark, thin blue smoke, then after about 5 mins, it will drop down to 230 or so, and kick out thick smoke.

I’ve tried the following:

- removed all old pellets from the hopper. Vacuumed out hopper of all dust and loose pellets.

- cleaned out auger as best as possible on hopper side and fire pot side.

- vacuumed out fire pot and entire cook box.

- put in new pellets from a freshly open bag. I even sifted them to ensure no dust.

- I’ve been running the new pellets in the clean grill for about 30 minutes, and the same symptoms are present.

I’ll also note, the fans seem to be operating well.

Has anyone experienced this before. If so, do you have any ideas of how to fix it?

Thank you in advance!

 

[Like Smoke]

The operating manual for your unit shows a controller with the statement "please call customer service before adjusting smoke setting" There is a small hole behind a sticker if your sticker is still present. Behind the small hole is a push button that changes the smoke / P setting on your controller. Using something non conductive {heavy toothpick} you can with the unit on push the button and a number will appear on the readout. Traeger set the older units on 2 as a general starting point. I have attached a section out of their manual that explains the settings. The P number is an auger run time and a auger pause time that is preset in the controller. Standard factory setting is 2, { 15 seconds auger on, 65 seconds auger off }. The settings are P0 to P5. The low settings were for cool outside temps and the high number was for hot outside temps. If the previous owner adjusted the settings this may be your problem. I run mine at 3 when its cool here in CO, and 2 for summer. I hope this has been of some help. Welcome to the forum, lots of great cooks with good solutions for the problems we all seem to encounter.

https://support.traeger.com/hc/en-us/articles/4407219721883-P-SETTINGS

 

[Like Smoke]

Sorry, I should have said that I use the 2 setting when its cooler and 3 when its warmer. My temps seem to remain pretty close, checking with an aftermarket probe.

 

[tfitzgerald89]

Thank you for your reply, I appreciate you taking the time to provide some insight.

I should have mentioned that I tried looking into this as well. My control panel does not have a hole as you would think, it has a punch out scored into the metal, but no hole. Upon inspection of the board itself (removed the two screws and pulled the control panel out) and looked at the board, there isn’t a button on the circuit board on the top right, where it “should” be.