Calibrating Meat Probe

[pkitch]

Someone else had suggested that moisture may have screwed it up and that drying it might resolve, but no such luck for me. Calling them to see if they will send me a replacement.

Update; just called and after 3 mins on hold their phone system tells me I need a long distance code to dial that number... I assume they have overflow dialing to another location and screwed it up. Unreal.

Update: I tried a re-calibration again having given a couple more days to dry-out (It was out in the rain) and it does now appear to be working OK!

 

[Beaser]

I keep all of my probes in a zip lock baggy with about a cup of white rice. (weber and traeger) . Haven't had a probe issue in the past year.

 

[Mike & Sherry Fultz]

WOW! This is concerning to say the least. I just purchased a Century 34 from Costco and have only used it once. I have been wanting a Traeger grill for years and to read all of this is alarming. Displays are wrong! Meat Probe is wrong! Pellets wont funnel correctly! I am wondering if they are just a piece of crap and have a great marketing team. I have been using an Extra Large Big Green Egg for years and absolutely love it. Its just a lot more work and needs more attention. This is why I wanted to buy a Traeger. I also just noticed that my Century does NOT have a P timer adjustment for ambient temperature adjustments or temperature adjustments. I guess time will tell but after reading all of the forum posts about temperature control it may just be a garage emblem.

 

[Beaser]

The beauty of buying from Costco is the liberal return policy, that said what issues are you having? Most of the major issues being discussed are with the new D2 Wifi controller. I've heard nothing but good reviews about your unit.

So far as the probes are concerned, the Traegers and most of the competition are type K thermocouples in a steel 90 degree capsule. The Traeger probes are no better or worse than others (type K) My Weber bluetooth probe set is the same type K with a slightly larger jack. My Omega HH-22 is a 2 channel type j or K thermocouple with a few test features it can read pretty much any type j or k thermocouple. l used to make up my own probes with type K wire and before I started a test (I was a troubleshooter for large refrigeration systems manufacturer I'd always check accuracy using ice bath or boiling water).

What we're doing with smokers and pellet grills requires more monitoring than a home kitchen oven. With the cost of product and time spent it's always a good idea to be able to count on your tools. Thermocouples and other probe technologies are head and shoulders above cheap bimetal oven thermometers. Do what I do, I wipe the probe and wire. Coil; them and put em in a zip lock with a cup of uncooked white rice. It dries up any water in the capsule. Consider that the probe tip is in the meat at a temp considerable lower than the grill inside cooking temp (steak 37-150 degF, grill temp 225-450 deg). Migration happens, vapour from the hot end of the capsule will condense in the cooler part of the capsule in the meat.

What is wrong with your display? If it isn't right order a new one, you have 3 years of liberal parts replacement. The RTD's on those models is very accurate.

You mention pellet feed, what are your issues. There are enough people here that live and breath BBQ, someone will have an answer

So far as a P setting, that's very over rated. I live in Canada and it was a help in the fall and winter but in South Carolina it shouldn't be necessary. I had it and I played with it. It's the nature of the beast, I'm a nerd (techie)

I apologise for being so anal about probe accuracy. In my job as a Refrigeration Manufacturers Field Rep I had to go nose to nose with a few health departments about product and supply air temps. It usually wound up that I'd prove their equipment was inaccurate. I also felt it was my job to help the customer and their contractors get the most out of their equipment. That's why I have such disdain for $3.99 bimetal thermometers.

 

[whitenight]

I bought a Traeger Silverton from Costco back in March of 2021. From the first time I used it, I was finding that it was taking much longer than expected to smoke meat. Bought a Thermoworks system and comfirmed that the Traeger themocouple for ambient temperature reads over 20 degrees high at the low end and 70 degrees high at the upper end. I'm very disappointed in this as it limits certain parameters such as the super smoke feature because it truncates the actual temperature range that I can use it at. Also, if I want to cook something at high temperatures, the controller maxes out at 500 degrees whereas the smoker is actually only at 430 degrees. Received a replacement thermocouple under warranty. Tried replacing it, but could not feed it through the sheet metal where the yellow connector is a nearly line to line fit with the rectangular hole in the sheet metal and at that junction, it needs to turn a 90 degree angle. Traeger has no information available on how to change out the thermocouple on the Silverton for good reason. It's a horrible design that's very difficult to service. To make a long story short, I could not get the new thermocouple to feed/pull thru using 20 pound fishing line to try to pull it through. I yanked on it as hard as I could and it wouldn't feed through that corner. Horrific service support from Traeger as they want me to take it to a hardware store to get it fixed. No teenage pot smoker is going to be able to feed that thermocouple through and fix it. Not to mention I have zero confidence the new thermocouple will fix the problem. This $1,000 smoker is going back to Costco. Any suggestions on a manufacturer that I should switch to? I'm done with Traeger.