Calibrating the internal temp sensor.

[Switz]

My solution to my Traeger issues had arrived 2 April 2021 and it was built 31 March 2021

 

[GrillMeister]

Nice. Did you get 2 of them?

 

[Switz]

If you have the Century 885 and they send a replacement internal temperature probe, you do not need to remove the hopper.

I saved some grief by cutting the internal probe head off the cord after undoing the two retainer screws. The cord passes through a rectangular rubber (pliable anyway) gasket to the void between the cooking shell and the side of the pellet hopper. I user my finger nails to get the gasket to come into the grill area but that was really necessary. The wire proceeds toward the front and then down into the void under the actual pellet tank. By then the four screws were loose on the D2 and it was out. I wiggled the thermostat wire that was now hanging down and saw where it was connected on the D2 (right most connector on the 885 D2 board). Before disconnecting, notice the white sticker on one side of the plug is also on the new plug for orientation. However, the two connecting blades are dissimilar widths so there is a proper orientation. Do not force it on because the width difference was difficult to discern with my bad eyes.

Obviously, replacement starts from inside the grill. I pre-bent the wire to the right or front so as I pushed the plug though the hole it headed in the desired direction. I have a super long articulating needle nose pliers that helped get the wire moving along. Once it headed down into that void, I could reach it with my hand from below and feed it up to the D2 opening and feed it outside the hopper to be connected later.

I continued feeding the wire from inside the grill until there was about four inches left, The rectangular rubber gasket needs to go the right way with the larger shoulder inside the grill. You may not need the Navy dictionary of expletives to finally get the gasket properly seated with the wire centered. I then re-secured the probe with the existing two screws. Returning to the D2 opening with a cable tie (not supplied by Traeger), I bound up the excess wire and secured it with the wire tie and pushed the plug onto the D2 male pins. After gently putting the D2 back into it's hole, I put the four screws back in and the swap out job was done.

Powering on the unit, the meat probe displayed the ambient air temperature which is the only "test" available.

 

[Slimpicker]

Nice. Did you get 2 of them?

Looks like 2 sitting there to me too.

 

[RustyJake]

Looks like 2 sitting there to me too.

The heavy competition carts make them look like beasts. The heavy metal used on the firebox ensures you'll never make a claim on the only part with the 10 year warranty.
I still like that grill. Revteq isn't an option for us north of the border because shipping costs would kill us more than the physical cost of a Yoder already up here at a dealer.

 

[Switz]

Actually, there were over a eighteen YS 640S units on the competition carts as the shipment arrived the day before. All units were already sold. Next shipment to the only Arizona dealer is in August. My unit build date on the label was 31 March 2021 and it got to the dealer on 2 April as a truck load. I lucked into the only one not yet sold in this shipment. The dealer has less than ten available units for that August delivery time frame.

 

[John S.]

As I mentioned in my last posts in this thread, my Traeger Silverton 810 was running actually 30+ degrees cooler than the temp on the front panel. Traeger sent me a replacement probe which I installed this afternoon. Before I get in to the replacement task, I can report that my grill is now showing within 1 degree of the digital temperature probe I have been using for years. I set the grill on 225 and it's showing between 225 - 230 while my separate digital probe is showing 225 - 228. This comparison is with my probe in the middle of the lower grill. I would expect some variations throughout the cook camber and I'll test for those later.

Given that the faulty probe replacement solved the problem I was having I'm going to rock on with a small full packer brisket tomorrow and see how it turns out.

Now, for those of you that have the same model, replacing the probe is not a 5 minute job. You have to remove the hopper from the body of the grill (6 bolts on the inside) and slide it away from the body. Then run a fish wire through when removing the old probe to be able to draw the new probe back through the small openings. It took some finagling but got it through and all bolted back up. The whole job is about 30 minutes if you have the right tools and are handy with them. When plugging in the new probe to the control panel. note that there's a + pole on the connector and align the probe connector to match up with it. It'll go on either way so pay attention when you plug it up.

EDIT: There are no instructions that come with the replacement probe and none of the online videos or instructions are complete in knowing how to do this job. I got on the phone with Traeger support who found the instructions for doing this but they would not send them to me saying that the information is proprietary. OK, then how are we going to do this? He said he'd stay on the phone and talk me through it. Uh, no. Just tell me if the hopper box needs to come off and if I take it off I can route the new probe wire. Yes and yes.

I had a silverton 810 probe replacement issue, I took the new probe and took the connector off after photographing the end. Then cut the old probe and taped the 2 cable’s together and pulled the old cable out then replaced the connector and plugged it in this was done in about 15 min....

 

[Switz]

The Yoder literature shows the standard Yoder YS 640S weighs in at 335 pounds while the competition cart model scales 418 pounds. The cart has an option for 10" diameter wheels versus the standard 8" diameter wheels. We have a lot of gravel around the large random shaped sand stone pavers and the large wheels will allow for pushing the cart to it's location instead of carrying it which we had to do with the Traeger Century 885 with it's tiny wheels.

 

[esmith]

As I mentioned in my last posts in this thread, my Traeger Silverton 810 was running actually 30+ degrees cooler than the temp on the front panel. Traeger sent me a replacement probe which I installed this afternoon. Before I get in to the replacement task, I can report that my grill is now showing within 1 degree of the digital temperature probe I have been using for years. I set the grill on 225 and it's showing between 225 - 230 while my separate digital probe is showing 225 - 228. This comparison is with my probe in the middle of the lower grill. I would expect some variations throughout the cook camber and I'll test for those later.

Oh, I forgot to ask. What did you have to do to 'prove' the temp sensor inside wasn't working properly.

I've got a replacement meat probe on the way since I could demonstrate that the traeger meat probe was 20+ degrees off from the Mk4, but the person I was on the phone with said the IR readings on top of the ambient sensor could be reading 'other heat' so they said the ambient temp sensor is fine.

Did you have a stand alone ambient sensor as well? If so do you mind sharing which one?

I'll replace the little meat probe when it arrives, but I'm 95% sure the underlying problem is that the ambient sensor is still way off, so I don't expect this initial replacement will address the issue.

 

[Switz]

The Traeger support folks said to me that checking the internal ambient air probe is done by seeing if it reflects the air temperature when the grill is inoperative or cold. Not to much meat cooks at 70 to 80 degrees.....

Made my case tasing three air probes of my Thermoworks Signals unit and reporting the numbers. I even attached a Signals grill support next to their air probe and there was an over 20 degree difference. A replacement brought the gap closer.

A "warranty" replacement ambiant air probe did not cure the over 30 degree temperature variance from the right side by the pellet box to the left side where the chimney is located. The ir flow is from right to left in the Century 885. The fire box is in the middle. Air takes the path of least resistance which is to flow to the left.

 

[Twist]

Oh, I forgot to ask. What did you have to do to 'prove' the temp sensor inside wasn't working properly.

I've got a replacement meat probe on the way since I could demonstrate that the traeger meat probe was 20+ degrees off from the Mk4, but the person I was on the phone with said the IR readings on top of the ambient sensor could be reading 'other heat' so they said the ambient temp sensor is fine.

Did you have a stand alone ambient sensor as well? If so do you mind sharing which one?

I'll replace the little meat probe when it arrives, but I'm 95% sure the underlying problem is that the ambient sensor is still way off, so I don't expect this initial replacement will address the issue.

I've been using a Redi-Chek wireless for several years now and I have no idea if that thing is precisely calibrated or not; BUT, with hundreds of cooks using that digital probe that have all produced the expected results from cooking at a particular temp, I'm pretty sure it's close. Regardless I know that the cook chamber probe on my grill was 30 degrees off from the Redi-Chek and that the resulting cook of several racks of pork spare ribs demonstrated that the cook was progressing much more slowly than I would have expected.

When I removed the old probe, I noticed that the gray insulator on the tip of the probe was broken. With my replacement probe now installed the temps (Traeger front panel/app vs Redi-Chek) are pretty darn close.

I'm not too concerned about variations across the cook surface for 2 reasons. That's the nature of smokers using indirect heat - the meat closest to where the heat is coming from will be hotter than where it's leaving the cooker. The second reason is that the Silverton 810 that I have does not use a chimney but rather a circulating down draft vent in the rear of the unit. The indirect heat is coming up all along the front and back of the smoker and then exiting out vents in the rear after circulating inside the cook chamber. It's much more like a convection oven would work and probably closer to how a BGE distributes temps inside the chamber.

I just recently did two different cooks of pork belly burnt ends. Both of those cooks took roughly the same time suggested in the recipes I used at the temp in the recipe.

My biggest concern now is the lack of smoky flavor so I've started using a smoke tube. The pork belly burnt ends turned out pretty amazing.

 

[Switz]

An old expression "Why is there always time to do the job over but never enough time to fo it right the first time?? Putting in an accurate temperature monitoring system at build time would be far cheaper than all the support calls and costs associated with sending warranty temperature monitoring parts.

Plus there would be less negative customer's comments about poor experiences.

 

[Switz]

There is today, 13 April 2021, a 25% off for the Thermoworks Signals 4 port system that can control am external blower.

 

[C.Rosin]

If you don’t want to spring for the MK4, I have a Thermoworks RT-301WA. $29. Had it for a few years. Very fast and very accurate.