Hot Rod Issues???

[Trader Joe Traeger]

Last season I had an issues a few times where my fire box is filled with pellets before they could fully ignite and I ended up with a ton of smoke, then had to shutdown, clean it out, and start over. I just figured there was too much ash left in there and need to clean it more often. Yesterday I was cleaning the fire box and testing the grill, and notice the hot rod seems to get hot but the tip doesn't glow red. After further investigation (taking the hot rod out to have a better look) it seems that only the middle section, that doesn't touch the pellets, gets hot enough to glow.

I guess my question is "Is this normal or do I need to replace the hot rod?"

If the hot rod needs replacement that would explain a lot of the issues I had last season with igniting properly and temperature control. I'm probably going to change it regardless, just seeing if anyone else knew more about this.

 

[Slimpicker]

I would call CS over this but you also could extend your rob out further a little so the red hot is touching pellets. Maybe you had it too short all this time.

They are pretty cheap, I'd just get a new one if this is not working.

 

[Trader Joe Traeger]

Thanks, I'll try to extend it first. Traeger says to set it to 1/8" to 1/4" but now after researching a bit it looks like some people do set it out more. If that doesn't help I think there like $35 bucks at the local store here. Thanks for the tip. Cheers,