Help! I'm about to throw this thing in trash compacter

[vbar1053]

Traeger is a terrible company. My WiFi broadcasts in 2.4ghz and 5 ghz. The WiFi is smart enough to know what frequency a product needs. 2.4 or 5. Unfortunately Traeger can’t handle mesh WiFi. It’s not smart enough. In this day and age how can Traeger not be selling a product that syncs to 5ghz? Go figure. I spoke to a representative and Traeger is aware of the issue but apparently they don’t care. What an attitude.

 

[dunawayfamily]

Traeger is a terrible company. My WiFi broadcasts in 2.4ghz and 5 ghz. The WiFi is smart enough to know what frequency a product needs. 2.4 or 5. Unfortunately Traeger can’t handle mesh WiFi. It’s not smart enough. In this day and age how can Traeger not be selling a product that syncs to 5ghz? Go figure. I spoke to a representative and Traeger is aware of the issue but apparently they don’t care. What an attitude.

What mesh networking product are you using? Have you been able to get it working? With the exception of eero, most other mesh products allow you to control the radios to allow either an SSID rename of one of the networks, or allow you to temporarily disable the 5GHz radio long enough to complete the setup process (and then you can turn it back on given that the Traeger Cloud back-end brokers all communications between WiFIRE and the App Device) ... eero requires you to contact their support and interactively work with them to temporarily disable the 5GHz radio while you complete the setup process ...

Here is a recap as to the "why" of selecting a 2.4GHz radio for an IoT-device is "commonplace" within the industry ... what is "at issue" is the App and the manner in which it handles the App Device passing the Home Wi-Fi Network information to the WiFIRE Controller ... there are other IoT vendors using similar setup routines that successfully complete without requiring some of the workarounds that WiFIRE requires ... Using the WiFIRE Controller display to select the Wi-Fi Network and then to input the WPA2 Password via the Dial should be an option (albeit a painful one) ...

==========

The goal for all IoT-device vendors is to reach the widest possible customer base "out-of-the-box" ... that means targeting the most widely implemented Wi-Fi Standard possible ... the following table is a quick summary of the timeline of the "major" releases with regards to Wi-Fi that have been widely adopted by the industry:

Predominant Wi-Fi Network Standards in use today ...
802.11b - circa 2000 - 2.4GHz - 11Mb/sec max data rate
802.11g - circa 2003 - 2.4GHz - 54Mb/sec max data rate
802.11n (aka Wi-Fi 4) - circa 2009 - 2.4GHz & 5GHz - 600Mb/sec max data rate
802.11ac (aka Wi-Fi 5) - circa 2013 - 2.4GHz & 5GHz - 600Mb/sec max data rate
+ wider channels & more streams & higher-order modulation & addition of MU-MIMO
+ Mesh Networks starting to become available 2017+
802.11ax (aka Wi-Fi 6) - circa 2019/2020 - 2.4GHz & 5GHz
+ goal is to provide 4x the throughput of 802.11ac
+ OFDMA introduced for multiplexing


Given the above, almost all IoT-device vendors implement Wi-Fi via a chipset that supports 802.11b/g/n, as that will reach the widest possible customer base, thus creating the requirement for connecting the IoT-device to a 2.4GHz Wireless Network ... what seems a bit "unique" to the chipset used in the WiFIRE Controllers is the inability to connect to a single Wireless Network Name (SSID) that includes both 2.4GHz & 5GHz, thus needing to rename one of the frequencies ... In my setup, I choose to rename the 5GHz channel (idIOT & idIOT 5GHz) ... Traeger is not the first/only vendor to make the "you must have separate Wireless Network Names" requirement, but I would agree that in 2018-2020+, that caught me off-guard, but since I have run into it in the past, I was prepared to make the necessary changes during my initial setup phase of the WiFIRE Controller ...

 

[Bgilmore]

I’m in the same boat. I love the grill and have used it a lot but the technology is trash. Worked the first day I set it up but never again. I’ve tried all the advice and called customer service as well. The guy said to leave the grill on for 8 hrs. Come to find out, the grill wasn’t even connected (learned later) how can you help your customers fix their issues if you don’t even make sure their Wi-Fi is connected? I’ve spent hours trying- I have just accepted that it will never connect to my phone. I make sure I tell everyone about it - Rec Tec is the way to go.

 

[dunawayfamily]

I’m in the same boat. I love the grill and have used it a lot but the technology is trash. Worked the first day I set it up but never again. I’ve tried all the advice and called customer service as well. The guy said to leave the grill on for 8 hrs. Come to find out, the grill wasn’t even connected (learned later) how can you help your customers fix their issues if you don’t even make sure their Wi-Fi is connected? I’ve spent hours trying- I have just accepted that it will never connect to my phone. I make sure I tell everyone about it - Rec Tec is the way to go.

Willing to help get it working, or determine why it isn't working so you can get a replacement controller ... reach out if you want to resolve ...

 

[Docholliday29]

Cannot connect to WIFI....never has worked from day 1, spoke to merchant where I purchased it and he suggested buy a gaming router as they are more powerful and may work, well it didn't, now super smoke button not working so I cannot get it to forget network,

This piece of s**t needs to go, knew I shouldn't have bought it !!

Mark

Did you already call Traeger customer support? They helped me resolve my WiFire issue in less than 30 minutes.

I happen to have over 100 devices on my home network and I rarely call for help but I made the call just because I seemed to be stalling out at the same point.
I ended up doing powering off my Ironwood 885 with the red switch in the back and back and turning it back on, moving my router a little closer and downloading the software again.

I hope you get this resolved. I am the proud owner of my third Traeger so you Might say I am biased/hooked.

 

[Dale Sargent]

Cannot connect to WIFI....never has worked from day 1, spoke to merchant where I purchased it and he suggested buy a gaming router as they are more powerful and may work, well it didn't, now super smoke button not working so I cannot get it to forget network,

This piece of s**t needs to go, knew I shouldn't have bought it !!

Mark

Mark
i went through the same bull-shi! You’re going through so I have felt your pain.
it took me 9 months but I did not give up or in.
I was finally able to get satisfaction by getting a hold of the owner of the retailer (Ace Hardware) . I laid out my issue, explained all of my phone calls between myself, Traeger, and his employees as well as offered him a copy of my 12 pages of notes. With that he contacted the manager of the store I was dealing with an authorized a refund or replacement with a new unit.
I got the new unit in less than Two weeks fully assembled and the interior was loaded with drip trays some rubs and a bag of pellets.
the important thing was as soon asI plugged it in it started searching for my wifi, had it set up including a firmware update in less than 5 minutes. After all the frustration I have to say I love this smoker.
Good Luck my friend!

 

[jmagnus53]

FYI - I received a new controller for my Pro 575 several days ago and my network is an Aimesh system (two Asus routers) using the Smart Connect feature, which combines 2.4 and 5 gHz under a single name. I have tested connecting and forgetting several times, and the grill connects through the 2.4GHz without issue. Maybe the new controller has addressed some of these connection issues and/or the Smart Connect system with Asus chooses the correct wireless network for the controller.

 

[EddieH]

Cannot connect to WIFI....never has worked from day 1, spoke to merchant where I purchased it and he suggested buy a gaming router as they are more powerful and may work, well it didn't, now super smoke button not working so I cannot get it to forget network,

This piece of s**t needs to go, knew I shouldn't have bought it !!

Mark

don't

 

[EddieH]

Cannot connect to WIFI....never has worked from day 1, spoke to merchant where I purchased it and he suggested buy a gaming router as they are more powerful and may work, well it didn't, now super smoke button not working so I cannot get it to forget network,

This piece of s**t needs to go, knew I shouldn't have bought it !!

Mark

Mark, Having the same problem with my Traeger Ironwood 885. Will not connect to the Wifi. Just received the unit 3 weeks ago. Again, I will be one the Horn to Technical Support tomorrow. The Software is way out date.

 

[Bgilmore]

Willing to help get it working, or determine why it isn't working so you can get a replacement controller ... reach out if you want to resolve ...

we have AT&T fiber internet with a renamed 2.4 channel just for the alarm and grill. They came out and replaced the router box because zoom kept getting disconnected. I thought the new box might Make the grill happy but no luck. Next day spectrum shows up and says we can try their internet for 30 days and cancel it if we don’t like it. So I thought - why not! Maybe traeger would like a totally different cable based internet? Well I got my hopes up for nothing. Same prob. Deleted app, reset phone, reinstalled app, go to airplane mode, connect to 2.4, open the app, sign in, add grill, enter password, phone asks if traeger can join, for a brief moment, phone says connected to grill- but then the bars disappear on my phone and the app says unable to connect. It’s like the frickin ground hogs day movie. tomorrow am I will go back to customer service and threaten them with bad YouTube videos documenting what I’m going through. This worked for the guy on YouTube- maybe then they will send me a new controller... ?

 

[dunawayfamily]

we have AT&T fiber internet with a renamed 2.4 channel just for the alarm and grill. They came out and replaced the router box because zoom kept getting disconnected. I thought the new box might Make the grill happy but no luck. Next day spectrum shows up and says we can try their internet for 30 days and cancel it if we don’t like it. So I thought - why not! Maybe traeger would like a totally different cable based internet? Well I got my hopes up for nothing. Same prob. Deleted app, reset phone, reinstalled app, go to airplane mode, connect to 2.4, open the app, sign in, add grill, enter password, phone asks if traeger can join, for a brief moment, phone says connected to grill- but then the bars disappear on my phone and the app says unable to connect. It’s like the frickin ground hogs day movie. tomorrow am I will go back to customer service and threaten them with bad YouTube videos documenting what I’m going through. This worked for the guy on YouTube- maybe then they will send me a new controller... ?

Yeah - sounds like the controller is running version 2.00.00 of Firmware (or older) - which definitely necessitates a replacement controller with 2.00.01 or later ... or if a newer version, the Firmware is corrupted in some fashion ... push for escalation to a Supervisor / Team Lead from the onset of your call ...

 

[Dap]

I had trouble getting my ironwood 885 to connect to my network. I was getting frustrated with it and have it rest and just used the grill without the WiFi. I read through this post and have it another try. I renamed the 2.4ghz band on my network and it still did not connect. As I read on here I turned off the auto connect to the 5.0ghz band and then I was successful in getting the grill connected to the network. I hope you are able to get this sorted out because I think this is an awesome grill.

 

[BigP]

I love tech, and I rotate through routers regularly for different reasons. I've had three different Asus routers and for whatever reason, I never could get any of them to connect with my Traeger. I had the same problems with Google's router. Even if I separated my 2.4ghz and 5ghz networks, I still couldn't get my Traeger to connect. I'm using an iPhone X (iOS 14), Asus GT-AX11000 for my router, and have a Timberline 1300. After going months without WiFire, I couldn't take it any longer and was determined to figure out a solution.

My router is configured to use one SSID for all my channels. As mentioned above, separating the channels into their own SSID did nothing for me. So what I found to work, was to temporarily turn off the the 5ghz channels on the router. After shutting off the 5ghz channel, I had to reboot router, my phone, and then unplug and plug back in my Traeger (make sure your Traeger is not in use when trying to connect). After the 5ghz channels were turned off and everything was freshly reset, did my Traeger app finally connect to the 1300. Hallelujah!!! When the angels stopped singing, I turned the 5ghz channels back on the router (all channels using the same SSID) and every device connected and was happy again.

Hopefully this method helps some of you.

 

[Grill Billy]

I love tech, and I rotate through routers regularly for different reasons. I've had three different Asus routers and for whatever reason, I never could get any of them to connect with my Traeger. I had the same problems with Google's router. Even if I separated my 2.4ghz and 5ghz networks, I still couldn't get my Traeger to connect. I'm using an iPhone X (iOS 14), Asus GT-AX11000 for my router, and have a Timberline 1300. After going months without WiFire, I couldn't take it any longer and was determined to figure out a solution.

My router is configured to use one SSID for all my channels. As mentioned above, separating the channels into their own SSID did nothing for me. So what I found to work, was to temporarily turn off the the 5ghz channels on the router. After shutting off the 5ghz channel, I had to reboot router, my phone, and then unplug and plug back in my Traeger (make sure your Traeger is not in use when trying to connect). After the 5ghz channels were turned off and everything was freshly reset, did my Traeger app finally connect to the 1300. Hallelujah!!! When the angels stopped singing, I turned the 5ghz channels back on the router (all channels using the same SSID) and every device connected and was happy again.

Hopefully this method helps some of you.

That's good advice BigP. I initially struggled getting my Pro780 connected. It turned out that the controller was bad. I changed it out, turned off the 5G temporarily, and followed the steps to make that first connection. Once that was established, I turned 5G back on and it's been rock solid since last June. The tech stuff can get frustrating for sure…even for people like me who like technology. I get why people get frustrated. Hopefully Traeger can figure a way to make things easier.

 

[BigP]

So my grill inexplicably disconnected from the Wifi and would not connect again. Ironically my Chromecast in the house was having issues as well so at this point I knew the problem was not my Traeger. After playing around with my Wifi settings on my Asus router (GT-AX11000) I found that if I disabled "Airtime Fairness" all of my devices in the house started working again. This setting is found in the router settings under "Wireless", and then "Professional". After saving the setting I rebooted the router and restarted my Traeger and Chromecast. I thought I would pass this tip along if anyone is using an Asus router.