New Ironwood inaccurate temp

[jrich523]

I recently got an Ironwood 650 an I did a 12lb brisket which ended up taking 30 hours, which felt totally wrong.
I ordered an oven thermometer and found that its about 30 degrees off.

I would normally be fine with just adjusting it by just turning it up, however the Super Smoke only works up to 225, so when i have to run it at 255 to get the right temp of 225 i cant run the super smoke.

From reading i've only been able to find ways to calibrate the probe, is there any way to fix this?

It looks like the only way to contact support is via phone, so rather than spend a ton of time there, i thought i'd ask here first to hopefully avoid a horrible phone call

Thanks!

 

[traeger860]

First thing support will ask you is to make sure you're on the latest firmware version and config version. Here's a link that shows the current versions: https://www.traeger.com/status

Is 225/SuperSmoke what you had this brisket set for? Did you wrap after a certain IT and bump the temp?

 

[CMTiger]

You don’t need super smoke for the duration of a long cook. Get some smoke on that thing set at 225 (actually closer to 200) then raise it up after you wrap

 

[jrich523]

@traeger860 - great point, i'll check the versions. as far as the temp i had it at 225 until 170 IT and then wrapped it and continued to ~200 IT. i did bump the temp, but i forget the exact details of what i did. I think i bumped it to 235 about 2-3 hours after wrapping it.

@CMTiger - Thats a good point, even if i do the first hour or two at 200F so i can enable the super smoke, the over all time impact of that is probably not all that horrible. I cant say i have enough experience to know when is enough smoke and how much etc. also most of the stuff i see basically says to leave on the super smoke even after wrapping...

 

[CMTiger]

@traeger860 - great point, i'll check the versions. as far as the temp i had it at 225 until 170 IT and then wrapped it and continued to ~200 IT. i did bump the temp, but i forget the exact details of what i did. I think i bumped it to 235 about 2-3 hours after wrapping it.

@CMTiger - Thats a good point, even if i do the first hour or two at 200F so i can enable the super smoke, the over all time impact of that is probably not all that horrible. I cant say i have enough experience to know when is enough smoke and how much etc. also most of the stuff i see basically says to leave on the super smoke even after wrapping...

Doesn’t seem to be a good reason to leave in super smoke after wrapping

 

[RayClem]

It is quite common for the actual cook temperature to be different than the controller temperature. I think it has to do more with the location of the probe within the grill than the accuracy of the temperature probe,

With my Ironwood, I find the probe reads closely at lower temperatures. I generally set the controller at 230F if I want to cook at 225F. However, if I want to cook at 300F, I need to set the controller to 325F. If I want to cook at 400F, I need to set the controller to 450F. You just need to figure out how your specific grill works.

I have never tried using SuperSmoke on my grill, so I do not know how that affects the controller. If you are doing long cooks like a brisket or pork butt, the protein will take on all the smoke it needs over the course of the cook.

For shorter cooks, if you are not satisfied with the smoke flavor, you might want to check out threads about smoke tubes. They are perforated metal tubes that you fill with pellets or a combination of pellets and chips to produce additional smoke.

 

[Shedd]

I think any grill/smoker will vary, some moreover others. I’ve always looked at “low and slow” as just that. A lower temperature than expected isn’t going to hurt anything except a time frame. If you’re planning a timeframe then don’t go by what you read, hear or your last cook because it changes. It’s easier to keep it warm until ready or even reheat than to have drooling mouths waiting for it to be cooked. Much less stress too!

 

[jrich523]

i guess mostly i see an issue with if my goal is an IT of 205 and the grill is set to 225, and is 30 off, then im only 195, which is lower than my goal IT and it will never reach.

I know there will be some variance in the temp but i had let it sit for a while to make sure the whole internal temp was at least consistent.. 30 degrees seems a bit much

My biggest concern was that super smoke is only available at 225, but if i run it for 2 hours at 225 with super smoke and then bump it to 255 to get the right cook temp that is probably fine. i havent done enough cooks to understand the impact of the amount/time of smoke and flavor, but it seems like 2 hours with super smoke is likely going to give it a plenty good smoke flavor

 

[CMTiger]

i guess mostly i see an issue with if my goal is an IT of 205 and the grill is set to 225, and is 30 off, then im only 195, which is lower than my goal IT and it will never reach.

I know there will be some variance in the temp but i had let it sit for a while to make sure the whole internal temp was at least consistent.. 30 degrees seems a bit much

My biggest concern was that super smoke is only available at 225, but if i run it for 2 hours at 225 with super smoke and then bump it to 255 to get the right cook temp that is probably fine. i havent done enough cooks to understand the impact of the amount/time of smoke and flavor, but it seems like 2 hours with super smoke is likely going to give it a plenty good smoke flavor

Definitely understand your concern. If you’re shooting for 203 and cooking at 195 you’re going to have a long cook in front of you. I just don’t think it’s necessary. So when I did a brisket I cooked it around 195 overnight and then wrapped and bumped it up to 250 (actually temps, not set). You’re gonna stop getting a smoke ring around what? 165-170 degrees. I guess you could keep getting more flavor at that point if you wanted, but it’s generally accepted to wrap and bump the temp around this point

 

[RayClem]

The nice thing about large cuts like brisket and pork butt is that you can start off slow to get smoke on the meat and then bump up the cook temperature to insure you get to the internal temp to render fat and connective tissue. After the first couple if hours, very little smoke flavor will be added.

 

[Rooster6]

I had this same issue about 2 weeks ago. Customer Support was actually great and showed me a few tricks that I have never done. First thing was properly cleaning my probe inside my grill. I use the Traeger Natural cleaner (probably can use whatever you want), but never paid attention to how dirty it was. I clean the grill often, but never really cleaned the probe (idiot, i know). Took a soft toothbrush and sponge, and got it like new). They had me start the grill on the lowest setting with the lid up, and had me compare the probe to the air temp. It was spot on. I also took my external probe and calibrated it with a glass of ice water. That's when I realized i was 10 degrees off. Next few smokes, I checked both probe temps prior to cooking, and things seem to be much more on point. There is definitely some variance, but much closer.

I'm pretty new to this world, so I'm always looking for any advice, tricks, etc. This one worked for me pretty well.

I also learned to NOT go by the grill times that are on some Traeger recipes. Read the feedback. I made "Not your Mamas Meatloaf" yesterday. Followed the recipe to point. It stated a 2 hour cook at 225 degrees. I read the comments and almost everyone complained that there is no way and the time was off. I'm thankful I read those and they were spot on. Took 4 hours to get to 165 degrees. I was originally planning on a 2 hour cook, we wouldn't have eaten until 9:00 if I did that. Ha.

Not sure if this will work for you, but definitely helped me.

 

[jrich523]

@CMTiger thats a good tid bit, that the smoke ring stops around 160-170, which makes sense as to why thats when you wrapped it, never really thought about it before

@RayClem yeah, it sounds like 2 hours of super smoke is probably going to cut it

@Rooster6 thats some good info. its brand new (only 2 cooks, first being that 30 hour brisket) but worth a try trying to clean it, also i havent calibrated the meat probe, should probably do that. As far as times i've never expected the times to be accurate, but 30 hours for a 12lb brisket felt wrong, i think their recommendation was like 12 - 14 hours or something like that.. i expected, based on using my electric smoker and some reading, that it would be more like 18-24 hours

 

[RayClem]

The times and temperatures shown in recipes are simply guidelines. Never rely on them to know when to remove a cook from the Traeger. Always rely on a internal temperature probe you know to be accurate and cook to final temperature unless you are doing something like baby back ribs and you have enough experience to evaluate them by the way they feel and bend.

I used the Traeger internal meat probe for my first cook or two and have not connected it since. I am a little suspicious of the accuracy of the Traeger probe due to the long metal piece that extends outside the meat. That metal absorbs heat and transmits it along the tube towards the sensor. I always use 3rd party probes that have limited exposure outside the meat if I plan to leave the probe inside the meat. However, for the final check, I rely on an instant read thermometer that gets inserted into the meat for only a few seconds. I test several spots to make sure everything is where I want it.

 

[DADAKOTA]

I've learned that you just do not get a lot of smoke out of a Traeger. Even adding smoke tubes the smoke flavor is minimal compared to my old Bradley smoker or a side burner. For the most part it is a grill and not a smoker.

 

[RayClem]

I've learned that you just do not get a lot of smoke out of a Traeger. Even adding smoke tubes the smoke flavor is minimal compared to my old Bradley smoker or a side burner. For the most part it is a grill and not a smoker.

That is true. For those accustomed to the smoke flavor of a wood fired offset smoker, the flavor will be lacking. Pellets will never develop the same flavor as wood. However, an offset smoker requires routine attention while the Traeger can be left unattended for a while.

For those accustomed to a gas fired grill, the smoke from the Traeger is a big flavor boost.

Some guys have modified their pellet grills to use a smoke generator to combine the convenience of pellets with the flavor of a side burner.