Ok what in the actual F

[lavaman40]

Folks, I am so close to throwing in the towel with this pro 34 and just buying another offset.

Cooking a thors hammer today (beef shank) 8lbs. Put it on at 11:30am at 250 my ambient probe was reading 215-228, thats fine. It is 6:48pm and the meat is still only at 145. I have never had a thors hammer take more than 8hrs a nornal human smoker. Its been stuck in the 140's for almost 2.5 hours. At this rate it wont hit 165 until 10pm so i can wrap. I took it off and just wrapped it and threw it in the oven instead, this is rediculous. Every cook I need to add 6 hours than normal. How is this possible???

Wtf is wrong with this smoker!!! I am beyond frusterated. I guess this is just a vent. I am just over this thing. Are the newer traegers better or should i just go back to a offset?

 

[Keithes1]

Folks, I am so close to throwing in the towel with this pro 34 and just buying another offset.

Cooking a thors hammer today (beef shank) 8lbs. Put it on at 11:30am at 250 my ambient probe was reading 215-228, thats fine. It is 6:48pm and the meat is still only at 145. I have never had a thors hammer take more than 8hrs a nornal human smoker. Its been stuck in the 140's for almost 2.5 hours. At this rate it wont hit 165 until 10pm so i can wrap. I took it off and just wrapped it and threw it in the oven instead, this is rediculous. Every cook I need to add 6 hours than normal. How is this possible???

Wtf is wrong with this smoker!!! I am beyond frusterated. I guess this is just a vent. I am just over this thing. Are the newer traegers better or should i just go back to an offset?View attachment 24024

I have a 34 as well. Doing a Canadian bacon today; grill is set to 250 but thermoworks thermometer is fluctuating between 198-240. If I had it to do over, I’d probably invest in a 3/16”-1/4” offset and deal with the tending the smoker. So far I’ve done a brisket, chicken thighs, and two Canadian bacons and have used most of a 30lb bag of pellets.

 

[NoGood Traeger]

.... Are the newer traegers better ...?

The 'newer' ones are no better. I had similar frustrations cooking on the Century 885 with the D2 WiFire controller.
Taking forever for things to cook. With a thermocouple reader found that the D2 controller was displaying temperatures about 25% higher than the reader. Subsequently pulled loose the D2 controller and used the thermocouple reader to check the Traeger thermocouple signal directly at the input on the back of the controller. Ditto, the controller display was still 25% higher than the reader. I'm seeing similar with the Silverton 620, though the controller is displaying less of a difference just about 10-12% higher than the reader.

 

[BobbyQ]

First of all, welcome to the Forum. Just a friendly tip: If you haven't already checked this out please do. Just a gesture of helping new members to deal with reality.

READ FIRST ►TRAEGER FAQs & TECH INFO

Traeger Forum is dedicated to the knowledge and total safety of all it's Traeger owning members --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My New Traeger Does Not Put Out The Smoke I Was Expecting!! My Traeger built in RTD probe is off, it is...

www.traegerforum.com

You will see that we all have been through this and there are ways to overcome it. Unfortunately, Traeger has made a fortune selling the "Set it and Forget It" feature but it aint true. Nor is it for the competition as far as I've seen.

 

[NoGood Traeger]

Folks, I am so close to throwing in the towel with this pro 34 and just buying another offset.
...
Wtf is wrong with this smoker!!! I am beyond frusterated. ...

You might find this P setting video helpful. You'll have to take your controller panel loose to get at the P switch if you don't have the hole. The switch if it is there will be behind the panel where the hole should have been. Slip a popsicle stick in from the side to toggle the switch.

 

[midwest]

Have you done anything to confirm what your actual pit temps are or are you just using the Traeger probe? Only reason I ask is I don't think there would be a huge difference in cook times as long as the temps are the same. If your pit temp was 220 in your Traeger and 220 in a similar size offset the cooks time should have been close to the same. I have had two pork butts that are close to the same weight sitting in the same cooker and one takes hours longer than the other. Each piece of meat is different.

 

[Don C]

You might find this P setting video helpful. You'll have to take your controller panel loose to get at the P switch if you don't have the hole. The switch if it is there will be behind the panel where the hole should have been. Slip a popsicle stick in from the side to toggle the switch.

Is this P Switch on all Traegers or only on certain models?

 

[NoGood Traeger]

Is this P Switch on all Traegers or only on certain models?

If the P-switch is there it'll be on grill models using the controller as pictured in the video. Some controllers might not have the front panel access hole though.

Grills with the D2 controller don't have the P-switch.

 

[Slimpicker]

I have never had a thors hammer take more than 8hrs a nornal human smoker.

A normal smoker never holds a constant temp like Traeger does either.
Any 'offset' will go up and down by 50° during a smoke unless you are a scientists at controlling your fire. Besides, an 8# piece of beef could easily take 12 hours if you were cooking in the 220s.

IMO you just need to learn what your rig 'actually' cooks at when set to something, use the P trick, have a separate pit probe to monitor, and start earlier.