Pellet use

[1Randy123]

Brand new Pro780 grill, brand new forum member. Used grill yesterday for 1st time. Cooked a 3lb roast at 250 degree setting. So what's my problem ?
It took 12 hrs. and 19 lbs. of pellets to get the meat probe to read 205 degrees !! Both of these numbers are way too excessive in my opinion, nothing like
what the salesman described. So, what am I doing wrong ?? I am really hoping it is my fault as both the time and pellets required is unacceptable to me.
Thank you

 

[MidwestSmoker]

Traeger probes are notoriously inaccurate. Both the pit probe and the meat probe could be off. In my Traeger at 250 degrees it is off by around 30 degrees, meaning the actual pit temperature will be only 220 degrees. So you may have been cooking at a much lower temperature than you thought. It is likely the meat probe was also off and you may have reached 205 degrees much earlier.

What most of us do is to use accurate 3rd party thermometers for both the pit probe and the meat probe. With these the Traeger becomes an excellent tool for smoking. An inexpensive but capable option is the Inkbird, which with the current 50% off coupon is only $50: https://www.amazon.com/Inkbird-Thermometer-Rechargeable-Wireless-Calibration/dp/B07XNTJKY4

A more expensive, but versatile option, which I and many others here use, is FireBoard: https://www.fireboard.com/shop/fireboard-2/

 

[Jrp]

Now that you are a Traeger owner some things you need to know -

From the Traeger website -

PRO 780

---

TFB78GLEC​

The Traeger Pro 780 grill makes it simple to achieve incredible wood-fired flavor. Set-It & Forget-It® ease and precise temperature control help you create unforgettable meals

DO NOT believer it, if you want a grill that requires you to baby sit, tweek, compensate for, learn its limitations, buy accessories for, in short make a hobby of it, keep the grill. I myself fell for the Traeger representatives claims that I could do it all while sitting on my duff if I cared to. Like you my first cook was a disaster, took me three cooks and over a $100 in wasted food and pellets to figure the internal temp was way below what the controller indicated. Read the other posts to learn you have a common problem.

Customer service will always express their understanding of your frustration, it is amazing how so many customer service people will have the same grill you have and no problems. They have little else to offer except maybe a new thermocouple (it didn't help mine) because I guess it is a cheap pacifier.

I hope you didn't buy it from Traeger because as you can see their return policy is a NO return policy -
From their website -
If you have any problems, we're here for you. Call us at 1-800-TRAEGER and we'll walk you through it. You can exchange your order or any unopened grill to receive a new grill or full refund of the original purchase price, within 45 days. For products purchased directly from an authorized Traeger dealer, their return policy applies

 

[Jrp]

Something else for you to think about -

From a customer review of the Ironwood 885, the Traeger I have -
1 out of 5 stars.

Owner No Smoke Flavor Ironwood 885 Pellet Grill​

a year ago
I bought this about 5 months ago, and have tried all kinds of different type and brands of pellets, barely get any smoke flavor with the super smoke feature, ive tried temps at 165 to 225 and nothing. maybe part of the reason is i went from a charcoal smoker to this Ironwood 885 Pellet Grill. I'm Very disappointed in this purchase, I will probably go back to the charcoal/ wood smoker.. Hope this helps anyone thinking about this Ironwood 885 Pellet Grill

Helpful?
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NOTICE HOW CUSTOMER SUPPORT TREATS THIS GUY LIKE AN IDIOT, did he not catch that the guy was cooking at 165 -225? And that he is going back to his old smoker?

Response from Traeger Pellet Grills LLC:
a year ago
Traeger Customer support
Hey Brian, Thanks for your review and rating of Ironwood 885. The two kinds of smoke that grills produce are thin blue and thick white. Thick white smoke does not taste good and adds a bitter flavor to food. We have specifically designed all our grills including your grill to produce thin blue smoke, through rigorous testing, and we have found it tastes the best. Smoking temps between 165F-225F using Traeger pellets with a blend of hickory for longer cooks will produce more smoke flavor. If you are hitting temps and burning pellets at these temps, you are creating smoke, although it just might not be a large visible plume. Our grills produce a superior thin blue smoke that provides a cleaner, smoker flavor.

In case you haven't noticed, I will never buy another Traeger product.

 

[tomhooper]

Or you can try using third party probes like the poster suggested. I get extremely good cooks with my Traeger. Like everything else, there is a learning curve.
Some don't like their Traeger and constantly rant about them. I for one am tired of it. The OP asked a legitimate question and got a great answer.
If you don't like your Traeger, sell it and buy something else. This isn't the first thread you've shown up on with your vendetta.

 

[1Randy123]

Gentlemen,
Thank you for the informative replies, this info helps a lot. From this and other posts it looks like I have a probe problem. For what this grill costs it does not seem very smart to switch to a "cheap" probe so I am leaning towards the Fireboard brand as MidwestSmoker suggested.
That brings up question #2. Do I need to go with the Firebird 2 Drive which includes a fan or would the Fireboard 2 be acceptable and use the OEM fan ?
Thank you for sharing your experiences

 

[tomhooper]

Gentlemen,
Thank you for the informative replies, this info helps a lot. From this and other posts it looks like I have a probe problem. For what this grill costs it does not seem very smart to switch to a "cheap" probe so I am leaning towards the Fireboard brand as MidwestSmoker suggested.
That brings up question #2. Do I need to go with the Firebird 2 Drive which includes a fan or would the Fireboard 2 be acceptable and use the OEM fan ?
Thank you for sharing your experiences

I don't have any information about changing out the fan etc. I use Meater and/or GrillEye probes. I have used Inkbird and had no complaints. Have not changed any of the actual guts of the machine and I get great cooks.
The more you cook on it, the better feel you will get. I had been cooking on offsets for over 40 years before I came over to the "dark side".

 

[MidwestSmoker]

Gentlemen,
That brings up question #2. Do I need to go with the Firebird 2 Drive which includes a fan or would the Fireboard 2 be acceptable and use the OEM fan ?
Thank you for sharing your experiences

The fan is for those wanting to try regulating their charcoal grills, such as a Weber Kettle or the Big Green Egg. You do not need it for pellet grills, so just get the regular FireBoard 2. We also recommend getting a set of their competition probes, either the long or the short kind.

You will quickly discover that FireBoard is a game changer! Check out this thread: https://www.traegerforum.com/threads/post-your-fireboard-cook-links-here.2977/

 

[RayClem]

While it might not be necessary on a 3# roast, another issue with trying to get meat up to 205 degrees is there is a period call the "stall" when the internal temperature stops rising as the heat produced by the fire is just sufficient to evaporate the moisture from the meat. If you wait long enough like you did, the moisture will be gone and the internal temp will begin to rise again. If you are pressed for time, you might want to consider wrapping your meat in either aluminum foil or butcher paper. The wrapping traps the moisture so it cannot evaporate. Thus, the meat will steam inside the wrapper and the internal temperature will climb. Another thing you can do is to boost the grill temperature. If you were cooking at 250 F controller temp, the temperature at the grate level might have been only 225F . It is very difficult to get unwrapped meat to rise to 205F as the temperature differential is only 20 degrees. If you boosted the controller up by 50 degrees, the cooking temperature differential will rise and speed up the cook.

Explore these various options and see which works for you.

Yesterday, I cooked an 8# pork butt. I was cooking at 220 F as measured at grate level beside the cook. I cooked at that temperature until the internal meat temp was 160 F as measured by a thermometer of known accuracy. I then wrapped the pork in foil, placed it back on the grill and kicked the controller temperature up to 300 to get a cooking temp around 250 F. In a couple of hours, the internal temperature hit 205 and I removed the meat from the grill and allowed it to rest before unwrapping it.