Pro 34 - controller reading 100 degrees higher than my own probe

[Bao]

I had a feeling things were under temp after a few cooks were taking a lot longer than expected. I turned it on today and put my own probe right next to the built in one that is hooked up to the controller. For every setting and reading the Traeger is giving me my own probe is reading 100 degrees lower. I have it set to high right now and its around 450 degrees on the controller but my meter says 350. Even when I opened the lid to put some food on the grill the controller dropped 50 degrees while it was open and my own probe also dropped to maintain the 100 degree difference., the controller went to about 400 and my probe dropped to 300.

I moved my probe to different spots on the grill grates and it remained consistent. Right now it's right next to the controller probe that gives the readings and its 100 degrees off. I'm going to go pick up a small oven thermometer and use that for a third opinion but as it stands now the grill is 100 degrees off.

Is this fixable?

 

[NoGood Traeger]

Try this

Ok what in the actual F

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...

www.traegerforum.com

 

[Bao]

Reading through that it talks about changing the P setting and also using a secondary ambient temp probe.

With the P setting I dont think that would do anything for me. The issue is not that it is not holding temp, its not even getting up to temp. With my high setting for example, it never even reached 450 so it's not having an issue maintain that. The grill THINKS it is at 450 but the actual reading is 350. I can set the P setting to whatever but the grill will never even make it up to 450.

The probe that the grill came with it off by 100 degrees. I have verified this with my ambient temp probe as suggested. It's not off by a few degrees which appears to be normal for most people, its off by 100. Because of this I would need to set the grill to 550 to be able to get a true 450 temp but that's 100 degrees over what it is set to actually handle.

 

[NoGood Traeger]

Reading through that it talks about changing the P setting and also using a secondary ambient temp probe.

With the P setting I dont think that would do anything for me. The issue is not that it is not holding temp, its not even getting up to temp. With my high setting for example, it never even reached 450 so it's not having an issue maintain that. The grill THINKS it is at 450 but the actual reading is 350. I can set the P setting to whatever but the grill will never even make it up to 450.

The probe that the grill came with it off by 100 degrees. I have verified this with my ambient temp probe as suggested. It's not off by a few degrees which appears to be normal for most people, its off by 100. Because of this I would need to set the grill to 550 to be able to get a true 450 temp but that's 100 degrees over what it is set to actually handle.

A lower P-setting is supposed increase the feed speed of the pellets so that a hotter burn occurs to bring the actual temp closer to what the display reads. The display would still think 450, while the 2nd ambient probe reads closer to actual.

 

[Bao]

What causes the display to think 450 though to begin with? I understand the actual to measured being off a bit but having it be 100 degrees off seems a bit excessive.

 

[NoGood Traeger]

What causes the display to think 450 though to begin with? I understand the actual to measured being off a bit but having it be 100 degrees off seems a bit excessive.

I returned the Century 885 for that reason. Mine thought every actual temp was 25% higher than the pit. For example 400 displayed as 500. Using a thermocouple reader I found that the Traeger in pit thermocouple was sending the correct temp information to the controller, meaning the controller was mis-thinking what was being sent.

What causes it? Who knows. Traeger won't own up to it being a problem. They have a smoke-n-mirrors BS farce explanation in their 3rd party thermometer FAQ. 3rd party thermometers don't behave the way they say.

More recently, I've come to think they have a sensing circuit that is susceptible to electrical noise generated by other components in the grill. I've noticed that the temp reading immediately jumps 10-12' as soon as the ignite button is pushed. There isn't even a fire in the pot yet. The pit is still at ambient and remains at ambient for several minutes while the pot is slowly firing up.

 

[RayClem]

If I set my Ironwood to 450F, the actual temperature will be around 400F, so that is a 50 degree difference. A 100 degree difference is extreme. If it is still in warranty, call Traeger customer support, although they are not to keen to hear about 3rd party thermometers.

Check the connector going from the controller to the thermocouple. You might try replacing the thermocouple' they are not that expensive. However, that might not solve the issue.

 

[Bao]

Okay I called them this morning and they gave me 30 minutes of "support" watching the grill and the temps. Right now they have it with me needing to cook something again because they are saying everything is fine. What they did was have me start up the grill on smoke and watch the temps, which when it was turned on initially it was close to the ambient outside temps. Then after 10 minutes moved it to 275 and when it came up to that moved it up to high.

High continues to read 450 while my other probes all say 350. They did say what was mentioned here in that they cannot use third party probes or oven thermometers as "they work differently than the Traeger probe".

I plugged in the Traeger probe that came with the unit into both probe slot 1 and 2 and it was close to the built in one.

What I am going to do next is go cook some chicken again and use the Traeger probe to see if it gets to 165 if it's actually 165 and match that against my Thermopop to see if it matches.

Something just seems off with all of this. I know the grill is not getting to 450, its not getting close to 450 but I don't know how to convince them of this yet. I'll se how this chicken test works. On lower temps the differences appear to be lower and as the temps go up it eventually gets to this 100 degree difference. At the end of testing this morning it was off by 120 degrees but according to them the Traeger is correct and any other probe is simply wrong.

 

[NoGood Traeger]

Okay I called them this morning and they gave me 30 minutes of "support" watching the grill and the temps. Right now they have it with me needing to cook something again because they are saying everything is fine. What they did was have me start up the grill on smoke and watch the temps, which when it was turned on initially it was close to the ambient outside temps. Then after 10 minutes moved it to 275 and when it came up to that moved it up to high.

High continues to read 450 while my other probes all say 350. They did say what was mentioned here in that they cannot use third party probes or oven thermometers as "they work differently than the Traeger probe".

I plugged in the Traeger probe that came with the unit into both probe slot 1 and 2 and it was close to the built in one.

What I am going to do next is go cook some chicken again and use the Traeger probe to see if it gets to 165 if it's actually 165 and match that against my Thermopop to see if it matches.

Something just seems off with all of this. I know the grill is not getting to 450, its not getting close to 450 but I don't know how to convince them of this yet. I'll se how this chicken test works. On lower temps the differences appear to be lower and as the temps go up it eventually gets to this 100 degree difference. At the end of testing this morning it was off by 120 degrees but according to them the Traeger is correct and any other probe is simply wrong.

That's the same lame dismissal excuse I got after multiple call chats myself. "they work differently than the Traeger probe" because Traeger controllers don't read the probe correctly. Your other probe has it correct, trust it.

 

[Bao]

That's the same lame dismissal excuse I got after multiple call chats myself. "they work differently than the Traeger probe" because Traeger controllers don't read the probe correctly. Your other probe has it correct, trust it.

Did you ever manage to get them to budge?

 

[NoGood Traeger]

Did you ever manage to get them to budge?

No. Not even after I shared with them temp reading taken from their own probe where it plugs into the back of the controller. I got the same temp difference as I did with a 3rd party probe placed next to Traeger's in the grill.

Sounds like the difference is intentional. Their bottom line:

"When it comes to third party thermometers we are unable to use them as a basis as we have designed our controller to take into account the temperature variation due to the circulating nature of the air inside the grill."

 

[midwest]

I found when comparing my Traeger probes to my Ink Bird (which I have tested multiple times and are always accurate) I find at lower temps (250 or lower) my Traeger probes are within a few degrees. The higher the temp the more it is off. If I crank my 780 Pro all the way up it will read 75 degrees or so different that the actual temp.

 

[RayClem]

As long as your are cooking below 400F, you should always be able to set the controller to achieve the value you want in the center of the cooking chamber. The problem occurs when you are trying to use the Traeger like a grill to sear burgers, steaks, etc. If the controller goes to 500F, but the cook temperature only reaches 400F, that is not hot enough to properly sear. My Ironwood is only off 50-60 degrees, but I still find that it does not do a good job of searing. I even purchased a set of GrillGrates to improve the searing, but that only helped a little.

I finally decided that my Ironwood was incapable of achieving a temperature hot enough for searing. Initially, I purchase a carbon steel skillet and did my searing on the gas stove in the kitchen, but that is no ideal due to fumes and grease splatter. The following year, I purchased a gas griddle (CharGriller FlatIron 4-burner) which I love using. However, there are small portable gas griddles that you could use as well. This inexpensive one has only a single burner. If possible, purchase one with at least two burners.

Blackstone Adventure Ready Single Burner 17” Tabletop Griddle with Non Slip Feet - Walmart.com

Buy Blackstone Adventure Ready Single Burner 17” Tabletop Griddle with Non Slip Feet at Walmart.com

www.walmart.com

 

[Bao]

Just in case someone finds this thread in the future I am going to post what I posted in another thread on this forum because I always hated when I found something about an issue I had and never saw a follow up.


---

My two cents on the matter.. I bought a Pro 34 over 4th of July from Home Depot and experienced the same symptoms as you, it was cooking super slow and I knew something was wrong. I ended up putting a bunch of my own probes inside the unit and checking the readings from the Traeger controller and my own. When it first started up everything was fine but as temps rose the differences started to show themselves. On the high end of the dial the Traeger was reading 100f OVER what the actual temps were.

I ended up calling them to say something was broken and their response was no, all of my other probes are broken and only theirs is correct. Didn't matter what I said they just told me I was doing it wrong and the unit was fine. I knew this was false because it got to the point I had multiple probes in the same position as their RTD and saw the differences. I decided to follow their chicken win recipe and instead of it taking 35 minutes on high the wings took an hour and a half to come up to safe temperatures.

They sent me a survey some time after the support phone call asking how they did and I blasted them on it. This prompted them to call and email me back right away asking what was wrong. I spoke to them and told them it was unsafe to cook on the grill using their own recipes and guides because the 100 degree difference. Eventually they agreed to send me a new RTD. It came, I replaced it, and it fixed the issue.

I then also decided to upgrade the controller to a PID and it made a world of difference. Just did 14 pounds of pork butt on Monday and the Pro 34 held temps like a champ, was perfectly dialed in to what temps I set the controller to, and now I have more pork than I know what to do with in my fridge. That's a completely separate topic but the PID controller is amazing and I should have bought one to upgrade my old unit years ago.

I'd say get a third party meat probe and wedge it right up against the RTD the unit came with and plot the differences. Follow what support is going to tell you, which is turn it on smoke and let it sit for 15 minutes. Then turn it to low and wait for 10 to 15, then medium waiting the same, and then high. See if you get the same difference in readings. When the grill said 400 my probes all read 300. When I opened the lid to look at them all the temp would drop and the unit would say it was at 330 or 340 while mine read 230 or 240.

 

[midwest]

I also mentioned it a few years ago. Part of the problem is that most people don't report their issues to Traeger. I had the opportunity to meet and speak with an exec. and I explained my frustrations with their probes. He indicated that temp readings from probes (meat and chamber) are less than 10% of the complaints they receive so therefore they don't consider it a problem or issue. I told him the problem is a lot higher than 10% of the units and that it is common knowledge so people don't bother to call in, they just buy aftermarket probes. He didn't agree with me but that's what he said. I guess if every person who had a Traeger with inaccurate probes will call in and complain it might get the attention it deserves.