Pro 575 Not Achieving Temperatures

[Johnmil2000]

Thanks for the information.
I will be looking to do the same or possibly exchanging for the Ironwood 650.

i was trying to avoid this. i dont have a truck so i have to take it apart to return it.

 

[primeone]

Maybe we'll all receive a nice gift package from Traeger in the mail for testing their grills out and letting them know about these problems. Obviously they rushed the release and didn't log enough test hours during development.

 

[O C]

Their response to the issue is disappointing. Returning the grill is likely difficult or impossible for me, so I am hoping they find a solution. Here is my latest email response from support. I waited a week for this...and no, there was no diagram included with the email.


Thank you for reaching out to the Traeger Support team. We apologize for the late response.
We're sorry to hear about your grill's temperature issue. We apologize for the inconvenience that this issue has caused you.
We'd like you to try the following steps to help fix the problem with your grill. This will help us to determine what part of the grill we need to change if needed:

1. Disconnect the ORANGE wire's Molex connector from the ORANGE and white Molex connector
2. Reconnect the ORANGE wire's Molex connector with the original ORANGE and white Molex connector
3. Turn the grill on and check if the induction fan is now working. If not proceed to the next step
4. Disconnect the RED wire's Molex connector and the ORANGE wire's Molex connector
5. Reconnect the wires by using the other component's Molex connector (see diagram)
6. Plug in the grill and turn it on
   1. If the Auger Motor turns on – the controller is fine and the induction fan is bad
   2. If Induction Fan turns on and the Auger Motor does not – the controller is bad and the components are fine

If the above troubleshooting steps doesn't fix the issue, please do not hesitate to contact us again to this email or call at 1-800-TRAEGER (1-800-872-3437) and we will see the next available option for you.
Thank you,
Jacky M.

 

[Johnmil2000]

Their response to the issue is disappointing. Returning the grill is likely difficult or impossible for me, so I am hoping they find a solution. Here is my latest email response from support. I waited a week for this...and no, there was no diagram included with the email.


Thank you for reaching out to the Traeger Support team. We apologize for the late response.
We're sorry to hear about your grill's temperature issue. We apologize for the inconvenience that this issue has caused you.
We'd like you to try the following steps to help fix the problem with your grill. This will help us to determine what part of the grill we need to change if needed:

1. Disconnect the ORANGE wire's Molex connector from the ORANGE and white Molex connector
2. Reconnect the ORANGE wire's Molex connector with the original ORANGE and white Molex connector
3. Turn the grill on and check if the induction fan is now working. If not proceed to the next step
4. Disconnect the RED wire's Molex connector and the ORANGE wire's Molex connector
5. Reconnect the wires by using the other component's Molex connector (see diagram)
6. Plug in the grill and turn it on
   1. If the Auger Motor turns on – the controller is fine and the induction fan is bad
   2. If Induction Fan turns on and the Auger Motor does not – the controller is bad and the components are fine

If the above troubleshooting steps doesn't fix the issue, please do not hesitate to contact us again to this email or call at 1-800-TRAEGER (1-800-872-3437) and we will see the next available option for you.
Thank you,
Jacky M.

Their response makes no sense.

 

[JordanK]

I spent some time experimenting a bit with my Pro 575 to get a better idea of what the issue is and how best to work around the problem until Traeger releases the fix. I got such a crazy deal on this grill (30% off) that I'm reluctant to return it and pay full price for a more expensive model. I've cooked a few chicken dinners on the grill and all have turned out ok. Here is what I have found:

• I started by igniting the grill with a set point of 250F. The grill started up normally and took 8-10 minutes to heat up until the display matched the set point temperature. The grill held this temp with no issues for 10-15 minutes.
• I then lowered the temp to 225F and the grill slowly dropped until the display read 225F and did a very good job of holding at this point.
• I then lowered the temp to 200F and the grill would not hold this temp. It dropped down to 160F and then seemed to go out and relight itself a few times. Temp would drop. Smoke would start coming out of the chimney, it would rise to 175F and then go out and relight again. Clearly it can't hold 200F or lower OR the temperature reading on the display (via the thermocouple) is inaccurate and 200F is really something below 170F - 180F in reality and these grills aren't designed to hold temperatures below 180F, etc.
• My gut tells me that there is a mismatch between the display temperature and the real temperature but it's hard to prove.
• I then ran the grill back uptimes o 250F and let it stabilize for a while. I then quickly flipped open the lid and took a bunch of quick temperature readings using my Thermoworks infrared thermometer. What I found is that the temperature is different at different places inside the grill.
• When I took the temperature on the drip tray right over the fire box, the temperature reading matched the display. At other places on the drip tray or near the thermocouple, the temperature was 20F-30F lower.
• I suspect there is less variation when the lid is closed because the convection action of the fan keeps the air moving around and the air temp is probably more uniform. This is hard to confirm with an IR thermometer because it only measures the surface temperature and not air temperature. I will repeat the experiment today with an oven thermometer to see how it varies. Point is, you can get very different readings from different places inside the drum.
• One other issue I want to point out. I plugged in the temperature probe that came with the unit and placed it in a big glass of ice water. Temperature read 42F and it was in there for a while. I went through the Probe calibration process and this did not change the temperature reading from the probe. There is an offset setting in the Probe menu that did correct the temp by changing the offset to -12F. Not sure if this is an issue with the probe or controller. Curious if anyone else has seen this.

Just my observations. I will post an update after another round of tests with the oven thermometer later today.

Jordan.

 

[traegerdc]

I'm looking at buying a Pro 780, and this issue has me holding off right now.

From what I can read here, I think the issue is with the controller's calibration of the thermocouple input. For every thermocouple input there is an "offset" and a "span" adjustment. The offset just adds a number to the temperature (positive or negative), and the span adjusts the scaling from low temp to high temp.

Usually the easiest way to set this properly is with an ice bath (32F) and boiling water (212F).

I know there is a temp offset option in the controller, but that might not be applied properly in the firmware. There doesn't seem to be a user-programmable span adjustment, however.

Can someone take a photo of the control board itself? Sometimes there are manual potentiometers to adjust these settings on the circuit board itself. They usually look like a square box with a small knob on top. Sometimes the knob has a slot or a cross for a screwdriver in it.

 

[CampWhatnot]

These unit with the d2 controllers are having lots of issues. They are aware but haven't sent out the updated firmware. They have been telling me for 2 weeks (5 phone calls) that I would have it downloaded within 24 hours. In my opinion they don't have the fix for the new firmware yet. They tell me that the ironwoods have the pro 575 firmware loaded by mistake. They sent me that info in an email. I presume in time they will sort it out but they released these before they thoughly tested them in my opinion. Mine is spot on from 230 to 500 but 225 and below is bad temp management. I smoke now at 230 untill they fix it. Unfortunately I didn't wait for the new Yoder.......

 

[JordanK]

I'm looking at buying a Pro 780, and this issue has me holding off right now.

From what I can read here, I think the issue is with the controller's calibration of the thermocouple input. For every thermocouple input there is an "offset" and a "span" adjustment. The offset just adds a number to the temperature (positive or negative), and the span adjusts the scaling from low temp to high temp.

Usually the easiest way to set this properly is with an ice bath (32F) and boiling water (212F).

I know there is a temp offset option in the controller, but that might not be applied properly in the firmware. There doesn't seem to be a user-programmable span adjustment, however.

Can someone take a photo of the control board itself? Sometimes there are manual potentiometers to adjust these settings on the circuit board itself. They usually look like a square box with a small knob on top. Sometimes the knob has a slot or a cross for a screwdriver in it.

Here is a picture of the back of the D2 controller. I did not see any kind of adjustment knob. I believe the yellow connector goes to the Thermocouple.

 

[GrillSmith]

Totally new to Traeger - I have a brand new Pro 575 sitting in its box in my garage. I was so excited after I finally pulled the trigger, but having read everything in this thread I'm hesitant to even put it together. I got a fantastic deal on it - and really, really dont want to return it - but if it doesn't perform the way its supposed to, I know I'm never going to be happy. I haven't been thrilled with their customer service either - I had some questions regarding my order (i ordered direct from Traeger) and it was incredibly difficult to get any answers. My order arrived two days ago - however I never received an email with tracking and when I check the status online it still reads "being processed." Any suggestions as to how to proceed? It sounds like people are confident there will be a solution to this temperature problem - should I assume thats the case and setup the grill? Assuming there is no solution, does the Traeger community have faith that they will properly recall or refund? I dont really want to deal with going back and forth for weeks, swapping out parts, taking apart the electronics, etc. I bought what I thought was a premium grill (albeit their entry level model) from a premium brand. Is that not the case?!?

 

[TXFIre]

I’ve been thoroughly disappointed with the response from Traeger.
While I understand they might be trying to figure out a solution,playing dumb with customers and sending out replacement parts that do not fix the problem isn’t a correct way to address the issue.
If i had seen mention of all the Pro 575 issues beforehand,I would not have purchased mine.

 

[Johnmil2000]

Didn't they have issues when they released the prior pro version 22 and 34?

 

[KingTroll]

I picked up my Pro 575 from Home Depot yesterday, after returning an Eastwood 22 that I bought a month ago. I returned the Eastwood 22 because it exploded on me and blew the door off. Extremely dangerous and worried me so I switched to a newer model hoping that would resolve the issue. Turns out the 575 has another issue that is not as dangerous, but more annoying.

Just called Traeger... I spent about an hour on the phone talking with customer service, and then getting the ticket escalated to a supervisor.

They said this is a known issue, and that their engineers are working on the issue. I asked if the time frame is 6 months or 6 weeks, and they said it would “not be 6 months before this was resolved” and that the issue would be fixed with a firmware update. I complained, and they are sending me some rub, and a cover for the Pro 575 (which was nice of them)

I’m really bummed with this being my 2nd model of a Traeger in a month, and still having issues. Hoping this is resolved before the summer season really starts to kick in.

 

[JordanK]

I picked up my Pro 575 from Home Depot yesterday, after returning an Eastwood 22 that I bought a month ago. I returned the Eastwood 22 because it exploded on me and blew the door off. Extremely dangerous and worried me so I switched to a newer model hoping that would resolve the issue. Turns out the 575 has another issue that is not as dangerous, but more annoying.

Just called Traeger... I spent about an hour on the phone talking with customer service, and then getting the ticket escalated to a supervisor.

They said this is a known issue, and that their engineers are working on the issue. I asked if the time frame is 6 months or 6 weeks, and they said it would “not be 6 months before this was resolved” and that the issue would be fixed with a firmware update. I complained, and they are sending me some rub, and a cover for the Pro 575 (which was nice of them)

I’m really bummed with this being my 2nd model of a Traeger in a month, and still having issues. Hoping this is resolved before the summer season really starts to kick in.

If the issue is the same temperature difference issue, it's not really a big deal. You just turn up the temperature by 50 degrees to get the proper temperature. The grill is still very usable while we wait for the fix. The grill is great and I'm confident they will push out the update soon. I'd rather they test the update thoroughly and get things right rather than rushing.

 

[KingTroll]

If the issue is the same temperature difference issue, it's not really a big deal. You just turn up the temperature by 50 degrees to get the proper temperature. The grill is still very usable while we wait for the fix. The grill is great and I'm confident they will push out the update soon. I'd rather they test the update thoroughly and get things right rather than rushing.

Yes, but my issue is I want to be able to reverse sear some steaks. I agree, for the low temp cooks I have options, but the higher temperature cooks are now basically impossible. ?

 

[Dave1972]

So, while I try patiently to wait for Traeger to do a firmware fix.... I haven’t been overly impressed with the smoke taste. I use ambients to help me dial in temps. I bought a smoke tube. I like the fact that I see thin smoke consistently during a cook. I did a london broil using the smoke tube and 225. Finished it off (seared) on my Weber. Came out great. When my 575 is running truly at 225 there doesn’t seem to be the smoke taste I’m used to. Oh, I’m using mesquite pellets in the tube and the traeger.