Smoke….or the lack there of.

[EdmundNvC]

Brand new to this whole treager bit. I gotta say not impressed in the least bit. I actually feel like I should have simply took my money and shredded it. Follow recipes and meat comes out as if I did in an oven or my little Weber spirit grill. Shoot 1k for a grill and the a brother couldn’t even get a super smoker setting if even to pacify the newest of new to the experience. Please please please do not tell me to go spend more money on some tube contraption. The simple truth is one shouldn’t have to. The truth is that there should be some way to know that smoking is occurring. Whether it is blue smoke, yellow , purple, shoot Indian smoke signals, something. It’s only my third cook so I guess at some point I will learn to choke down the feeling of wasting 1k on this thing. Not at all impressed treager. Not at all!

Ditto!

 

[WCBBQ]

To the OP, maybe you can find some joy in your purchase from some insight and hapiness from this guy's outlook on purchasing a Traeger in this video

Funny, but yes it is all about the pellets.

 

[Bmcshane]

To the OP, maybe you can find some joy in your purchase from some insight and hapiness from this guy's outlook on purchasing a Traeger in this video

Thanks for the pick-me-up, needed that!!! Hialrious video (luv that guy!)

 

[Bmcshane]

My only reply to the “Traeger got no smoke” thread is (and this is how I’ve come to reckon with it….
Think of Traeger as a ‘Wood-fire grill” and not a traditional “Smoker”. I do augment with a smoke tube and that does the trick for the one neuron begging for a smoke sensation. We still get a nice smoke ring on all my cooks and am quite happy with my 575 Pro. Done plenty of Briskets, Prime Rib, Pork Butts, Ribs, Chickens and further augmented the ”fire” aspect with GrillGrates for searing (game changer!) So I can do steaks, tri-tips, picanha and the like. I’m now the go-to guy every Thanksgiving for a Traeger Turkey (with the Traeger brine and rub kit). One absolute, must have add-on is 3rd party temp probes. I use Thermoworks and have a complete set of probes and stand-alone MK4.
This Forum is a great resource and most of the folks are cool and always willing to help and share tips. Traeger may not be for everyone but what is…..? Good Luck!

 

[trarmour]

Brand new to this whole treager bit. I gotta say not impressed in the least bit. I actually feel like I should have simply took my money and shredded it. Follow recipes and meat comes out as if I did in an oven or my little Weber spirit grill. Shoot 1k for a grill and the a brother couldn’t even get a super smoker setting if even to pacify the newest of new to the experience. Please please please do not tell me to go spend more money on some tube contraption. The simple truth is one shouldn’t have to. The truth is that there should be some way to know that smoking is occurring. Whether it is blue smoke, yellow , purple, shoot Indian smoke signals, something. It’s only my third cook so I guess at some point I will learn to choke down the feeling of wasting 1k on this thing. Not at all impressed treager. Not at all!

I agree! Traeger are very limited on what they do very well! Baby Back ribs are good. Forget steaks and reverse searing. Forget whole chickens as they are much better on a rotisserie Weber. Use a Weber gas or Charcoal grill. Pork loins or pork chops are fair as well as bone in chicken breasts. Don't even try any types of fish or hamburgers. You will be tremendously disapointed. The ash clean up and the fire pot clean up is a major pain. These grills are nothing more than an oven with some smoke! they are hype and a giant "rip off" in my opinion. I would never buy one again even for $100. Once you do you are pretty much stuck! They are worth less than half what you pay for them new if you can even sell it at all! So now I have a very heavy deck anchor and nothing more.

 

[Murphy's Law]

I agree! Traeger are very limited on what they do very well! Baby Back ribs are good. Forget steaks and reverse searing. Forget whole chickens as they are much better on a rotisserie Weber. Use a Weber gas or Charcoal grill. Pork loins or pork chops are fair as well as bone in chicken breasts. Don't even try any types of fish or hamburgers. You will be tremendously disapointed. The ash clean up and the fire pot clean up is a major pain. These grills are nothing more than an oven with some smoke! they are hype and a giant "rip off" in my opinion. I would never buy one again even for $100. Once you do you are pretty much stuck! They are worth less than half what you pay for them new if you can even sell it at all! So now I have a very heavy deck anchor and nothing more.

I have to strongly disagree with just about everything you said.

I have a Weber rotisserie and couldn’t tell you where it is. I know exactly where my “chicken throne” is. I get wonderful crispy skin and moist chicken every time doing beer can chicken.

I routinely cook salmon and Chiliesn sea bass on the Traeger. I love doing scallops, and even potatoes and vegetables.

If you expected your Traeger to reverse sear a steak then shame on you for buying a $1000 grill without doing research. That’s on you. Not Traeger. I’d never spend that much without doing some basic research.

I don’t cook steaks all that often but when I do I use my charcoal grill, or start the steak on the Traeger and reverse sear on the Blackstone. I do this because I understand there are better “tools” for the job.

Ash clean up is no more difficult than cleaning the charcoal ash from my Weber kettle.

If you bought a Traeger to be a “grill of all grills” then you got caught up in the marketing hype so I can see why are upset. Blame the grill, not the cook.

 

[MidwestSmoker]

If you expected your Traeger to reverse sear a steak then shame on you for buying a $1000 grill without doing research. That’s on you. Not Traeger. I’d never spend that much without doing some basic research.

This is the thing that surprises me. When I first saw the price of these things I was taken aback. I took a long time researching and making sure I wanted one. I already knew that it would not replace my Weber gas grill, but standard grilling was not what I was looking for, it was low and slow BBQ.

I am as guilty as anyone about making impulse purchases, but rarely for something that costs $1000 or more. To me it seems that many are impulse buying a Traeger in July and then descending on this forum to complain in August about grilling hamburgers and steaks on it.

 

[GEON]

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ME AND MY WASTED $$$$ DON'T GET ME STARTED!!!!

All it got me was:

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I mean what a ripoff!!!!!

I feel totally ripped off - I never got the invite!!!

 

[GEON]

I've found that the version I have doesn't produce much smoke and behaves more like a nice temperature controlled oven (gee like a smoker!) so using tubes is no big deal, and now I don't need to care so much what kind of pellets I use since they don't seem to add too much to the flavor. With the tubes I can use the same kind of woods I was using in my old (electric) smoker and get stellar results.

You have a great juicer and lots of lemons - MAKE LEMONADE!

just my $00.02.

 

[Bookers Bourbon]