Timberline XL Displays Incorrect Temperature

[BillS]

Bought the XL 2 months ago and have been back and forth with Traeger support regarding this issue to no avail! I set the grill to 250 and start the cook. The product takes 50% longer to cook than it should. Placed an ambient temperature calibration device inside the grill for the next cook and found that even though the grill said 300, the inside temp was 220. When I contacted Traeger about this they said they don't rely or respond to issues when 3rd party thermometers are involved. I persuaded them to change out the thermocouple but ended up with the same issue. The grill cooks at 75-125 degrees lower than the setting indicates. I don't suggest anyone buy this $4000 grill until they figure out how to solve the temperature issue - probably related to the motherboard (assuming nobody else has this issue with the XL, or the firmware if others are having the issue as well). I'd love to hear if anyone else is having this issue with their XL.

 

[Bills Mafia 302]

Hey Bill, I’ve had mine since the day they dropped and was having some issues at first but they’ve all “learned” themselves away. used to take a long time to reach temperature, now its twice as fast as my TL 1300, Ive never had the issue of thw temperature being off though, if anything mine runs a little hot usually, not low. almost sounds like a temp probe issue, the board thinks it’s right because the probe is telling it so. I’m not sure, hopefully you’ll get someone more helpful next time you call. My local Ace is very helpful, not sure if you bought through them or not but that’s where I normally deal. Good luck sir.

 

[BillS]

I had a TL 850 and had no temperature issues. Replaced the thermocouple today and when I heat to 300 on the console the temp is still 270 whole the console reads as high as 310. Still a 30-40 degree difference at 300 setting. There was a coating on the tip of the thermocouple so I removed it (scrubbed it off) thinking perhaps that should have been removed initially. Didn't really help.

 

[Trae Bar IV]

If I set my XL at 250, it will typically run up to 275-300 degrees and then seem to "settle" down after a while. This is my 2nd XL and the first one did the exact same thing. Like Bills Mafia, my TL 1300 never had this issue, so I'm hoping its a software update that will eventually resolve the inaccurate read.

 

[BillS]

Just cooked a short plate on Sunday. Recommended temperature was 275 for 6-8 hours. In order to get the temperature inside the smoker to 275, I needed to run the smoker at 340. Came out great, but should not have to set the smoker 65 degrees higher to maintain proper temp. I use a digital calibration probe to get an accurate reading of the temperature inside the grill. I wonder if they are ever going to address this issue. No one should consider buying this grill until the issue is resolved and you see good comments on this site.

 

[Bills Mafia 302]

That sucks that you’re having these issues, I did a 16 hour brisket on Saturday/Sunday at 200 degrees (Matt Pittman’s new recipe) on my XL and watched closely with my Meater probe and it was right on the money, a few degrees here or there variance but most of the time it sat right at 200. I’ve had great luck with my XL aside from the first couple cooks. I think your temp probe must be bad inside the grill. I think I’d try that first. I cook on mine 3-4 times a week and have been very pleased with it. Hopefully a tweak here or there on yours and you will be just as satisfied. Good luck my friend.

 

[BillS]

I replaced the thermocouple already. It is much closer to correct at very low temps (200-225). It gets off as the cook temp increases. As I said, to cook at 275 it needed to be set at 340. How do you know the grill temp is correct on the inside? Are you using some form of independent ambient temperature probe?

 

[Trae Bar IV]

Interesting. I’d like to replicate your experiment with my XL.. what kind of ambient probe are you using? Can you post
Pics of where you placed the probe?

When I set my temp on mine, the current temp on the XL reads about 10-15 degrees hotter than what I set it too. After a while , the internal probe seems to come back down to what I set it too.

 

[BillS]

Using a Hotloop digital oven thermometer and suspending the probe from the middle shelf just over the area where the meat is placed on the base grill plates. The metal part of the probe is not touching the metal shelf.

 

[Trae Bar IV]

I’m going to do it. I’ll post my results here .

 

[Trae Bar IV]

Well, the results are in . I ran six separate probes thru my new Thermaprobe digital thermometer. Each probe was attached to its own clip and did not touch the grates.

I divided the zones:

Top Rack- upper left and right
Middle Rack- upper left and right
Bottom Rack- upper left and right

I set the XL at 250 degrees. Outside temp was 52 deg. The lid was kept closed. The goal was to measure the inside ambient temperature.

Overall the upper left side of the XL was hotter than any other part of the XL measuring at 268. The middle rack was 238, while the lower rack measures 225.

Conversely, The right side was 247- top rack, 231- mid rack, 218- lower rack .

I’ve also discovered the XL wired probes are about 10 degrees off when I was cooking tri-tip, compared to the hand held digital probe I used. The XL probes showed 10 deg hotter than the hand held probe.

 

[BillS]

I am using a Fireboard Pro 2 to check ambient temperature because I can't trust the XL. What I found is that the XL is closer to correct at low settings. For example, I cooked a pork belly at 225 and the ambient was within 25 degrees - like you found Trae. But when I cooked cupcake chicken this weekend, I needed to set the grill at 350 in order to maintain 300 degrees inside the grill. I measured the ambient temp by hanging the probe in its clip from the underside of the middle rack in the center. Based on the many times I have done this, the higher you need the temp inside the grill, the further it is from accurate. In fact, I don't believe the grill can ever reach 400 because the software will shut it down once the reading gets too high (500). It would need to be set at 500 to get even close to 400. This grill is a disaster when it comes to temperature control. It can only be used for cooking up to 325 or 350 at the most, and requires a 3rd party ambient temperature control to be used at all times. The probes are also off as you discovered. In my mind, this is a software issue which they not only fasil to resolve but also fail to even acknowledge the problem.

 

[Trae Bar IV]

Thanks BillS. I'm going to continue to run more tests as time permits. The next time I smoke I brisket I'll run it with both the Traeger Meater and wire probe, along with the 3rd party ThermoPro, to see how they compare. When I do a large brisket (15+lbs), I starting the night before (9 pm) and let it roll on Supersmoke at 200 and until the next morning, probe it (usually reads 145), and then crank it to 250 until it reaches 205. It's a long smoke

I was cooking tri-tip the other day, searing the meat first on the induction burner first then putting it on the bottom rack and cranking the heat to 500. The temperature went almost to 540 and then it automatically shut down the XL. That's according to the internal temp reading of the XL. I do not think it actually reached that temperature.

If I set mine at 350, I can almost guarantee the XL internal gauge on the XL will show 25 degrees higher than the dial. However, I don't think that reading is accurate.

 

[Ray Reiter]

Bought the XL 2 months ago and have been back and forth with Traeger support regarding this issue to no avail! I set the grill to 250 and start the cook. The product takes 50% longer to cook than it should. Placed an ambient temperature calibration device inside the grill for the next cook and found that even though the grill said 300, the inside temp was 220. When I contacted Traeger about this they said they don't rely or respond to issues when 3rd party thermometers are involved. I persuaded them to change out the thermocouple but ended up with the same issue. The grill cooks at 75-125 degrees lower than the setting indicates. I don't suggest anyone buy this $4000 grill until they figure out how to solve the temperature issue - probably related to the motherboard (assuming nobody else has this issue with the XL, or the firmware if others are having the issue as well). I'd love to hear if anyone else is having this issue with their XL.

Have you tried calibrating, or adjusting the temperature offset
See linkhttps://bbqdropout.com/traeger-temperature-calibration/
The op's manual also covered this for my IW650

 

[Ray Reiter]

Have you tried calibrating, or adjusting the temperature offset
See link https://bbqdropout.com/traeger-temperature-calibration/
The op's manual also covered this for my IW650