Timberline

[DKrics]

It took 55 minutes to heat to 350 on an empty Timberline XL in shade with an ambient temp of 84 outside. Brand new Hickory Traeger pellets. Obviously this is unacceptable.
Will be calling support soon.

 

[RayClem]

It took 55 minutes to heat to 350 on an empty Timberline XL in shade with an ambient temp of 84 outside. Brand new Hickory Traeger pellets. Obviously this is unacceptable.
Will be calling support soon.

Try another brand of pellets. Traeger insists that their grill work best with their brand of pellets, but many users disagree.

Pellets readily absorb moisture if exposed to high humidity. Humidity levels in Overland Park are high enough this time of year for the pellets to absorb moisture from the air. The pellets used to start the grill are often those left at the very bottom of the hopper when you finish your last cook, even if you remove the majority of the pellets. The higher the moisture content, the lower the fuel value.

 

[DKrics]

Try another brand of pellets. Traeger insists that their grill work best with their brand of pellets, but many users disagree.

Pellets readily absorb moisture if exposed to high humidity. Humidity levels in Overland Park are high enough this time of year for the pellets to absorb moisture from the air. The pellets used to start the grill are often those left at the very bottom of the hopper when you finish your last cook, even if you remove the majority of the pellets. The higher the moisture content, the lower the fuel value.

Thanks for your insights. Indeed the humidity is quite high currently. However, I never had this issue on my previous Traeger Silverton. I upgraded because I like the new technology....but it looks as if this new grill may be too fancy for its own good.
So, do you have a recommendation regarding a pellet brand that works good for you? Thanks.

 

[RayClem]

I have not had my grill that long, but I did try a couple of brands of pellets that many people seem to like.

One was the Expert Grill pellets that are a Walmart brand. I got the Sweet Blend. It is a great mild blend that works well for many meats and vegies. In spite a very attractive price, the pellets worked will in my Ironwood and provided a nice smoke flavor. There are a couple of other options as well.

Pit Boss pellets also seem to have their fair share of fans. There are many options for their blends.

Although I have not yet tried them, Lumberjack and Bear Mountain get great reviews. They are on my wish list.

Traeger pellets do not seem to get very good reviews. They tend to be dustier than many competing pellets. That may mean the Traeger pellets are not as tightly compressed. If that is the case, they are likely to pick up moisture faster than other pellets. I did purchase a bag of Traeger pellets as I figured I HAD to try them, but I am not sure I will buy any more.

 

[JPSBBQ]

What you will find about pellet preferences, almost without exception, is that people tend to fall in love with the least expensive brand that doesn't poison them. Famous guy on YouTube liked to crap on the traeger pellets until he did a fairly extensive blind taste test and the Traeger pellets won followed by Lumberjacks. Traeger pellets are a very good product but admittedly more expensive. All pellet brands are susceptible to storage times as well as shipping and handling abuse. The charcoal industry has the same issues. I will say some pellets are made leaving the bark on them and will inherently smoke more than those brands that remove the bark. This is a double edged sword. While removing the bark is a cost increase, it decreases smokiness which is desired by some but not all. Also there is literature out there which explains that the bark of the tree holds all the toxins from the air surrounding the trees. It acts almost as a filter. This doesn't particularly alarm me, but it will definitely alarm some. It is something that needs to be considered by the individual buying the pellets. I use both in different scenarios. I have yet to come across a pellet brand that is sold on mass that is in any way offensive (hundreds of bags). If you hear stories like them being bad or offensive I would seriously caution you that the person is either biased or their cook was off for other reasons. Again, to summarize, the bark pellets will produce a heavier smoke profile the non bark ones will produce smoke, but it will be a much cleaner blue smoke with a less smoky flavor profile. Each has it's place IMO. enjoy!

 

[DKrics]

So I was on the phone with support. They did a video call. Basically they had me clean any trace of ash in the firebox and that bottom layer, then reassemble the grill. Then measure time from ignite to 180, then up it to 350. It is around 88 degrees outside. It took 28-ish minutes to reach 180, and around 65 mins total to reach 350.
Plus I probably spent $10+ in pellets on this test!
Anyhow, I had to run to a meeting. They said they have the data and would track the cook and I should call them back when free. I'll try to do that later today. If they can't fix this thing it is going back. Over an hour to heat up in the summer is ridiculous. It should take 20-25 mins tops.

 

[RayClem]

So I was on the phone with support. They did a video call. Basically they had me clean any trace of ash in the firebox and that bottom layer, then reassemble the grill. Then measure time from ignite to 180, then up it to 350. It is around 88 degrees outside. It took 28-ish minutes to reach 180, and around 65 mins total to reach 350.
Plus I probably spent $10+ in pellets on this test!
Anyhow, I had to run to a meeting. They said they have the data and would track the cook and I should call them back when free. I'll try to do that later today. If they can't fix this thing it is going back. Over an hour to heat up in the summer is ridiculous. It should take 20-25 mins tops.

It definitely should not take almost 1/2 hour to heat the grill from an ambient temp of 88F to 180.

Have you confirmed the dome probe is accurate using a thermometer of known accuracy? There will always be some variation as the temp inside the grill will differ depending upon probe placement?

It sound like you might need to get a new controller under warranty.

 

[DKrics]

I have made several notes on my new XL. I previously had a Timberline 850. Overall, I love the grill, but there are some issues that I’m confident Traeger will address. Below are the notes I have made so far:

• Says “done preheating” way too early- 220 on a 400 degree cook
• No way to calibrate and adjust the wired probe, even though manual says there is.
• Got error and restart when sending recipe to grill
• Takes way too long to get to temp compared to timberline 850. Took 32 minutes to get to 400. Has taken 45 minutes to get to 375
• Temperature fluctuations range 35 degrees at times

Sdsmith1989: Have you spoken with support? I've called them 4 or 5 times due to slow heating. I've done all their troubleshooting, and nothing really worked well. Ultimately they blamed it on my pellets. So I bought a new Traeger bag that was not expired. Still took 45 mins to get up to 350.
I called them again. This time the support rep wanted to do another monitored cook. Although I changed NOTHING, the Timberline XL magically heated to 180 in under 5 minutes and 350 in around 28 minutes total. It is weird because at times the temp climbs great, like a degree per second. Other times it just stalls. Who knows if the auger just needs many cooks to get the lubrication flowing?! I'd be happy if the XL would go from ambient to 350 in under 15 mins.
It is interesting that the escalation group in their support is called the "Beta" team. So, by purchasing a $3800 smoker we're the beta testers?! If you have troubles, ask for the Beta team support.
I really like my old Traeger grill. I hope future software updates can optimize this one (STAT). Because so far every cook has been frustration due to the slow heat up.

 

[RustyJake]

Not sure if this guy's video will help anyone having issues getting to temperature on their XL.
Seems like a simple thing to try, and worth a shot

 

[Pellet.Rookie]

In the middle of my 4th long cook I noticed an odd smell, like a dirty fire of sorts. I attributed to the pellets, but I also had some temp issues along the cook and began to worry it may be the grill. After it cooled off for awhile after the shut down process I found a haze of smoke left in the chamber. Turns out a fire started in the ash/grease catcher. Lesson learned, don’t let the grease/ash build up.

Now on to the temp issue. I started at 225 & gradually brought it up to 275 over 7 hrs. I had four ambient probes in the chamber connected to a Fireboard 2. The probes were placed on the left & right side of the middle rack and lower grates. Temps were constantly higher at the middle grate, but the real issue was the temps were 20-30 degrees lower than what the grill was reading. The grill reached the set temps, but the FB read otherwise. Towards the end of the cook I bumped the temp up to 300 to get to the 275 temp I was after. The two mid grate probes were about the same height as the grill thermocouple. Granted the grill thermocouple is behind the back chamber wall but it can be seen through the perforations. I wasn’t expecting the whole chamber to be dead on with the grill temp, but a constant 20 - 30 degrees lower seems unreasonable. Is this temp difference normal for pellet grills?