Where’s my Ash?

[gunsnrods]

Newbie here. I have used my Traeger enough to empty one bag of pellets. The little tin cup under the grill just has a trace of ash, I emptied it once. Are these things that efficient?

 

[Manannan]

Are these things that efficient?

They are efficient but not that efficient and the amount of ash left over is also depends on other factors including pellet manufacturer and burn temperature for example.

However in addition to the tin cup, which is better for grease collection, you also need to look inside the main body of the Traeger removing the various plates and baffles relevant to you model, much of the ash sits here and can be brushed into the cup or vacuumed out which is again model dependent... this is essential every few smokes.

On my old 575Pro I did maybe every 4 or 5 smokes, on my new Gen 2 Ironwood maybe every 3-4 mainly because it is easier!

 

[gunsnrods]

OP here. Learned something. I took the grill and innards of my grill out, signicant amount of ash. Used my old 5 gallon shop vac to clean it out.
Once upon a time my Dad used a shop vac to clean ash from a fireplace, bad idea, ash passes right thru paper element. I just ordered a new high filtration filter from Amazon, typical use is dry wall dust, that will catch the fine pellet dust. It’s washable, too.