Why doesn't Traeger recognize and FIX the MAJOR PROBLEM with the ambient temp probe being off by 25-30 degrees?

[CMTiger]

That’s a pretty big offset!

It’s no big. If you know what the variance is you can just adjust!!

 

[Shedd]

I regularly calibrate the one on my Webber Genesis and my green egg about every month, but I use them regularly especially the Webber.

 

[CMTiger]

I regularly calibrate the one on my Webber Genesis and my green egg about every month, but I use them regularly especially the Webber.

I use my weber all the time I just don't really care much what the exact temp is......not for what I use it for at least. Grilled corn, kabobs, steaks, burgers, etc. Of course I've had it for 10+ years so the dial crapping out on me at this point doesn't matter much. I kinda know where to set the knobs for what i'm wanting to cook.

 

[good eats]

If you mount a 3rd party thermometer adjacent to the Traeger thermocouple, you will likely find that they read similarly. However, that will not be the temperature in the center of the grill where you are trying to cook. Because the thermocouple is mounted on a side wall, the mass of the metal wall will affect the temperature. The air flow along the side of the grill can be either laminar flow or turbulent flow depending upon the fan speed. Because of this effect, the temperature discrepancy between the actual cook temperature and the measured thermocouple reading will vary depending upon the controller setpoint. Perhaps Traeger could program in a non-linear calibration curve, but this curve might need to be adjusted based on the ambient temperature outside the grill as that affects the fuel-air usage. Also, filling the grill chamber with food will affect air flow, humidity and the air-fuel usage. Thus, what you ask of Traeger is far more difficult than you surmise. In order to insure accuracy, you would need to add a number of other sensors for outside temperature, weight of food, humidity levels, etc. and supply the data to a computer far more sophisticated than the D2 controller. It is a lot less expensive to purchase a 3rd party digital or analog thermometer and adjust the controller setpoint to obtain the cook temperature you want.

Ray, I have a new Timberline 850, and have had it for about 2 months. Th first few cooks that I did seemed to take an inordinately long time to finish compared to my experience cooking on an XL Big Green egg. After reading on this forum about the differential problem between the actual pit temperature and the digital readout on the Timberline controller, I decided to use an ambient probe from the BBQ Guru "Ultra Q" that I use to control my BGE, just to check the difference. I found there to be a difference of up to 40+ degrees at times. Last week I bought a FireBoard 2 Pro to use with my Traeger. Over this past weekend I used the FireBoard and placed one ambient probe on the far left side of the grill and one on the far right side of the grill. Not surprisingly, the left probe was considerably (20-30 degrees) cooler than the one over the right side, which was nearest the fire pit. I should mention that all my cooks have been on the first shelf above the main grates, never on the main grates themselves. I "low and slow" cooked a pork butt and found that the right side FireBoard probe was consistently 30-40 degrees cooler than the displayed temperature of the Timberline. A "work-around" is pretty easy to do, just keep raising the Traeger pit temperature setting till the FireBoard display shows the actual temperature that I want, I truly like my Traeger and its ease of use and clean-up, but it just seems to me that for the price we pay, Traeger could be a bit more precise in their set v. actual v. displayed temperature.

 

[brisket]

I measured three WiFire equipped grills and they all stabilized within +/- 8 degrees of each other for setpoints ranging from 160 to 400. I measured two areas in the center of the grill area using a Fluke 52. Given that this was only 3 grills, I don't want to make sweeping generalizations, but using the setpoints below may be good enough if you do not have an accurate temperature sensor.

Actual Temp	Grill Setpoint
150	160
175	185
200	215
225	240
250	270
275	295
300	325
350	375
400	430

The averaged actual temp vs. set point equation is Grill setpoint = 1.08 * Actual Temp - 2. Values above rounded to closest grill setpoint temperature.

 

[RayClem]

I measured three WiFire equipped grills and they all stabilized within +/- 8 degrees of each other for setpoints ranging from 160 to 400. I measured two areas in the center of the grill area using a Fluke 52. Given that this was only 3 grills, I don't want to make sweeping generalizations, but using the setpoints below may be good enough if you do not have an accurate temperature sensor.

Actual Temp	Grill Setpoint
150	160
175	185
200	215
225	240
250	270
275	295
300	325
350	375
400	430

The averaged actual temp vs. set point equation is Grill setpoint = 1.08 * Actual Temp - 2. Values above rounded to closest grill setpoint temperature.

Your results are fairly similar to mine. However, my RTD thermocouple ceramic cracked, so I covered it with red silicone RTV. My differences are a few degrees greater than yours, but they show the same progression of greater difference at higher temperature. It is easy to compensate for such differences.

 

[MidwestSmoker]

I measured three WiFire equipped grills and they all stabilized within +/- 8 degrees of each other for setpoints ranging from 160 to 400. I measured two areas in the center of the grill area using a Fluke 52. Given that this was only 3 grills, I don't want to make sweeping generalizations, but using the setpoints below may be good enough if you do not have an accurate temperature sensor.

Actual Temp	Grill Setpoint
150	160
175	185
200	215
225	240
250	270
275	295
300	325
350	375
400	430

The averaged actual temp vs. set point equation is Grill setpoint = 1.08 * Actual Temp - 2. Values above rounded to closest grill setpoint temperature.

Wow! This table closely matches mine as well. I am really surprised as I thought the deviations were very different for different Traegers. This suggests a systematic problem in the thermocouples they are using and that it should be possible to fix this.

 

[RayClem]

Wow! This table closely matches mine as well. I am really surprised as I thought the deviations were very different for different Traegers. This suggests a systematic problem in the thermocouples they are using and that it should be possible to fix this.

I doubt that the issue has anything to do with the thermocouple.

I am fairly certain that the issue is related to the placement of the thermocouple along the side of the grill chamber. Because the thermocouple is adjacent to the metal wall, it is going to be affected by both heat convection and radiation. At higher temperatures, the auger and fan run at higher speeds pushing more air through the chamber; that will affect the distribution of heat throughout the grill. At higher temperatures, the metal walls are going to radiate more heat.

Many brands of grill use similar parts. If you check reviews on various brands of grills, you will find that all of them have similar temperature monitoring issues.

Traeger tried to improve the situation by purchasing the Meater company that makes wireless temperature probes, but the Meater Plus probes also have an issue measuring ambient cook temperature . In this instance the ambient sensor is too close to the protein into which the probe is inserted. Thus, it is affected by the protein and any moisture evaporated from the protein. Thus, it is not accurate, either.

Fortunately, you can still cook good meals even if you do not know the exact cook temperature. Just measure the internal temperature of the protein and remove it when the desired internal temp is reached.

 

[MidwestSmoker]

I place my ambient probe right next to the Traeger one, separated by less than an inch, and still get this temperature difference.

 

[good eats]

I can't find the pit probe on my Timberline. I'd like to place a FireBoard Pro ambient probe as close to it as possible on my next cook to see the differential there. Anyone on here know where that's located? There's no mention of it in the Owners Manual that I could find,

 

[CMTiger]

I can't find the pit probe on my Timberline. I'd like to place a FireBoard Pro ambient probe as close to it as possible on my next cook to see the differential there. Anyone on here know where that's located? There's no mention of it in the Owners Manual that I could find,

I don’t have a timberline but it’s likely going to be along the right hand wall….side your controller is on

 

[Shedd]

I can't find the pit probe on my Timberline. I'd like to place a FireBoard Pro ambient probe as close to it as possible on my next cook to see the differential there. Anyone on here know where that's located? There's no mention of it in the Owners Manual that I could find,

I’ve quit using the Traeger’s probes completely, my 780 has the ambient probe on the right side just a little higher than the main grate. I hardly cook on that grate and use a aftermarket grate raised higher so smoke can surround my meats. I use third party probes and I know it’s about 15 degrees off from factory ambient probe on average at the start of my cook at 225. The factory one changes the longer the cook and varies wildly. The location of the meat inside the grill varies a good bit too from the factory probe. I always put my third party ambient probe on the grate next to the meat and I adjust the grill temp on my IPhone as needed. At least the WiFire app works flawlessly, so far.

 

[good eats]

I don’t have a timberline but it’s likely going to be along the right hand wall….side your controller is on

CM, Thanks for your response. I looked inside my Timberline along the walls, especially along the right side near the controller and can't find anything that resembles a thermocouple probe, I'm assuming that the built-in Traeger pit probe would closely resemble the aftermarket ambient probes in shape.and size. I may be looking for the wrong thing/shape in that regard.

 

[Slimpicker]

I measured three WiFire equipped grills and they all stabilized within +/- 8 degrees of each other for setpoints ranging from 160 to 400. I measured two areas in the center of the grill area using a Fluke 52. Given that this was only 3 grills, I don't want to make sweeping generalizations, but using the setpoints below may be good enough if you do not have an accurate temperature sensor.

Actual Temp	Grill Setpoint
150	160
175	185
200	215
225	240
250	270
275	295
300	325
350	375
400	430

The averaged actual temp vs. set point equation is Grill setpoint = 1.08 * Actual Temp - 2. Values above rounded to closest grill setpoint temperature.

This is very close to my actual variants...
I can deal with this pretty easy, I use 300 for a lot of things I cook so it's always set on 320-325

 

[Parrothead1809]

Regarding the cooking chamber/ambient temp I was very surprised when I pulled out my Thermoworks Smoke and saw a 40° swing ! See pic below. The bottom of the Smoke is reading the ambient temp (337°) and the upper is the temp of the salmon I'm cooking (92°). The Traeger itself is showing 297° against a 300° set temp.

At 7:00 AM I started a pork shoulder and see a 50° delta. The smoke consistently reads that the chamber is hotter then the Traeger itself.

If this was just off by a few degrees, I wouldn't care as much - but I agree this is too drastic a delta. They could at least provide some sort of correction/over-ride (like most modern day ovens have) in their next software update.

As for the meat: I use my Thermopen as my gold standard for testing meat temperature. Everything else is just an "indicator" for me to pull out the 'pen.

PS: Just an update: I did place my Smoke sensor in the middle of the lower rack towards the back. I admit this is pretty far away from the Traeger sensor on the right wall. Pic added.

-PH