Beefcake
Well-known member
8lbs, 9.5 hours, at 170 IT
Traeger Timberline Problems, updates and fixes
- Thread starter bproffer
- Start date
I've still had the issue of temp dropping or not recovering after opening the grill. Temp will drop down to around 190 and stay there. After flipping the switch and starting back up it will get back on track. Customer service says it is a known issue and they are hoping to fix it in the next update.
I have the same issue on my 1300, though it seems a bit random.
ScoutinAZ
Wandering around with a bag of matchlight, looking for a match.
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2017
- Location
- Irvine, CA
Traeger Timberline 850 Issues
My Timberline 850 is struggling to hold temps below 200 degrees Fahrenheit as well. I got the below graph from Traeger customer service last night. They had me do a run at 165 for 1 hour, then 250 for one hour then 165 for another hour. You can see on the graph from 397 to 925 that the grill was not able to maintain temps at 165. When it was set at 165 it actually ran between 195 - 200 most of the time.30 degrees over the set temp. When set at 250 degrees it overshot and took a long time to get down to that temp. The second run of 165 degrees was a disaster as it never got below 200 and spent most of the time closer to 220 degrees even though 165 was the set point. I was really disappointed with this. The data from 991 - 1783 was a 10lb brisket. I tried to start it out at 190 degrees until the IT got to 160 but as you can see it ran over 200 degrees most of the time. When I bumped it up to 225 degrees to finish it off, it was able to hold that temperature alright, but it did have several swings and some of them in the +/- 30 degree range. Again I was disappointed with the swings. Totally unacceptable for a premium priced product.
I got an email today from Traeger customer service stating the following:
Hopefully it comes sooner than later!
My Timberline 850 is struggling to hold temps below 200 degrees Fahrenheit as well. I got the below graph from Traeger customer service last night. They had me do a run at 165 for 1 hour, then 250 for one hour then 165 for another hour. You can see on the graph from 397 to 925 that the grill was not able to maintain temps at 165. When it was set at 165 it actually ran between 195 - 200 most of the time.30 degrees over the set temp. When set at 250 degrees it overshot and took a long time to get down to that temp. The second run of 165 degrees was a disaster as it never got below 200 and spent most of the time closer to 220 degrees even though 165 was the set point. I was really disappointed with this. The data from 991 - 1783 was a 10lb brisket. I tried to start it out at 190 degrees until the IT got to 160 but as you can see it ran over 200 degrees most of the time. When I bumped it up to 225 degrees to finish it off, it was able to hold that temperature alright, but it did have several swings and some of them in the +/- 30 degree range. Again I was disappointed with the swings. Totally unacceptable for a premium priced product.
I got an email today from Traeger customer service stating the following:
Hopefully it comes sooner than later!
They keep asking me for "soot" pictures which has pissed me off. I didn't pay $2k to sit around taking pictures of my damn smoker internals - I have a job and things to do. It's amazing to me the amount of inconsistency in support. I was told HQ would contact me, which was a lie. Then I was told the head of CS was out of the office for a while and now they want soot pictures. I was pushing for a refund, so their focus is not on customer service, but stalling you so that you can't return the damn thing.
I'm dealing with this Willard guy as well and thus far, I'm not impressed.
I'm dealing with this Willard guy as well and thus far, I'm not impressed.
Well after the expected wait time, I received my replacement auger last week and after replacing the existing on, as well as the motor.. and pulling the fan shroud I am still getting a considerable amount of soot and now ash covering most of the cooking surfaces in the 1300.. Have yet to even try super smoke as I am sure that will be an epic failure. I hope there is a new firmware somewhere in the near future.
lmao.. so what is the lower shelf for.. in the event you want to expand your new-wave flower bed to a second level I started on the lower rack with climbing vines and on the top rack i have a nice crop of assorted herbs coming in nicely..I figured I'd post a few pictures after installing the lower shelf I got for free. I have not really used the Timberline 1300 much, even after the firmware update. I bought a PBC and have been having fun cooking on that.
A new version of the Traeger app was released today for iOS. It now has a show firmware option for the grill. I hope it saves credentials, but it doesn't look like it does. I'm also waiting for temperature alarms for the cooker temperature.
I still have not heard from Traeger HQ after I was told I would. I reached out to Traeger and have not heard a peep either. Ugh.
You can store the grates if you're not using all of them, bags of pellets, etc. Not the most useful thing in the world but it does have some usefulness.
electron_si
is one Smokin' Farker
I have the lower rack on my lil Tex and I keep a roll of foil, grill brush, grill grates, and pellet tube and maze. I actually like it a lot
SmoothBoarBBQ
is Blowin Smoke!
It's a shame you're having so many problems here but a few posts back you said you'd be a "happy camper" if they could sort out the firmware issue. Now you're saying you want a refund and can't be bothered to post a picture of the soot, yet you're posting pictures here of your lower shelf.
Just seems out of place : they need feedback so they can gauge the problem and move on from there. I'm NOT trying to be a dick but it seems that your frustration has gotten to you and now you're really giving them some undeserved flak when they are just trying to determine the extent of the problem.
Hopefully it all works out for you in the end. I have no dog in this fight (not a fan of pellet cookers full stop) but it's easy to see from your posts how irritating this thing has gotten for you. Good luck, and I have found with customer service that you have better luck if you just work with them and give them what they are asking for... even if it seems worthless to you.
Undeserved flak? That made me laugh.
I've spent a considerable amount of time trying to help Traeger with very thorough feedback, which in turn would help their customers. It's not like I spent five minutes on this issue in a one and done effort. For my efforts, I get told false information and asked to do more. I'm a technical, hands on guy, so I don't mind helping to an extent. However, I didn't pay money for their premium product to be a beta user and a QA specialist. I didn't pay money for their product to burn fuel, waste food and provide free consultation time. I didn't pay money for their product to have it sit on my patio in a non-optimal (and for a majority of the time, non-operational) state. I bought it to cook good food without major issues. I've even tried defending them in the past related to Timberline issues, however the paradigm has changed for me. They made commitments, told me things which would occur and those have not occurred. I was stalled past a return period on false promises, just like many other customers. Their dealers know these units have problems.
So while you have no dog in the fight, you also didn't shell out cash for a premium product which has sat idle a majority of the time due to issues. I have no problems working with a company, hell, I've been in "customer service" style role my entire career. What I learned is that you do what you say you're going to do for your customer, and don't treat customers as if they are at your disposal to QA your product or fix your problems. You appreciate those who try to work with you, provide feedback and ultimately help you deliver a better product. I don't see in their marketing collateral today that "Some fixes, patience and photography skills may be required for an optimal cooking experience". If you're going to market a premium product, deliver a premium product with premium support. I don't think that's too much to ask for $2k.
Frustrated? You're damn right. I didn't get this thing for free!
SmoothBoarBBQ
is Blowin Smoke!
Good response and like I said I wasn't trying to be a dick, but the attitude within your posts rapidly changed within 2 weeks. haha
I went ahead and read through this entire thread and it's a shame it has taken Traeger so long to get this fixed. Sounds like an absolute nightmare and it's good that people are forcing them to get this all sorted. Some good videos in the thread showing the issues and that's smart because there's no way of hiding that problem.
Cheers to you for all your work in trying to get it fixed for everybody. It's cruddy that you won't be able to return it, but I certainly hope you'll be able to confidently use your smoker in the near future.
Had my auger replaced yesterday. The old auger was blackened so I knew it was getting hot. The new Auger is shorter, and the fan shroud is now removed. Cranked it up to 500 and it hit 500* in about 45 Minutes. Longer than I had hoped, but I realized afterwords that the pellets I was using were the old pellets that had sat in the hopper for the last 8 weeks. They were a bit crumbly. Next I opened the lid and kept it open until the temp dropped to 395*. I closed the lid and it recovered super fast, I was back up to 500* within a minute or so. I am hopeful things continue to work as designed.
Things I learned yesterday:
Store pellets in something other than the bag they ship in. A good crisp pellet will burn hotter than old stale pellets.
The firmware number is the same for both 850 and 1300 Timberlines, however when booting up it checks to see what model you have and then runs a specific algorithm for the specific model you have.
I feel like Traeger may have been slow to realize some of these Timberlines had issues. My experience yesterday would leave me to believe they are rapidly trying to get the product fixed as quickly and thoroughly as possible.
I am in hopes they continue to work out any bugs and make this the pellet grill we all hoped it would be.
Things I learned yesterday:
Store pellets in something other than the bag they ship in. A good crisp pellet will burn hotter than old stale pellets.
The firmware number is the same for both 850 and 1300 Timberlines, however when booting up it checks to see what model you have and then runs a specific algorithm for the specific model you have.
I feel like Traeger may have been slow to realize some of these Timberlines had issues. My experience yesterday would leave me to believe they are rapidly trying to get the product fixed as quickly and thoroughly as possible.
I am in hopes they continue to work out any bugs and make this the pellet grill we all hoped it would be.
So has anyone heard any reports (true or false) as to when we are going to be able to use super smoke?.. or is this just going to be a function that is not used.. I sold a perfectly good Green Mountain for this heap of scrap iron, I have wasted my summer waiting on an auger replacement, I removed the fan shroud, and am still seeing a lot of soot and ash all over the cooking chamber.. so tell me again how a firmware upgrade is going to fix this?.
The issue with super smoke mode is that they are turning the fan off during the combustion cycle at cyclic intervals. When the fan is shut off, the fire is deprived of oxygen and dirty combustion occurs. At that point, black soot is emitted from the fire.
Previously they were doing the same thing in normal mode, and as of now, they are just on the edge of keeping relatively clean combustion in normal mode. They have left no margin for error IMO.
Their logic of these tight temperature controls and minimal overshoots is a key reason of why they are having so many issues. They are trying to 'one up' their competitors, but at the sacrifice of usable features and clean combustion.
Soot in a cooking environment is extremely bad.
Previously they were doing the same thing in normal mode, and as of now, they are just on the edge of keeping relatively clean combustion in normal mode. They have left no margin for error IMO.
Their logic of these tight temperature controls and minimal overshoots is a key reason of why they are having so many issues. They are trying to 'one up' their competitors, but at the sacrifice of usable features and clean combustion.
Soot in a cooking environment is extremely bad.
AutoPaint
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2017
- Location
- Blairsvi...
I learned something about my 850 and the reason why I think it's not maintaining accurate temps on the lower side of the setting range (165-225). Up until last Thursday, I had only used my 850 in the late afternoon on smaller cooks such as steaks and burgers.
When I smoked two butts last Thursday beginning at 7am, the actual temperature vs the set temperature was +/- 5 like it was supposed to be up until around 330pm.
So what magically changed around 330pm? That's when the sun begins to shine on the controller side of my unit until about 630pm and it's during this time the temperature is off by 10-15 degrees. My smoker sits in the corner of a screened porch and doesn't see the sun until 330pm.
So those of you with temp control issues, are your smokers in direct sunlight?
On edit: I used super smoke for the first four hours, ran 225 the whole cook and these butts were nothing short of amazing once finished.
When I smoked two butts last Thursday beginning at 7am, the actual temperature vs the set temperature was +/- 5 like it was supposed to be up until around 330pm.
So what magically changed around 330pm? That's when the sun begins to shine on the controller side of my unit until about 630pm and it's during this time the temperature is off by 10-15 degrees. My smoker sits in the corner of a screened porch and doesn't see the sun until 330pm.
So those of you with temp control issues, are your smokers in direct sunlight?
On edit: I used super smoke for the first four hours, ran 225 the whole cook and these butts were nothing short of amazing once finished.
The firmware won't fix that, the new Auger should. I cooked 2 Tri-tips and 3 racks of baby backs this weekend with supersmoke enabled. No soot and the food that came off the grill was moist and tasty.
One other thing, I don't hear my fan shut off like some others have mentioned. It runs nonstop until it gets close to the temperature I have set. Then it goes into that pulse mode. I feel your pain about wasting your summer waiting on a defective Auger. I was ready to return my 1300. Have you received a tracking number of the replacement auger yet?
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2007
- Location
- Southeas...
I decided to get the .03 update today - have the day off so..
Got out, vacuum the whole thing out and prime the auger to get some pellets in the pot. Wanted to see how far back I had burnt pellets. Primed the auger and nothing - it bound up.
Called Traeger and they had me being a mechanic. I told the rep (not his fault) that I was not happy having to be a mechanic for a 2K cooker when my BGE was cranking away behind me with no issues...
Fortunately Big Al was around to assist. Was a pain in the arse to get the collar off and the auger out. I am running her has we speak and we will see how much soot I get...
Got out, vacuum the whole thing out and prime the auger to get some pellets in the pot. Wanted to see how far back I had burnt pellets. Primed the auger and nothing - it bound up.
Called Traeger and they had me being a mechanic. I told the rep (not his fault) that I was not happy having to be a mechanic for a 2K cooker when my BGE was cranking away behind me with no issues...
Fortunately Big Al was around to assist. Was a pain in the arse to get the collar off and the auger out. I am running her has we speak and we will see how much soot I get...
When it pulses in Super Smoke mode, the fan lacks RPM to properly stoke the fire at the point of minimum rotation. At that point, soot comes out.
Here's a couple of pics from mine after running on Super Smoke today so I could send Traeger some damn pictures.
It doesn't do this in normal mode, but it did with the .02 update. In the .03 update, they changed the fan control, which greatly reduced the soot in normal mode. Super Smoke mode, that's another story.
