Traeger flame out frustration.

[Wisconsinner]

Good afternoon forum. My first post after reading and learning a lot from everyone on here.
I purchased a traeger pro22 last year with some direction from a few co-workers. So far I have used this little traeger to cook all kinds of things with great success.
I have been having an annoying issue with flame outs while cooking and it's getting frustrating. Last night I started a brisket and was woken up to my thermoworks smoke alerting me to a low temperature alarm. Of course it went out. Stumbled my way out to clean out the fire pot and restart.
I see some PID controllers have a re- light feature that will activate the hot rod and get the fire going again. Is it worth upgrading to one of these controllers? The standard pro controller has been kinda disappointing.

Thanks!

 

[SmokingUPnorth]

I would honestly get in touch with Traeger and let them know your having the issue over and over again

 

[SKade]

Switch to a Masterbuilt gravity series. But seriously if you’ve spent that much and only had it for a little while I would contact the manufacturer. How they respond and help you will tell you all you need to know about them as a company. Even if you are out of warranty if all they can tell you is buy another part I wouldn’t be much of a fan of theirs. I don’t know a lot about the pellet grills. Mine won’t go out until after I’ve put in those annoying slides. Could it be a problem with the feed from the auger? Possibly not adding fuel until the other has been consumed? I could see that being a problem trying to maintain low temperatures. If I were trying to trouble shoot it I would see if something like 245 rather than 225 stayed lit. Not saying to change how you cook but at least that might identify where the problem is. Like I said I don’t have a lot of experience with them. Just a thought.

 

[Wisconsinner]

Switch to a Masterbuilt gravity series. But seriously if you’ve spent that much and only had it for a little while I would contact the manufacturer. How they respond and help you will tell you all you need to know about them as a company. Even if you are out of warranty if all they can tell you is buy another part I wouldn’t be much of a fan of theirs. I don’t know a lot about the pellet grills. Mine won’t go out until after I’ve put in those annoying slides. Could it be a problem with the feed from the auger? Possibly not adding fuel until the other has been consumed? I could see that being a problem trying to maintain low temperatures. If I were trying to trouble shoot it I would see if something like 245 rather than 225 stayed lit. Not saying to change how you cook but at least that might identify where the problem is. Like I said I don’t have a lot of experience with them. Just a thought.

Thanks for the reply. I will definitely reach out to Traeger about my issue, and see if they can help me out. Lol I would love to upgrade, but I'll stick with this for now. It went out on 2 different temperature settings, so unless I run it with everything taken apart It's been a mystery. I've tried different pellets for an easy fix, but still no success.. I'll see what Traeger says and go from there. Thanks..

 

[bigal162]

Please post your reply from Traeger. Have the same unit and about the same problem.

 

[Wisconsinner]

Please post your reply from Traeger. Have the same unit and about the same problem.

Will do!

 

[Wisconsinner]

Please post your reply from Traeger. Have the same unit and about the same problem.

I spoke to traeger this morning. The customer service rep went through a few troubleshooting steps with me, and pointed to the temp probe possibility being the issue. They are going to send me a replacement so I'll try that for now. I asked for a new controller, and she told me if this didn't solve the problem then she would send a new one. So we will see.

 

[bill1]

Safety-wise, you did the smart thing....take things apart, ensure the pellets hadn't filled/overflowed the crucible, and that you didn't have a puddled oil/fat issue in the bottom of the grill.
You asked about auto-restart controllers...even if you found one I would stay away from it because the important safety step you took would then not get done.
Let us know how Traeger deals with this. It appears you're not the only one having this issue with this newer model.
So what was your temperature set point when this happened? Or were you in smoke mode? Would be good to also hear about the conditions in which BigAl is having the same problem.

 

[Wisconsinner]

Safety-wise, you did the smart thing....take things apart, ensure the pellets hadn't filled/overflowed the crucible, and that you didn't have a puddled oil/fat issue in the bottom of the grill.
You asked about auto-restart controllers...even if you found one I would stay away from it because the important safety step you took would then not get done.
Let us know how Traeger deals with this. It appears you're not the only one having this issue with this newer model.
So what was your temperature set point when this happened? Or were you in smoke mode? Would be good to also hear about the conditions in which BigAl is having the same problem.

I had the grill running at 225 when it happened the first time, then happened twice at 250.

 

[bill1]

I had the grill running at 225 when it happened the first time, then happened twice at 250.

Hmmm. This should be right in the middle of the sweet spot...Traeger's got some 'splainin' to do.

Their theory that it's a bad probe would seem to imply you didn't really have the 225 or 250F you thought you did or that was indicated. Does that sound possible?
Almost any thermometer is within 10-20 degrees of "true" at these temps...did you have any independent measure of temp? Even if it's just a coupe of $7 remote thermometers from Ikea, it's always good to have a few different ways of reading the cooking chamber temp. Esp. when trouble-shooting.

Good luck. Would love to hear more of bigal162's issues in this regard.

 

[Wisconsinner]

It's possible that the probe was off.
I have a nice thermoworks thermometer that was reading the grate tempn where the traeger rtd sensor reads more of the middle of the drum.
I'm going to get some stainless steel zip ties and fasten the probe from the thermoworks at the same height as the traeger and do a little test.

 

[bigal162]

I will try again in a few days and see what is happening. I too will check temps with an independent thermometer to see if that is the problem with mine. Thank you.

 

[bill1]

I will try again in a few days and see what is happening. I too will check temps with an independent thermometer to see if that is the problem...

More data is always better when trouble-shooting a problem. Traeger would never tell you to use lots of probes because that's like saying what they sold you is somewhat lacking. (Or that's the way lawyers think.)
I truly hope the two of you just got bad factory probes and replacements are all you need. (There'll be lots of folks on the forum to help you with any wrenching if that's foreign to you.) But I do somewhat worry because vendors are still somewhat tweaking the software in these pellet machines and as they say, not all improvements are. In principle, software should be the simplest thing to change "in the field", but alas we're not quite there yet. And to replace a lot of controllers will kill their quarterly bottom line.
So keep at them until you're convinced the problem is solved. And keep us in the loop.
And, full disclosure, I didn't buy a Traeger but anyone who values pellet grills can't help but give some Respect to The Brand that started it all (even if they've been bought and sold several times). And to grieve just a bit when they hit a rough patch business-wise.
In the same sense, we all drive Fords even if you're a Mopar or No Car kind of guy.

 

[mrq]

It's possible that the probe was off.
I have a nice thermoworks thermometer that was reading the grate tempn where the traeger rtd sensor reads more of the middle of the drum.
I'm going to get some stainless steel zip ties and fasten the probe from the thermoworks at the same height as the traeger and do a little test.

I have the same or a similar issue. How was this resolved? I have an Ortech controller and I see the problem(s) when my Traeger Jr is set to 180 or when I change the temperature during a cook. Any guidance or insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Wisconsinner]

I have the same or a similar issue. How was this resolved? I have an Ortech controller and I see the problem(s) when my Traeger Jr is set to 180 or when I change the temperature during a cook. Any guidance or insight would be greatly appreciated.

Good evening. Traeger sent a new temperature probe, so I went ahead and installed it, but that didn't solve my problem. I narrowed my issues down to the pellets I had been using, I was able to replicate it a few times. I changed the type of pellets I had been using and haven't experienced any issues since.

 

[mrq]

Good evening. Traeger sent a new temperature probe, so I went ahead and installed it, but that didn't solve my problem. I narrowed my issues down to the pellets I had been using, I was able to replicate it a few times. I changed the type of pellets I had been using and haven't experienced any issues since.

I guess mine is a different issue. Thanks