Traeger Pro 34 - controller reading 100 degrees higher than my own probe

[Cayaco]

I had a feeling things were under temp after a few cooks were taking a lot longer than expected. I turned it on today and put my own probe right next to the built in one that is hooked up to the controller. For every setting and reading the Traeger is giving me my own probe is reading 100 degrees lower. I have it set to high right now and its around 450 degrees on the controller but my meter says 350. Even when I opened the lid to put some food on the grill the controller dropped 50 degrees while it was open and my own probe also dropped to maintain the 100 degree difference., the controller went to about 400 and my probe dropped to 300.

I moved my probe to different spots on the grill grates and it remained consistent. Right now it's right next to the controller probe that gives the readings and its 100 degrees off. I'm going to go pick up a small oven thermometer and use that for a third opinion but as it stands now the grill is 100 degrees off.

Is this fixable?

 

[schlotz]

Well the issue is somewhere in the therm & controller area. First approach would be to call Traeger and maybe, if they actually engage, to replace the therm. Hopefully that is the culprit. The controller would be the next step.

 

[Cayaco]

I couldn't get Traeger to budge on the first call. Right now they are saying everything the unit is doing is correct and the other tools I am using to verify are wrong. Every attempt to convince them of this they had a reason for why they are right and I am wrong. I even tried to explain I have used Traegers for years and have had no issues cooking and know how long things will cook. When they heard my older grill was smaller they simply said "This grill is larger so things will take longer to cook" and how my brand new pellets in the grill were outside for longer than a day and might be too soft and how I didnt scrub my grill down after 2 cooks so everything is my fault right now. But after all that they said the grill is 450 and its not their problem right now.

Okay I called them this morning and they gave me 30 minutes of "support" watching the grill and the temps. Right now they have it with me needing to cook something again because they are saying everything is fine. What they did was have me start up the grill on smoke and watch the temps, which when it was turned on initially it was close to the ambient outside temps. Then after 10 minutes moved it to 275 and when it came up to that moved it up to high.

High continues to read 450 while my other probes all say 350. They did say what was mentioned here in that they cannot use third party probes or oven thermometers as "they work differently than the Traeger probe".

I plugged in the Traeger probe that came with the unit into both probe slot 1 and 2 and it was close to the built in one.

What I am going to do next is go cook some chicken again and use the Traeger probe to see if it gets to 165 if it's actually 165 and match that against my Thermopop to see if it matches.

Something just seems off with all of this. I know the grill is not getting to 450, its not getting close to 450 but I don't know how to convince them of this yet. I'll se how this chicken test works. On lower temps the differences appear to be lower and as the temps go up it eventually gets to this 100 degree difference. At the end of testing this morning it was off by 120 degrees but according to them the Traeger is correct and any other probe is simply wrong.

 

[schlotz]

Sorry to read Traeger's responses. Have you measured the temp difference over time to see if the 100º diff is a spike or more of a constant state?

 

[Winterrider]

Hard to deal with places like that who think their products cannot be in error. Clean pit probe good with alcohol to make sure of accurate reading. Would be nice to have a 4 way digital, 1 probe in each corner and take pic of thermometer readings and control panel in the same shot.
By chance, check in your settings on control panel to see if temp probe can be adjusted.

 

[Up_In_Smoke]

Screw Traeger.
Do a search for "RTD smoker sensor".
They're cheap.

 

[Cayaco]

To answer the questions:

It is consistenly off 100. When its warming up or cooling down for example my probe says 280 and the built in controller says 380. It will change together as things go up and down. I have not tried to start it up from cold to see what happens. I do know at low temps the built in probe is close to ambient air temp at startup so it's falling apart someplace in the warm up cycle. What I need to do is put my probe in before starting and keep a chart of built in vs mine to see where it starts to deviate.

For cleaning, you mean clean it with it in there now mounted on the edge of inside of the smoker?

For RTD smoker sensor: Just replace the whole thing you mean and see if it's better? The grill is pretty much brand new, got it 4th of July. I was hoping they would admit there is an issue and cover the part under warranty. I need to figure out how to convince them its busted though.

 

[Up_In_Smoke]

I bought a brand-new Pro 22 about 4 weeks ago, so I hear ya about it being new.
I had thought Traeger had gotten over their piss-poor customer service.
Apparently I was wrong.

I am saying that the probe is the cheapest thing in the loop, and the most likely to "go bad".
Several smoker manufacturers use these same probes, because they're cheap and they get the job done.

Basically, if you buy a probe that looks like yours, it'll work. Changing out a probe isn't difficult.

I'm guessing that if you plot the Traeger probe vs your probe, you'll find they are close at ambient temp, and then the error just gets worse and worse as the unit heats up.

It's up to you - argue with Traeger for another week or spend $15 and have a 80% chance of fixing the problem.

 

[normanaj]

The grill is pretty much brand new, got it 4th of July. I was hoping they would admit there is an issue and cover the part under warranty. I need to figure out how to convince them its busted though.

Where did you buy it?

You might be able to go that route and get some type of satisfaction.

 

[Cayaco]

I forgot to update! Too many things going on that I lost track of this thread.

They sent me a survey some time after the support phone call asking how they did and I blasted them on it. This prompted them to call and email me back right away asking what was wrong. I spoke to them and told them it was unsafe to cook on the grill using their own recipes and guides because the 100 degree difference. Eventually they agreed to send me a new RTD. It came, I replaced it, and it fixed the issue.

I then also decided to upgrade the controller to a PID and it made a world of difference. I did 14 pounds of pork butt on the Monday after I got it all and the Pro 34 held temps like a champ, was perfectly dialed in to what temps I set the controller to, and now I had more pork than I knew what to do with in my fridge. That's a completely separate topic but the PID controller is amazing and I should have bought one to upgrade my old unit years ago.

 

[bazzz9]

I’m glad you got your traeger fixed. Can you provide more information on the PID you upgraded to? My Traeger was knocked over in a storm while I was out of town and rusted the control board so I have to replace it. Grill is 11 years old so I will probably replace both motors and hot rod.

 

[Cayaco]

I’m glad you got your traeger fixed. Can you provide more information on the PID you upgraded to? My Traeger was knocked over in a storm while I was out of town and rusted the control board so I have to replace it. Grill is 11 years old so I will probably replace both motors and hot rod.

I bought a refurbished Smoke Daddy, non wifi, with the adapter plate. You are supposed to drill it in at the top with an included screw as it's not an exact fit but as my grill is new I was too scared to do that so I just put on a bunch of Gorilla duct tape. With yours being 11 years and best up, go for it and post the results! Looks bad but it works.

I picked this brand pretty much because of the price. There are a few others out there, like the Savannah Stoker that are also highly rated that are also worth looking at. I went with this one because from what I could tell did all the same stuff but cheaper to the point where it made a difference to me.

It was a plug and play. Just unplug the cables from the old one and match them up with the included spec sheet in the new one and turn it on. One thing I will say is that it freaks me out when I go out there and I don't hear the fan running full blast 100%. I am always convinced it popped a breaker or shut off, but no, it's that the PIDs instead pulsate the fan when it gets to temperature to keep it within range. Unlike the original style controllers it doesn't keep the fan running and then overshoot your temps by 75 degrees and then come back down, if you put 275 it gets to 275 then the pulsing starts and it keeps it close to target, only turning on as needed. It gets so quiet that you'll think something is broken the first few times you use it.

 

[fxsales1959]

good to know about Traeger. I'm long term planning a vertical pellet and was beween Pit Boss and raeger. Pit boss gets real sh$%tty reviews on customer service.
Thanks for the report and follow up.

 

[bazzz9]

Thanks for the information and advice. I already purchased an Amazon cheapie, supposed to be a PID but it is not as sophisticated as the one you have, around $50. I have only cooked hot dogs as a test cook and wasn’t able to pay attention with the grandkids around. I give it a couple of test cooks and see what happens. If it doesn’t perform then I will order what you bought.

Amazon.com