Traeger temp nonsense

[matt r]

So I just got a Traeger grill. I'm cooking up a boneless pork loin as per their recipe, which calls for 3-4 hours on the "smoke" setting which is supposed to be about 160-180 degrees. Well as PER DIRECTIONS, I SET the thing to smoke and left the lid up for about 10 minutes. I put the swine on, shut the lid and walked away for about 40 minutes.
I came back and the temp was 372!!!
Called customer service and was told that they just changed the directions and that you shouldn't leave the lid open for the first ten minutes, as it causes the temps to peak and the unit to maintain that effort to keep temps high.
I don't know...seems like B.S. but what do I know? The rep said he always cooks at 180, and doesn't use the smoke settings.
Thoughts?

 

[flatbroke]

I don’t know what model you have but mine is the Texas. Smoke setting doesn’t use a temp on it. The auger turns on every few minutes and drops a few pelletes then shuts off for a few and keeps repeating. Even with the lid open I’d never get enough pellets to reach 300. Hell I can hardly get there at high.

The temp setting does the same Thing except the thermometer kicks the auger on for a bit when temps drop bellow then shuts off.

 

[matt r]

I don’t know what model you have but mine is the Texas. Smoke setting doesn’t use a temp on it. The auger turns on every few minutes and drops a few pelletes then shuts off for a few and keeps repeating. Even with the lid open I’d never get enough pellets to reach 300. Hell I can hardly get there at high.

The temp setting does the same Thing except the thermometer kicks the auger on for a bit when temps drop bellow then shuts off.

Hey Flatbroke...thanks for the help. My issue is that since smoke settings have no temp, you can essentially be baking rather than smoking. So now my pork loin has an IT of 180...!it's gonna be tough!

 

[flatbroke]

If working correctly you will be smoking with the smoke setting. It isn’t supposed to drop enough pellets to get high heat. Once the fire pot gets going the pellets smoke when they drop in and stop once they catch fire. The temp shouldn’t ever be over 200-220 though on smoke. At least for my unit. It is 12 years old though.

 

[RobisCluless]

Doesn’t sound like it’s working correctly. However with my Pro 22 I thought I understood to start it on smoke once you see smoke 2-4 minutes close the lid. Wait for the temperature to stabilize then add the meat. Not that I think this will help such a high temp issue.
I am starting cheap to be sure mine is working correctly and I’m no expert. Hamburgers were great chicken next then a tri tip.

 

[matt r]

So I did a test. Let the unit cool down completely and the started it on the smoke setting but this time with the lid closed like the rep said.
Worked perfectly.
I don't know...the jury is still out on this thing. I'm gonna try a pork shoulder next week..we'll see how it goes.
Thanks for the input Gents!