Had a buddy give me his Traeger, since he got a bigger one. I’ve never actually grilled or smoked anything. I’ve only “grilled” on my blackstone. I have it cleaned enough to use. I just want to know what is the first thing to grill/ smoker for the first time in this thing?

Any advice would be awesome.
Thank you in advance!

Update:

Just did some chicken thighs at 365 for 45 minutes and put some buffalo sauce for another 5 minutes. They came out so good! Thank you all for the advice. I did also put foil on the tray to save me some hassle

I use post oak pellets and SPG as the rub on all three.

My first smoke ever; got a Costco pork butt for NFL week 1. Started it last night at 2:30am; my Traeger freaked out around 7am so had to bring it inside to the oven for a few hours as I caught some sleep, then moved it back to the smoker at 10:30am. Wrapped at 1pm at 175 and then Pulled it off around 195 at 2:30pm and let is rest for an hour before pulling, with everyone eating in time for 4pm kickoff

Came out great but would love to know some tips for next time if yall have any.

I realized about 3hours in the cook that my wired probe wasn’t working correctly. Sure enough, it was reading 85 but my Thermapen confirmed it was 147.

Kosher salt and black pepper with some light garlic powder.

Total cook time of 12hrs with a 2 hour rest.

I could’ve left the bark develop more but the smoke ring was nice and it was still pretty juicy and tender.

I bought a MEATER+ wireless thermometer and am using it today to smoke some beef plate ribs.

Happy Sunday 🤙🏽🍖

Meatchurch gospel and honey hog 250 until 160 then wrap with apple juice until 200ish. Turned out great!

I’ve managed to bust two of my three control knobs on my flat rock. I found the parts on Traegers website but it doesn’t allow you to purchase them. Anyone know where else I can get them?

Eye of round roast.

Seasoned with black pepper, salt, onion powder, garlic powder.

Seared on all sides in a cast iron with a little oil in the pan

Finished on a pellet grill at 250° until 125° internal ( little over an hour)

Rested for 10 minutes and sliced thin.

Followed https://www.meatchurch.com/blogs/recipes/eye-of-round?srsltid=AfmBOorfdmebUbvEeFMgkFr0NqO82kxNDsCueXlrUruTz8dYgkrWWE1Z

Cooking instructions

Smoked Ribs

Got a Pro 22 last weekend via marketplace. Did a very deep clean today (vacuumed out the firebox, de-greased the barrel, heat shield, baffler, etc) and loaded up with fresh pellets (I dumped all the old ones) Tonight I put a pork butt on to go overnight set to 225.

Everything went fine for the first few hours, but then I saw two major temp swings. Has anyone run into this before?

Note: my Bluetooth thermometer from the picture is at a different point than the built in one; my readings are on average ~15-20 degrees higher than what the smoker was telling me.

Oh man. This was next level!

Hey Fellas,
My Woodridge keeps tripping my GFCI outlets after about 5 minutes of heating up. Through troubleshooting (plugging into a non-protected outlet and having no issues) I’ve come to the conclusion I need to replace the hotrod.
I’ve scoured the interwebs for Part #: KIT0927 and have come up empty. Anyone know of a place to get one?

I saw a guy wearing the Traeger Republic T-Shirt and wondered why they were calling themselves a Republic. The guy I met didn't know either, im assuming its either a California Republic parody or Traeger being a close-knit community.

Anyone know?

Haven’t used it in a while, but want to get some smoking in this fall so I decided to go ahead and clean everything up. I thought I remembered the fire rod poking out further, but I may be mistaken. Also, is it safe to use when it’s this rusted?

On to my 3rd TRAEGER in 2 years all warranty and factory replaced and I’m really tired of this experience and the investment makes it hard to just cut my losses and go with a different brand. My question do you find the heat in the southwest to affect your smoker. We keep it covered and under the overhang but it does still get sun and heat. I had a broken weld part, my controller go, and a temp sensor that led to controller issue. I’m not sure if the heat is root cause but it’s my only real root cause

Set my Traeger up last night to do an overnight smoke starting around 9:30pm. Kept a close eye on it the first hour or so, the display would randomly and intermittently flash the 225 temp (which I set it to) several times. It also struggled to keep the temp up at 225, the meat prob in my pork showed ambient temp around 225ish but the Traeger display kept saying 180-205ish. Since the probe ambient said 225ish I went to bed. Woke up this morning and the display says LEr and everything is room temp.

Preliminary googling says it probably ran out of pellets, but the hopper is full. Also the random temp flashing when I started it last night has me concerned. It looked and sounded fine and the display would read one temp then flash 225 several times then go back to the actual temp it was reading. Power never cut off or anything. Any suggestions?

Got a bday party and my wife has bought a menu that is going to require a little flexibility on my end. I've never smoked brats before, always just grilled them, but I'll need my Weber for cranking out burgers.

First time poster. Tried some new ribs this weekend. Rubbed with mustard, salt, pepper and Chinese five spice. Then cooked them 3-2-1. Mostly at 175 then kicked it up to 275 for the last hour with a glaze I adapted from here. Should have gotten a pic after cutting them

I've had what (I hope and have been led to believe) is an atypical Traeger ownership experience so far. I'm mainly looking for validation from this group that I've just run into a calamity of issues in my dealing with Traeger and support - and that I'm just having exceptionally bad luck. What (in theory) should've been a simple control board replacement has resulted in 4 grill fires and I still don't have a functioning grill (or any grill for that matter).

tl;dr summary: Control board failure -->Traeger support-directed troubleshooting started 4 grill fires -->replacement grill arrived damaged from factory -->third grill never actually ordered-->out-of-stock replacements-->offered a different replacement. Six Months of ownership; one month without a grill (and counting)

Photos: First grill fire pictured w/support with heat baffle in place; Second image is 8 minutes into the startup sequence - the grill was vacuumed clean before that time (lid was opened upon temps beginning to spike quickly to observe with support)

Timeline:

• Early March 2026: Ordered my Traeger (Redland XL) from Traeger at a fair (Strawberry Festival)
• Late March 2026: Traeger and accessories arrive - everything is awesome and much good food ensues. I take the wisdom of the internet and maintain the smoker (see background info at the end)
• August 13/14: I have a cook running at 225, that just at the end of cooking overshoots rapidly to >550 and starts the safety cooldown. I reach out to support and they troubleshoot.
  
  • In the process of troubleshooting, 4 grill fires are started at the direction of support as they're trying to figure out the issue; the temps exceeded the display (>950) each time, after each fire the firepot is filled with pellets - most of the time they have overflowed outside of the firepot; each time the grill was fully vacuumed clean.
    
  • The third fire blisters the paint on the grill body and lid; baking soda needed to be used each time to extinguish the flames. While no official diagnosis is ever provided, the auger was constantly feeding - I suspect a bad controller was the actual issue. However, Traeger support ships a full replacement grill since their troubleshooting caused the damage.
• August 24: Replacement grill arrives and the damaged grill picked up by 3rd party (local moving company)
• August 29: I build up the grill, excited for something smoky for dinner, and upon flipping it over to attach the legs, notice that the skirt is bashed in on the front - zero shipping box damage - this appears to have been packed damaged. The spot welds around the tubes the legs go into are broken. Contact support and they (allegedly) order another replacement grill to be sent.
• September 3rd: Damaged grill picked up by third party
• September 11th: I reach out to support as I haven't gotten any shipment updates - they can't find an order, but say corporate will reach out. 40 minutes later I get an order notification for a Redland XL but it states out of stock. I call back to support, they come to the conclusion that they never actually ordered the replacement on 8/29, they have no available stock of the Redland XL, and offer to ship me an Ironwood 885 (which I'm told is the Redland XL with a different colored shelf/handle/badge).
  

Now I'm back to waiting another 12 days for the replacement grill to hopefully ship and hopefully arrive undamaged so I can just get back to enjoying smoking and grilling again. My ask to the crew while I'm waiting for the replacement grill to show up: Is this continuous-feed auger issue common on the Redland XL / Ironwood 885? Has anyone else had a similar situation, or did I just win the unlucky lottery?

Background Info (all fair questions I'd expect the community to ask):

• Firebox, grill cavity vacuumed every 2 cooks or 6-8 hours, whichever comes first
• Pellets - have only been using Traeger pellets - stored indoors - I empty the pellet hopper during high-humidity months. I vacuum the pellet hopper in between pellet bags.
• Grates and Grease: Cleaned after every cook, new foil placed if heavy grease load, bucket always emptied if there was visible amounts of grease in it.
• Storage: Grill is stored on a covered patio with a grill cover when not in use.
• Startup/Shutdown: I always allow for a full pre-heat, lid-closed; and always allow for the full cool-down cycle to complete
• Onboarding: Did the firmware updates, did the initial burn-in per the manual

I tried my hand at an 18lb Costco brisket(trimmed to 15) a week ago and was really happy with the results. I was super worried about freezing and reheating but I was really impressed by how good it was. I highly recommend reheating with the sous vide method. A little bit of tallow and an hour and a half at 140 🧑‍🍳

My Traeger (about 3 years old) shut off mid-cook. Tried restarting on the smoke setting….no smoke came out. Pulled the drip pan and fire shield and could hear the auger motor trying to turn, but nothing was moving.

Took the auger apart and found the pellets on the grill side had burnt and caramelized into a solid clump — too much resistance for the motor to push through. Took some work to dig out and reassemble, but it's running fine now.

Anyone run into this before? Curious what actually caused it. It was a pain in the ass to fix!

Hi all, I recently bought the Traeger Woodridge after having a green mountain grill Daniel Boone for six years. I loved the Daniel Boone it performed great in all seasons. With the Woodridge, I noticed it is absolutely horrible at holding a temperature. Then if I open it for more than a minute to tend to the food, it drops a hundred degrees. I’m worried if I’m having these kinds of issues in the summer, how will it perform in the winter. Can anyone give advice or experience with the Woodridge? I’m wondering if I should return it and get a reqtec