Time to get serious about a new smoker.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I can't believe how long it took me to think about whether it was an issue with the outlet.

The circuit board is fine. The last burst fuse flipped the breaker on our gfic outlets, which all happen to all be on the same loop. This was good news for my wife's hairdryer, which narrowly escaped an untimely execution for a crime of which it was innocent. It also allowed us to discover our garage freezer's predicament in time to resuscitate it before any damage was done.

I picked up a multimeter last night and tested each component. Sure enough, the ohms on the fan and auger are fine, but the heat rod reads heavy resistance. The initial diagnosis was spot on and we can grill in the meantime. Too late for any weekend cooks, but we might throw on some brownies just for the sake of declaring a small win.

I wish I had thought of that. I had the same problem with my Traeger when I would plug it into a GFC outlet. I finally hired an electrician to disconnect the outlet by my smoker from the garage GFC circuit.

[All-American]

I can't believe how long it took me to think about whether it was an issue with the outlet.

The circuit board is fine. The last burst fuse flipped the breaker on our gfic outlets, which all happen to all be on the same loop. This was good news for my wife's hairdryer, which narrowly escaped an untimely execution for a crime of which it was innocent. It also allowed us to discover our garage freezer's predicament in time to resuscitate it before any damage was done.

I picked up a multimeter last night and tested each component. Sure enough, the ohms on the fan and auger are fine, but the heat rod reads heavy resistance. The initial diagnosis was spot on and we can grill in the meantime. Too late for any weekend cooks, but we might throw on some brownies just for the sake of declaring a small win.

[kccougar]

Everything really has gone to hell since we elected Barack Hussein Obama.

I bought my Traeger a month before Obama's second term election. I have had no problems whatsoever. Should I vote for Bernie?

[Moliere]

Everything really has gone to hell since we elected Barack Hussein Obama.

I'm not sure about that. I haven't had any issues with the electronics on my smoker since he's been president...in fact I had no electronic related issues under Bush either

[YOhio]

I have an older model. I have replaced the starter plug twice, but no problems with anything else. They do seem to have some quality issues on the electronics in recent years.

Everything really has gone to hell since we elected Barack Hussein Obama.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I have an older model. I have replaced the starter plug twice, but no problems with anything else. They do seem to have some quality issues on the electronics in recent years.

[All-American]

Customer service was nice. One three-minute conversation and a new board is on its way. Now the waiting begins.

[CJF]

I found a Traeger here in the Philippines about a year ago. I brought 100 pounds of pellets on a trip to the US. I finally get everything ready, do my initial burn and one more cook the next day. Three days later I went to use it again. Completely dead. I spent a couple of hours on the phone with their CS. I replaced every fuse and nothing. They mailed to my Utah address a new board. I made another trip to the US and brought the board home with me. Replaced the board, nothing. So they sent me a new power cord. A few months later I was in the US and picked it up. I installed the cord, and the board blew within 10 minutes. They sent me a new board. I installed it about three months ago. Nothing. I've given up on Traegar. Never any problems like that with my Memphis. Just not impressed with the quality of the Traegar construction and parts. They do have excellent phone support though.

[YOhio]

I love Culvers!


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Me too. I like their burgers and fries a lot, but I love their shakes.

[Moliere]

I love Culvers!


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[Pelado]

I sure did. It even went past 450 at a few points. Couldn't have worked better.

Sorry for your difficulties, AA. If it makes you feel any better, I just put a couple of pork butts on the Traeger. One is rubbed with Oakridge Secret Weapon, the other with Butt Rub. Hoping to have some delicious

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[smokymountainrain]

Sitting on the edge of my bed reading that and chuckling to myself. Like JL said, so bad it is indeed funny.

Best of luck with all that, AA.

[All-American]

lol.

Sorry, that's so bad it's kind of funny.

Did you not crank it up during the seasoning phase?

I sure did. It even went past 450 at a few points. Couldn't have worked better.

[Jeff Lebowski]

lol.

Sorry, that's so bad it's kind of funny.

Did you not crank it up during the seasoning phase?

[All-American]

I can't tell you how disappointed I am right now.

So I turn the grill on and set it to smoke. It's not a minute or two before the smoke really starts going. I set it to high and shut the door while I prep the chicken and some potatoes for sides. By the time I'm done with the rub, I can see that the volume of smoke has gone down substantially-- a good sign, I think, given what I learned the last time about higher temperatures and lower smoke. I put the chicken on the grill, close the door again-- and notice the digital thermometer display is blank. I tinkered around a it to see if I could get it to come to life before I called customer service.

Fifteen to twenty minutes later, I had a guy on the line who told me to start unscrewing the grill off the bottom of the hopper. Once I moved enough things around, I needed to snip some of the plastic cable ties to loosen up some of the cords beneath it. That takes quite a bit of time, though-- the grate doesn't come all the way off, so you're having to wiggle around quite a bit just to get your tools close enough to make the cuts. Once that's done, I undo three of the connections-- a purple wire, a red wire, and an orange wire. Then I replace a fuse in the fuse box, plug it the orange wire, and flip the on switch. The screen lights up-- so we're on the right track. Then I put in the red wire-- still going strong. In fact, at this point, the unit starts smoking again, even before I connect the purple wire. The guy on the phone then gives me the diagnosis: a faulty heating element (fed by the purple wire) had likely blown the fuse. The good news is that the grill still works, so long as I manually start the fire, until the warrantied replacement part arrives in the mail in the next few days. Lovely, right?

But then I go to put the panel back in its place, a spark flies and the machine goes dead again. Another fuse, I think. By now it's clear the chicken isn't happening, so we yank it out of the smoker and put it in the oven instead. But by the time we got to way past dinner time, the interior temperature couldn't get past 120. Given that it spent almost an hour in the lukewarm oven while I was on the phone with the helpline, we take this as a sign that we shouldn't eat the darn things anyway and trash them. Hence, Culver's butter burger.

One home depot run later, I have a replacement 5 amp fuse to go in the place of the second fuse. Only this time, replacing the fuse has no effect at all. What I had hoped was just a burnt fuse appears to have been quite a bit more significant-- I suspect I managed to fry the circuit board altogether.

And the sink in which I thawed and rinsed the chicken? Turns out it grew a new leak. So we now have chicken water all over the kitchen floor. Not Traeger's fault, but it doesn't really help my mood much.