# Traeger Jr problems, I think



## vic and carly (Aug 13, 2012)

Hi,

We just bought a new traeger jr this week and today is our fifth day of smoking.  Noticed that our temp was going to high after about an hour, up to 300.  Opened the lid, not getting much smoke and couldn't get temp to stay down.

Noticed we had smoke coming our of the hopper section where the pellets go.  Removed food, grate, drip pan thing and baffle that goes over the fire box.  All looked okay, so removed all the pellets we could from the hopper.  Got down to the auger and realized that the pellets IN the auger, visible from the hopper, we burning.  At this point, shutting it all down, will vacuum everything out and attempt to restart.

Did we do something wrong?  It is a little windy today, but nothing gusty.  Maybe 10 mph.  Would that make a difference?  Are we supposed to vacuum out the fire box every time we use it?  If it makes any difference, we are using traeger apple pellets but that last of the bag we put in was kind of "sawdusty".

Any advice??  Thanks in advance


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## daveomak (Aug 14, 2012)

V/C, morning....

I think the sawdust may be part of the problem..... sawdust won't feed well through the auger and may plug the firebox when it does  feed..... and cleaning the firebox is probably a good idea for proper air flow...   Dave


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## striper (Aug 14, 2012)

V and C,  I have to agree on the sawdust.  I had that problem with the treager I owned and have also had it with the Yoder I currently enjoy using.  My solution has been to A. clean the firebox every use and B. screen the sawdust out of the pellets before I load them in the hopper.  Also if your treager has a "PRIME" button, if this happens again, hit and hold the "Prime" button to force feed the burning material out of the auger.

Joe


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## vic and carly (Aug 14, 2012)

Thank you all.  I so appreciate everyone here sharing their knowledge and advice.

Carly


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## savannahsmoker (Aug 14, 2012)

I might, with a little luck, be able to help.

What control are you using?  IE manual 3 position, or digital controllers BAC 227 (180 Temp) or BAC 233 (225 Temp).

If you are using the digital controller what temp where you using and what P-Setting.

Later

art


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## gov- (Nov 1, 2012)

I think I have a problem like this or maybe I still don't know how to use this thing...  I replaced the 3-setting control with the stock digital in the other traegers.  I turn it on to smoke, wait about 15 mins, throw the food on and set the temp to whatever.  If I turn the temp down, the chamber turns into the depths of hell and never goes through the cycle the right way.  Is this similar to yalls problem?  How do the cycles work on these traeger boxes?


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## greatbigred1 (Mar 16, 2015)

I had the same problem, but solved it by cleaning out all of the pellets from the hopper, and stuffing a piece of bread in the auger and letting it push the sawdust into the firebox. worked like a charm after that. I did notice that part of my issue was that pellets were disintegrating in the pellet hopper from moisture. I had both went ports stuffed with foil and the moisture was causing this. My fault.

greatbigred1


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