# 2nd Traeger Flame Out



## Bones816 (Jul 6, 2018)

This morning at 0300 I started 3 pork butts on my pretty new (got it in May I think) Traeger Pro Series 22.  Set it at 225 and went back to bed.  Got up at 0630 and it had shut down.  I don't remember the code it displayed but it is the 2nd time now this has happened.  Another time I started it and went to church, got home and it was off.  Both times it was set at 225.  Needless to say I'm not real happy and my wife even less so!  I now have the temp at 250 and things are moving along.  The meat will recover in a little time here but what are my options with the Traeger?


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## Ishi (Jul 6, 2018)

Does the Traeger have a pellet feed adjustment? My guess the pellets aren’t being delivered fast enough thus causing the flame outs.


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## Bones816 (Jul 6, 2018)

The way I understand it, the temp control is how the auger speed is controlled.  What seems to happen is the auger pushes too many pellets to burn at the low 225 setting.  I'll call them later but I don't have time to be on the phone trouble shooting.


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## zippy12 (Jul 6, 2018)

My heat source in the winter is a pellet stove...  Same principal

I had a bad thermal couple that caused the stove to die...

also I know the brand of pellet can cause issues...


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## Bones816 (Jul 6, 2018)

Traeger pellets both times.  I've also used Lumberjack with no problems.


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## zippy12 (Jul 6, 2018)

I have also had the "fines" fuse(glue) to the bottom of the pellet hopper which caused the auger to not draw enough pellets to the burn pot.  This happens when humidity is high...

Fines are the saw dust material in the pellet bags


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## joe chierchio (Jul 6, 2018)

I had the same problem. After the 4th delivery of a Pro 22, the first three came damaged. My first 2 smokes both had flameouts. The first one after 10 hours the second after five. My wife wants to send it and me back.
I was using Traeger pellets both times. Hopefully someone has an idea of what went wrong here I really don't want to spend hours on the phone.


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## gmc2003 (Jul 6, 2018)

I've read some Traeger's have issues running at lower temps. The electronic's tell the auger to push to many pellets out thus smothering the fire in the burn pot. Another thought did you clean the burn pot out before starting it up. Could be full of ash.

Chris


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## joe chierchio (Jul 6, 2018)

It was the first time I used it


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## Bones816 (Jul 6, 2018)

Exactly what has happened both times. Pellets over load and snuff out the fire I guess. I thoroughly cleaned it before starting the butts.


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## zippy12 (Jul 6, 2018)

I say bad thermal couple in the fire pot


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## gmc2003 (Jul 6, 2018)

Can you adjust your Psetting, maybe an upgrade to the temp regulator is needed. One that is adjustable if yours isn't.

Chris


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## graywolf1936 (Jul 6, 2018)

Doing a Brisket now on my Traeger (about 3 years old), after 1 hour the same thing happen. It has done this before.
I just turn it off let it cool for 15 min., take the meat out and vacume all the excess pellets, start it up again.  I have a vac. just for this reason.


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## bregent (Jul 6, 2018)

Bones816 said:


> Exactly what has happened both times. Pellets over load and snuff out the fire I guess. I thoroughly cleaned it before starting the butts.



Unless you watched it happen, there's no way to tell if the overloaded pot was the cause or the effect. Anything that causes a flameout will result in overloaded pellets as the grill tries to add more fuel to get the temp up. It could be pellets bridging in the hopper that causes a temporary loss of fuel. 

It could also be a bad fan or leak in the air channel somewhere. 

There is no thermocouple in the firepot as another poster mentioned. It could be a bad temp probe, but if the displayed temps are correct then that is probably not it. If it happens all the time it might be easy to troubleshoot, but if the problem is very intermittent it's going to be tough. Call Traeger and if they can't resolve it quickly, return it.


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## airmec (Jul 6, 2018)

Had the same problems with mine switched controller to a Savanna Stoker which will relight when temps fall and now I can run at 150 without trouble. When at lower temps the igniter will  come on quite often to insure the pellets are still burning and so far has not failed. I also upgraded the hot rod to a ceramic igniter/ fire pot from  RecTec it blows air around the igniter and keeps it clear of ash. If your Traeger is new return it and take the $300 or so dollars it will cost to update and get one that has the better controller and ignition just be sure it has a relight built into the controller.


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## Bones816 (Jul 6, 2018)

Had a second flame out a bit ago. Yes, I shut it down, let it cool and restart. Point is, I supposed to be able to “set it and forget it”. I’ll be calling Traeger Sunday.


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## TonyBones (Jul 6, 2018)

Calling them up would be your best course of action. You paid good money for that smoker, let's hope customer service recognizes that and has a solution for you. 


Bones816 said:


> Had a second flame out a bit ago. Yes, I shut it down, let it cool and restart. Point is, I supposed to be able to “set it and forget it”. I’ll be calling Traeger Sunday.


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## dv242 (Jul 7, 2018)

Had the same problem with one I bought a few weeks ago on my first cook. Now today (2nd cook) I am getting huge temp swings on 225. It goes from 180 to 290. Mine is a pro 34...a lot of money for something so unreliable. My cheapo Weber Kettle and MES 30 out performed this $1000.00 grill. It's less than a month old, I might just return it and go back to working on my Kettle with the Slow N Sear add on.


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## joe chierchio (Jul 8, 2018)

Just called Traeger and the first guy told me it was normal. I told him to come and pick it up then because I didn't need it if I had to sit here and watch it. That was the whole point of getting a pellet smoker. Then I spoke to a manager who told me the start up procedure in the book is wrong. You should leave the lid closed set it to whatever temp you want and when it gets to temp put your food on. I hope this works but I'm not optimistic.


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## dv242 (Jul 8, 2018)

joe chierchio said:


> Just called Traeger and the first guy told me it was normal.  Then I spoke to a manager who told me the start up procedure in the book is wrong. You should leave the lid closed set it to whatever temp you want and when it gets to temp put your food on. I hope this works but I'm not optimistic.



They told me the same thing, so I did that today testing it and it hasn't made a difference.

So before loading it up and trucking it back to Cabelas I decided to experiment a little more. 

The discrepancy with the probes was easy to figure out: my probes were on the cooking grate, the Traeger probe sits much higher. I put the upper grate in the grill, put my probe on that, right next to the Traeger probe, and they read the same, + or - 1 degree. So I moved the probe back to the cooking grate and have been watching it for 2 hours. It's consistently 25 degrees below the Traeger probe. So, my cooking surface spends most of the time under 200 degrees when set at 225. 

Second, the grill can't hold a temp for more than 5 minutes. It constantly cycles between low of about 180 (on the Traeger probe) and a high of 265 (Traeger probe). It rarely ever went to 225 at the cooking grate on the 225 setting, spent most of the time in the 190-205 range, but did swing from 165 to at a low, to 235 on the high, but never held that high temp more than a few minutes. Is this cycling just the normal operation of pellet grills? Do they try to average 225 over a cook, or maintain it? What I've seen is this unit cannot maintain a temp at all. It will shoot up when the unit detects the temp is low, then rapidly drop off. Seems like it drops 7-8 degrees a minute once the temp starts to fall and by the time the grill recovers, it's down at or below 170 on the cooking grate. This happens 5-7 times an hour, is that just how pellet grills cook?


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## bregent (Jul 8, 2018)

Regarding the difference in temp between your pit's displayed temp and your temp probe, that's not uncommon. Many folks don't mind if it's off, as long as it's consistent and predictable - so you can always compensate by adjusting the temp to what you want. I don't expect them to read exactly the same - it's up to you to decide what is too much delta. 

Regarding temperature swings, all pellet grills, and even high end ovens will do this. I've seen high end kitchen ovens with swings of +/- 35 degrees or more. So as long as they average around the set temp, and the swings are not too large, they cook just fine. The debates comes when asking what is too much swing. Some folks think 25F is too much, others are fine with 50F. I'd have no problem if it consistently swung 35 degrees with each cycle. The problem comes when the swings are erratic and unpredictable - like yours is doing. If it were me, I would return it.


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## mike243 (Jul 8, 2018)

They will cycle just like a oven for the most part,wind blowing will make the highs and lows worse,most of the time due to where I have mine the wind is blocked unless its real strong,have seen it 15-+ and would never know it when eating the food


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## kerstingm (Jul 9, 2018)

dv242 said:


> Had the same problem with one I bought a few weeks ago on my first cook. Now today (2nd cook) I am getting huge temp swings on 225. It goes from 180 to 290. Mine is a pro 34...a lot of money for something so unreliable. My cheapo Weber Kettle and MES 30 out performed this $1000.00 grill. It's less than a month old, I might just return it and go back to working on my Kettle with the Slow N Sear add on.



I have been dealing with the same issues now for almost 5 years, my same thoughts. What a waste of a $1,000, I have several buddies with $500 or less Cabala pellet grills that cannot say enough good things about them. Temps stay within 3 to 5 degrees,  perfect smoke at whatever temps the set.
My $40 Brinkman smoker cooks my pork butts a million times better than this junk of junk


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