OK, don't shoot the newbie

[Bedford]

I'm new to pellet cooking. Years ago when I bought a Kingfisher Kountry Kooker, a propane grill, smoker I almost bought a Traeger tex instead. Well my Kingfisher needs rebuilt, or replaced and I was in Costco and they had a Traeger for less than one cost 14 years ago and I jumped on it. Until I got online, I didn't realize how many pellet grills there were out there, or the quality difference. I smoked a prime rib roast yesterday, and on smoke it still was up well over 200 deg, but it cooked and tasted great. One of my questions is, it was 40deg outside, what temp am I looking at when it hits 95 outside? Even when it was hot out, I could pretty consistently keep my kingfisher under 250, and when it was cold, it was easy to keep at 225 or lower. Do the more costlier pellet cookers have more heat control, or is their feeding system pretty generic? Like I said, don't shoot me, I'm just learning and if getting the Traeger winds up being a mistake, I'm still going to use it for several years before I upgrade. I try not to throw money away, and if I make a mistake I live with it.

Thanks for your help
MikeView attachment 1250

 

[MossyMO]

Glad you joined us Bedford, welcome to the PelletSmoking forums.
I am pretty new to pellet smoking myself, so instead of giving you poor information, I will leave the answers to much more knowledgeable and experienced pellet owners.

 

[TentHunter]

Welcome!

Basically in warmer weather you'll burn less pellets than in colder weather. And you should still be able to keep temps down around 225 with no probs.

 

[CarterQ]

What Tent said, the controllers on most pellet cookers will feed pellets based on pit temp to maintain your set temp.

 

[Rip]

Don't give up on your Traeger. I cooked a lot of great food on mine. Two things will help, place firebricks in the bottom to help hold heat and even out the temp swings. (do a search on firebricks for details). The other thing is if yours didn't come with a digital controller, make that your next upgrade.

 

[Scallywag]

Don't give up on your Traeger. I cooked a lot of great food on mine. Two things will help, place firebricks in the bottom to help hold heat and even out the temp swings. (do a search on firebricks for details). The other thing is if yours didn't come with a digital controller, make that your next upgrade.

Welcome aboard!! Agreed on the digital controller.

 

[Big Poppa]

Bedford if it wasnt for traeger I wouldnt have started all of this....

 

[Hobbit]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Gregoryalln]

All I used was traeger, and placed pretty high in local competitions. I think they are a decent entry level smoker. As stated above, if you don't have a digital controller then get one. they make a world of difference.

 

[Bedford]

My grill came with the digital control. I've used it several times now, and it works better. The first time the temp was all over the place, now it seems to have settled down. I emailed Traeger about a week ago, no response. That tells me who I'm dealing with. I've done chicken, great, prime rib roast, great, and pork tenderloin also fantastic and tried to grill steaks. That needs work, but I do have another grill that does just that, grill so I'm ok there. Thanks for the advice and I'll keep learning.

 

[Big Poppa]

Grill Grates....fixes the Traeger Steaks. ZLike I said I bought a Traeger and went nuts from there....it gave me my start and most peoples here.

 

[Scallywag]

My grill came with the digital control. I've used it several times now, and it works better. The first time the temp was all over the place, now it seems to have settled down. I emailed Traeger about a week ago, no response. That tells me who I'm dealing with. I've done chicken, great, prime rib roast, great, and pork tenderloin also fantastic and tried to grill steaks. That needs work, but I do have another grill that does just that, grill so I'm ok there. Thanks for the advice and I'll keep learning.

Any issues I have had I called customer support and was very satisfied.

 

[Gregoryalln]

There is also a way to adjust the Auger speed on the trag, I do a lot of smoking so I have mine turned down so I can go pretty low, only problem with this is it blows out a lot. I now do most of my cooking at 225. For butts and briskets I start off on smoke for 3 hours, and finish on 225. Try cooking a butt this way until the meat hits above 200 (usually 1.5 hour per lbs) turns out really good for a trag.