New Timberline grills will take longer to reach temperature than other models, sometimes even twice as long. These grills are bigger and function differently, and you will see improvement in time to temp over time.
Completing a successful seasoning process prior to any cook is crucial to the grill's ability to function at its optimal state. The grill's ability to get to temp more quickly will improve over time.
Common Causes for not Getting to Temp
Several scenarios would result in a grill's flame going out or a grill not getting hot enough. Below are explanations of the most common scenarios resulting in the grill's temp not getting hot enough.
- Pellets
- Comparing temperatures with a third-party thermometer
- Poor grill maintenance
- Incorrect startup and shutdown procedures
- Cold or windy weather
- Poor air circulation in the grill
- Cooking frozen or cold food
- Part failure (rare)
Pellet Quality
- The NUMBER ONE cause of temperature issues is poor pellet quality. If you are experiencing temperature issues, always begin your troubleshooting by removing and replacing your pellets and vacuuming out any residual sawdust from the hopper and from the auger tube.
- Running out of Pellets: Running out of pellets means your flame has no fuel, so of course, your grill is not able to stay hot.
- Low-Quality Pellets: Good pellets should have a nice sheen to them, and you should hear a nice "snap" when breaking.
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Improper Pellet Storage: It’s important to store pellets in a dry, airtight container to prevent moisture and humidity from compromising pellet quality.
- Even if you just opened a bag of pellets, you should still check the pellet quality. Moisture and humidity can still affect unopened bags of pellets when exposed to the elements (yes, even if you store them in the garage).
Incorrect Startup Procedure
- Check out our Startup Guide to make sure you're using the correct startup procedure. Additionally, proper startup process includes waiting for grill to fully preheat prior to placing food in the grill.
Incorrect Shutdown Cycle on the Previous Cook
- Much like a home computer, shutting down your grill incorrectly can result in future problems.
Cold & Windy Weather
- Cold and windy weather naturally pulls heat from the grill. Some of our smaller grills are not as insulated as our larger ones and are thus more affected by cold and windy weather. If you are grilling in below-freezing weather (32°F/0°C or below), you may want to try an insulation blanket to help reduce pellet consumption.
Poor Grill Maintenance
- Pellet-fueled grills are not like your typical propane grill; they require much more frequent cleaning. Follow our maintenance instructions to make sure you're keeping your grill in optimal condition.
Poor Air Circulation
- Your Traeger relies on proper air circulation for the convection-style barrel to distribute heat properly. Make sure items inside the grill are placed at least 1" from the sides of the grill and that your drip tray liner is not blocking airflow.
Frozen or Cold Food
- Placing frozen or cold food on your grill is not bad, per se, but it can affect your grill's ability to return to your set temperature quickly after placing the food on the grill. Following proper startup, do not place frozen or cold food on the grill until the grill is fully preheated.
Part Failure
- While part failure does occur occasionally, it is the rarest culprit of a grill not getting hot enough. Traeger grill parts typically fail in a binary manner--they either work, or they don't. If you feel that after going through the troubleshooting below, your parts are contributing to your temperature issues, please contact Customer Support.
Initial Burn-In Time
The initial seasoning process sets the grill to 450°F/204°C. The time the grills take to get to temperature this first time can take up to an hour.
Troubleshooting
If you are concerned that your grill is not getting to temp, try the following:
Preliminary Checks
- Grill maintenance can play a big part when it comes to temperature issues. See Cleaning & Maintaining a Pellet Grill for steps on the proper way to clean the grill.
- Compromised pellets can also lead to temperature concerns. See Pellets for best practices on pellet quality.
- Proper start up and shut down procedures can affect the grill's temperature. Ensuring the customer is always doing a proper start up and shut down cycle on each cook.
Next Steps
- Check if your firmware is up to date.
- Are you grilling in cold or windy weather?
- Grilling in cold or windy weather can affect the grill's ability to reach high temperatures.
- Check if your firepot is installed correctly.
- Make sure the firepot not caught on the auger tube and to make sure the cardboard is not still underneath the firepot.
- Check if the grill is reading temperature correctly. The grill must be turned off and cooled down to check a thermocouple. If the grill is not cooled down, move to the next step, and provide steps to the customer in a follow-up email.
- Compare the controller's temperature to the outside temperature.
- A working thermocouple should read within 20°F/10°C of the ambient air temperature.
- NOTE: Grills placed in direct sunlight or stored in a cold garage or shed will likely read temperatures beyond the accepted variance. Therefore, under these circumstances, you should not replace a thermocouple using ambient temperature methods.
- A working thermocouple should read within 20°F/10°C of the ambient air temperature.
- If a customer's grill differs more than ±20°F/10°C from the local temperature, contact Customer Support.
- Compare the controller's temperature to the outside temperature.
- Check the Induction Fan. The induction fan provides oxygen to the fire. If the fan is not working, it could cause temperature issues or an inability to keep the fire going. Follow the steps below to troubleshoot the fan.
- Before starting the grill, take out all the internal components: grill grate, drip tray, and heat baffle.
- Start the grill and carefully hover their hand above the firepot. Do not touch the firepot or the surrounding metal.
- As the grill ignites, you should feel a gentle breeze coming from the firepot. This indicates that the fan is working and does not need to be replaced.
- If you do not feel the breeze, move to step 4.
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Look under the hopper (near the front bottom of the grill) to view the induction fan. Flashlight may be needed.
- You should be able to see the fan spinning.
- If you see the fan spinning, it is working.
- If the fan is not spinning, turn off the grill. Remove the screws holding the fan housing, it should drop down with the fan. Manually spin the fan with your hand. This will help break up any dirt or grime that has possibly built up.
- Turn on and ignite the grill. The fan should begin spinning at this point. If the fan still does not work, move to step 6.
- With the grill off and unplugged, remove the hopper side panel by removing the 6 screws located at the top and bottom of the panel and underneath the P.A.L rail. See guidance on manual impact drivers below.
- Ensure the fan wiring is secured to the motherboard.
- If the wire is not secure, connect the fan wire. Turn on and ignite the grill again. The fan should begin spinning.
- If the fan still does not work, contact Customer Support.
- If the fan wiring is secure and the fan does not spin, reach out to Customer Service for more assistance.
- If the wire is not secure, connect the fan wire. Turn on and ignite the grill again. The fan should begin spinning.
Using an Impact Driver
IMPORTANT: Before proceeding
To continue you'll need to remove your hopper service panel. To remove this panel for the first time, you'll want to use an impact driver to remove the screws behind the P.A.L rail on your hopper service panel.
- If this is your first time removing the hopper service panel and you don't have an impact driver of your own. Contact our customer support team and we'll send you a complimentary manual impact driver.
- If you already have a manual impact driver, proceed to removing the hopper service panel.
- If you have already removed the service panel screws, you can disregard the impact driver and use a regular Phillips screwdriver.
- Once you've removed the screws using the impact driver, continue with the next steps outlined here in this article.