Great video man. Really helped. im new to smokers and I bought one like this used on facebook for a good price. Could not get it to stay lit so excited to try this!
Cleaned mine out and tried firing it up. I put it on high, and some of the pellets would start to burn but then it would stop. I will try again placing on smoke mode.
How do you keep the Treager smoking during long cooks ie a Brisket? I clean it out before smoking but 4-6 hrs in I get LEr. I have to take the brisket out and remove everything and clean it again. Is this just the nature of the smoker and long cooks?
Are you using a temperature setting such as 225 when smoking your brisket? Most Traegers and pellet grills are good for anywhere from 15+ hours of smoke time before enough ash builds up in the firepot where you need to vacuum it out. So you should be good smoking a brisket from start to finish if you just cleaned your firepot out.
Yes, @Nikkie, I get the same thing on mine. You can read my comment above. Yeah, it's so frustrating. A few suggestions that I've found, is that the pellets might be older. If that happens to frequently, then the pellets might not be as good a quality. Also, if you keep your pellets outside, don't do that. Keep them in a sealed container that is air-tight and water-tight, then they will stay fresher. Because if they get calky, you're gonna have trouble ... TRUST ME. But, we also just cook for 4 / 5 / 6 hours outside, then take it inside to the stove and finish there. Then, you won't have a problem, especially if you wrap it after that. Because it's already got all of the smoke that it will get. [Or, that's my take. @CGC might differ.]
@@catchgrowcook I just read your comment -- after I typed mine. What I've found, is that if you recycle your pellets ... say from last year, then you're gonna have the trouble that @Nikkie and I have had. But, if they are brand new, then it seems to happen less. I think in Houston, Texas, they take on some moisture and get caulky, which shortens their life and make them where they don't burn fully in the fire pit. Thus, they accumulate more ash. Thus, you get the "LEr Error Code", and you get screwed more often.
Vacuumed and cleaned out my fire pot and used the traeger cleaner for the grease trap - traeger still turns off - I mean it was 100 degrees outside today but does that matter? Really sad because I’ve only had the traeger for about 5 months and It was kicking ass until recently
That's crazy! So when you restart your Traeger it turns on for a bit and then stops working? The outside temp of 100 degrees shouldn't be an issue since you're cooking food in the Traeger anywhere from 225 to 450 degrees.
@@catchgrowcook yeah man, today it pre heated to 375 and then just shut off , it’s not the power cord or breaker because we tried plugging into another breaker still failed
@@michaelscarn378 I haven't heard of this before. Normally it either doesn't fire up or when it does fire up, it'll shut off because people never vacuumed out all the ash in the firepot which smothers the flames. This almost sounds like a weird electrical issue. I've heard of people replacing the control board which you can get from Traeger and that fixing weird electrical issues
@@michaelscarn378 this is currently happening to me and i can’t find any answers. I was smoking ribs and after 2 hours it just shut off. For 2 days it will stattt and just stop. No errors. Did you ever fix it?
@@zebby7624 never, when it’s 100 degrees plus outside, it turns off on its own, sucks so bad , I don’t know how to fix it, so I only smoke when it’s not too hot outside
Usually it only takes a 1-3 minutes for your pellet grill to ignore and begin smoking. If it takes longer than you likely have too much ash/pellets in your firepot.
My smoker will stop smoking every 45min to an hour, I have to restart back to the smoke mode at that time. When I put it back on the smoke mode, it puts out an incredible amount of smoke and then the temp will overshoot but then come back down to the desired temp. Just wondering if you’ve run across this issue before. Thanks for this video- I’ll definitely be cleaning out my smoker tomorrow. Hopefully it’ll help this problem.
Hey Jeffrey - I would first try vacuuming out the firepot if you've never done that. I'm hoping that fixes the issue otherwise it could be an RTD sensor issue (pretty cheap fix). I'd check out this guide if your smoker is still shutting off every 45 minutes to see what else might help fix the issue: catchgrowcook.com/traeger-error-codes-explained-fixed/
I just had the same issue !! I'm thinking it might be the internal thermal..ever since I got a fire on my treager about 3 cooks ago , it's been trippin..
Just reading the title, that's the biggest damned thing that has happened to me a few times. I get some error code (about half-way through the damned cook) that is "LEr" or something like that. And, the Traeger turns off. And, the food is not even half-way cooked yet. So, we have done it overnight, then wake up and find that it's cold and not finished. So, it pisses a person off, because it has plenty of pellets. But, ours has the fire pit that gets too much soot in it and puts out the pellets. So, that's why it is important EARLY ON to run it awhile, get it hot, and have it fully cleaned from the last cook. But, I almost (seemingly) have to clean it out, mid-cook, but I don't. So, that's why we have taken the brisket inside after so many hours (say 7 or 8) on the Traeger and finish in the kitchen stove. But, yeah, I hate this so much when it happens.
First traeger was great. It was about 10 years Ago. Second one from Costco total garbage nothing but headaches misfires . The first original was great. This one is really miserable. You better have a wet and drive back on standby suck out that firebox all the time.!
Originally I believe they were made in Oregon whereas the newer ones are made in China. Personally I got a Z-Grills which is from China and isn't high quality but it was cheap and larger so I can smoke whole turkeys now.
You saved turkey day!!!!!
Thanks man, you saved our family BBQ!
woohoo! Glad I can help! I know how scary it can be when your Traeger goes out mid-smoke and you have all of that food sitting on there.
Great video man. Really helped. im new to smokers and I bought one like this used on facebook for a good price. Could not get it to stay lit so excited to try this!
Keep me updated! I love helping new folks get their pellet grill up and running since it opens a whole new world of tasty foods!
Cleaned mine out and tried firing it up. I put it on high, and some of the pellets would start to burn but then it would stop. I will try again placing on smoke mode.
How do you keep the Treager smoking during long cooks ie a Brisket? I clean it out before smoking but 4-6 hrs in I get LEr. I have to take the brisket out and remove everything and clean it again. Is this just the nature of the smoker and long cooks?
Are you using a temperature setting such as 225 when smoking your brisket? Most Traegers and pellet grills are good for anywhere from 15+ hours of smoke time before enough ash builds up in the firepot where you need to vacuum it out. So you should be good smoking a brisket from start to finish if you just cleaned your firepot out.
Yes, @Nikkie, I get the same thing on mine. You can read my comment above. Yeah, it's so frustrating. A few suggestions that I've found, is that the pellets might be older. If that happens to frequently, then the pellets might not be as good a quality. Also, if you keep your pellets outside, don't do that. Keep them in a sealed container that is air-tight and water-tight, then they will stay fresher. Because if they get calky, you're gonna have trouble ... TRUST ME. But, we also just cook for 4 / 5 / 6 hours outside, then take it inside to the stove and finish there. Then, you won't have a problem, especially if you wrap it after that. Because it's already got all of the smoke that it will get. [Or, that's my take. @CGC might differ.]
@@catchgrowcook I just read your comment -- after I typed mine. What I've found, is that if you recycle your pellets ... say from last year, then you're gonna have the trouble that @Nikkie and I have had. But, if they are brand new, then it seems to happen less. I think in Houston, Texas, they take on some moisture and get caulky, which shortens their life and make them where they don't burn fully in the fire pit. Thus, they accumulate more ash. Thus, you get the "LEr Error Code", and you get screwed more often.
Vacuumed and cleaned out my fire pot and used the traeger cleaner for the grease trap - traeger still turns off - I mean it was 100 degrees outside today but does that matter? Really sad because I’ve only had the traeger for about 5 months and It was kicking ass until recently
That's crazy! So when you restart your Traeger it turns on for a bit and then stops working? The outside temp of 100 degrees shouldn't be an issue since you're cooking food in the Traeger anywhere from 225 to 450 degrees.
@@catchgrowcook yeah man, today it pre heated to 375 and then just shut off , it’s not the power cord or breaker because we tried plugging into another breaker still failed
@@michaelscarn378 I haven't heard of this before. Normally it either doesn't fire up or when it does fire up, it'll shut off because people never vacuumed out all the ash in the firepot which smothers the flames. This almost sounds like a weird electrical issue. I've heard of people replacing the control board which you can get from Traeger and that fixing weird electrical issues
@@michaelscarn378 this is currently happening to me and i can’t find any answers. I was smoking ribs and after 2 hours it just shut off. For 2 days it will stattt and just stop. No errors. Did you ever fix it?
@@zebby7624 never, when it’s 100 degrees plus outside, it turns off on its own, sucks so bad , I don’t know how to fix it, so I only smoke when it’s not too hot outside
It should be open on fire up eh, you can get an explosion, how long should it take to ignight and make smoke usually?
Usually it only takes a 1-3 minutes for your pellet grill to ignore and begin smoking. If it takes longer than you likely have too much ash/pellets in your firepot.
Will it work without the heat baffle?
Yes but you want the heat baffle on there so the heat & smoke get evenly distributed throughout the pellet grill
My smoker will stop smoking every 45min to an hour, I have to restart back to the smoke mode at that time. When I put it back on the smoke mode, it puts out an incredible amount of smoke and then the temp will overshoot but then come back down to the desired temp. Just wondering if you’ve run across this issue before.
Thanks for this video- I’ll definitely be cleaning out my smoker tomorrow. Hopefully it’ll help this problem.
Hey Jeffrey - I would first try vacuuming out the firepot if you've never done that. I'm hoping that fixes the issue otherwise it could be an RTD sensor issue (pretty cheap fix). I'd check out this guide if your smoker is still shutting off every 45 minutes to see what else might help fix the issue: catchgrowcook.com/traeger-error-codes-explained-fixed/
Did you ever figure it out? I have the exact same issue and I vacuumed out the firepot and it doesn't seem to help.
I just had the same issue !! I'm thinking it might be the internal thermal..ever since I got a fire on my treager about 3 cooks ago , it's been trippin..
Just reading the title, that's the biggest damned thing that has happened to me a few times. I get some error code (about half-way through the damned cook) that is "LEr" or something like that. And, the Traeger turns off. And, the food is not even half-way cooked yet. So, we have done it overnight, then wake up and find that it's cold and not finished. So, it pisses a person off, because it has plenty of pellets. But, ours has the fire pit that gets too much soot in it and puts out the pellets. So, that's why it is important EARLY ON to run it awhile, get it hot, and have it fully cleaned from the last cook. But, I almost (seemingly) have to clean it out, mid-cook, but I don't. So, that's why we have taken the brisket inside after so many hours (say 7 or 8) on the Traeger and finish in the kitchen stove. But, yeah, I hate this so much when it happens.
First traeger was great. It was about 10 years Ago. Second one from Costco total garbage nothing but headaches misfires . The first original was great. This one is really miserable. You better have a wet and drive back on standby suck out that firebox all the time.!
Originally I believe they were made in Oregon whereas the newer ones are made in China. Personally I got a Z-Grills which is from China and isn't high quality but it was cheap and larger so I can smoke whole turkeys now.