I have a Traeger 07E and after using for over three years I
love this smoker grill. During the second summer I built a small covered deck
and cook year around. For safety if you use your smoker or any grill on a wood
deck it should be on a fireproof mat or pad. You should also have a class III
fire extinguisher close by.
Using the Traeger is like using any other smoker or grill
the most important thing is to know your pit. Know how it cooks on all the
temperature settings; have knowledge of any hot spots or one side being hotter
than the other. I have found my right side is hotter than the left. I have the
Traeger 180 deg. controller and I have learned to maintain temps I want.
My RTD, (real temperature device) is located on the center
left side and my grill level temps at the center are about 25 deg. hotter than
my LED readout. If temperature is important in my cooks I am aware of this. In
the smoke mode setting the temperature is determined by the P# settings, P0
thru P9.
P0 is the hottest and P9 is the coolest, I very seldom go
above P5; and only use P6 on extreme hot days.
Each P# should vary the temp about 10 deg. A more detailed
use of the P#’s should be in your manual or I have an article under INFO here.
Ambient temps and wind will have the most effect on maintaining a temperature
in the smoke mode. I never let mine get below 160 deg.
At first I had a lot of trouble with large temp swings above
and below the set temp and after reading, a lot of people were adding
firebricks in the bottom of the pit. They act as a heat sink and do help temp
swings some. The Traeger 070 and 07E will hold 5 bricks. After learning more
about my pit I only use the firebricks in the winter and remove them in the
summer.
In the second year my heat shield warped and would not set
flat. To remedy this I bolted ¼ inch plate to the underside and that straightened
it out. This also acts as a heat sink.
I have a hard time maintaining temp settings 180 thru 250
deg. and find I can usually get less temp swings by using the smoke mode and
the P# settings. For temp settings of 275 deg. and above I can usually hold
within plus or minus 5 deg. I found if you go directly from smoke mode to say
300 deg. you will get a large overshoot; sometimes as high as 50 deg. and then
it takes some time to settle down. I found if you ease it up to temp in the 25
deg. increments and let it settle out before going higher, when you reach your
desired temp it will only overshoot 5 or 10 deg. I can go from smoke mode and
ease up to 300 deg. in about 20 minutes. I usually want my smoker to preheat
about a half hour anyway so this does not take any more time or use more
pellets.
I have used my Traeger from smoking meats to baking
desserts. Anything you can bake in your inside oven you can do on a pellet
smoker; they are a convection oven. I have found that with the addition of
grill grates I can do some good steaks and burgers. The right side gives good
grill marks to steaks and I like to use the back side for burgers that is like
using a flat iron grill that browns the burgers all over.
A pellet smoker does not give you an overpowering smoke
taste; it’s more like a kiss of smoke and that’s what the wife and I like. For
some meats especially pork butts and beef briskets I do like a little more
smoke and A-Maze-N Products makes a tube smoker that provides extra smoke. The
tube smoker is perforated stainless steel that you fill with pellets, place it
in your smoker and light. I have their 12 inch tube and it will provide about 4
hours of smoke.
There are a lot of good pellet smokers out there now to
choose from. Traeger started it all and after a few others got into it the
Traeger was still the most reasonably priced one. Their quality did suffer
after moving their manufacturing process to China. Considering that I think it
still is a good smoker for the money.
There are a couple of aftermarket controllers that offer
better control for Traeger smokers. One is the Ortech Controls unit, they
manufactured the original controllers for Traeger and now offer one that is an
upgrade and does a better job of controlling the Traeger. The other one is a
Savannah Stoker PID digital controller. Many who have bought the Savannah
Stoker rave about it. As long as my controller works I can’t see replacing it
but if it ever goes out I will probably get the Savannah Stoker.
After using gas fired water smokers over 25 years, I went
through two Master Built, round bullet type and had a Smokey Mountain chest
type when I got my Traeger. I love the pellet smoker; it’s so easy to use and
clean. I usually clean mine every cook or two. That consists of removing the grate,
drip pan, and heat shield and vacuuming out the bottom and burn pot. I change the foil on the drip pan. All this
only takes 10 to 15 minutes. Spring cleanup is just a simple scraping the
barrel with a putty knife and vacuuming out. I clean the outside and wipe down
with a coat of mineral oil.
Over the 3 plus years of using my Traeger I probably average
cooking on it 3 times a week. It is suited to my way I like to cook, almost
just set the temp you want and let it cook. I have a Maverick ET 732 remote temp
probe. I cook almost all of my meats to internal temperature and can remotely
keep track of the meat temp and the pit temp.
This turned out longer than I thought. Just hope there is
some good info someone will use.
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