Traeger experts needed

[rmauch20]

My parents gave me their old Traeger grill. They said that the hot rod was out and they were wanting to upgrade anyway. I replaced the hot rod and the fuse on the control panel. That is getting hot now, like burn your finger hot. I didn't know how else to check it. Both fans are running And there seems to be good airflow into the burn pot. Auger is running and I cleaned the temp sensor rod in the grill area.

It is still not firing up. No matter what temp I turn it to it stays at like 100°. Which it’s 100° today in Kansas so that might just be the outside temperature.
Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Deleted member 38069]

What model is it?

 

[rmauch20]

Model BBQ070. The lil Tex, I think that’s what they called it.

 

[SFC B]

Have you tried their customer service? I had two issues with mine early on and they were great!

 

[rmauch20]

I did. Maybe because it was Friday afternoon they weren’t super helpful. She sent me some links to videos and that was about it.

The only other thing I could think of, and I am far from a Traeger expert this is the first one I’ve ever messed with, The hot Rod will get glowing orange hot outside of the fire pot but the tip, the part inside the fire pot does not.

Eventually it will shut off. Is it supposed to stay hot the whole time?

 

[rmauch20]

Disregard I got it figured out. That’s what I get for trying to follow the directions

 

[riley]

I had a Traeger for prolly 3-4 years now with no problems .... just curious what ended up being the problem ?

 

[rmauch20]

You original hot rod was bad. The instructions per the new one stated to set it in the fire pot 3/16-1/4. The auger set in the fire pot 3/8. Long story short I wasn’t getting any heat in the wood pellets. I should’ve looked at the old one to see how far it sat in there but I did not. It set in 3/4. Which goes against the bolded instructions

 

[wyoboypt]

Do yourself a favor and sell it. Buy something more sturdy.

 

[rmauch20]

Do yourself a favor and sell it. Buy something more sturdy.

I’ll probably hold onto this one since it only cost me $20 so far. I’m pretty new to the whole thing is there one brand better than the other

 

[madtom]

We’ve had a lil Tex for about three years and it’s great. I had to replace the hot rod once, only because the dog chewed the wire to it. Otherwise it’s been working flawlessly and we use it a lot.

 

[WapitiBob]

You can run them without the rod, just start the pellets manually with a little "gas". If your temperature rod goes bonkers and shuts off the unit with errant temps, you can just unhook it from the board and continue to run. The fan was the 3rd weak spot on mine but the replacement has worked fine for about 10 years now.