First time using a smoker.....wow!

[crphillips]

Hi all......my first time on this forum but finally glad i'm here!

It was my birthday yesterday and my wife bought me a Traeger Texas. I've been after one for years!

As a practice run i've done 2 racks of ribs, a joint of brisket and some salmon fillets. The ribs have come out great! The brisket is okay but over cooked but i only bought a small joint to try it out. I'm sure that will be better with a much bigger joint. Haven't tried the salmon yet as it's for my wife and she isn't home from work yet but the ribs are amazing.

I need to trial and perfect rubs, mops, sauces and cooking times but for a first attempt i'm more than happy with the result.

Goodbye sausages, burgers and kebabs......hello ribs, brisket, pulled pork and anything else low and slow!

By the way......anyone know where i can get a variable temp controller for a 240V UK Traeger?

[crphillips]

Good point. I think the issue was that I wrapped the ribs in foil with some stock and ramped the heat up to Medium for 3 hours.......i wrapped the brisket in foil and left that in the grill also but i have a feeling Brisket would be better done on smoke for longer?

To be honest the brisket got neglected. It was the ribs i was after so they got all the attention

[crphillips]

actually......forget what i just said about the brisket......just pulled it open and the meat in the middle is soft, tender and juicy. Some of the best beef i've had. I think a bigger joint and a remote thermometer is what's needed next time.

[Chris__M]

By the way......anyone know where i can get a variable temp controller for a 240V UK Traeger?

There has been a little recent discussion on this - I think the two most recent topics has been

http://www.bbbqs.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=797
and
http://www.bbbqs.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=784

Between us so far, we have found three people who supply (or have supplied in the past) a 240V digital controller. There is a guy in Australia, who a couple of us heard about, but appears not to have responded to enquiries. There is a guy in New Zealand, who dieselracer13 has ordered one from, and there is a company in Germany who I ordered one from. No-one in the UK is supplying them.

I don't know if dieselracer13 has received his yet, but mine arrived from Germany, and I ended up disappointed. It was early version of the Traeger digital controller, and one than many folk in the US are currently replacing, so I wasn't that happy with it in the first place. However, when I found it didn't actually fit my Traeger without taking a hacksaw to my grill, I decided to return it for a refund. Others may be happy to make such adjustments, and it may be the hole in the Texas is large enough to take the board - I don't know.

Other options that I have been reading about include

Stoker: This is a bit of US Tech that is really designed for controlling blowers for charcoal and wood stoves. However, some folk have managed to adapt it for the Traeger. Although this is US kit, it runs from a mains adapter, so it is just a case of finding the right adapter for it - I don't know if the US company is now supplying it with the option of a 240V adapter, but it shouldn't be an insurmountable problem.

PID controller: Others have been playing with PID controllers, and also adapting them, with reasonable results. PID controllers come in a range of voltages, but there is a learning curve.

Home-made Controller: After my initial purchase, I wibble-wobbled a bit between the above two, and a whacky third option I had (but eventually discounted) - it seemed that every other day I had made a different decision. In the end I plumped for an Arduino board, which is an open-source electronics microprocesser, to which you can add relays, LCDs, wifi etc. It comes in kit form, and isn't as daunting as it sounds. I am going to use this to develop my own solution. Some folk have already done some work on this for controlling a blower, which I will build on to write code for controlling and monitoring a Traeger.

This may sound exciting, but I should caution that development will move only as fast as I can spare hobby time for it, so if you want an immediate solution, don't wait for me. Also, I am going to design it around my own needs, which may or may not match other Traeger users. However, I am happy to share my solution, should it work, and then people can take it in any direction they want to.

To be fair, I have found the manual controller to be perfectly ok during good weather. What caused me to hanker for more control is when cooking when it gets chilly, which seemed to stop the Smoke setting from hitting the required grill temperature.

So I reckon I will be perfectly happy cooking with my Lil Tex on manual during the summer.

[Chris__M]

Heh. Have just seen you over on Pelletheads, so you'll have read the Stoker/PID stuff there!

[crphillips]

Thanks for you detailed reply. I have read all of the posts knocking around the forums. I like the idea of the PID and would buy one straight away if it were set up and plug & play. I'm fairly technical (i used to be an aircraft engineer) but the PID and Stoker seem a bit complicated. Also the thing your talking about.

I've only had a Traeger since Friday so i haven't ripped it apart yet but could you help me get an understanding of how it actually works? I know the auger runs at one speed and the switch position basically alters the on-off timings. With regards to the 110V digital controller..........is the entire unit 110V or does it have a lower input voltage for operating and then just have a 110V relay to operate the auger, hot rod, fan.....etc?

I suppose what i'm asking is are the 240V treagers completely different hot rods, fans and auger motors designed for 240V or did they just step down the power from 240V to 110V? I assume it's the former otherwise people wouldn't be finding it so hard to get a US controller to work on a UK grill?

Fun-illy enough i don't really mind taking a saw/grinder to my brand new Traeger to fit a controller in but i don't want to do it to install an out of date controller. I'd do it for the latest device. I got it cheap enough as AmericanBBQ were doing them half price and they are no longer going to be distributing Traegers so i assume i'll have to come up with my own mods/fixes anyway.

What will we do when it comes to replacement hot rods and other items if there isn't a UK distributor?

[crphillips]

I spoke to American BBQ today and they said they have a fair few parts knocking around. I may buy a few hot rods whilst they have them as it sounds these break down every now and then.

It would be nice to find out if the 240V versions of the Traeger parts are made in the UK or whether it is just a US/Chinese company making 110V and 240V.

[Chris__M]

I've only had a Traeger since Friday so i haven't ripped it apart yet but could you help me get an understanding of how it actually works? I know the auger runs at one speed and the switch position basically alters the on-off timings. With regards to the 110V digital controller..........is the entire unit 110V or does it have a lower input voltage for operating and then just have a 110V relay to operate the auger, hot rod, fan.....etc?

I suppose what i'm asking is are the 240V treagers completely different hot rods, fans and auger motors designed for 240V or did they just step down the power from 240V to 110V? I assume it's the former otherwise people wouldn't be finding it so hard to get a US controller to work on a UK grill?

This is only my understanding of how it works, having been in your position only in September last year, and having read up on it since then. If I get anything terribly wrong, I hope someone will correct me - perhaps Jackie if she's reading.

The controller, auger motor, fan and hot rod of UK stock Traegers are all 240V components. The controller is fed 240V from the mains, and feeds 240V to the auger motor, fan and hot rod in turn.

1) The fan is powered 100% of the time the controller is on.

2) The Auger motor is powered for one minute in four, in Smoke mode, two minutes in four when set to Medium and 100% when on high.

3) The hot rod is only powered for the first 4 minutes the grill is switched on.

What will we do when it comes to replacement hot rods and other items if there isn't a UK distributor

If Jackie still has stock, it may well be worth buying spares. Having said that, the "hot rod" is a fairly standard industrial cartridge heater - you'd have to spec the right size and type, but I'm not losing any sleep over the possibility of my one blowing. My first port of call would be to contact the various companies that supply pellet heaters, which I am betting use similar components, if not I would start goggling "Cartridge Heater Spares". Similarly, if I put my mind to it, I could probably find a replacement motor that could be made to fit somehow.

But for an easy life, laying in a spare of each might not be a bad idea.

I don't see any reason why the German dealer's stock shouldn't work either, but I would encourage people to help clear Jackie's stock for her. I only went to Germany cos it was an item I couldn't buy here.

[crphillips]

Thanks once again for your help and advice. Much appreciated.

Does anyone know why Traeger licensed the manufacturing of the Traeger grills to American BBQ rather than just shipping them from China (where i understand they're now made) straight to the guys at ABBQ? They then could have installed a step down transformer? I know they're on 60hz in the US as opposed to 50hz over here but surely a slightly different controller could have made up for slower motors/fans....etc?

Either that or get them assembled as 240V in China and ship straight to UK? I can't imagine that would be difficult? Building them over here and using different 240V components seems an expensive and complicated way to do it? Or is it just because when ABBQ took on the Traeger brand they were still made in the US so it made more sense to manufacture their own under licence in the UK?

Why did ABBQ ditch Traeger? Or did Traeger ditch ABBQ?

It doesn't matter if nobody can answer any of the above.....i'm only being nosey:-)

[All Weather Griller]

I don't think anyone has been ditched. As far as I am aware Jacky (Owner of ABC) is moving to Egypt.

I think it is all still friendly between them. Unless anyone knows different.