If your like most people, it can be a real chore trying to keep your fire just right while you are attempting to smoke a brisket or a rack of ribs for several hours. My parents can cook a brisket in a traditional smoker that would probably win a competition if we entered them. Unfortunately, I didn’t inherit the ability to grill and smoke meats the way they do. This is what led me to purchase a Traeger Texas grill from Costco when the sales rep was in town doing a demonstration at my local store. Here is my story.
Initial Impressions
My initial impression of the Traeger grill was I thought they were very expensive. If you look closely at their grills, they are composed of rather thin materials. This didn’t stop me from purchasing a grill anyways. I had heard many great things about pellet smokers and I was very eager to give one a try for myself. After walking around Costco for a while trying to justify the cost to myself, I decided to go ahead and make the purchase. I loaded up a Lil’ Tex Elite Traeger grill ($699), 4 bags of pellets, and headed home.
Assembly
All Traeger grills require some basic assembly unless you purchase them from a dealer who offers assembled grills that are ready to go. Overall, assembly was very straight forward. Most individuals shouldn’t have a problem trying to follow along with the instructions provided. After assembly is complete, the next step is to “burn in” your Traeger so the heat will remove any chemicals and oils that are on the grill from the factory.
Cooking
Cooking on the Traeger is really easy. In the time we had ours, we smoked several briskets, cooked a few pizzas, and even baked cookies over the open fire. The burgers we made on this grill were some of the best I have ever had on any pit. With a pellet grill, there is an electric auger that feeds the fire box whenever the temperature drops. The sensor probe regulates the temperature you choose on the digital thermostat. You can literally set the temperature and forget the grill for 8 hours and come back to a beautifully smoked piece of meat. Because we were so impressed with the food that was coming off the pit, we returned our Lil Tex Elite and purchased the larger Texas Grill because we knew we would need more cooking real estate. This is where the story takes a turn for the worse.
Quality Control Issues
After bringing the larger Traeger Texas Grill home, we immediately started having issues within 24 hours of grilling. While I was cooking some burgers on the grill, I went to move the grill about two feet on a smooth concrete surface and one of the front casters snapped off. Luckily I had my hand around the handle and caught the grill from completely falling over.
I called the customer service department and they sent me out a new set of casters to replace both front rotating casters. They had mentioned on the phone that there was an issue with the casters on the Texas grill that they already knew about. I said thats fine and just went on with my business.
The next day I walked outside to fire up the grill and the digital thermostat would not work properly. The digital readout would only show the temperature if you had the unit set to high. Otherwise, the red numbers would not show up at all. I played with the unit for a while trying to get it to work with no avail. I called customer service and they went over a few troubleshooting techniques with me on the phone, but we couldn’t get it to work. They just recommended I return it to Costco and exchange it for another unit. I loaded up the grill in my truck and headed out to make the exchange (30 mile round trip).
Lets fast forward a few days.
I have now been cooking on my second Traeger Texas Grill for a few days and everything has been going great. Easter is slowly approaching and I have convinced all of my family to come over to our house for Easter so I can cook some amazing briskets on the new grill that I have been bragging about. About two weeks before Easter, I went outside to cook a few pizzas on the grill and I noticed I couldn’t get the grill to heat up to full temperature. Actually, at first I couldn’t even get the grill to ignite the pellets. The heat bar that is down in the pellet hopper would not heat up enough to ignite the wood pellets. Now I am starting to panic a little since I have to smoke several briskets in a few weeks for a large group of people. Let the fun begin.
Customer Service
I called the Traeger customer service line once again to try and troubleshoot the issues I was having. After going through several phone calls, the customer service reps could not fix my issue over the phone. They called a local dealer and arranged for them to pick up my grill, take it to their shop to service it, and then have them deliver the unit back to me. The problem with this scenario was that it did not happen this way. The dealer called me to let me know there was no way they could pick my grill up. They did not have the time.
I said fine. I will bring the grill to you. The Traeger dealer was 45 minutes from my house…. one way. That is 1 1/2 hours round trip to take my grill to have it serviced for an issue that was the fault of the manufacturer. The dealer let me borrow their demo grill while mine was in for service. The dealer had my pit for about 4 days and then called me to let me know it was ready. I then drove another 1 1/2 hours round trip back to the dealer to pick up my grill. They said the reason it was not heating up to full temperature was because it had a faulty heat bar in the pellet hopper. The dealer I dealt with was very courteous. I have no beef with that dealer at all.
I get the pit home and the grill cooks great for one day. After that I start having the same issue I originally had. The unit will not get up to full temperature. As much as I loved the way this grill cooked when it was working properly, my patience had run out. I decided to return the grill to Costco for a full refund. Costco was great to deal with and they gave me no problem at all when trying to return the grill. My beef is not with Costco either.
The whole time I dealt with Traeger customer service agents on the phone they were courteous. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was they never followed up with me on any issues I had. Even after having my grill at the dealer for 4 days, I never once got a phone call from them wanting to know if everything was working okay. I asked if they could ship me some pellets or accessories for the inconvenience and I never received anything. I later found out from the dealer that the Traeger family had sold the company to a retired professional athlete and since then quality has been going down hill. The dealer said the grills were now being made in China. I am not sure how much truth there is to this claim, but it makes sense.
Conclusion
While I love the way a pellet grill cooks, I cannot recommend the Traeger pellet grill to anyone. I spent over $100 in gas, time, and wood pellets trying to get my grill to work properly. For this, Traeger didn’t seem to care. I do not recommend buying a Traeger grill. I feel their quality has probably gone down in recent years and it doesn’t seem like this will change anytime soon. I even had two buddies that were so impressed with the pellet concept, they were going to purchase their own Traeger grills until I told them I was returning my grill.
One day I will purchase another pellet grill. When I do it will probably be a Mak Grill, Fast Eddy, or a Memphis Pellet Grill. The reason I haven’t purchased one of these units yet is because the size of grill that I wan’t is around $2000.
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