Traeger

Really love the grill - makes some of the best home bbq I’ve ever had. The app makes using the grill extremely easy and convenient. Works perfect, great connectivity. Love using the probe. App comes with some great recipes and is very user friendly. Would really love to see a home screen widget, and ideally even a Live Events notification for better monitoring. The app does a good job with push notifications, even it’s closed. Would really love to be able to see things like grill/prob temp and pellet level at a glance on my home/lock screen without needing to always open the full app. Please consider for future version! Also - there’s a similar wireless probe to the Meater, but the app doesn’t use any algorithms to try and estimate when the food will be done based on the ambient and probe temperatures. Would love to see this incorporated as well to give an estimated time until complete. To put a cherry on top - would be great if that also factored in things like when to flip, how long to rest after pulling, and any additional time needed to sear after smoking. Thanks for considering!

But I’m a network engineer. My problem was I bought a floor model that had been returned, but guaranteed to be under full warranty. This was a problem only because it failed to connect over and over with multiple devices, 2 phones and an iPad. Being resourceful I google searched and got the fix: reset the WiFi device by pressing and holding the igniter button for 10 seconds while in the WiFi info page on the grill, then once one device registers the grill on my account, then other devices can log into the account and see and operate the grill. We used it first time today with a Webber standing by for a Jamaican jerk chicken cook. Used the timer, temp set and shut down features on the app because it’s WAY easier to read than bending over to read the LCD screen on the grill. That said, once the corn cobs were grilled, the chicken was cooked manually with the expertise of my wife’s data obtained from previous experience, (that’s DOPE in sniper speak for all you marine snipers out there....) Worked great! This is only the first time and we have not yet tried the probe functions yet. We do miss the smoke feature of the older manual unit which worked flawlessly. Loved it. As long as this one cooks well manually, I’m good. How I got connectivity to work so well was by hanging a WiFi range booster next to the grill, a certain Apple Airport express wall wart. Totally cheating, I robbed it off my network printer in the back closet! Like anybody still uses a printer anymore. Like I said, I’m a computer network engineer. Unfair advantage.😃

The smoker works great but keep an eye on it like you would an offset. Twice I have had it run out of pellets 2 hours before a cook ends because the app just stops alerting you. You can control the temp and settings but it stops sending notifications altogether. Traeger has also deemed it unnecessary to allow us to see our past cook data to compare to others so plan on again keeping it old school with written notes. They used to kindly send you “convenient” monthly review that included you data but as per my last conversation with their customer service, they no longer even do that. It’s no loss because to get the review as well as any emails for customer service/account issues (which there are a LOT on my end), you have to give them the okay to send marketing emails. I was receiving two a day before opting out which messed my entire account up. Over all, worst $1800 I’ve ever spent, garbage app, and even worse Customer Service. Even though the grills work as far as maintaining temp and getting good smoke, everything else being as unreliable as it is make me regret giving them money. Best advice, sell this crap and get a Yoder. Slightly more but WAY more reliable. If the market was flooded with used Traegers and they started losing money on new purchases, they would be forced to listen to customers and make changes. Not something they like doing.