Most Liked Negative Review

It's a Smoker

I'd love to give them a 5 – and certainly do for the food, but for the product, I have to drop to a 3. So I'll make it a generous overall 4. I think they rolled it out before it was ready. Customers should never be the Quality Assurance department, and at this price point, there should be zero issue...s. I have been using a lump charcoal smoker (Komodo style) for years, so know my way around smoking food. I was looking for a Natural Gas Grill for an outdoor kitchen I am building. I found the new Traeger Timberline and it said it was both a smoker and a grill, so I figured, one grill doing both products: Great! My lump charcoal smoker can also be used as a grill, but I liked the idea of "set it and forget it" temperature. Well, yes you can grill on it, but the first time it took 1 hour and 45 minutes to get to 450-degree. I was on the phone with support for an hour of that - maybe more. I ended up eating a ham sandwich for dinner. The second time it was quicker – 45 minutes. On a call with support, they told me the grill "learns" and will get faster each time. I hope so, because if it continues like this may end up with a gas grill anyway. They also said it takes loner because the heat is "indirect heat". It is not like a gas or charcoal grill where the meat is right above the flames. Makes sense. I will say this - the steaks were terrific. I cooked a couple whole chickens at 350-degrees. I smoked them first at 225 for an hour, the brought it up to 350. Didn't notice any issues with the temp. It got to 225 within 15 minutes and I wasn't watching it go to 350 – I was watching the meat temperature. They were terrific too – very moist. Smoked a 10-lb pork butt – very happy with that cook. Smoked for 22 hours with real issues. I have no complaints about the food cooked in this – just the time to temp when grilling – and I hope that improves. It seems like it is. Issues: My second wireless probe never syncs to the grill. The hopper is a poor design. It does hold an entire bag, but the hopper creates a hollow tunnel – like a whirlpool – where the pellets drop into the fire chamber. The pellet sensor is right over that, so I keep getting alerts that I am low on pellets, and I must move the pellets around in the hopper to make it happy again. Not cool on long cooks. The grill seems to send a "Pre-Heat Finished" alert after 15 minutes – never when the grill is actually to the goal temperature. I've mentioned this to Traeger support while on my calls with them – they say they are looking into this. Don't buy this expecting to get rid of your gas grill. This isn't that. Doesn't hold temp as well as expected. The walls are single wall construction, so it makes sense – I just wasn't expecting it to vary as much as it did – about 10-degrees hotter at times, and a few degrees cooler. On the plus side: The wireless technology is very good. My old lump charcoal smoker had a third party device that controlled the temperature and such, but it worked off Bluetooth. That was horrible. This thing lets me know what's going on no matter where I am in the house. That's a huge point in favor of this. Does a great smoke flavor. I don't notice the smoke rings that I saw on the lump charcoal, but definitely taste it. The end result is a really tasty meal. Traeger has exceptional customer support. I have never called for support and had the level of service these guys provide. They certainly set the bar for customer support.