Stampede Weird temp swings today 🤔

[SmokingHokie]

Smoking a trout now at 225 and in the short time that I've had the 590, I've never seen swings like this. It's like a roller coaster. The outside temp is upper 30s but no wind to speak of. When I first fired it up, the temp inside said 77 and didn't budge for 5 mins and then shot to 225 in about 2.5 mins. Once it hits the target, it's pretty rock steady. Here's what I've jotted down:

11 min....225
16 min....176
19 min....225
21 min....257
24 min....225
32 min....169
34 min....225
36 min....295
43 min....225

Seems to have settled in now but very weird. Using Traeger's Alder pellets.

 

[Mastertech59]

Smoking a trout now at 225 and in the short time that I've had the 590, I've never seen swings like this. It's like a roller coaster. The outside temp is upper 30s but no wind to speak of. When I first fired it up, the temp inside said 77 and didn't budge for 5 mins and then shot to 225 in about 2.5 mins. Once it hits the target, it's pretty rock steady. Here's what I've jotted down:

11 min....225
16 min....176
19 min....225
21 min....257
24 min....225
32 min....169
34 min....225
36 min....295
43 min....225

Seems to have settled in now but very weird. Using Traeger's Alder pellets.

Generally this is caused by a pellet issue.

 

[ol' stonebreaker]

I had this problem with traeger pellets not long after I bought the 340. RT sent me a bag of RT pellets and the problem went away. After I used them up I bought Pit Boss and have had only one instance of temp swings.

 

[hypie36]

I had this very issue with Traeger apple pellets, it left this weird, lava rock like residue behind. I had smoke coming back through the pellet hopper at one point. I pulled them all out and went with a different pellet, problem solved, no issues since.

 

[Greg Jones]

Bad pellets and/or a dirty fire pot would be what I would check first.

 

[SmokingHokie]

It's been a few cooks since last cleaning the fire box, so I'll do that before the next cook. Never had a problem with Traeger pellets before but I'll keep an eye on that.

 

[Mastertech59]

It's been a few cooks since last cleaning the fire box, so I'll do that before the next cook. Never had a problem with Traeger pellets before but I'll keep an eye on that.

Make sure the fire pot is clean and the ash and clinkers are removed as necessary before startup, I just toss the fire pots ash into the grills barrel, the ash buildup on the bottom of the these recteq grills barrel is ok it's great insulation when smoking when it's cold outside.