The Texas BBQ Forum

Sorry if this has been addressed. I searched but couldn't find it. My Traeger is a couple years old. When I bought it I got a cover with it. After a cook last year, I put the cover on it, but apparently there was some moisture on the hopper lid. When I removed the cover for the next cook there was some serious discoloration on the lid, and since then that discoloration has encompassed the lid of the smoker. What I mean by discoloration is it as if the shiny clear coating has been removed and the gray is multicolored. Anyone experience this? I'll throw this out there: This grill has been a huge problem from the date of purchase with controller issues, fan issues, etc. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Welcome aboard but I can't help with the issue I have never had a shiny model "T".
I have had all of my pits discolor though whether black, stainless or whatever.

Sadly, I'm not surprised that you're having issues. I had a Traeger Pro 34 that we'd bought last year. Nothing but trouble out of the box. One of the probe ports was dead, the thing couldn't maintain an even cooking temperature to save it's life if the temperature was below 60 degrees, it was burning paint off the interior (NOT the kind of smoke I want my meal flavored with), and Traeger's customer service kept giving me the run around.

Long story short, Traeger is coasting on their name and once stellar reputation nowadays. The old Traegers are amazing. The new ones aren't worth their weight in scrap in my opinion.


Getting to your specific issue though, you've got three options that I can give you based on personal experience:

1) Try getting a rubbing compound at an auto parts store and see IF that removes the discoloration without taking off the paint. That's iffy, based on how you described the paint. You might get lucky though and it's a cheap fix.

2) Get a replacement door from Traeger. Problem is, you're likely to have the same issue again with the new one.

3) Repaint the existing door. To do it right, that would involve removing it, hot tanking it at a machine shop to remove all the old paint, and then repainting it with a good high temperature paint like they use on engines and racing exhausts. Doig it that way SHOULD make your door all but bulletproof (figuratively) at that point.


PS: That said, Papa Tom is right... Eventually all grills are going to discolor over time. 2 years old though and you say you kept it covered... no way that should happen.