The Texas BBQ Forum

Not a newbie but not anywhere near a seasoned bbq'er. I had good success with my previous Traeger so I thought I'd get a Traeger Timberline 1300. Yesterday I started it up like I always do and after a few minutes it started smoking so I closed the lid. After several minutes I noticed a lot of smoke and I looked at the temperature and the readout said "low temperature error". I thought it strange considering all the smoke it was producing and opened the lid. I immediately saw flame coming from under and in the rear of the drip pan so I turned the Timberline off right away and pulled the plug. It wasn't a HUGE flame but it was definitely a flame. After cool down I took the grill grate, drip pan and heat diffuse out and noticed a lot of pellet build up in the firepot. I cleaned everything up and started the Timberline again. After a few minutes of watching I smelled smoke and then a slight flame started where the auger pushes the pellets out into the firepot.

I need help. Does ANYONE know the cause of the fire and what the heck do I do now??? I am NOT the most mechanically inclined person. From what I hear I guess I am lucky because this is the first major problem I've had with a Traeger.

Might not be a problem at all.

Yours is much newer than the Traegers I've owned but @ startup the controller feeds pellets for 4 minutes while the igniter is getting hot to light off the pellets sometimes the ignition is slower than others so a lot of pellets fill the cup.
When this happens there will be a LOT of smoke B4 a good fire develops.
I suggest leaving the lid open at startup until you can hear the swoosh of the fire going and the smoke diminishes.

Wait until you let the thing go too long without cleaning and get a grease fire..........now that is a FIRE!

"...…………..@ startup the controller feeds pellets for 4 minutes while the igniter is getting hot to light off the pellets sometimes the ignition is slower than others so a lot of pellets fill the cup.
When this happens there will be a LOT of smoke B4 a good fire develops."

Ohhhhhhh……… it was a good fire all right. As for a lot of smoke...……….. let me put it this way: I've had 2 different Traegers in the past 5 - 6 years and have NEVER had this much smoke.

"I suggest leaving the lid open at startup until you can hear the swoosh of the fire going and the smoke diminishes."

After I cleaned the Traeger out after the first fire I started it up without putting anything back so I could actually watch the auger dropping the pellets down into the firepot. So yes, the lid was open the 2nd time until an unnatural fire started the 2nd time.

Thank you anyway.

CGM is that ? your explanation or question?
I am trying to read and understand what you are saying, like the others on here we like to help..
since this is your second or third Traeger you may be having maintenance problems.
if you could please expain a little more in detail, I still have my original Traeger from when the were built stateside.

Don't know if this is even related but when my Pit Boss started flaming up real bad, it turned out that all it needed was a GOOD cleaning. So I bought some wire brushes that would attach to my drill and cleaned the fire pot real good along with the rest of the inside. That has been several months ago and I haven't had any trouble since. Good Luck with this, I know it can be a PITA sometimes.

Some of you folks that are lucky enough to own the older ones when Traeger was still the gold standard are lucky. They burned me (figuratively) and my elderly parents though so they're on my permanent poo list.

Now as for the original post... Timberlines I thought worked a bit different than the older traditional design models. With the Pro 34 I had, you had to keep the door open the first few minutes for the fire to get going properly, and there was something in the owner's manual about making sure there wasn't a ton of ash or pellet dust in the fire pit. Given that I'm not familiar with the differences with the Timberline's design, I'd say make sure the fire pit is clean and check the troubleshooting section of the manual. OK scratch that... I just DL'ed the manaul for the 1300. No troubleshooting section at all. Well, there's always Traeger tech support. Of course these are the same people that told my mom to stick her hand in the hopper and push pellets down into the auger.

I picked up a timberline 850 the other day - first time I started it I saw a small flame peek out past the plate (drip plate?) at the bottom toward the back - I'm unfamiliar with pellet cookers but the small flame went away and the cooker seemed to work fine afterwards. I'm not sure if a visible flame is unusual, I'm used to cooking on other smokers, so I'd think that is normal operation.

This past weekend's cookoff - traeger performed perfect over night, but about 9am the temp started dropping... and kept dropping. The meat's temp began dropping and was 10 degrees down when I restarted it once with no change then again - the second time it seemed to be fine. But then it began climbing and kept climbing. Once it passed 325 I opened it and saw a flame coming out from underneath one side of the heatshield/drip shield.

I shut it down and moved everything to the backwoods smoker. Once it cooled down I pulled the grates and heat shields and the bottom heat shield was over 2 or 3 inches. It's the only thing I could see that was off so I re-assembled and restarted - it worked fine after that. I have no idea how it performed well all night but then screwed up so badly but it cooked well the next few hours and is pegged at 225 right now while I smoke some salmon