Treager Jr. Review

by Chavel Silva
(San Antonio Texas)

We purchased our Treager Jr.last year in Sept. 2010. We live in Texas so if you have a covered area you can BBq year round. Although we bought the smallest one they offer, and it only puts out about 1950 btu's, the temp. gets up to 300 degrees in 40 degree weather, and 400 in 80 degree weather. We've cooked pork ribs beef ribs, fish, pork loin, steaks, veggies, all to perfection. This is the greatest grill I've ever owned. What ever I cook, I just set it, put the meat in, and walk away. I usually put the meat in the Trager and drink beer for two hours, then eat. Its made of good quality materials, and works great. If I had known I could've uploaded pictures I would have. The pellets that generate the heat cost 18.00-20.00 a 20lb bag. I can cook about 12-18 hrs on one bag. Thats about 6-9 BBQ's. Now I thought that was pretty expensive, till my wife pointed out to me that a 10lb bag of Kingsford Briquets cost like 8.00 and I'll only get 2-3 cookouts on it. And I always have to tend the fire to make sure it has'nt lost its heat or flared up. In the Treager, there are no flare ups, and the temp. is constant. I truly wish I could've afforded one of the larger one's but mine still cooks everything I have thrown at it in 2 hrs. or less. I could'nt be happier with my Trager, and plan to add the optional digital temp thingy. Thanks for a great product.

Traeger Junior Dissatisfaction

by Big Poppi
(Cincinnati, Ohio)

I bought a Traeger Jr grill about 2 years ago. I just parked it in the garage to go back to a Charcoal grill. Just bought the Char-Griller Super Pro. I also own the Weber Summit 650 natural gas grill. I have now used all three technologies for grilling. I have not been satisfied with my Traeger grill. It is easy for those that don't want to be hands on, when it works corectly, and does give better flavor than a gas grill. But nothing produces the flavor of charcoal and wood on a charcoal grill/smoker.

If you buy a Traeger, you better go ahead an buy the optional digital controller right away, because the stock controller is junk. The one that came installed in my Junior never worked right, it would do low or high - but medium was the same as low. I emailed the factory and they sent me a replacement controller which I had to install, and it works only marginally better than the faulty one. Sometimes right in the middle of cooking the fire just goes completely out, necessitating a complete restart. Very annoying. I don't dare cook on it without checking it every few minutes. Also, the smoke flavor is minimal on the Traeger, which may be fine for former gas grillers, but I grew up in Texas where we start a fire with charcoal and then cook with real wood. The Traeger is essentially a wood pellet fired convection oven. The fan blows all the time and you are cooking with convection heat that tends to dry out meat. It may be a good alternative to gas for those that don't have the patience to cook with charcoal/wood, but I'm going back to my roots. When I have the time I will cook on charcoal and wood chunks, if I'm in a hurry or just searing a tuna steak I'll use my Weber gas grill. I give up on the Traeger. It's just too unreliable.