Traeger, you have to be kidding me

[markem]

Some of you will recall that last spring when I took out my traeger smoker that it died. The culprit turned out to be that I had left pellets in the auger and they swelled and jammed the auger taking the motor and possibly the circuit board with it. Okay, my bad.

So this past season I was very careful with my new $600+ traeger and at the end of the season, not only ran the auger dry but used the shop vac to both suck out dust and blow out dust. I covered the grill with the official traeger cover and stored it in the storage shed out of the elements.

Fast forward to today. I cleaned the whole thing yesterday and was happy. It was good to go and I planned on baby back ribs for dinner tonight. I'm drooling.

This morning, I plug in the traeger and turn it on to the lowest setting. I have no pellets in it as I want to make sure that the auger is working (see note on last year). Immediately trips the GFI. Reset, runs for a few, trips the GFI. Hmmm. Move it to a different circuit. Seems to work. Okay, that's fine for now. Reset GFI but leave traeger plugged in to the other circuit.

Runs on low for about 10 minutes just fine. However, when I turn the temp up, the auger does not increase speed as it normally should. hmmm, says me, this looks suspicious. The auger is turning but perhaps it is working too hard. I suspect some corrosion in the auger feed tube, which moves pellets to the ignition box. Nothing that I can really do except let it run and see if it will break loose whatever may be sticking. Still have an empty pellet box.

After about 10 minutes, the auger quits turning. It didn't trip the circuit, but it has all the signs of a blown auger motor (recall that I've been though this before). Call traeger and explain the situation. No chit, this is basically how the call went.

them: I understand your frustration, sir, but am I to understand that you did not store the unit in a heated location with low humidity. (they really meant some place where the temps don't get to freezing)

me: This is Oregon. I followed the instructions for storage to the letter, which didn't include heated and low humidity storage.

them: Well, sir, it sounds like you got some corrosion in the feed tube based on improper storage.

me: While the statement about corrosion may be correct, the statement about improper storage is not. These things are designed, and used to be built, 20 miles from my house. How can traeger build a product not designed to be used where it was built?

them: I do not have the answer to that question, sir. Since it is an improper storage issue, it is not covered by the warranty. You will have to contact your local traeger outlet and purchase another one.

me: <edited for family viewing>

The quality has been dropping for years and got really poor once they shipped to China. Although to be fair, the Chinese models don't seem to have the poor weld quality of the ones made in Pennsylvania.

I'm done. No more traegers for me. I can't afford to spend $600 on a product that lasts one year and fails because you followed their instructions. For those of you who bought on my recommendation, well, I'm sorry. I'm off to return the pellets I just bought and look at new systems.

sigh. pissed off. not happy.