Pellet Grill Upgrade Delay


 
Bob Bailey

Bob Bailey

TVWBB Guru
Decided that it was time to usher my 10+ year old Traeger into the present time. It was still operating with all original parts. Ordered a PID controller with 2 meat probes and a new temperature sensor (RTD), as well as a new hot rod (igniter). Pretty straight forward upgrade that took just over 1/2 hour to complete. Plugged the grill in and cranked it up. Everything went well for about 3 minutes. Just as a bit of smoke began to appear, the grill shut down. No auger, no fan & no display. Reset and still nothing. Checked the outlet and had power. Crap! Hooked the old controller up and everything worked just fine. Went thru the process on Amazon and the replacement was approved. Will be Friday before it arrives :(

This reminds of my auto repair days. If there was a defective part on the shelf ------------I got it. Some things never change!
 
I have a Traeger Lil Tex and did the same thing about 5 years ago. I also bought all stainless steel fire pot, and both diffusers, cost a few bucks more than I wanted to spend but the upgrades were worth it. The company that made the stainless parts went out of business after they tried to make a better all stainless pellet grill, I was thinking about buying one but they disappeared. I'm sure with the amount I use the pellet pooper with the upgrades it will wind up with someone after I'm gone. I changed from the PID controller to the newer computerized one with auto shut down and smoke settings. I just looked up that kit and it's way cheaper from Amazon than when I bought mine with individual parts from Traeger.:cry:
 
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Mine's a Lil Tex Elite. Got it in 2013, before Traeger quality took a dive, and it's still going strong after heavy use up until the last 2 or 3 years. Figure it'll see me out after the upgrade. 10-4 on prices. Just a bit over $70 for everything to essentially turn it into a pro series.
 
LMichaels said:
PID is supposed to be the best. Can you provide a link?
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The research I did said the PID has a hole to change the settings. The computer one that came out later has the auto shut down and smoke settings. After all of the improvements I made I got the WSK and only use the Traeger for my 3rd backup or long cooks that I need to do other things. The computer controller at the time was over $100 by itself. The PID is good if you like to change the feed rate. I like set it and forget it. 😁
 
My Camp Chef has a very basic non Wi-Fi controller. After three years of zero failures, I'm not about to mess with installing a PID. I know the PID would give me a few more options, but like I said before Murphy is my cousin and lives in the shadows of my life and I'm not going to take any chances on screwing up a good thing.
Compared to my former WSM the Camp Chef is totally hassle free.
 
The controller I'm going to use has a button for changing P settings. No more sticking a paper clip through a hole. It also has a shutdown mode, a simple process to set up for your grill size and another to narrow any deviation between the RTD and the center area of the grate. Not sure if it will work on anything other than Traegers. B0B12KPQKL is the ASIN (Amazon Standard Item Number) if you want to search for a similar one to fit your grill. Just enter it in the search box.
 
Pretty sure your Camp Chef is a PID. PID doesn't have to be WIFI, that is simply a function some have and some don't. I.E. my Member's Mark is PID but no wifi or other programming. Just basic temp control
My Z is PID with WIFI but even it too is pretty basic. No programming or anything.
 
Rich Dahl said:
My Camp Chef has a very basic non Wi-Fi controller. After three years of zero failures, I'm not about to mess with installing a PID. I know the PID would give me a few more options, but like I said before Murphy is my cousin and lives in the shadows of my life and I'm not going to take any chances on screwing up a good thing.
Compared to my former WSM the Camp Chef is totally hassle free.
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I know Murphy all too well Rich. That's why I'll be saving the original controller that's worked well for 10+ years :)
 
LMichaels said:
Pretty sure your Camp Chef is a PID. PID doesn't have to be WIFI, that is simply a function some have and some don't. I.E. my Member's Mark is PID but no wifi or other programming. Just basic temp control
My Z is PID with WIFI but even it too is pretty basic. No programming or anything.
Click to expand...
Actually, it isn't a PID. About three months after I bought mine CC came out with a PID upgrade for my model and all the new ones came with the PID upgrade. The upgrade gives better smoke control and tighter temp swings and the remote monitoring. I would like to have the tighter temp control but just not going to take the chance.
As far as the remote monitoring not interested in that as I won't leave a grill totally unattended so it's not a big deal for me. My smoke works just fine.
 
Unlike Rich, I did the upgrade on the Camp Chef controller. Our grills are almost identical. New features on the new controller worked well until I made the mistake of downloading an updated app on my phone. All the features work fine on the controller, but I've never been able to get it to connect to my phone again. Of course, it is always a weekend, holiday, or after hours so I haven't resolved the connectivity issue, but the smoke control is much better than the original controller.
 
I believe most auto cruise control systems are considered PID systems. Don’t let the overuse of what‘s become a buzzword in pellet grills fool you. It’s purely used as marketing and advertised more on cheaper grills to make you think they are good as the other guys. PIDs require logic, so how good they are depends on the amount of effort and testing in the logic. Just like some cars hold their speed better up and down big hills on cruise control. Those manufacturers likely invested more in the logic. The example probably sticks better if you think about cars 30 years ago.

In all honesty, my experience is Traegers cook better with the old controller. The timing based design allowed more smoldering cycles to creat more smoke. You might have to tweak P-settings to keep temps close as seasons change, but better results. Then wireless thermometers came out and everyone started freaking about the grill swinging 20 degrees over and under the dial temp and all the whining made everyone go to PIDs so people quit freaking over nothing. The result was less smoke, but quieter customers. BTW, take that wireless thermometer and watch your oven sometime, don’t know how the oven industry has avoided outrage…probably because it doesn’t matter as much as we think when we watch too closely 🤪
 
Yeah. Both my grills typically never swing more than + or - 10 deg. Hell my $1500 LG POS range can't hold within 50 deg! Let alone 10!
 
I'm actually in the process of upgrading my pellet cooker from a standard non-PID to a new PID with Wifi. Did I need to? Definitely not, but on my old controller there is a pretty big gap in the temp set points (it jumps from 250 to 300). Plus I would like to be able to check the status of the grill from my phone during overnight cooks. Since we are talking about temp swings, I thought I'd share a couple of things with the group. Since I wanted to establish a baseline before I upgraded, I performed some tests on the grill with a bunch of temp probes. These graphs all use the same ~30 time period, and the vertical axis scale is the same. The grill was set at 225 degrees and I waited for it to settle in before taking the readings. I've got a little bit of a hot spot on the left side of the grill (where the red probe was), although it really only became noticeable after the temp swings tightened up.

Stock grill with old controller:
1690293668545.png

Old controller with grill modifications to better control air flow:
1690293777783.png

New PID controller with same grill modifications:
1690293876962.png

Same as the PID graph above, except I moved the red probe out of the hot spot:
1690294050272.png

As someone mentioned earlier, I'm expecting to get less smoke flavor since I'm not getting the big temp cycles, but I still have a "SMOKE" mode available that I can use for the first few hours before I set an actual temperature. Plus, I usually use a smoke tube. Anyway, I'm not advocating one way or another. I was happy with my old setup once I got the hang of it. Just thought I'd throw some data out there for fun.

The other thing I've noticed is that the temp probes that come with the grill (or more specifically, the controller) really smooth out the hills and valleys in the graph. It makes it look like there is almost no variation in the grill temp, although my after market temp probes show otherwise. Here is the graph from the controller (same test as my 4th graph above). The orange line is the controller temp probe, and the other two are meat probes that I set on the grates. The first 10 minutes were the startup procedure with the lid open. It seems like everything is locked in +/- 5 degrees for the entire test.
1690294526028.png
 
What controller are you buying? I am interested in upgrading the MM to WIFI. That (other than the smaller size) is one of the few limiting factors for me with it
 
I've got a Pit Boss pellet grill, so I just grabbed one of their newer PID models. It wasn't even an exact fit in my cabinet so I had to do a little sheet metal work. Everything else was plug & play. Not sure if that would work for your MM. I'm assuming one of the more universal PID's out there might be a better fit. If you want some dimensions of the cutout and pictures of the wiring harnesses, just PM me and I'll send you details.

The other downside is that you would need to use the Pit Boss app to control it. It is definitely not the best option out there from what I've read.
 
+-10* is really good in the real world. My original Traeger controller was +- 25*- 30*. The new one gave me 10* shift. Sometimes we get too hung up on temperature, if you check your oven you will be shocked but it's the results that matter.
 
Even with the original controller, my 2013 model Traeger still keeps a tighter rein on temperature then our gas oven in the kitchen. I'm looking forward to the temp probes and a bit more smoke, as reported in several reviews, with the new controller. Also, will feel better having new RTD and hot rod. Never had a problem with the +/- 30* but I seldom use the Traeger for anything but low & slow cooks.
 
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