Bull Dirty Temperature Probe Question

[marcusgee]

I’ve only had my Bull for a few weeks (after years of being a gas griller), so I’m still working out how to tame this beast. One thing that happened was that after a few cooks, the Bull seemed to get slow in reaching higher temps—it could take an hour to reach 500. On a previous post, a user mentioned getting the BFG augur to increase the feed rate, but RT support advised against it as that could make it harder to maintain lower temps.

Now I’m wondering if it might have been because I had neglected to clean the internal temperature probe. I ended wiping off a lot of cooking grime, which I found out is recommended after each cook, so we’ll see if I was just getting a false read for the higher temps. Was just wondering if anyone here had had the same experience.

Thanks!

 

[C. Keeper]

I’ve only had my Bull for a few weeks (after years of being a gas griller), so I’m still working out how to tame this beast. One thing that happened was that after a few cooks, the Bull seemed to get slow in reaching higher temps—it could take an hour to reach 500. On a previous post, a user mentioned getting the BFG augur to increase the feed rate, but RT support advised against it as that could make it harder to maintain lower temps.

Now I’m wondering if it might have been because I had neglected to clean the internal temperature probe. I ended wiping off a lot of cooking grime, which I found out is recommended after each cook, so we’ll see if I was just getting a false read for the higher temps. Was just wondering if anyone here had had the same experience.

Thanks!

Cleaning the temp probe doesn't hurt. Pellet grills are typically not fast at reaching higher temps.

 

[Waterboy]

Have you been cleaning out your fire pot? Too much ash in there can cause lots of different issues, one being slow reaching high temps.

 

[Lager1829]

On one of the recteq live shows, a viewer asked the chefs "how often do you clean your internal temperature probe?" Answer: "Never"

 

[jfrosty27]

On one of the recteq live shows, a viewer asked the chefs "how often do you clean your internal temperature probe?" Answer: "Never"

In nearly 2.5 years I have never cleaned the internal temp probe on my 700. No temp issues at all.

 

[marcusgee]

Have you been cleaning out your fire pot? Too much ash in there can cause lots of different issues, one being slow reaching high temps.

Yep! Got a shop vac and I give the Bull a full vacuum before each use (but then again, I’m compulsive about that sort of thing). Cleaning the probe definitively seemed to help—I did a high-heat cook with some burgers on my Grill Grates and was able to get up to temperature in about 35 minutes.

 

[C. Keeper]

Yep! Got a shop vac and I give the Bull a full vacuum before each use (but then again, I’m compulsive about that sort of thing). Cleaning the probe definitively seemed to help—I did a high-heat cook with some burgers on my Grill Grates and was able to get up to temperature in about 35 minutes.

Some folks swear by keeping the probe clean it helps to maintain temps.

 

[marcusgee]

Some folks swear by keeping the probe clean it helps to maintain temps.

It definitely seemed to speed things up for me!

 

[JGW]

I know that Traeger always recommended cleaning the probe if you were having temp issues.

RT doesn't say one way or the other, but I'd rather mine be fairly clean. It certainly won't hurt anything.