Forgive me if this is posted elsewhere or re-direct me to the appropriate thread
I’m looking to get my first smoker and have landed on getting the Traeger Pro 34. Before purchasing, I wanted to get opinions from the group on safety. Assuming that general cleaning maintenance is done, is there any risk (or minimal risk) that there would be a fire if left unsupervised.
Being new to the world of smoking, any and all wisdom is appreciated
I am careful to place meat so that ALL drippings fall onto the drip pan. There is the "desire" to pack that dude to the gills, but that would not only restrict airflow but also put plenty grease where it does not belong and thus lead to a possible grease fire. I've done 6 briskets (barely) at one time in my pellee with zero problems.
Made that mistake on my camp chef, did 4 racks of ribs on the bottom grate. I actually had grease leaking out at the bottom. I will never do that again. The bottom of my smoker was filthy, and a big mess to clean up.
Minimal. As mentioned, always use a secondary drip pan. I have an inexpensive nonstick steel lasagna pan, so I can reuse it. Consider the factory drip pan a backup.
But pellet smokers are at this point proven. Could there be a fire? Yea. But then again I know people whose central AC compressor and/or condenser failed and caused a house fire. But my AC runs all night. So do millions of others all over Florida. But the odds are greatly in your favor.
I have had a Traeger for many years and have had no problems, so far, with fire safety issues. However, just today I was chatting with a friend whose son recently purchased a new Traeger (unknown which model) and after 4 cooks he experienced an overfeed of pellets that resulted in a significant fire in the cooking chamber. Bad enough that if they had left for a small bit of time that it would have been a very big fire situation at their apartment building. Not banging on Traeger by any means, I love my cooker, but I am very interested in learning what happened in this instance. I have experienced one overfeed issue in my unit, but it snuffed itself out.
I've only had a grease fire once, and I've been using outdoor cookers since the mid-80's. The drip pan is great insurance. The one I had was a few weeks ago. I have this Uuni Pro pizza oven, and I had it pumped up to about 850F. I was cooking steaks in a CI pan and made the mistake of putting oil in the pan instead of rubbing it on the meat. Still it was easy enough to fix. As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!
I agree with everyone on the drip pan. I had a fire when I first started using my Green Mountian Grill pellet pooper a few years back when I was cooking beef ribs for the first time. Lesson learned.
FYI, Traeger is replacing my friend's grill. I haven't heard what caused the problem, but it's a computer controlled mechanical device so things happen. But Traeger is making it right and whole, which has been my experience with them for years. They even answer the phone and return calls promptly. Buy with confidence.
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