Traeger Grills Ranger Grill TBT18KLD Wood Pellet Grill and Smoker Black

Taking the star rating down to 1 from 5 stars. There is nothing they can do to The initial impressions are as follows As a first unit, I would not recommend it. It is made for traveling. Wood burners, on the other hand, are much cheaper and will give you the best smoke flavor (IMHO) if you plan on learning and smoking a lot. There are no things about these grills that make them ideal for BBQ or for competitive grilling. This is an oven with an electric fan (convection) that can produce a great deal of smoke flavor using pellets that are about 70 percent oak and 30 percent flavored wood (soaked in oils) within the pellets so that there is very little ash on the food after the burn. In this instance, you are told to use Traeger, and I will do the same. I don't see a big difference in price that makes me think so. They claim that bargain brands may not have enough oak for clean burning (just because they are less expensive). It is best to burn what the specialists tell you to burn, so don't bother with white puffs, my suggestion is to burn thin blue smoke. The tailgate chairs are made for travel and will be good for tailgating for four people at the most, as well as camping in an RV. If you are going to set this unit up, you need at least 40" above it, as well as 12" space around Also, the grill can heat up to 450 (or maybe a little more) so I won't just "set it and forget it" with kids around, and I'll at least watch it remotely on the wifi. Here are some facts that I couldn't find anywhere else As long as the gate and park picnic tables are level and do not obstruct the grease flow to the back of the unit into the bucket, they are fine. In a review I read, the griddle was said to weigh 12 pounds. There is no such thing as that. There are eight of them. It is likely that the grease tray, grill, and bucket add about 12 pounds to the total weight. There will be an additional 10 pounds of weight (about) if you do not empty the hopper. When carried all the way out, it should weigh about 47 lbs, so if you have to carry it by yourself, empty it out. It's still quite a heavy load Legs are the best place to lift things. Any meat that does not touch the top of your grease plate and is smaller than the grease tray is suitable for use if positioned carefully. Anything smaller than the grease tray and not touching the lid of your grill should be okay as long as it isn't touching the grill. It may not be possible to put a full packer in there, but you may be able to separate them and cook them It would be impossible to do Boston butts taller than 5 inches, however, you can do a pork shoulder or whatever else you want. I don't see how some are saying they have done both, but the dimensions I gave above are maximum dimensions that would be feasible. The fact that I did not understand pellet management in these things better before I bought them makes me remorseful. You cannot add additional fuel during a burn, so you have to fill the hopper completely for a long smoke. Because the hopper is inside, it makes it impossible to add fuel while a burn is going on without interrupting the smoke or hold/stall temperatures. You will find it to have what you As a whole, that's a small issue and it's easier for travel and storage since there is no outside hopper (or smoke stack) to worry about. The controller is Traeger has an issue (IMHO) with units still on shelves with bad controllers (the center button does not scroll to the timer, alarm, probe, and icons on the left of the screen do not display. As a result, your probe is useless and they are unable to resolve the Currently, manufacturers of rangers will not acknowledge that they are made in CHINA like most other smokers. In fact, dealers are having to pull rangers off the shelf to check for this defect. Traeger's help desk would not acknowledge this either. Your situation seems to be set up so that you Detailed shipping information I received the order on time, without any damage to the outer box (it came This is what you get when you unbox. Using a cart is a better way to get the box to its final destination rather than lifting it directly from the warehouse. The weight of the box can be reduced by about 15 lbs (estimate) after the heavy parts are taken out. By myself I lifted the box, but it was much heavier than I anticipated. Then I opened and inspected it and found no missing items, but they did give me an extra rubber foot, which is a good thing since every time you lift it, at least one of the rubber feet In any case, everything was packaged well and was able to fit inside the grill perfectly. You should wrap the grease tray until it burns completely as there is a sheen of oil on it. In addition, the grease tray will leave oil marks on your clothes, so you might want to wait until it is burnt. The starter pellets were not included, and the weather cover was not included (it had to be bought separately), nor did I expect samples of rubs or seeds. - Assembling and analyzing the quality of product Most of the assembly was done by hand. Rubber cups are attached to each of the four feet. It was tricky to put together since you have to turn the unit on its side or upside down so you can put the metal legs and rubber cups on using a Phillip's screwdriver and washer and bolt provided. There was also a heavy handle inside the lid for lifting (not for carrying). I like the screwdriver they give you, but it's By tightening the knob with the provided screwdriver, you do not get the proper bite and you may damage it if you continue to use it. Using a normal Phillips screwdriver will work best. The unit comes with a small bucket for grease collection on the back and a grease tray (heavy gauged metal) that must be inserted properly to allow the bucket to hang from it on the back. Despite its heavy and coated appearance, the grill is extremely durable. Iron is used in the making of this griddle, which weighs eight pounds. The weight is 5 pounds. Its external dimensions match the dimensions listed, and it is made of heavy gauge steel (very similar to the Weber I would pick on the hasps and hinges if I had to critique the quality. In my opinion, the lid hinge mounts need to be stronger to prevent the lid from being caught in the wind when it is up. The item will be modified with a safety strap when the warranty period ends. As far as the front hasps are concerned, they are adequate, but beefier ones The following instructions should be followed No manual has ever convinced me that it is perfect, and this manual did not do so. A portion of the initial burn to rid the site of chemicals and oils has not been completed. In the instructions, it says to go to Pri then 450 and let it burn for 30 minutes. Everything looks good so far, but when I click on the next page it does not tell me what I should do. It was clear I wouldn't have to cook anything today, so I chose to do the shutdown. Basically, the user is supposed to hold the center button for three seconds and it will turn off, then scroll down to shutdown and then alternate between temperature and off. My clock did not scroll down to anything and flashes with the time, not the As soon as the button is pressed the idle mode "[ ]" mode appears waiting for Are you sure it is safe to turn it It is not clear what is going to happen next or whether the project is "finished". By turning it off at the switch and unplugging it, I turned it off. So I should be able to cook with it once it is ready. Update(see below)
There are lots of warnings as you can imagine when playing around with fire, all of them appear liberally sprinkled throughout the rest is technical, but I haven't completed My next update will be after a few more The following has been updated as of My ARC controller was not fully functional, so the manual might have been not as detailed as it could have been. It did not take me to a timer or alternate temperature and time display when I pressed the center button. The probe is supposed to display an indication on the left of the panel when it is recognized and/or when the timer is running. In the case of mine, it didn't. Neither instructions mention if the probe has to be plugged into the system BEFORE it starts or if you can plug it in at any time. The timer mode is described, but since mine did not operate, I would have expected some troubleshooting directions in the manual. I don't think there is. I found in the troubleshooting section were error codes, which I did not encounter. Overall, I wish the troubleshooting section was more detailed. It is likely that the tech support will be using the same manual you are, so don't expect them to have any Ranger knowledge tips since they will just be using the same manual you are using. I made my first call to the Traeger help line. The first person I spoke with took less than two minutes and although he knew less than I did, he was pleasant to talk to and helpful. "Hello, are you there, hi. " I got the response next. And she wasn't able to hear me, the connection was lost. The connection must have been bad. I hope it was limited to that. It appears to have been the same person when I called back. In the end, we decided the probe should be plugged in while in the idle mode, and since I was in the middle of a cook, I should call back if that did not work. The timer mode entry was confusing to me so I just finished cooking and started again because I didn't know what to do. Despite the probe still not being detected, it may have been a false positive. Probe could not be recognized by timer mode, nor was it able to enter timer mode. After I called again, this person was very helpful with enough experience that she recognized something was wrong with the controller, and from there, I was able to set up for a new one to be shipped with an email containing the tracking number. It is still pending for me to get an email with the tracking number letting me know that it shipped, but I just wanted to keep you updated in case you were looking for As you might imagine, this isn't a "nightmare issue" or an unexpected problem Just to have this reason led me to Traeger, I'm glad I did. There are no reviews I have read on other brands, other than the usual "no reply" stuff. Their controllers have modules that can be replaced by plugging and unplugging. However, I don't expect these modules to last more than a few years (the warranty is three I have updated the shipping info for 7/22/2020 Apparently, I was supposed to receive another (second) controller, but it never showed up when I asked about it, UPS told me it was on its way to USPS, got lost, and then apparently found In their confusion, they went on to say that was the first controller replacement that failed and the second never got shipped due to their inability to locate it. They also mentioned that I had a video doorbell that never arrived, and it was never delivered. In any case, I'm taking them at their word that it got lost during shipment. My next update will be after the second controller replacement arrives. *To prepare food Traeger pecan pellets allowed me to cook two 1 lb cornish hens and some vegetables without the aid of a probe or timer. During testing, I monitored whether the temperature remained at the selected temperature or switched to another Generally, I found the system to be pretty accurate, and it was easy to guess when things were done. When I set the temperature at 270, it added pellets, went to 350, cooled off to 270, then went back to As I watched the temperature build back up to 300 and then drop rapidly to 270 on the grill, I saw the grill react to the heat. The temperature went back up and settled back down after I lifted the lid to get the serial number from the hopper lid during cook. A very windy day did not cause the temperature to vary more than a few degrees when the lid of the water container was shut. When there was a lid lifted off the stove, and pellets were burning off, the smoke was thin (as it should be). One hour and ten minutes later I took an instant read and pulled the grill off in its entirety. This piece of jewelry was loved by my wife. Heavy smoked chicken is not my cup of tea, and Traeger pecan smoke is not my cup of tea. I think that this is worth the extra money for pellet burners because they do not produce heavy smoke like charcoal or wood (in addition to the fact that pellet burners produce more consistent flavors from cook to cook) so I did not expect anything less. Hopefully I will contribute to your knowledge by making use of it as I travel around with it and use it more frequently. Once I receive the new module and install it, I will update this. The following is an updated 6/18/2020 version of the article We recently received a new module that performed the same as the old one! A typical scenario does not allow for this. Traeger told me to call them right away and they would walk me through the instructions to ensure I had the correct manual and that the module had It was determined that I needed to calibrate the probe, but I believed that if I was unable to get into timer mode, probe mode, or alarm mode, then calibrating the probe that wasn't being recognized when connected would not resolve my inability to scroll. My response to her was that I did not want to use the probe and that I was unable to scroll using the center button on either of the old or new controllers. In asking if I could speak to someone who owned a Ranger, I was informed that I would not be able to do so and I would only be able to receive a manual and some instruction. Her live stream did not work on my phone because of the web/antivirus protection I use, I've tried in FireFox and Chrome browsers, but it may be because I'm using the latest version of my phone's security protection. In the meantime, she took me on hold and after half an hour (more likely 15 minutes) the connection was lost again, so I called again and the 4th agent took me. Despite the fact that he seemed to be aware of the situation already, he was very patient while we repeated the live stream attempt with my wife's cell phone and ultimately used it. Since it is not possible to send back a unit once it's been used, it is likely they will ship controllers until they find one that works, and this is likely to be the case with green mountain or pit boss as well. In regards to the replacement of the controller, I was told it is easy to do and can be done There is no such thing as it, and there is no such thing as it. The two of my big hands were unable to fit into the small opening to plug or unplug connections, and youtube is not showing the arc controller model, only others. Here are a couple of useful notes In addition to years of training in electronics, service, and production, I've also handled helpdesk calls from time to time, and therefore my knowledge of all of this is extensive. My name is not going to remain the jokey customer I used to be after hanging up with you. As far as their responsibilities go, it makes no sense and they are doing their best to assist. So if you are that client, you will have a really frustrating experience with them. It is unlikely that the agents you speak with currently have access to engineers or techs. Not because Traeger agents aren't great at their jobs, but instead the company itself does not seem to be geared for great quality control and after sales repairs, which is why I'm giving it a 4 out of 5 I spent $500 on a grill (and accessories) that doesn't work, and I am surprised that they don't check out or update the equipment before sending it It's possible they know they will not work and are waiting for your call about the ones currently on the store shelves. As of now (because of the Traeger name), I am pretty confident they are going to make it right, but I might add a little nervousness to the mix a day or two from now. The way my wife is acting, I'm in a bad mood. When I tell you what's happening, you look at me with a blank look on your face. Throughout the year, I will update this to provide you with a handy guide to purchasing a travel grill. Be sure to check back! I have an update for you for 7/2/2020. After starting out with a 5, my review has been lowered to a 4, then to a 3, as this has turned into the typical helpdesk experience we all complain about, as the previous one was lost in shipment. There have been seven different individuals (none of whom is a technical support representative) and I have had to walk them through the issue a number of times. The traeger ranger or arc controller have never been operated by any of them. There is only a manual to read. There is no one with experience on my model who can put me in touch with them. There is no explanation for why three controllers malfunction at the same time. There is no way I can get a refund or replace this product. This is 7/7/2020 In other words, our situation has gotten worse in recent years. The company told me there was no record of a previously ordered (second) controller replacement when I phoned to check on the status of the lost then reordered again controller. It was after a 35-minute (officially timed) hold in which she asked the team leader for information about how to ship packages. You can track the UPS number they give you. It goes to "USPS is awaiting delivery" and there is no change in status. That really means that someone printed a label and notified shipping that a tracking number had been generated. She told me she had asked if the package had left the building (without checking) and that it usually takes 10 days to be delivered and that no one should be deterred by the above status. I am sorry for what happened to the previous controller (thanks for the tracking number, Traeger). A tracking number was provided to me as well as an order number, and the status of my order did not change after ten business days, so I had it In my attempt to prove that someone placed an order with me, I typed a long list of all the phone calls, names, times, order numbers and tracking numbers. However, there was no one to prove it with as their email came back saying it was an unmonitored The pellet grill won't be used until the 15th of July, so I'm here without it. Later I will update this and let you know if the new controller arrived and if it is actually fixing We apologize this post is so long, but it was a great chance to give prospective buyers more information that isn't available yet and let them know that if they choose to buy a Traeger Ranger but it malfunctions, then they are in for a lot of frustration. I've never dealt with a helpdesk that was as uninformed, unhelpful, or uncaring as this one. In addition, you can expect a wait time of between 25 and 30 minutes for an answer The call will last about 30 minutes (unless you get conveniently dropped) or you can press 1 and they will call you back about an hour later. The information below is a 7/17/2020 update. As a result, another controller was delayed for a longer period of time than expected. The device does the same thing whenever it is plugged in. What are the chances of three different controllers all malfunctioning at the same time? Can you tell me what the chances are? According to what I gathered from elsewhere, it appears to be pretty good. My opinion is that they will never be able to fix their problem. My next step was to contact Traeger HD and speak with another technician who was also helpful. We had to go through the same troubleshooting steps as we did with the 2 other controllers but I could not use the center button at all so we took it to the dealer to be resolved. In order to obtain a warranty request form with an authorization number, I had to call Traeger HD again. I became aware of this update today as well as the warranty request form. On 7/25/2020 To wrap this up, I wrote an update on the blog a few days ago, but it didn't It is possible that I have Hopefully, I'll be able to finish this within a few minutes. To get it troubleshot and possibly repaired, I was directed to take it to a local dealer. Despite their best efforts, they weren't able to Although Traeger offered an upgrade, they only had an outdated tailgater in the shop, and they recommended the PRO line, which is not travel friendly. It was a very helpful and empathic shop. As well as getting my money back, they advised me to contact the company. I had gone past the 30-day period with Amazon, but it turned out to be a warranty issue with Traeger, so they refunded me the money, no problem. The Ranger and Traeger help desks failed to provide me with any assistance. There is a good chance you won't be able to use it properly if you order one. Be sure to check out the controller BEFORE you start it so that you can make a return quickly and easily. There may be a resolution to this problem in a year or two, but for now it remains an issue. Personally, I have operated 4 different controllers on 2 rangers and each of them failed to work the same way. Apparently, there is an issue with some of the stock at one store that is pulling it off the shelf. As you discovered, everything is out in the open, and you may not be among the few who got lucky. So I would not order this hoping for the same result. * I have for over 25 years had the same Webber grill. In spite of the fact that it is hard to store, it has been left out all this time without causing any issues (except that I had to purchase new The augering pellet system is absent from the machine. In spite of that, the charcoal bag weighs about the same as the pellet bag, I can smoke larger pieces of meat than the Ranger, the latter is lighter, and it I am beginning to believe that the experience will be much better with a Webber and family than with a Traeger ranger and helpdesk technician.

Camila Love

| Dec 29, 2020

The time I saw the Ranger, I jumped on it with both feet. Before I started using it, I thought it was really great. Whenever I cooked chicken, hamburgers, or any meat, I encountered a lot of grease that ran down the sides and went onto my patio, causing it to be stained. As you can see in the pictures, I built a platform for the Ranger to sit on to catch Every time I use the Ranger, I wipe it down, but you get the same results each time you use it. Take a look at the attached pictures to see how the flaw was fixed. In the Ranger, the lip of the lid closes so that grease and juice flow down the outside of the Ranger, but then very little gets into the pail at the back. In addition to cleaning the furnace hole under the grill constantly, you need to spray water on whatever you're cooking to avoid the ashes hitting your food. In order to accomplish this chore, I had to buy a small handheld vacuum. You can't really BBQ your food on the Treager Ranger, it bakes it instead. There is no contact between the flames and A $400 was involved in this transaction. We are disappointed in the result of the 00. You may want to check out other options on the market. As a matter of fact, I am a Certified BBQ Judge, not that this matters to you.

Legacy BROWNE

| Feb 07, 2021

After putting in the effort to purchase the Traeger Ranger, I received a grill with defective It did not work with the timer or temperature probe, so I returned it, but was given another faulty unit in exchange. not an error on the part of the pilot. In order to ensure I was using Traeger software correctly, I contacted Traeger technical support. You have to be cautious if Traeger attempts to send you a replacement unit What is the point of paying for return postage on a brand new item that has a faulty part? Can't I just replace a new item without having to do any repairs? Thankfully I purchased my item through Amazon and received a refund from them very quickly. I have one more point to make. In order to empty the pellets from the hopper or to change the flavor of the smoke, you must turn the grill upside down and shake it until all the pellets are out. Traegers don't require an oil change, so my daughter bought a bigger model for her husband and himself, but I wanted a smaller model for husband and me. Considering this grill is too heavy to move around, I will stick with my little baby Weber portable grill, throwing a few pellets over the briquettes just Despite its price, I do not think it is worth the money.

Jamari Calderon

| Jan 22, 2021

Traegers have broken down for a long time now. While I awaited the parts, I have opted for this smaller version. I have owned many smokers over the years, but this is the best. I can't imagine it being easier to use. It cleans well and is easy to The quality is good, and the construction is.

Dorian O’CONNOR

| Feb 18, 2021