Treager facelift

[Mrfish]

Last year my treager started a grease fire with two briskets in it. Smoker went out in the middle of the night, and I just turned it off and then back on, went to bed.... Well, when it went out, it stacked a whole pile of pellets. Turning it off, then back on just lit a large pile of pellets, got hot enough to melt the brisket fat quickly and started an internal grease fire.

I must say it contained it well. When I woke up, all the paint was peeled off, the aluminium treager emblem on the door was melted off. The briskets where two pieces of 3"charcoal. Pretty funny when the wife asked if we could still eat them... After the shock wore off tested everything, but she never really smoked the same due to the door warping a bit.

Well this weekend, I did a rebuild on her. Sanded her down and gave her a new coat of engine block paint. Added 12 fire bricks inside and made a door seal with fireplace silicone.

Fired her up and wow. Went right to temp and held better than new. Smoked a beef and pork fatty to break her in again and the family is happy.

The rebuild didn't take as long as I thought it would and I wish I would have done it sooner. The mods make a big difference too.

Looking on the archives here really helped. Thank you!

 

[qnbiker]

Pics?

 

[hamiltont]

Happy to hear you got 'er resurrected & back on the trail again... Cheers!!!

 

[Mrfish]

I do have some pics Just need to invest some time in getting an online account to post them. Hope to soon.

 

[IamMadMan]

I do have some pics Just need to invest some time in getting an online account to post them. Hope to soon.

a lot of places have free accounts (with storage limits), free is good. Most ISP's offer a free webpage, you don't have to create a webpage per say, but you can also store your pics there in the root directory.

Check with your provider... I know Xfinity, Comcast, and Verizon offer free webpages with their service, use that for photo storage...

.

 

[tduffy]

did the fire bricks help even out the hot spot?

 

[Mrfish]

Yes, it helps a lot. I also put another thermometer in the hole on the bottom left where the treager emblem was. A little over grill level. That temp and temp on right hand top almost identical. What amazed me the most about the bricks is how fast it came up to temp and stayed very steady. Maybe a 5 degree up and down. Before the modifications, it was 20-30 degree swings.

The door seal helped a lot too, but yy door had a 1/4" gap on the bottom. It now has a nice almost thin blue smoke instead of the heavy white I was getting. Also, no soot. I think it had too much of an air gap and was struggling to keep up.

You have to shop around. Home depot wanted $29, but I got a six pack at Menards for $11. Bought two for a total of 12 thin bricks. It isn't any harder to roll around with the extra weight.

 

[vafish]

Where are you putting the fire bricks?

 

[Burnt Offering]

Where are you putting the fire bricks?

I am curious about this too. I have a Traeger deluxe. I love it but am always open to ways to improve it. I live in Alaska and I was thinking some fire bricks might help hold the heat during the cold winter cook outs.

 

[tduffy]

Where are you putting the fire bricks?

I believe they are placed around the fire pot and the rest of the bottom of the grill.

 

[NU2QN]

I have an 075 and place my bricks flat along the pellet shaft housing, two rows of two on each side. I place one upright to the inside of the heat shield and the remainder flat lining the bottom. Great for holding temps and quick recovery after opening the lid.

Congrats on your resto.

 

[vafish]

I have an 075 and place my bricks flat along the pellet shaft housing, two rows of two on each side. I place one upright to the inside of the heat shield and the remainder flat lining the bottom. Great for holding temps and quick recovery after opening the lid.

Congrats on your resto.

Thanks.

I have some firebrick leftover and an old traeger I'm playing around with.