1 hour ago, Austalgia said:

Make sure you only use Traeger brand pellets.  Any other pellets don’t work. Think that’s by design.  After getting it started, keep it open for 10 minutes on smoke setting first before you set it to the temp you are going to cook your meat.  Also, you might have too much soot or ash in the hopper.  Make sure (when the grill is cool of course) that you clean out the granules and soot from your hopper, then refill with full pellets.  If you’ve already tried all this, I would return it, because it should smoke. 

Thank you. I’ll make sure I follow this. I’m also in ga and had my pellets outside in one of the airtight containers but it’s super humid here so I’ll try to bring it in. 

On 5/14/2025 at 10:28 AM, Dread-headed Texan said:

No, no, no that's not me lol. Im just getting started. I'm smart enough to know you don't jump right to an offset when you do. It takes time to learn to manage fire and if you're going to ruin the cook it's going to be because of improper fire management. So while waiting on my Traeger. I'll be curious to see what you guys and gals are grilling and any tips or suggestions on recipes to try. It is summertime after all, not much going on on the field, Lone Star Smokeout is happening in Dallas... So yeah what ya running and what ya 

What helped me tremendously was watching the Meat Church videos on YouTube.  They are short, to the point and almost fool proof if you follow them.  Their seasonings are outstanding as well.