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I own the Traeger Junior, and I was unhappy with the medium setting on the three position temperature switch (it was too hot, often close to 300 degrees), so I decided to upgrade.
I recommend installing the new controller by removing the hopper:
1. Remove the two screws on the old controller.
2. Remove the pellet hopper (it's only held on by 4 screws). I also removed the 4 screws on the bottom of the hopper to make the final installation easier.
3. Feed the old controller through the front of the hopper. This will allow you to completely remove the pellet hopper and get it out of the way.
4. Install the temperature probe (RTD) per the directions; the diagram isn't great, but it's much better than the written directions.
5. Cut all the the zip ties.
6. To keep from improperly connecting the wires or having to study the wiring diagram, simply disconnect the old wires (pull apart the molex connectors with a slight rocking motion)and reconnect the new wires ONE AT A TIME.
6. At this point your done with the connections. I turned on my Traeger briefly to make sure the fans turned on and the LED illuminated. Make sure there aren't any wires interfering with either fan.
7. I used lots of zip-ties to clean up the installation.
8. Feed the new controller through the hole in the hopper.
9. Attach the hopper
10. Attach the controller
11. Look under the hopper to make sure there aren't any wires interfering with the fan(use more zip-ties if necessary), and install the bottom of the hopper.
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I am a college student, so I bought the junior Traeger model, which does not come with the digital thermostat kit. After smoking my first set of ribs I went straight to my computer and bought this because controlling the temperature with the 3-speed was quite a pain. Many burger patties and racks of ribs later I am still completely satisfied with my purchase.Note: This takes a bit of work to install, so unless you are at least somewhat comfortable working with electronics then I would find a friend who is to install it. Still, don't let this deter you from buying it. The kit does not require any soldering to install.
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got thermostat quickly and in great shape, have older grill with smaller hole, followed instructions and fit in. turned on and works great have grilledand smoked several times since.Honest reviews on Traeger Digital Thermostat Kit BAC236
Installed on a Traeger Junior. Works great, with some limitations.-Install was pretty straightforward, but you should be comfortable with hand tools, and confident in disand re-assembling things. Also, have zip ties available. I took the advice of the reviewer who pulled the whole hopper/firebox assembly out of the grill first. Great idea!!! Just make sure you empty the hopper first. You'll still have pellet spillage from the auger tube, but totally worth the effort. Keep in mind you have two fans to keep the wire bundles clear of when you're putting it all back together, and you'll do fine. The only fairly tricky part (or advanced finesse part) is re-mating the hopper/firebox assembly to the grill body after the thermometer probe is bolted inside the grill and the lead has been run into the hopper body. You'll figure it out. I am experienced and competent with this sort of task; a proper, professional conversion to this thermostat took me about 45 minutes. And two tallboys.
-Performance and fine-tuning are much improved over the 3-speed controller, and that's exactly what I wanted. This unit totally delivers. The feedback from the digital grill temp indicator is nice. I compared the digital display to a calibrated grill thermometer over a 3-hour smoke. Concurrence ranged from spot-on, to +/20 degreesF. This is likely due to the vertical orientation of the Traeger controller's probe. Overall, the onboard digital display is useful and can be considered a decent general guide to average grill temp over time. You will still need to periodically monitor your grill to ensure that you're not going over/under your desired grill or smoke temp. If you're pretty hands-on (OCD?) like me, upgrading to this unit will not give you true "set it and forget it" capability, but it is MUCH better than the stock 3-speed "dumb" control.
-Be aware that there is NO feedback from the temp sensor to the auger drive! They are separate! The temp on the grill does NOT influence the behavior of the auger timing. What you get with this unit is a much finer resolution control of the auger's dump behavior (by virtue of the increased number of set points on the dial), plus a feedback from the digital display of what's going on inside the grill temperature-wise. The dial setting and the digital readout are VERY roughly correlated, but actual working temp on the grill varies depending on ambient conditions, wind, moisture content of pellets, etc.
-Startup sequence is pretty genius. Once the new control was installed, I ran a test burn on the grill by powering on and setting to "smoke", per Traeger's startup advice. After about 3 minutes, I got really worried and thought I had a runaway controller! Set at smoke, the grill temp was 450+ degrees once it got going. I was not happy, but let it run a bit longer. The auger speed settled down (once the fire was well-established), and all was well. It appears that the controller is programmed to run a startup sequence that will ensure positive firebox lightup and grill chamber pre-heat, then settles down to whatever setting you've put it on. This behavior has been consistent over many subsequent grill/smoke sessions, and no longer freaks me out. I just expect the grill to blaze hard upon startup, then settle down and cook as I have it set.
Overall, this product gave me exactly what I wanted in terms of vastly better control of Traeger temp while cooking, plus a general indication of grill chamber temp. Install was reasonable, and I'm quite pleased. No regrets AT ALL about this purchase (except that Traeger put these on sale on their website for $20 less, the week after I installed mine. Timing is everything!).
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