There is a range of issues/faults which can develop on Traeger pellet grills, in fact, any pellet grill over time. Proper temperature regulation is a common issue that can often be addressed with a new RTD probe. In the most extreme cases, the Traeger control panel may be faulty. However, issues are more commonly related to other components. For instance, if your grill turns on but won’t fire up, the three potential issues are a broken auger motor, hot rod igniter or the combustion/induction fan is faulty. If it is the induction fan, luckily, that’s one of the easiest and quickest jobs to get your Traeger up and running.
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Important: Check out my Traeger error codes article if your grill won’t turn on, but you don’t know what the issue actually is.
Introduction To Traeger Induction Fan Replacements
To find out if the induction fan is the reason for your problem, first turn on the grill. Open the lid and watch to see if pellets are moving into the fire pot to discount the auger as the potential issue.
If the auger is working, you should then get down and look up under the hopper. You should be able to see the induction fan through the perforated plate under the hopper. If its not spinning, then it will need replacing.
What I would add is you should still leave the grill running for a few minutes to see if the hot rod igniter is working or if its also faulty. Without combustion air from the induction fan, a true fire may not start. However, you should at least see smoke to show if the hot rod igniter is working or not.
Legacy Traegers – How To Replace The Induction Fan
As I stated above, if the induction fan is where the fault lies on your Traeger pellet grill, you are in luck. Not only is it one of the easiest and simplest repairs you would need to carry out on your grill, but its also one of the cheapest.
You see, all of the older legacy (non-WiFire) Traeger pellet grills, even the smaller Tailgater portable pellet grill, use the same induction fan to aid combustion.
So first off, you cannot make the mistake of buying the wrong induction fan for your particular model of pellet grill. In fact, many Pit Boss pellet grills (except the PGT model) also use the same induction fan.
Below is a quick video from Traeger on how to replace the induction fan on your pellet grill. Unlike most repair work on a Traeger grill, you do not have to remove the pellet hopper body, which saves you from having to empty the hopper of smoking pellets.
The first step, which is very important, is to unplug your Traeger pellet grill from the 110V mains outlet.
Now while you don’t technically have to remove the hopper body on your Traeger to remove and replace the induction fan, it would actually make the job quite a bit easier.
Alternatively, on your lawn or patio with suitable padding, you could gently lay the grill on its side. That will not only give you a lot better access to see what you’re doing but you will be far less likely to drop and lose a screw.
D2/WiFire Traegers – How To Replace The Induction Fan
If you own a more modern Traeger such as a Gen 2 Pro Series, an Ironwood or a Gen 1 Timberline model your pellet grill/smoker will be fitted with a different induction fan, more closely resembling those that are fitted to desktop computers.
The first video below shows the fan replacement process on Pro Series models such as 575 or 780. Before you begin you should always physically disconnect your pellet grill/smoker from the source of power.
The fan replacement process on the more premium Ironwood and Timberline models as show in the video below is more or less the same. After disconnecting the power its simply the case of removing the power access panel and poping out the control panel as part of the fan replacement process.
Conclusions On Traeger Induction Fan Replacements
The induction fan has a very important role in feeding the pellet fire with sufficient air/oxygen. Luckily, as you can see from the videos above, the replacement of the induction fan is pretty/quick easy.
This article is one of many such post I have on fixing pellet grills/smokers, such as what to do if your Traeger control panel won’t turn on. Getting any pellet grill/smoker going after a fault is a process of elimination to find where the problem lies.
That’s it, thanks for reading, and I hope you found this post useful. You may also be interested in my other Traeger-related posts, such as the best Traeger accessories or how Traeger wood pellets are made. I have lots of other pellet related content as well, just browse my Wood Pellet Grill/Smoker Guide. 🙂
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