So I had a hypothesis: The air pressure in a Traeger Ironwood XL caused by the OEM fan pushed the smoke out too quickly and it did not have enough linger time.
My experiment: Replace the OEM fan with a Noctua NF-F12 industrialPPC-2000 IP67 PWM and see what happens.
My results: Did not work. Don't bother.
Longer story: The unit fired up fine on my three test runs at 225F but the temps were all over the place. By the end of the 3rd test run the temps seemed to be under control. I chalked this up to the Traeger learning the new fan. Turns out it was just lighting too many pellets and then slowly filling up the firepot with ash and unburnt pellets.
The only cook I tried was some ribs. Things were going along well for the first 2 hours and then the Traeger powered off. I eventually tracked it down to my GFCI outlet tripping but before I got there I thought my Traeger had over heated so I quickly swapped the fans back. After resetting the GFCI outlet things picked right back up, I finished the ribs and abandonded my experiment.
I just went to fire things back up tonight and hooooboy was there a mess of unburned pellets in the burn put and ash that had not been blown out properly. No idea how those ribs finished. A proper cleaning and things are working fine again.
One thing I will say, the Traeger was whisper quiet when running with the Noctua.
by TheFiZi
7 Comments
Hey! It looks like you posted an image!
If this is a photo of one of your cooks, maybe share the recipe and techniques
used, as it’s almost guaranteed one of the first questions you will be asked!
*What seasoning did you use?
*How long did you cook it, and at what temperature?
*Did you use any special tricks or techniques?
Traeger on!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Traeger) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Well you swapped a 0.86 amp fan for a 0.1 amp fan. Thats a huge drop in airflow I’m sure. Maybe if you could find a higher output noctua.
As a fellow old timer computer nerd and a traeger owner this was super interesting. Thanks for sharing the experiment!!!
Not the crossover I expected, but certainly one I appreciate.
So interesting; thanks for sharing your results. Noctua fans are awesome and I’m bummed it wasn’t a good match for the Ironwood XL. I love my Ironwood but it’s so loud. I wish there was a good mod to make it quieter. I wonder if there is a different Noctua fan with similar performance characteristics of the OEM fan, but quieter.
I’m curious how it’ll work out
I’ve got a box full of noctua’s from old and future builds in my office and I’d be willing to sacrifice one for the science of meat smoking
Following
I think ultimatly this is what killed the idea: The Noctua doesn’t have enough oomf to clear the ash out of the burn pot. It eventually got filled with ash and new pellets wouldn’t ignite.
I couldn’t get it started today with the OEM fan, took it a part to inspect the burn pot and found this: https://imgur.com/a/wW4TDWI
That’s what I cleaned out today and I’m back in business but with the OEM fan. I guess the fan does two things, which makes complete sense now that I think about it, keeps the pellets burning AND expels the ash out of the burn pot and into the main chamber under the trays.
These are the Noctua Industrial fans: https://noctua.at/en/products/fan/industrial
There is a more powerful 12v model but it is not IP67 rated, then you get into 24v fans. The OEM fan is only 12v so you’d need to find a way to add more power if you went that route.