Traeger Ironwood 885 Wi-Fi Controlled Wood Pellet Grill W/ WiFIRE & Pellet Sensor - TFB89BLF

The Skinny:

• The original wood-fired pellet grill brand
• WiFIRE Technology allows you to control the grill from your smartphone
• Variable speed fan creates a powerful smoke vortex inside the barrel
• Double side-walled insulation retains heat and saves fuel
• Low-pellet sensor alerts you when cooking fuel is low
• Industry’s first brushless DC motor gives more power to the auger

Things We Love:

As the original pellet grill brand, Traeger is a pioneer and the most popular name in the pellet grill industry. The Ironwood is the latest series of smart grills from Traeger. You can grill, smoke, bake, and barbeque over a wood smoke fire at the push of a button. Take your grilling to the next level with an unprecedented lineup of features, including a D2 Controller, Turbotemp, SuperSmoke, TRU Convection, WiFIRE, and more.

D2 Controller

The brain of the Ironwood is Traeger’s innovative D2 Controller. The D2 is a PID controller, allowing the fan to use variable speed, speeding up or slowing down as necessary to reach and hold the desired temperature and smoke level. The D2 comes with 1 temperature probe, allowing you to monitor the internal temperature of your food from the controller interface, or through WiFIRE.

WiFIRE

The D2 controller uses Treager’s WiFIRE technology, allowing you to remotely monitor & control temperature, set timers, and shut off your Ironwood grill from your smartphone. The app can connect to your grill from any place where WiFi is available, and has no maximum range. The Treager smartphone app also gives you access to GrillGuide, which has hundreds of digital recipes. You can download the recipes directly to your WiFIRE enabled controller. GrillGuide will then program the entire cooking cycle from start to finish, changing temperature, smoke, and air circulation automatically as the recipe progresses. The Traeger app connects you to thousands of other users in the Traeger community and lets you shop Traeger accessories or wood pellets for the Ironwood from anywhere.

Direct Drive

The Ironwood’s D2 direct drive pellet auger takes advantage of a brushless DC motor to achieve higher torque at lower RPM, making it more powerful and less likely to clog. Since brushless motors have fewer moving parts than brushed motors, the auger’s motor is more resilient and will work longer without requiring maintenance. The brushless motor allows the auger to move the same amount of pellets while using less energy than earlier models.

SuperSmoke

The Ironwood’s D2 controller also includes Traeger’s SuperSmoke mode, which drops the temperature inside the grill down to 175 degrees and cuts off the fan, resulting in incredible smoke production. Use this mode for the first few hours when smoking low and slow to infuse your food with amazing flavor and produce beautiful smoke rings in your ribs, briskets, or roasts. Then kick your temperature back up to take advantage of TRU Convection heat transfer.

TRU Convection

TRU Convection combines the pill-shaped design of the Ironwood’s barrel with the powerful variable speed fan to create a vortex of smoke inside the grill. The smoke rolls around the barrel to coat your food in delicious smoky flavor. Traeger has moved the exhaust vent to the bottom of the Ironwood, preventing hot air and smoke from exiting at the top. This creates even heating because the air is not drafting through the grill, pulling hot air upwards and out. The Ironwood also has double side-walled 304 aluminized steel insulation, resulting in outstanding heat retention and even less fuel needed to maintain high temperatures. The Traeger Ironwood produces amazingly consistent temperatures from left to right and top to bottom thanks to TRU Convection.

Downdraft Exhaust System

The angle of the exhaust channel along the backside of the grill only allows smoke to exit the grill if it’s rolling around the vortex inside the barrel of the grill. This means that smoke cannot leave the grill until it has circled all the way around the barrel and is moving along the bottom of the grill. This further contributes to the incredible smoky flavor achievable in the Traeger Ironwood.

Sizes

The Ironwood comes in 2 sizes, the 650 and the 885, which refers to the total amount of grilling space available between the Ironwood’s 2 cooking grates. The Ironwood 650 has 650 square inches of available cooking surface, and the Ironwood 885 has 885 square inches of total cooking surface. The grill’s adjustable main cooking grate can be raised or lowered for even more control over cooking surface temperatures. The grate can be lowered to take advantage of the more intense heat nearer to the fire pot, or raised for normal smoking. The Ironwood also contains a secondary adjustable cooking rack for large cooks.

Design

Like other Traeger models, The Ironwood’s classic sawhorse design and all-terrain wheels result in excellent durability and maneuverability. The Ironwood has an extra-large hopper capacity, holding up to 20 pounds of Traeger hardwood pellets. It also has a magnetic hopper cleanout so you can quickly change out flavors of pellets on the fly. The grill comes with a stainless steel side shelf complete with BBQ tool hooks. An additional stainless steel front shelf can be purchased separately as an accessory.

Things to Consider:

While the Ironwood can certainly hold its own with Traeger’s most advanced series of grills, it does lack a few of the features of the Timberline series. While testing, noticed some smoke loss around the top of the Ironwood's lid, but this did not affect its ability to maintain temperature. The Ironwood doesn’t have the built-in pellet sensor, stainles steel grill grates, concealed grease pans, or magnetic cutting board that come standard on the Timberline series.