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Traeger Pro 575 Wood Pellet Grill

Backyard Living is the Danish distributor of all varieties of Traeger and Napoleon grills.

The technical specifications:

• Digital temperature control with a precision of +/- 7 °C (avg. measured over 1 hour)

• Receive recipes from the Traeger app and download them to your grill

• Made in powder coated steel with grates in black porcelain enameled steel

• Storage compartment for one probe, and one included probe

• LED display

• Two tiers of grill grates with grill grates in stainless steel

• Adjustable chimney to exhaust “used smoke”

• Temperatures from 75 °C up to 230 °C

• Pellet hopper with room for 8,2 kg Traeger wood pellets

• Power usage: 300 W the first four minutes and then 50 W an hour

• Cooking area: 3,690 cm² (575 square inches, hence the name)

• Dimensions: 134.5 x 104 x 68.5 cm (H x W x D) and 58 kg

Traeger offers a range of accessories, and we’ve of course received a variety of these. How about enjoying a cup of warm coffee in your official Traeger cup, whilst taking in the delicious smell of pulled pork being prepared on the Traeger Pro 575. 

Watch Søren from Backyard Living go over the Traeger Pro 575 grill in the video above.

Traeger Pro 575 is one of the smaller models, from the Traeger lineup, with its cooking area of 0.369 square meters, which translates into 575 square inches. That’s where it gets its name from. The grill is made in powder coated steel.

The assembly process is pretty straightforward, but since we are dealing with a grill of upwards of 60 kg, it’s a task that requires an extra set of strong hands. In addition, according to the assembly instructions, a six pack of beer is also required during the entire assembly process. The Traeger Pro 575 comes partly assembled in the sense that the grill chamber, pellet hopper and pellet auger is assembled in advance. This means that all you need to do is to mount the legs, chimney and grates.

On the lid, you also need to mount the brushed stainless steel handle, which gives a strong feeling of quality, despite this being one of the cheaper models. 

In general, I love the fact that there isn’t any noteworthy gap in quality when dealing with the Pro 575 and the higher end Timberline 1300 grill, despite the large price difference between the two.

The chimney is mounted on the side with a gasket between it and the main chamber so the heat and smoke can only escape via the intended channels. The chimney is a neat feature, but this is also where Traeger has made compromises in regards to the Backdraft Exhaust system of the Ironwood, and above, models. 

The pellet hopper on the Traeger Pro 575 has a capacity of 8.2 kg. Traeger notes that it is a requirement that you use their own selection of wood pellets that are a mix of tree, water and oil. The oil is added in small amounts, which thereby maintains the auger by greasing it when in use. 

Traeger’s wood pellets comes in many different varieties, of which some have a more significant flavor of smoke than others. In my experience, I’d go with either apple, cherry or alder tree, if you are not too keen on a powerful smoke flavor. The remaining pellet variations increase rather much in the smoky quality, with hickory at the very top. There’s also blends, like the Texas Beef Blend, that is well suited for beef such as brisket etc. The Big Bame Blend is for you, if you’re into intense smoke flavor as it is a blend of hickory, mesquite and oak.

As with the Ironwood 885, and in general all other Traeger grills, there’s a grease collecting system on the Traeger Pro 575. The grease from the cooking is led down the grease drip tray inside the grill and exits the grill via a chute as depicted above. You can also purchase aluminum bucket liners which makes it easier to dispose of the cold and stiffened grease that will eventually fill the bucket. 

Between the legs of the grill are two stiffening plates that are decorated with the Traeger logo. There’s no doubt that Traeger is proud of its brand and that it can vouch for its quality. Everything is adorned with the Traeger name and logo.

The new Traeger models from 2019 come equipped with the top tuned D2 Direct Drive controller with WiFire functionality that makes it possible to control one’s Pro 575 via a smartphone. This is a function that previously was only to be found on the Ironwood models and up. This new control option makes it possible to adjust the temperature in 5 °C intervals. The controller is also a wonderful way of adjusting the pellet consumption so that the temperature is maintained throughout the entire cooking.

The new D2 controller of the Traeger Pro 575 gives us the control of the entire temperature span of 75 °C to 230 °C and it reacts relatively quickly when one turns up the heat suddenly. 

Another compromise that has been made by Traeger with the Pro 575 is that there are no wheels on the front legs. This is something that you’ll get with the Ironwood and Timberline series. With its 58 kg this makes the grill a somewhat heavy beast to move around, if needed, even though there are wheels on the rear legs and a stainless steel handle to lift it with.

With the exterior covered, let’s have a look under the lid of the Traeger Pro 575.

Underneath the largest of the grates we have the stainless grease drip tray that moves all the grease towards the chute and then into the bucket. The cooking area is, as mentioned earlier, 0.369 m². The grates are made from porcelain enameled steel.

Under the tray we find the heat baffle that sits over the fire pot thus protecting the above tray from direct flares. It further helps dispersing the heat and protects against grease fire. 

When we remove the heat baffle we can gaze straight down into the fire pot where we see the auger that is providing fresh pellets. Right under the auger we have the igniter that ignites the pellets at start-up. 

For this review of the Traeger Pro 575 and Napoleon Rouge 425 All Black, we’ve also been provided with a CookPerfect Comfort meat thermometer which will also be reviewed. In fact, we have two, of which one will be given away once our review of the CookPerfect is ready. So, stay tuned for that. 

Traeger also has a wide assortment of rubs and sauces. We’ve of course stocked up on these so that we can prepare a lot of delicious food on both the Pro 575 and Rouge 425. This is merely a selection of the wide range of products available, which should cater to just about any and all taste buds.

Start-up:

Before we can start cooking on the Traeger Pro 575 we need to prime the auger with pellets so that the temperature monitoring won’t throw an error due to it not being able to detect a minimum temperature.

This is done by using the menu button and selecting “Auger”. Here, you can then choose to “Prime Auger” and this simply activates the auger but without igniting the grill. Once the pellets arrive inside the fire pot you then stop this function. We’re now ready to start up.

At the very first start-up, it’s always recommended that you fire up the grill to its maximum performance in order to incinerate oil residue that may have survived production. As such, we awaken the controller with a push on the menu knob and we set the temperature to 230 °C. Then we select “Ignite” from the menu, which then let’s the grill go into “Igniting” mode, followed by “Pre-Heating” mode, in which the grill will consume pellets until the desired temperature has been reached. Once the grill has been through its very first burn it’s then ready for cooking. This takes about 30 minutes once the 230 °C has been reached. 

We’re now up and running, and the smoke is funneled through the chimney of the Traeger Pro 575 just as it should. We’re now ready to cook.

Mobile app:

The first step towards using the WiFire is to download the Traeger app from one’s respective app store. I’m using the OnePlus 6, and  therefore I make a stop at Google Play. 

Once that is done, and you’re in the app, you then select the Traeger WiFire function from the menu and select “Connect to Traeger WiFire”. This will lead to the setup. 

Setting up the WiFire starts with the creation of a user profile in the Traeger app. Once that is done, you scan a QR code that is located on the lid of the pellet hopper. This informs the app of what grill you are attempting to connect to the network that you’re device is connected to. As soon as you’ve inputted the Wi-Fi password, the app continues to connect the grill and once the setup is done, you’re led back to the WiFire part of the Traeger app.

Now, we have the option of monitoring and adjusting our Traeger Pro 575 grill. We can monitor the grill from idle, through pre-heating and until it’s ready and whilst you’re finally cooking, as can be seen on the last image above. The grill cannot be started directly from the app. This requires a direct push on the ignite button on the grill. This is a safety measure that ensures that you cannot accidentally turn on the grill.

The “Set Grill Temp” button opens a view where you can adjust the temperature of the grill once it’s turned on. Here, you can control your manual cooks in case you haven’t selected a predefined recipe from the app that will control everything from start to finish. There’s also a sauce timer which functions as a regular stopwatch. It will give a notification once the meat needs mopping or if your ribs are ready for the 3-2-1 process. 

The probe can also monitor a piece of meat that is being cooked. It’s possible to define a target temperature so that we know when to take the meat off the grill.

The app contains a lot of different recipes, and when your grill is connected to your home network it’s possible to select “Cook Now”, provided that the grill is ready. This will send the recipe straight to your Traeger pellet grill and you then don’t have to keep an eye on the temperature and adjust it up and down. The grill will manage this by itself. It will also notify you if something is required of you, such as packaging your ribs or if you chicken wings should be basted.

Once you’re done cooking on your Traeger Pro 575 you push and hold the menu knob for a couple of seconds, after which it will initiate a 15 minutes long “Shutdown Cycle”. During this process, the auger stops, the remaining pellets in the fire pot are burnt and the grill is cooled to a temperature that is safe to work with, for example if you have to clean it. 

Cooking on the Traeger Pro 575 pellet grill:

Grilled duck

We start things off with a free range duck of 3400 grams on the Pro 575. Here, I’ve used Svens Nielsen’s recipe that I’ve found at Boemsens BBQ blog. 

The duck got 160 °C for about 2 hours and 45 minutes after which it was roasted at 190 °C for about 15 minutes. This resulted in the most delicious duck with beautiful smoke-colored meat. The skin was spiced with salt and Traeger’s Big Game Rub, which gave an intense flavor with a caramelized texture provided by the sugar contained in the rub.

3-2-1 spareribs

Next up for the Traeger Pro 575 is of course some 3-2-1 spareribs with some different Traeger rubs. Here, I’ve used Fin and Feather, Big Game Blend and Traeger Rub. Lastly, they’ve been basted with Traeger Apricot BBQ sauce. 

My spareribs were perfectly cooked, according to the verdicts provided by my family members. Perfectly rounded smoke-flavor with a beautiful smoke ring on the meat. The meat was juicy and I thoroughly enjoyed playing around with the temperature from the living room with the WiFire function. Stomachs were filled and everyone was pleased. 

Roast pork

Of course we will also be cooking a roast pork on the Traeger Pro 575, and yet again, we’ve consulted Boemsen BBQ blog as to how to approach this. 

The result was a nice and juicy roast pork with crispy crackling that ended up as a round of roast pork burgers in the evening. A delightful Danish dish that most can relate to. It was interesting to note if the Pro 575 could dish out crispy crackling, but I must say that it did so with top marks.

Easter lamb

It’s Easter and of course we also need to have some lamb. More specifically, slow roast leg of lamb.

The leg of lamb was slitted all over and filled with halved garlic cloves. Then the lamb was rubbed with Traeger Fin and Feather rub and packed in bacon. It was given an entire 7.5 hours at 105 °C. This gave us an extremely tender and well-tasting leg of lamb with a beautiful smoke ring of 1 centimeter into the meat. 

Price:

At the time of this writing (April 15, 2019), the Traeger Pro 575 is priced at around $1,130 at Homeshop and Silvan.

If you want to read more about Traeger grills, you can pay their site a visit by clicking the banner above. If you want to read more about Backyard Living and their range of products, incl. the CookPerfect meat thermometer, click the banner above. 

Conclusion:

Wood pellet grills is definitely not the kind of product that we test the most on this site. However, given that I am a complete barbecue nerd, it wasn’t difficult for me to dive into and explore how the Traeger Pro 575 has managed to perform in today’s review. 

The Pro 575 is an updated version of the Pro 22 pellet grill of yesteryear, which is a more affordable pellet grill from Traeger that also offers an assortment of models up to the Timberline 1300D2, which sits in a whole different price range. Anyways, enough of that. This is about the Traeger Pro 575. First and foremost, it’s so cool that Traeger has realized the benefit of the D2 Direct Drive, with its WiFire, and equipped all of their new grills with this. Secondly, the D2 controller is significantly quicker in adjusting itself when going from low temperature to a quite higher temperature. In other words, this means that you have a more efficient control and as such improved performance in relation to the pellet consumption. With the D2 controller, the Pro 575 is also ready for the new pellet sensor, if one wants to have electronic monitoring of the pellet level in the hopper.

Next to that we have the general user experience. The Traeger Pro 575 of course makes a bit of noise since we are dealing with a grill that disperses heat with a fan. However, when compared to last year’s Ironwood 885, which we have also tested, I am positively surprised. You can easily sit outside and enjoy your morning coffee with the Pro 575 efficiently working on a pulled pork that you started on the night before. Also, I was curious about the pellet usage compared to the Ironwood 885 since one of my complaints, if that is even the proper term, is that an Ironwood 885 has a rather large cooking area, which in turn consumes a significant amount of pellets in order to be heated up and to be kept warm during cooking. Here, the reduced cooking area really pays off when you’re a family of two adults and two children.

The build quality of the Traeger Pro 575 is unquestionable. Traeger takes pride in making a solid grill of very high quality, and that can really be felt when using it. Great solid hinges on the lid that can easily keep it open whilst you’re mopping your ribs with barbecue sauce. The assembly process is straightforward, and all of the tools that are required to assemble the Pro 575 are included in the package. What’s great here is that you don’t feel that you’re dealing with the cheaper Pro at $1,130 and not the Timberline 1300 at $3,620. That’s really great. 

Of course, it’s not all a bed of roses when moving down to a Pro when compared to the Ironwood or Timberline. First and foremost, the wheels of the front legs are gone, which means you can’t drag around the grill. You now have to lift the entire front before you can move the grill. Also, the Traeger Pro 575 does not feature an actual Smoke Function as we have seen it on the Pro 22 and 34. However, a fine smoke ring can still be achieved on the Pro 575. 

All in all, I find that the Traeger Pro 575 has done a remarkable job, and it suits a family of four, like my household, very well. Still, I do find that the Ironwood has become more interesting for the average household with the launch of the Ironwood 650, which has the same features and isolation of the big brother, the Ironwood 885. Yet, we find the Traeger Pro 575 deserving of a fine score of 8.5 and a Safe Buy award. The score is given in the light of a new contender, from the Ironwood series, having just been released, which also commands the attention of the average household. Also, we still find the Timberline series at the very top, which simply is packed with features. Still, it’s a very fine score that Traeger can be very proud of. 

Pros:

• Top shelf build quality 

• The new D2 Direct Drive controller does a wonderful job

• Simple and easy assembly process

• The grill quickly heats up to maximum temperature

• The price is reasonable given the caliber of this grill

• The fan ensures a stable and reasonable heat dispersion in the grill so everything is evenly cooked

• Ready for pellet sensor

Cons:

• No wheels on the front legs (you need to lift the grill in order to move it around)

• An edge band that tightens the lid and stops heat from escaping would’ve been great

Score: 8 + Safe Buy award