The Prime or Feed Cycle Explained

The auger can turn before there's any fire. That surprises people. It makes sense once you know the feed tube must hold pellets before the grill can light.

What the auger is doing

The auger is the motor-driven part that moves pellets from the hopper to the fire pot.¹ When the grill is running, it doesn't turn all the time. It works in a repeating pattern called a duty cycle. Each cycle begins when the auger turns on to feed pellets and ends after a spell when it sits idle.¹

That pattern is fine once pellets already fill the tube. It's slow when the tube is empty. Each short burst only pushes the pellets along a little, and the pauses in between add up.

Why the igniter makes timing matter

The igniter doesn't stay hot for long. One maker says it stays hot for the first several minutes after the grill is powered on and then shuts itself off.²

On a first start, the same page says, pellets usually take longer than that to reach the fire pot.² So the igniter can go cold before any pellet arrives. Priming is the fix.

When makers say to prime

Pit Boss says many of its grills have a Prime button. If a grill has never been used, or has run completely out of pellets, it will need priming. The aim is to get pellets to the fire pot while the igniter is still hot.²

Traeger's seasoning steps call for priming the auger tube with pellets before the first burn-in.³ That's the same situation: a new grill with an empty tube.

So the cases these makers name are:

• A new grill that has never been used.
• A grill that has run out of pellets completely.

Neither page asks for priming on every start. Check your own manual for when it applies.

What the prime button does

Holding the Prime button stops the auger pausing, so the pellets arrive more quickly. It doesn't make the auger turn faster.² The idea is simply to remove the idle gaps.

Even with priming, the grill may need to be turned off and on again once the pellets reach the fire pot. That restarts the igniter, now that the auger holds pellets.²

Priming steps from one maker's guide

On a connected Traeger model, the guide says to open Select Auger, choose Prime Auger and pick Done once pellets begin to fall into the fire pot.³

On a non-connected model, the guide has the owner open the lid and take out the grill grate, drip tray and heat baffle. The grill then runs on High until pellets fall into the fire pot. The guide gives that as 2 to 5 minutes. Once pellets fall into the fire pot, the guide says to set the grill to Shutdown Cycle and turn off the grill using the power switch. After that, it says to return the internal components to their correct places inside the grill.³

The guide's later seasoning step says to turn off at the power switch once the shutdown cycle is complete. The priming steps don't say how long to wait before switching off or refitting the parts, so follow your own manual for that. These steps are for those models. Your grill may differ, so follow your own manual and its safety steps.

Why not just prime and prime?

More pellets in the fire pot isn't better. Pit Boss says starting on the Smoke setting ensures the fire pot isn't overloaded with pellets.² For how long to prime, follow your own manual.

Lighting comes next. For the whole picture first, read what happens at start.