Six things, about $320 together at October 2026 prices, cover everything a Traeger needs after the grill itself, and the order you buy them in matters more than the logo on the box. A thermometer comes first, then a cover cut for your model, then a smoke tube. Pellets and a cleaning kit you’ll be buying anyway.
None of this is Traeger-only. Every pick works the same on a Pit Boss, recteq, Camp Chef or Z Grills except the cover, which has to match your grill’s shape. Each category has a page of its own with more choices: pellets for smoking, wireless meat thermometers, smoke tubes and pellet grill covers.
| Buy in this order |
Pick |
Price (Oct 2026) |
What it fixes |
| 1. Instant-read thermometer |
Thermapen ONE |
about $74 |
Guessing at doneness with the lid open |
| 2. Cover |
Traeger Pro 575/22 cover (or your model’s) |
about $90 |
Rain in the hopper, a rusting fire pot |
| 3. Smoke tube |
A-MAZE-N 12 inch |
about $13 |
Food that tastes too mild |
| 4. Leave-in thermometer |
ThermoWorks Smoke |
about $109 |
Walking out to the grill every half hour |
| 5. Pellets |
Pit Boss Competition Blend, 40 lb |
about $20 |
Cost per cook |
| 6. Cleaning kit |
Pit Boss cleaning kit |
about $14 |
Ash and grease buildup |
How these six were picked
Each item had to do one of three jobs: change how the food turns out, protect the grill, or save a trip outside in bad weather. That rules out most of the accessory wall. Rib racks, branded aprons, grill mats and the 14-piece tool set that’s mostly a plastic case all stay on the shelf.
No gear on this page has been through hands-on testing by us yet. The picks come from manufacturer specs, the praise and complaints that repeat across owner reviews, and a price I could confirm on the maker’s site or a major retailer in October 2026. Anything priced only behind a cart button was dropped. When our test results land, this page gets updated with the date.
What to look for in pellet grill accessories
Thermometers
You need two tools for two jobs. An instant-read checks doneness in a second or two, and speed matters because the lid is open the whole time you wait. A leave-in probe with an alarm watches anything that runs longer than an hour.
The probe that came with your grill’s controller is fine for a rough idea, but owners report the built-in probes drifting 5 to 10°F after a season, and the readout stays on the grill when you go inside. The thermometer guide sorts radio, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi models by how well they get a signal out of a closed steel lid.
Covers
A pellet grill has a hopper hanging off one side and usually a shelf on the other, so a box-shaped gas grill cover drapes over the hopper lid and holds water right above your pellets. Buy the factory cover for your model when there is one. If there isn’t, measure the widest span (hopper edge to shelf edge), the depth, and the height to the chimney cap, then buy a universal cover an inch or two larger in each direction.
Smoke tubes
The standard is a 12-inch perforated stainless tube with welded ends and holes small enough to hold pellets in. Round tubes roll on wide grate spacing and hexagonal ones sit still, which matters more than it sounds once the tube is lit. The smoke tube page walks through the lighting method that keeps one going for four hours.
Pellets
At 225°F in mild weather a pellet grill burns about 1 to 1.5 lb an hour, and at 450°F it can burn double that. A 20 lb bag covers roughly two long cooks, so the bag size changes your cost more than the brand does.
| Bag |
Price (Oct 2026) |
Per lb |
Per hour at 1.5 lb/hr |
| Pit Boss Competition Blend, 40 lb |
about $20 |
about $0.50 |
about $0.75 |
| A typical 20 lb bag |
about $20 |
about $1.00 |
about $1.50 |
A sensible setup is a 40 lb bag of a blend for weeknights and a 20 lb single-wood bag for brisket weekends. The pellet guide explains why a bag labeled hickory is often mostly oak.
Cleaning gear
The most useful cleaning tool for a pellet grill is a shop vac, and you won’t find it in the grill aisle. Add a scraper, a stiff brush and drip tray liners made for your model. Vacuum the fire pot every 20 hours of cooking, which is roughly every other brisket. Ash piled around the igniter is a common cause of the flame-out and low-temperature errors in the Traeger error codes guide, and the full routine is in how to clean a pellet grill.
Watch out: Only vacuum ash that’s stone cold, ideally the morning after a cook. A buried ember can set the filter inside a shop vac smoldering, and you won’t notice until the garage smells like a campfire.
What to leave on the shelf
A pizza stone is the classic regret. Most pellet grills top out around 450 to 500°F, well short of the heat a crisp pizza crust wants, so the stone gets used once and lives in a cabinet after that. Grill mats are fine for small vegetables, but they keep meat off the grate where it browns, which defeats the point of a hot cook.
Rib racks earn their place only if you cook more ribs than your grate can hold flat, which on a mid-size grill is rarely the case. Matching tool sets are mostly filler around a pair of tongs and a spatula, and a cheap pair of 16-inch kitchen tongs does the same work.
Who should hold off on accessories
If the grill box is still in the driveway, buy the instant-read and nothing else for a month. Cook ten things. By then you’ll know whether you want more smoke (buy the tube) and whether your grill sits out in the weather (buy the cover), and you won’t own a pizza stone you used once.
Portable grill owners can skip the full-size covers and liners, since none of them fit. Tubes, thermometers and pellets carry over unchanged. The Traeger Ranger has its own cover at $69.99 in October 2026, and the portable pellet grill list covers the small grills themselves.
Traeger accessory questions
Do Traeger accessories fit a Pit Boss or another brand?
Thermometers, smoke tubes and pellets fit anything. Covers and drip tray liners are cut for a specific model, and Traeger liners are shaped for Traeger drip trays. On another brand, buy the liner made for your grill or fold heavy-duty foil to fit.
Do I need Traeger-branded accessories to use the Traeger app?
No. The app talks to the grill’s controller, not to the accessories. A ThermoWorks or MEATER probe runs on its own app without any conflict. The only Traeger-branded accessory I’d buy by name is the cover, because fit is the whole point of a cover.
Which pellets should a new Traeger owner start with?
Start with a 40 lb bag of Pit Boss Competition Blend at about $20 in October 2026. It’s cheap enough to learn on, the ash is low, and it runs in a Traeger hopper with no trouble. Once you’ve cooked a brisket or two, try a 100 percent hickory bag and see whether you taste the difference.
Can a smoke tube go inside a Traeger?
Yes. Light it outside the grill, let it flame for ten minutes, blow it out, and only then set it on the grate, away from the fire pot and clear of the grease channel. It sits there smoldering, not burning.
Still deciding on the grill itself? Start with the best pellet grills, then come back for the thermometer once it’s on the deck.