Another cook another problem

Old Man Grills

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Location
UK
Grill
SmokeFire EX6
So yesterday all good. Today, 60 minutes into a 4 hour rib cook and massive temperature drop.
Hopper is full, can hear pellets dropping into the fire pot. No heat at all.

Switching off as we speak (15 minutes to shut down winds me up more than the actual problems).
Will reboot and restart.

What annoys me is yesterday it was cleaned inside and out, every bit of debris was swept, scraped and hoovered out. I used it to cook butternut squash and 4 lamb burgers.

Mrs is telling me to send it back.

We've just committed $30,000 to an outdoor Kitchen and patio for this thing. 😳
 
Well I'm guessing this was the problem.

Have now set up an ambient probe and restarted it after another clean up. Have also cleaned the PID again (only cleaned yesterday

tempImageWpoDxg.jpg
 

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Such a bummer, I don’t know why these things act up. Mine has run great for a while, some minor annoyances here and there.
It’s more or less the centerpiece of my backyard but that doesn’t say much.
 
I put a support ticket in via the website a few weeks ago but have heard nothing.
I can only assume its not reading the temperature correctly which then causes the software to overcompensate by feeding too many pellets.

You expect better for $1500 purchase.
 
Oh well reboot and clean up appears to have done the trick.
Bring back charcoal where the only problem was human!
 
As far as flame outs go, it could have been worse (not a massive pellet dump like some I have seen).
Once you have it all cleaned out again, post a pic a little further out than the one above so we can fully see the burn pot and its cover.
I have seen issues if this is not together correctly.
 
Since there appears to be updates, I wonder if it hung trying to update.

Wait a second, the date stamps are totally different. You should have been updated by now.
 
Since there appears to be updates, I wonder if it hung trying to update.

Wait a second, the date stamps are totally different. You should have been updated by now.
Date stamps?
which update? I’m in the uk so we don’t get them at the same time as you guys in the US
 
cleaned out and it worked just fine for 4 hours (my rib of beef was tough as old shoe leather though).
so there are a few things I noticed while trying to rectify.
1. My sf is on a slope at the moment with the feed end of the hopper at the bottom of the slope, no idea if that contributed but i turned it 90 degrees just in case.
2. any opening of the door causes a massive temperature drop on the PID which causes lots of pellets to feed to catch up.
3. On reboot the fan worked a lot more than the first cook and it held temp just fine.
4. It is burning a lot of pellets at low temperatures at the moment.

will be on the phone to Weber uk customer service this morning
 
cleaned out and it worked just fine for 4 hours (my rib of beef was tough as old shoe leather though).
so there are a few things I noticed while trying to rectify.
1. My sf is on a slope at the moment with the feed end of the hopper at the bottom of the slope, no idea if that contributed but i turned it 90 degrees just in case.
2. any opening of the door causes a massive temperature drop on the PID which causes lots of pellets to feed to catch up.
3. On reboot the fan worked a lot more than the first cook and it held temp just fine.
4. It is burning a lot of pellets at low temperatures at the moment.

will be on the phone to Weber uk customer service this morning

It makes logical sense that the grill being more level (back to front) may help as less likely for pellets to drop due to the slope angle and gravity rather than being pushed into the fire pot by the auger which controls the rate. Good luck and please post pictures of the outdoor kitchen if you would.
 
Dang that sucks and is frustrating. I’d definitely try to get it as level as possible. Keep contacting Weber.
 
Well I'm guessing this was the problem.

Have now set up an ambient probe and restarted it after another clean up. Have also cleaned the PID again (only cleaned yesterday

View attachment 3644need a better pic of the assembly where the ramp sits on the fire pot. The front edge in particular. Should be zero gap at the front edge...
There have been issues with improperly placed or not well seated covers causing flameouts amd drops.
 
One advantage of the casters many of us swapped to is the you can easily make up at least a 1/2” of slope from front to back.
I needed the right side of my grill higher and it was easy to do.
 
One advantage of the casters many of us swapped to is the you can easily make up at least a 1/2” of slope from front to back.
I needed the right side of my grill higher and it was easy to do.
So I must have missed the info on casters, can you share again please? Not happy with the stock ones
 
So yesterday all good. Today, 60 minutes into a 4 hour rib cook and massive temperature drop.
Hopper is full, can hear pellets dropping into the fire pot. No heat at all.

Switching off as we speak (15 minutes to shut down winds me up more than the actual problems).
Will reboot and restart.

What annoys me is yesterday it was cleaned inside and out, every bit of debris was swept, scraped and hoovered out. I used it to cook butternut squash and 4 lamb burgers.

Mrs is telling me to send it back.

We've just committed $30,000 to an outdoor Kitchen and patio for this thing. 😳
I’ve had that issue probably four or five times now. The glow plug tends to fail either right then or shortly after. I’ve gotten a few through warranty and bought a couple on my own so I could have something here waiting in case I wanted to use the cooker. Yeah that’s sad isn’t it. I’m sorry you’re having bad experiences with it. At least here in Indiana it’s getting to be a better weather so the summit charcoal cooker is out and ready to roll.
 

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