EX6 Major Problems

[Old Man Grills]

So yesterday turned into a really fun day. Planned to cook a pork shoulder for dinner and do a batch of 10 chicken breasts for friends and family.
Opened up the unit and cleaned it up as it hadn't been used for a few weeks. Not really dirty as I always clean before I put it away but tidied it up nevertheless. Normally get it running then whack it up to 500 and nuke anything that is left before cooking.

So I cleaned up the the ash tray and firebox with a hoover as normal, loaded fresh pellets, plugged the unit in and set the temperature to 200F.

The unit started to heat up reaching around 90F before it switched off and displayed the “improper shutdown” message on the display. Let the unit cool down, thinking its a power supply problem and tried to restart the unit. The same thing happened a further 3 or 4 times.

At this point I decided to remove all of the racks, heat baffles and flavourizer bars in order to re-clean the firebox and glow plug. I also removed all pellets and replaced them with fresh pellets from an unopen bag just in case the ones I was using were damp although they were from a fresh bag.

Switch it on and it heats up to 90F before dropping back to 70F. The temperature fluctuated between 70-75F for the next few minutes. Open up the lid and the fire box has a small fire and the fan cuts in and out. Close the lid and leave it and it switches off again.

Light if for the nth time and same thing starts to happen. This time the display kept flickering on and off and eventually displayed an “E3- Grill Flame is out” error message and then the “improper shutdown” error message again.

OK I'll give it one more try. This time the unit switched on but the display showed a new error message “E4- COMMUNICATION FAILURE - CONTROLLER IS NO LONGER COMMUNICATING”
The unit will now not switch on at all.

My unit is 3 months old. The dealer who sold it was super helpful but said they'll need to refer to Weber UK as they've never seen a problem like this before.

Something tells me I'll be getting a new display, new unit or a refund.

 

[Old Man Grills]

And for the record pulled pork done in the oven sucks. No flavour at all.

 

[Bruno]

That sucks!! I hate to hear that! Good luck!!

 

[Dassman5]

So yesterday turned into a really fun day. Planned to cook a pork shoulder for dinner and do a batch of 10 chicken breasts for friends and family.
Opened up the unit and cleaned it up as it hadn't been used for a few weeks. Not really dirty as I always clean before I put it away but tidied it up nevertheless. Normally get it running then whack it up to 500 and nuke anything that is left before cooking.

So I cleaned up the the ash tray and firebox with a hoover as normal, loaded fresh pellets, plugged the unit in and set the temperature to 200F.

The unit started to heat up reaching around 90F before it switched off and displayed the “improper shutdown” message on the display. Let the unit cool down, thinking its a power supply problem and tried to restart the unit. The same thing happened a further 3 or 4 times.

At this point I decided to remove all of the racks, heat baffles and flavourizer bars in order to re-clean the firebox and glow plug. I also removed all pellets and replaced them with fresh pellets from an unopen bag just in case the ones I was using were damp although they were from a fresh bag.

Switch it on and it heats up to 90F before dropping back to 70F. The temperature fluctuated between 70-75F for the next few minutes. Open up the lid and the fire box has a small fire and the fan cuts in and out. Close the lid and leave it and it switches off again.

Light if for the nth time and same thing starts to happen. This time the display kept flickering on and off and eventually displayed an “E3- Grill Flame is out” error message and then the “improper shutdown” error message again.

OK I'll give it one more try. This time the unit switched on but the display showed a new error message “E4- COMMUNICATION FAILURE - CONTROLLER IS NO LONGER COMMUNICATING”
The unit will now not switch on at all.

My unit is 3 months old. The dealer who sold it was super helpful but said they'll need to refer to Weber UK as they've never seen a problem like this before.

Something tells me I'll be getting a new display, new unit or a refund.

It sounds like a control board issue. The one thing you might try would be resetting the controller with the 3 buttons held down ( instructions on-line) and reloading both the firmware and software.

 

[abmet]

That sucks hopefully one time issue. Weber’s site didn’t offer much help, but did mention unplugging and waiting a minute before plugging back in. Maybe to ensure full reboot of controller. If that doesn’t helped I‘d try reset like Dassman5 recommended.

From Weber site:

The grill will automatically run the shutdown procedure if the grill is still hot. Open the barbecue lid and wait until the barbecue has completed the shutdown procedure and completely cooled.

1. Caution: Do not unplug the barbecue or power it off during the shutdown procedure.
   
2. Once the shutdown procedure is complete, power off the barbecue and unplug from power source.

Wait one minute, then plug the barbecue back into the power source and power on the barbecue to begin your cooking session.

 

[Old Man Grills]

Thanks for your advice. Had a long chat with Weber UK today. 3 customer service agents haven't heard of this problem before but the team leader is calling me tomorrow to discuss. He is a smoke fire owner and therefore the local expert. So far I'm impressed with Weber's customer service.

 

[AHoneyman]

3 customer service agents haven't heard of this problem before.

It seems that Weber has not let their reps in other areas of the world know of the issues that we have been suffering here. I find it amazing that they are releasing SF 2 (which is basically the original with the updated parts that we have) elsewhere while we are still having trouble with the initial problems, particularly the software.

 

[Old Man Grills]

Update
Had a long discussion with Weber UK who have been brilliant. New motherboard and controller on its way to see if that solves the problem.
Will keep you posted.

 

[MCombs]

Update
Had a long discussion with Weber UK who have been brilliant. New motherboard and controller on its way to see if that solves the problem.
Will keep you posted.

Had a friend with a somewhat similar issue. He would start it, and as it was going, the temp would drop. Turned out to be a faulty thermocoupler.

 

[AHoneyman]

Had a long discussion with Weber UK who have been brilliant. New motherboard and controller on its way.

I had a talk with a super tech specialist late on a Friday afternoon that sent me a new controller when this first started. He was very knowledgeable about the SF. Since then, CS has been very nice but less helpful. The jump from burning charcoal to wifi, bluetooth, etc. is a big one. But we are getting better.

 

[Old Man Grills]

Final Update
Replacement parts (controller, power supply board, auger, welded chute and glow plug) arrived yesterday. Weber recommended replacing everything but being obstinate I decided I'd replace individual parts and test each one.

Replacement controller made no difference but replacing the power supply board fixed the problem. Grill heated up to 550F (although it took a little time) and held steady at 250, 400, 500 and 550.

Which means I have a spare chute, auger and glow plug just in case any of them ever go wrong.

Weber also threw a bag of pellets in to the box to say sorry for the inconvenience.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions. Appreciate it.

 

[abmet]

Hope your issues are fixed now!

 

[Old Man Grills]

I dont think so. Tried a 10 hour brisket yesterday, changed temp from 250 to 260 after 5 hours (it was getting cold outside so core temp was stuck), auger fed enough pellets to put overflow the firebox and cause smouldering.

Had to shut down and finish off in the oven.

Fired it back up this morning and smoked fish for a couple of hours. It was fine but it seems to be taking ages to increase temperature after its been held constant for a while.

Speaking to Weber again tomorrow.

 

[Dassman5]

I dont think so. Tried a 10 hour brisket yesterday, changed temp from 250 to 260 after 5 hours (it was getting cold outside so core temp was stuck), auger fed enough pellets to put overflow the firebox and cause smouldering.

Had to shut down and finish off in the oven.

Fired it back up this morning and smoked fish for a couple of hours. It was fine but it seems to be taking ages to increase temperature after its been held constant for a while.

Speaking to Weber again tomorrow.

If you have not yet changed out the old two-piece auger assembly for the newer one-piece welded one that would be the first thing to replace.

 

[Old Man Grills]

If you have not yet changed out the old two-piece auger assembly for the newer one-piece welded one that would be the first thing to replace.

Thanks for the heads up. looks like the screwdrivers are coming out again