Got my EX6 yesterday

FredSC

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Got my EX6 yesterday. 1st cook grill steaks and seared great at 500 degrees. No issues. The grill seared steaks great. Ran it up to 500 degrees and let the grill fire for about an hour before I put the steaks on. Grill held the temperature tight.

When you first power up your grill be sure to download and connect the app to the grill. Once the app connects, it will download and upgrade of the software to the grill, so do not set a temperature on the grill until after you do this as you will have to shutdown the grill and power off and restart for the software upgrade to take effect. Be sure to use the shutdown procedure on the grill controller. A controlled shutdown takes about 15 minutes.

This morning when I was cleaning up for today's cook I noticed that there was flaking on the heat diffuser, see attached photo. I don't know if this is normal, I've contacted Weber, but all I've gotten so far is an automated replied since it's the weekend. See the attached photo. Let me know if any of you see this on your EX4 or 6.

Today doing baby backs
While smoking baby ribs had cavity formed three times over the auger and pellets stop flowing into the pot. The first two times I noticed the temperature dropping and went and checked the hopper and found the cavity and stirred the pellets, however the glow plug did not fire to reignite the fire as the pellets starting falling back into the pot. I'm using weber pellets I order when I order my grill. Both times I had to pull the ribs off clean out the fire pot and restart the grill. Pulled the ribs off and put in the oven to continue the cook while I got the grill going again. On the third time I caught the cavity before the temperature started to fall and got the pellets flowing again. The temperature did drop quite a bit, but the pellets got into the fire pot before the fire went out.

I made the following points to weber based off today's low and slow cook.
As a engineer who has programmed control systems for the past 30 years I noticed the following.
Issues:
1) No alarm when over app or on controller when on Smoke Fire when temperature dropped below set point. this should occur at 25 degrees below minimum, this would give the user and chance to react and save the cook from having to shutdown.
2) No alarm to let you know pellets are not following up the auger
3) The glow plug doesn't try to restart the fire when the temperature drop below 50 degrees of set point. This unit holds the set point so tight when it's working, I see no reason why this is not setup to do this. You could fire the glow plug for a period of time trying to restart the fire pot, if the temperature doesn't start to rise then go into shutdown mode. There is no reason that this system should not do this.
4) No audible alarm when the timer is up over the app. No alarm when the temperature falls below the set point by 25 degrees.

I believe Weber will get these bugs worked out. Also there maybe a safety reason they do not restart the glow plug when the temperature falls, but I don't know why off the top of my head. You do need to keep an eye on the hopper pellets to make sure a cavity doesn't form. Since I had burned maybe 30% of the full level, maybe there wasn't enough weight to have the pellets fall into the auger, but that is just speculation on my part.

Ribs did turn out well, see the attached photo.
Tomorrow we're going to smoke a Turkey breast and use the meat temperature probe for the first time. I'll post after that experience as well.

Stay low and slow, sear when you need to, and keep BBQing!

FSC
 

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Last edited:
I’m thinking that when my grill arrives, I’m going to clean the pellet hopper really well with a good degreaser to clean off any oils and contaminants. This may help the pellets slide better. Question, what about treating the hopper base with something like a ceramic coating that is the trend for cars? I used Maguire’s hybrid ceramic wax on my car and the finish was super slick.
 
I’m thinking that when my grill arrives, I’m going to clean the pellet hopper really well with a good degreaser to clean off any oils and contaminants. This may help the pellets slide better. Question, what about treating the hopper base with something like a ceramic coating that is the trend for cars? I used Maguire’s hybrid ceramic wax on my car and the finish was super slick.
That's an idea. I did not clean the hopper out as it looked clean yesterday, but I did not feel it with my finger tips. I will check that tomorrow.
 
I’m thinking that when my grill arrives, I’m going to clean the pellet hopper really well with a good degreaser to clean off any oils and contaminants. This may help the pellets slide better. Question, what about treating the hopper base with something like a ceramic coating that is the trend for cars? I used Maguire’s hybrid ceramic wax on my car and the finish was super slick.
My first thought was something like PAM, the cooking oil that you put for nonstick. I have not used it for years, but that is what comes to mind. It is safe to use on food.
 
Got my EX6 yesterday. 1st cook grill steaks and seared great at 500 degrees. No issues. The grill seared steaks great. Ran it up to 500 degrees and let the grill fire for about an hour before I put the steaks on. Grill held the temperature tight.

When you first power up your grill be sure to download and connect the app to the grill. Once the app connects, it will download and upgrade of the software to the grill, so do not set a temperature on the grill until after you do this as you will have to shutdown the grill and power off and restart for the software upgrade to take effect. Be sure to use the shutdown procedure on the grill controller. A controlled shutdown takes about 15 minutes.

This morning when I was cleaning up for today's cook I noticed that there was flaking on the heat diffuser, see attached photo. I don't know if this is normal, I've contacted Weber, but all I've gotten so far is an automated replied since it's the weekend. See the attached photo. Let me know if any of you see this on your EX4 or 6.

Today doing baby backs
While smoking baby ribs had cavity formed three times over the auger and pellets stop flowing into the pot. The first two times I noticed the temperature dropping and went and checked the hopper and found the cavity and stirred the pellets, however the glow plug did not fire to reignite the fire as the pellets starting falling back into the pot. I'm using weber pellets I order when I order my grill. Both times I had to pull the ribs off clean out the fire pot and restart the grill. Pulled the ribs off and put in the oven to continue the cook while I got the grill going again. On the third time I caught the cavity before the temperature started to fall and got the pellets flowing again. The temperature did drop quite a bit, but the pellets got into the fire pot before the fire went out.

I made the following points to weber based off today's low and slow cook.
As a engineer who has programmed control systems for the past 30 years I noticed the following.
Issues:
1) No alarm when over app or on controller when on Smoke Fire when temperature dropped below set point. this should occur at 25 degrees below minimum, this would give the user and chance to react and save the cook from having to shutdown.
2) No alarm to let you know pellets are not following up the auger
3) The glow plug doesn't try to restart the fire when the temperature drop below 50 degrees of set point. This unit holds the set point so tight when it's working, I see no reason why this is not setup to do this. You could fire the glow plug for a period of time trying to restart the fire pot, if the temperature doesn't start to rise then go into shutdown mode. There is no reason that this system should not do this.
4) No audible alarm when the timer is up over the app. No alarm when the temperature falls below the set point by 25 degrees.

I believe Weber will get these bugs worked out. Also there maybe a safety reason they do not restart the glow plug when the temperature falls, but I don't know why off the top of my head. You do need to keep an eye on the hopper pellets to make sure a cavity doesn't form. Since I had burned maybe 30% of the full level, maybe there wasn't enough weight to have the pellets fall into the auger, but that is just speculation on my part.

Ribs did turn out well, see the attached photo.
Tomorrow we're going to smoke a Turkey breast and use the meat temperature probe for the first time. I'll post after that experience as well.

Stay low and slow, sear when you need to, and keep BBQing!

FSC
Got my EX6 yesterday. 1st cook grill steaks and seared great at 500 degrees. No issues. The grill seared steaks great. Ran it up to 500 degrees and let the grill fire for about an hour before I put the steaks on. Grill held the temperature tight.

When you first power up your grill be sure to download and connect the app to the grill. Once the app connects, it will download and upgrade of the software to the grill, so do not set a temperature on the grill until after you do this as you will have to shutdown the grill and power off and restart for the software upgrade to take effect. Be sure to use the shutdown procedure on the grill controller. A controlled shutdown takes about 15 minutes.

This morning when I was cleaning up for today's cook I noticed that there was flaking on the heat diffuser, see attached photo. I don't know if this is normal, I've contacted Weber, but all I've gotten so far is an automated replied since it's the weekend. See the attached photo. Let me know if any of you see this on your EX4 or 6.

Today doing baby backs
While smoking baby ribs had cavity formed three times over the auger and pellets stop flowing into the pot. The first two times I noticed the temperature dropping and went and checked the hopper and found the cavity and stirred the pellets, however the glow plug did not fire to reignite the fire as the pellets starting falling back into the pot. I'm using weber pellets I order when I order my grill. Both times I had to pull the ribs off clean out the fire pot and restart the grill. Pulled the ribs off and put in the oven to continue the cook while I got the grill going again. On the third time I caught the cavity before the temperature started to fall and got the pellets flowing again. The temperature did drop quite a bit, but the pellets got into the fire pot before the fire went out.

I made the following points to weber based off today's low and slow cook.
As a engineer who has programmed control systems for the past 30 years I noticed the following.
Issues:
1) No alarm when over app or on controller when on Smoke Fire when temperature dropped below set point. this should occur at 25 degrees below minimum, this would give the user and chance to react and save the cook from having to shutdown.
2) No alarm to let you know pellets are not following up the auger
3) The glow plug doesn't try to restart the fire when the temperature drop below 50 degrees of set point. This unit holds the set point so tight when it's working, I see no reason why this is not setup to do this. You could fire the glow plug for a period of time trying to restart the fire pot, if the temperature doesn't start to rise then go into shutdown mode. There is no reason that this system should not do this.
4) No audible alarm when the timer is up over the app. No alarm when the temperature falls below the set point by 25 degrees.

I believe Weber will get these bugs worked out. Also there maybe a safety reason they do not restart the glow plug when the temperature falls, but I don't know why off the top of my head. You do need to keep an eye on the hopper pellets to make sure a cavity doesn't form. Since I had burned maybe 30% of the full level, maybe there wasn't enough weight to have the pellets fall into the auger, but that is just speculation on my part.

Ribs did turn out well, see the attached photo.
Tomorrow we're going to smoke a Turkey breast and use the meat temperature probe for the first time. I'll post after that experience as well.

Stay low and slow, sear when you need to, and keep BBQing!

FSC

I had the same issue happen twice with the Weber pellets. I removed the little safety guard wire thing that is above the auger. I’ve only cooked once since but did not have any problems.
 
I had the same issue happen twice with the Weber pellets. I removed the little safety guard wire thing that is above the auger. I’ve only cooked once since but did not have any problems.
Thanks Jesse I'll give that a try before I do the Turkey Breast today. Thanks a lot for the tip. I'll let you know how I make out.
 

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