egsell
New member
Hi, long time pellet smoker, new SmokeFire griller here. I have evolved from Charcoal to Gas to Pellet to Gas ignited Charcoal to the Smokefire. For the past 10 years I really enjoyed low and slow cooks on the GMG, but more recently acquired and used the Weber Performer to sear or cook stuff at higher temps. I even ended up doing a lot of cooks on both the pellet and charcoal, balancing the best of both. I was totally intrigued by the Smokefire 1.0 as it might be the right balance for me, I generally grill more than I smoke, but I waited until my GMG gave up the ghost. Looks like it might have been the right move as there seemed to be a lot of headaches/heartaches early on. I bought the ELX6 Sear+, it's pretty groovy, but it is LARGE. My GMG was a Daniel Boone, so the change was significant. WE Love the grill, and have done lots of grills and several smokes including a pulled pork (it was my final acceptance test) to make sure we would be happy with it. In hindsight perhaps I should have purchased the ELX4 (we are a family of 3) as the 6 at least is a pig when it comes to pellet efficiency, but that could very well be due to the higher temp I run for grilling sessions (it probably is). And that brings the only other tiny niggling issue with such a big grill and that is the single heating element and learning how to "shape" the heat or work with the hot and cool zones to work with different foods.
I have used the iGrill products in the past, but I think the Weber connect integration is even better than those early thermometers were. It would be nice if you could have multiple mobile devices that could connect, but it seems to cause conflicts with connections in my early tests. I need to dig in a bit to see if there are ways to create your own programs/profiles for recipes also.
I actually really enjoyed the build/setup process as it really takes your through the mechanics of the system, which for me is key when it comes to troubleshooting later.
I am thinking my next big experiment will be a Pastrami and then smoking pork belly and eventually curing my own bacon. I'm not on the brisket bandwagon, yet. I recently did some Beef back ribs and they were great for what they were. We've enjoyed grilling a lot of seafood on the grill, fajitas (looking for a great recipe still), burgers, wings, wurst and poppers. I think if there is a good Black Friday sale I will buy the Crafted griddle insert, but I'm not in a rush.
Grill On!
I have used the iGrill products in the past, but I think the Weber connect integration is even better than those early thermometers were. It would be nice if you could have multiple mobile devices that could connect, but it seems to cause conflicts with connections in my early tests. I need to dig in a bit to see if there are ways to create your own programs/profiles for recipes also.
I actually really enjoyed the build/setup process as it really takes your through the mechanics of the system, which for me is key when it comes to troubleshooting later.
I am thinking my next big experiment will be a Pastrami and then smoking pork belly and eventually curing my own bacon. I'm not on the brisket bandwagon, yet. I recently did some Beef back ribs and they were great for what they were. We've enjoyed grilling a lot of seafood on the grill, fajitas (looking for a great recipe still), burgers, wings, wurst and poppers. I think if there is a good Black Friday sale I will buy the Crafted griddle insert, but I'm not in a rush.
Grill On!
