Larger Pellets

MLG · May 5, 2020

Has anyone had issue maintaining consistent heat using the larger diameter pellets ?

AHoneyman · May 5, 2020

The larger pellets that I used appeared to be softer and crumbled to dust when the SF reversed the auger to shut down. They may have had problems feeding without the modified hopper and chute. I have changed pellet size when I changed the chute and have not had problems since. Not definitive but possible.

dudemcnally · May 6, 2020

I tried B&B pellets (which are a larger diameter) and that was the only time I've experienced temperature fluctuations. I think the SF just struggled to feed the larger diameter pellets which caused the problem. I have since stuck with weber or lumberjack and have had no issues. I highly recommend lumberjack, half the price of weber and they work great!

MLG · May 6, 2020

dudemcnally said:
I tried B&B pellets (which are a larger diameter) and that was the only time I've experienced temperature fluctuations. I think the SF just struggled to feed the larger diameter pellets which caused the problem. I have since stuck with weber or lumberjack and have had no issues. I highly recommend lumberjack, half the price of weber and they work great!

Living in Canada last Sunday was the first time since owning the grill we haven't had a cool breeze to blame for fluctuations. Out of the four bags of various brands of pellets two brands are the larger pellets and those are the ones I was using on the weekend. I set the temp for 225 and over an hour and a half it would hold the temp for five minutes and drop to 165-180 for 20 minutes. this kept repeating over and over. I'll stick to the Weber pellets. Yesterday I read somebody removed the finger guard from their hopper I may look into that option as well.

topkatt4518 · May 7, 2020

Morning, don't go crazy with the pellet issue. I have been using Weber pellets religiously for the last 2 months and since software 4008 this grill has a mind of it's own. I am on my 3rd controller, with the welded chute and I wish I could go back to 4003. I have been in constant contact with Weber and they are working on it... Plus my new wrinkle is the controller locks up and will not respond unless you power down the grill. The app (which is worthless) still thinks the grill is running perfectly. If you do not have a secondary temp monitor, I would get one, that is the only way I knew the grill screwed up without constantly staring at it for the 6hr cook. When it works it puts out great food, but don't turn your back on it cause it will bite you when you least expect it.
The first pic was after the controller locked up
The 2nd is went it restarted and it was set for 240 the controller read 270 but it was actually 361
Talk about temp swings, this is crazy

dudemcnally · May 7, 2020

topkatt4518 said:
Morning, don't go crazy with the pellet issue. I have been using Weber pellets religiously for the last 2 months and since software 4008 this grill has a mind of it's own. I am on my 3rd controller, with the welded chute and I wish I could go back to 4003. I have been in constant contact with Weber and they are working on it... Plus my new wrinkle is the controller locks up and will not respond unless you power down the grill. The app (which is worthless) still thinks the grill is running perfectly. If you do not have a secondary temp monitor, I would get one, that is the only way I knew the grill screwed up without constantly staring at it for the 6hr cook. When it works it puts out great food, but don't turn your back on it cause it will bite you when you least expect it.
The first pic was after the controller locked up
The 2nd is went it restarted and it was set for 240 the controller read 270 but it was actually 361
Talk about temp swings, this is crazy

you've replaced 3 controllers?? jeez, it must be that you have a dead short or something like that, somewhere else in your grill. I hope they get you fixed up, I love mine

topkatt4518 · May 8, 2020

Sorry for the delayed reply. Yes I am on my third one. First one had no wifi and the red probe covers were falling off. The 2nd worked but would not accept the 4008 update. I should have kept that one seeing 4008 is horrible. So they swapped that one out for my 3rd one with 4008. Now my wifi will not stick it seems, if you shut the grill off and turn back on the wifi setup is gone and only connects to BT. You have to perform the wifi setup everytime.
I did hear back from Weber this morning, they are getting ready to release new software to hopefully resolve all the temp and locking up issues, we will see.

dudemcnally · May 8, 2020

dude, I would do a thorough examination of all the wiring/connections. You have to have an intermittent dead short or something??

topkatt4518 · May 8, 2020

Thanks for the suggestions. The system is pretty simple and already looked over everything. It is not blowing up the controller it is definitely the software that is an issue. I have run into the type of issue with our equipment. New software release breaks more than it fixes. Weber support got back to me today and confirmed that it is a software issue and they are working on it. A new release should be shortly.