Shout-out to Lowe's

[arod757]

I didn't want to fiddle with this grill anymore, so I went ahead and returned it yesterday. Lowe's didn't bat an eye. I did call first to verify I could return it without all the packaging and fully assembled just in case. I don't know whether that made a difference or not, though. But it sure was easy.

I'm quite heartbroken. With all the great prerelease YouTube videos out, I had high hopes this would be an out-of-the-box instant success and I'd be grilling and smoking all week without an issue. To those of you for whom this grill has been a success, I'm very happy for you... kinda. : ) And good luck to those of you with more patience than I. I hope Weber gets any issue you're having worked out in a timely manner.

 

[Brian Vallotton]

I didn't want to fiddle with this grill anymore, so I went ahead and returned it yesterday. Lowe's didn't bat an eye. I did call first to verify I could return it without all the packaging and fully assembled just in case. I don't know whether that made a difference or not, though. But it sure was easy.

I'm quite heartbroken. With all the great prerelease YouTube videos out, I had high hopes this would be an out-of-the-box instant success and I'd be grilling and smoking all week without an issue. To those of you for whom this grill has been a success, I'm very happy for you... kinda. : ) And good luck to those of you with more patience than I. I hope Weber gets any issue you're having worked out in a timely manner.

I bowed out yesterday. Mine is in shipment still and I told them to just take it back. What happened with me is that I have been doing a lot of grilling on my little 20 year old Weber kettle and having some great cooks. It is just me and my wife. Using the natural charcoal chunks and the chimney lighter. After following all this I finally got "pellet cooker fatigue". I had a Traeger Texas Elite for almost 4 years and I liked it. The auger went out and Costco took it back and gave me a full refund... So I started researching the SmokeFire. Long story short, I have gone full circle to liking the idea of no wires, no wifi, bluetooth, augers, or any other mechanical issues to deal with. I can see you are not a hater, and neither am I! God bless.

 

[arod757]

You're right... not a hater. I did come to a similar realization as you as far as going back to basics. In the pellet grill market's quest for simplicity, I think all the bells and whistles are having the opposite effect and making things more complicated.

 

[Billybo]

You're right... not a hater. I did come to a similar realization as you as far as going back to basics. In the pellet grill market's quest for simplicity, I think all the bells and whistles are having the opposite effect and making things more complicated.

I am a bit of a computer nerd, and the high-tech features really appeal to me. While they do not have the kinks worked out in that area just yet, I'm confident that they will get there. I'm a really busy guy, but LOVE grilling. Having the ability to fully monitor my cook from my basement office is really useful for me. I think the hopper issue will be a fairly easy fix. I expect that Weber will resolve it with a replacement hopper or an insert. Or maybe all it needs is to clean and treat the steel so it's really slick. I think that I'm going to stick with my purchase and accept delivery of my grill when it gets here. I have a Vision Grills kamado that works well, the food tastes great, it's just a little more work to get it settled in at times. Every now and again, it seems to be dialled in and cruising along then the temps will randomly spike or drop, so I need to really be watching it. If I could go back in time a couple of years, I'd have bought a Weber kettle. Live and learn.

 

[abmet]

I am a bit of a computer nerd, and the high-tech features really appeal to me. While they do not have the kinks worked out in that area just yet, I'm confident that they will get there. I'm a really busy guy, but LOVE grilling. Having the ability to fully monitor my cook from my basement office is really useful for me. I think the hopper issue will be a fairly easy fix. I expect that Weber will resolve it with a replacement hopper or an insert. Or maybe all it needs is to clean and treat the steel so it's really slick. I think that I'm going to stick with my purchase and accept delivery of my grill when it gets here. I have a Vision Grills kamado that works well, the food tastes great, it's just a little more work to get it settled in at times. Every now and again, it seems to be dialled in and cruising along then the temps will randomly spike or drop, so I need to really be watching it. If I could go back in time a couple of years, I'd have bought a Weber kettle. Live and learn.

I'm in similar boat, love gadgets and high-tech features, but also get others desire for not having to mess with those things. I definitely wonder about some of the things I've purchased in the last couple years and their dependency on a company providing severs or support and what happens to them when they don't. I knew purchasing this first generation grill had some risks, but in researching other grills I've seen some growing pains or issues with them too. I knew there was nothing perfect out there (at least for what I was willing to spend) so based on my experience with my other Weber grills and the great customer service I had from them for some minor things in the past I felt comfortable with taking that risk. That being said totally understand why someone would want to wait until any issues were resolved or go with another brand if they didn't feel they were resolved to their liking.

 

[Billybo]

I'm in similar boat, love gadgets and high-tech features, but also get others desire for not having to mess with those things. I definitely wonder about some of the things I've purchased in the last couple years and their dependency on a company providing severs or support and what happens to them when they don't. I knew purchasing this first generation grill had some risks, but in researching other grills I've seen some growing pains or issues with them too. I knew there was nothing perfect out there (at least for what I was willing to spend) so based on my experience with my other Weber grills and the great customer service I had from them for some minor things in the past I felt comfortable with taking that risk. That being said totally understand why someone would want to wait until any issues were resolved or go with another brand if they didn't feel they were resolved to their liking.

I concur. I totally get why some people may prefer to wait a bit. I trust Weber to make this right...making sure their customers are happy is in their dna.

 

[SmokeMeister]

I didn't want to fiddle with this grill anymore, so I went ahead and returned it yesterday. Lowe's didn't bat an eye. I did call first to verify I could return it without all the packaging and fully assembled just in case. I don't know whether that made a difference or not, though. But it sure was easy.

I'm quite heartbroken. With all the great prerelease YouTube videos out, I had high hopes this would be an out-of-the-box instant success and I'd be grilling and smoking all week without an issue. To those of you for whom this grill has been a success, I'm very happy for you... kinda. : ) And good luck to those of you with more patience than I. I hope Weber gets any issue you're having worked out in a timely manner.

Just out of curiosity, how "dirty" was your grill on the inside? I apologize I can't remember if you said you'd cooked much in it. Did you clean it at all before returning? Other than just vacuuming out the ash.

A Weber tech is coming tomorrow morning to look at mine, but just thinking ahead to if it can't be fixed or can't be fixed right or this drags out much longer.

 

[Billybo]

Just out of curiosity, how "dirty" was your grill on the inside? I apologize I can't remember if you said you'd cooked much in it. Did you clean it at all before returning? Other than just vacuuming out the ash.

A Weber tech is coming tomorrow morning to look at mine, but just thinking ahead to if it can't be fixed or can't be fixed right or this drags out much longer.

I'm super interested in hearing what the Weber tech has to say. I'm hoping that we get a definitive answer as to what is going on and what the solution is. I may still cancel my order if the issues prove to be more involved. Software tweaks I'm willing to be patient with, but any hardware issues need to get resolved by Weber one way or another.

 

[arod757]

Just out of curiosity, how "dirty" was your grill on the inside? I apologize I can't remember if you said you'd cooked much in it. Did you clean it at all before returning? Other than just vacuuming out the ash.

A Weber tech is coming tomorrow morning to look at mine, but just thinking ahead to if it can't be fixed or can't be fixed right or this drags out much longer.

I went through the bag of complimentary pellets and maybe a couple of pounds of traeger pellets attempting to smoke some burgers, steaks, and chicken, along with a bunch of testing different ways to get the temp differences acceptable across the grates.

Anyway, when I went to clean the pit after that, there was no grease in the drawer pan. It was all stuck to the bottom of the pit due to the ash being blown about. I'd say 70 percent of the ash from that bag of pellets was in the pit versus the ash collection tray. Mixed with the grease from those few cooks, it was a big mess. I'm lucky nothing caught fire.

I did clean it thoroughly before taking it back to Lowe's. I'm not sure if that was necessary, but it seemed like the right thing to do. Besides, I didn't want ash blowing on anyone driving behind me on my way back to the store.

Big guess here, but I think the temp problems all stem from excess fan speed. I read or heard somewhere that 90 percent of the ash is supposed to be collected in that tray. That's not possible with the fan blowing upwards into the cooker as hard as mine was.

Anyway, sorry for rambling.... the pit was very dirty. LOL.

 

[Billybo]

Thanks for the update. I could be wrong, but from what I understand, more ash gets blown around the pit when it's cranking at higher temps as the fan runs more often and at higher speeds. At lower temps, the fan does not run as often nor as strong thus more ash gets collected in the ash drawer.

I assumed that the temperature fluctuations were caused by the pellet hopper developing a "hollow" and not feeding the auger the pellets that the grill requires to maintain the desired temperature. (This only based on everything that I have seen and read)

 

[arod757]

Hopefully Weber will get it sorted. I really shouldn't be putting my two cents in anyway since I don't have any more skin in the game. Good luck to you, Billybo, and you on your tech visit, SmokeMeister.

 

[Billybo]

Hopefully Weber will get it sorted. I really shouldn't be putting my two cents in anyway since I don't have any more skin in the game. Good luck to you, Billybo, and you on your tech visit, SmokeMeister.

I for one still appreciate your feedback. You have valuable hands-on time with this grill while I'm here waiting for mine, learning what I can, and stewing about whether or not to cancel my order before it arrives. Truthfully, I'm going back and forth. The delay in getting my grill may turn out to be a godsend.

 

[abmet]

Thanks for the update. I could be wrong, but from what I understand, more ash gets blown around the pit when it's cranking at higher temps as the fan runs more often and at higher speeds. At lower temps, the fan does not run as often nor as strong thus more ash gets collected in the ash drawer.

I assumed that the temperature fluctuations were caused by the pellet hopper developing a "hollow" and not feeding the auger the pellets that the grill requires to maintain the desired temperature. (This only based on everything that I have seen and read)

This has been my albeit limited experience. During burn-in at 600 with 10 degree weather fan wa blowing hard and most of the ash was in the bottom of the cooker and very little in the drawer. I went ahead and vacuumed out the grill after the burn-in. When cooking at 225 and 250 I had much more ash in the drawer. I didn’t remove the grates to inspect closely but i didn’t see too much in the bottom of the grill after combined 11 hours.

 

[depends]

I returned my Smokefire to Lowes today - I had not cleaned it out after a brisket cook (other than brushing grates) and they took it back no questions asked.

 

[MENCHY954]

I stuck with mine - I was all caught up in the YouTubers videos showing all the issues and I was unsure if I was going to keep it or not. I have had several cooks on this now, I installed the hopper fix. A new Android update came out yesterday. New firmware for the grill is coming out soon to fix and improve on some things. Weber is standing behind this and doing a good job of responding to the market quickly with fixes. I am confident that this grill will be the end all be all. Weber has too much to lose by not standing behind this properly. So far they have been very impressive.

My cooks have been nothing short of amazing on this and I will continue to be a fan. Good luck to everyone.