What does everyone think of their Smoke Fire now

[Amyga]

I have had the EX4 Gen2 since May 2021, I picked it because I wanted a grill that does it all, and it does live to my expectation, so I am quite happy, and highly recommend it. It makes grilling fun and flavorful, whether it's a brisket, hot dogs, veggies, scallops...

40lbs of Weber pellet blend so far and no problems. Temperature is stable, the grill heats up fast (I have not timed it, but maybe 20 minutes to get to 550F), hopper is easy to fill, it's a lot more fuel efficient than I thought it would be (1- 1.5 lbs/hour depending on temperatures). The app is simple and I use it during every cook. The grill is sturdy, easy to assemble, easy to clean, and dealing with pellets is easy and convenient compared with charcoal or propane tank.

I live in the Northeast and we've had quite a bit of rain this summer, but I keep the pellets in the hopper and they stay dry. I do cover the grill once it is cooled (no roof over my grill, yet), I have also cooked on a misty day, and windy day, some time we get sun, eventually we will get snow... I wished they had Pecan. Of all the wood chunk I have burned in Weber charcoal kettle, pecan is my favorite, so I wish they had that in a pellet form. During the first few weeks, I was cleaning the ash before every cook, but now it's every 3-5 cooks or if I have not used it for more than a week (wait! what? yes that did happen!). It does not build that much ash (it's my first pellet grill so my only comparison is with the charcoal). I have not vacuumed it once, just the plastic scrapper/spatula tool provided.

The shutdown takes a bit over 15 minutes, i.e. forever, during which I feel like the fan is cycling just to be noisy and annoying, although you know it's doing a job, and at the end of it the grill is actually barely warm to touch and ready to store and cover. I use that as a rough timer for how long the meat should be resting before serving... A more silent fan is at the top of a short list of things I wish it had.

 

[scotticus]

I will have to say that the Weber customer support is excellent, they are getting me the things I need to debug this grill for them

going to install the motor today and grill a nice steak! i hope.

 

[Norseman83]

I have had the EX4 Gen2 since May 2021, I picked it because I wanted a grill that does it all, and it does live to my expectation, so I am quite happy, and highly recommend it. It makes grilling fun and flavorful, whether it's a brisket, hot dogs, veggies, scallops...

40lbs of Weber pellet blend so far and no problems. Temperature is stable, the grill heats up fast (I have not timed it, but maybe 20 minutes to get to 550F), hopper is easy to fill, it's a lot more fuel efficient than I thought it would be (1- 1.5 lbs/hour depending on temperatures). The app is simple and I use it during every cook. The grill is sturdy, easy to assemble, easy to clean, and dealing with pellets is easy and convenient compared with charcoal or propane tank.

I live in the Northeast and we've had quite a bit of rain this summer, but I keep the pellets in the hopper and they stay dry. I do cover the grill once it is cooled (no roof over my grill, yet), I have also cooked on a misty day, and windy day, some time we get sun, eventually we will get snow... I wished they had Pecan. Of all the wood chunk I have burned in Weber charcoal kettle, pecan is my favorite, so I wish they had that in a pellet form. During the first few weeks, I was cleaning the ash before every cook, but now it's every 3-5 cooks or if I have not used it for more than a week (wait! what? yes that did happen!). It does not build that much ash (it's my first pellet grill so my only comparison is with the charcoal). I have not vacuumed it once, just the plastic scrapper/spatula tool provided.

The shutdown takes a bit over 15 minutes, i.e. forever, during which I feel like the fan is cycling just to be noisy and annoying, although you know it's doing a job, and at the end of it the grill is actually barely warm to touch and ready to store and cover. I use that as a rough timer for how long the meat should be resting before serving... A more silent fan is at the top of a short list of things I wish it had.

Lumberjack has pecan pellets, they are pretty good. I've used Lumberjack exclusively in my SF and have never had an issue.

 

[Norseman83]

I love the SF, best grill/smoker I've owned. I've yet to have an issue.

 

[TwoWheeler]

I’m on the verge of taking mine back.

The first incident was the grease fire IN THE GREASE TRAY after one cook. (One rack of “Shiner” ribs that were only on for two hours unwrapped and only made, maybe a quarter cup of grease in the grease tray).

Last Saturday, I set up a chuck roast and walked away. Two hours in, I get a random “low temperature” alert. Go out, stir the pellets around, and push the temp up to see if it responds, it seems to, so I turn it back down and walk away. About an hour later, same thing. I shut it down and restarted it. It slowly comes up to temperature. I walk away again. Come back a while later and the temp is around 1200 and smoke is rolling out and the pellets in the auger are in flames. Pulled the plug and put the chuck roast on the gas grill. Came back after it cooled down, fired it up for a few minutes, it seemed to do nothing, so I ran the shutdown…and watched it fill the burn pot with unburned pellets.

Monday I called “customer support”. I got a guy who took the info and said he‘d get back to me. It’s Thursday and I haven’t heard squat.

The thing is less than 3 months old.

 

[EasyE]

I’m on the verge of taking mine back.

The first incident was the grease fire IN THE GREASE TRAY after one cook. (One rack of “Shiner” ribs that were only on for two hours unwrapped and only made, maybe a quarter cup of grease in the grease tray).

Last Saturday, I set up a chuck roast and walked away. Two hours in, I get a random “low temperature” alert. Go out, stir the pellets around, and push the temp up to see if it responds, it seems to, so I turn it back down and walk away. About an hour later, same thing. I shut it down and restarted it. It slowly comes up to temperature. I walk away again. Come back a while later and the temp is around 1200 and smoke is rolling out and the pellets in the auger are in flames. Pulled the plug and put the chuck roast on the gas grill. Came back after it cooled down, fired it up for a few minutes, it seemed to do nothing, so I ran the shutdown…and watched it fill the burn pot with unburned pellets.

Monday I called “customer support”. I got a guy who took the info and said he‘d get back to me. It’s Thursday and I haven’t heard squat.

The thing is less than 3 months old.

Oh man. I hate to hear that. I’ve used my EX6 numerous times and have had zero issues. Got it back in April. One thing i make sure I do is keep it cleaned out after a couple of cooks. If I’m cooking a greasy piece of meat I make sure I put pans under the racks to catch the grease from hitting the bottom. What temp were you cooking at? Was it a windy day? Just weird that an ember would get down in the grease catch tray to start a fire.

 

[Bluesmoke]

I purchased my EX 6 in July of last year. I have had replace the auger chute, the controller, and the pellet chute. Weber customer service was great got the parts out right away. Since then I have had no issues. I have something on it at least 3 times a week. I do clean it out after every 3rd cook. The food that comes off this unit is awesome. I absolutely love my Smokefire.
Also I have talked to friends that have other pellet smokers and they have had problems with theirs as well.

 

[cbthompson]

I've had my SmokeFire since late June 2021 (Gen 2). For reference i have a Genesis, WSM, and Kettle as well. I bought it when Weber put them on sale for the summer. Unfortunately my local Lowe's stopped selling them due to the low demand, which means they stopped selling the Weber pellets as well. I think i got the last EX6 (luckily a Gen2) in stock. The first thing I did was order the wet smoke kit and although I know some people say its a work around, I believe for long smokes of fatty meats, it keeps the grill much cleaner and helps with any potential flare-ups (fire) but I have had no fires. I've done about 10 cooks and love it. Many times doing burgers, both hand pressed (80/20 fat) and some frozen ones for something fast. I've also done several boston butt's for low and slow. I have no no problems switching from low and slow to fast and hot. I recently did some marinated flank steak for Fajitas along with marinated chicken and it turned out better than my 15 year old Genesis, and no fires from the marinade dripping. I love mine so far and it looks like my WSM won't be getting much use now. Now my kettle may stick around...but I've got to try to those charcoal pellets....

Also note that my friend has a Traeger Ironwood. He was grilling for a group and had a massive flare-up that almost ruined the entire dinner so flare-ups are not something specific to the Weber.

 

[TwoWheeler]

If I’m cooking a greasy piece of meat I make sure I put pans under the racks to catch the grease from hitting the bottom. What temp were you cooking at? Was it a windy day? Just weird that an ember would get down in the grease catch tray to start a fire.

When I first heard the stories about grease fires, I came to the conclusion that it was just lazy people who didn’t clean the inside of the cooker and let the ports get plugged. The solution was simple: clean the damned thing!

My first cook was a rack of ”shiners” that didn’t have much meat on them, let alone much fat. (I purposely chose those out of the freezer, since I figured I wouldn’t be out much if I screwed them up. ). They were only on for two hours unwrapped. When I was done, I scraped the inside clean and made sure the ports were open. As I said there was a small puddle of grease in one corner of the foil pan. It didn’t even cover the bottom of the foil pan. I assumed it was no big deal, since that’s what the pan is for.

Second cook was burgers and I had the temp cranked up. Next think I know, there’s flames coming out of the gap on top of the drawer. It left scorch marks on the front of the cooker and melted the drip pan - the aluminum one, as well as the foil one.

It’s not that weird to think that could happen, given the pan’s location - right under the burn pot, not on the outside like every other pellet grill on the planet. I’m guessing it’s because Weber’s marketing people made that decision so they could say “No icky grease trays to look at!” (And yes, their promo literature says something just like that).

I basically came to the conclusion that I would stick to my Genesis for grilling and use the GreaseFire for a smoker. I’ve done that for maybe a dozen cooks with no issue until Saturday, when it decided to act totally screwy.

As for the much vaunted Customer Service, I called them Monday. They were supposed to get back to me. I watched my inbox and saw nothing. I even kept my junk mail box cleaned out and kept an eye on that. Today I notice a voicemail among all my junk calls. (I have my phone set to ”silence unknown callers”, so I didn’t hear it). I listen to it, and it’s the guy from Weber telling me he needed my email address so he could send me some info and telling me he needed the serial number and I needed to register it… I gave him all that while I was on the phone with him! I know I was already registered because he asked me about my two Genesis grills and my WSM. I also know they already HAVE my email address and it wasn’t going to “junk” because this afternoon, I got a promotional email from them. It’s like he was on another planet while he was talking to me. Yet, where the hell he got my phone number I have no idea because I don’t give it out.

I have been a Weber whore for about 20 years. No more.

 

[Goneincognito]

When I first heard the stories about grease fires, I came to the conclusion that it was just lazy people who didn’t clean the inside of the cooker and let the ports get plugged. The solution was simple: clean the damned thing!

No... They can also happen when lazy people don't empty or replace the tray after cleaning the inside. Keeping it clean applies to the whole thing.

 

[TwoWheeler]

No... They can also happen when lazy people don't empty or replace the tray after cleaning the inside. Keeping it clean applies to the whole thing.

Uh, no. I cleaned the entire inside and outside. My mistake was in thinking a grease tray was supposed to hold…grease. Just like the one on my Genesis that I’ve somehow managed to not have go up in flames in 20 years of use.

BTW, the owner’s manual says nothing about field stripping, spit shining and sanitizing after every cook. “20 hours or 12 cooks”, not one cook and three hours. (And it’s not like I had a whole pork shoulder on for hours, either).

Stop apologizing for a crappy design. They had five years to develop this thing, a bunch of others to learn from and they still dropped the ball.

 

[JpsBBQ]

When I first heard the stories about grease fires, I came to the conclusion that it was just lazy people who didn’t clean the inside of the cooker and let the ports get plugged. The solution was simple: clean the damned thing!

My first cook was a rack of ”shiners” that didn’t have much meat on them, let alone much fat. (I purposely chose those out of the freezer, since I figured I wouldn’t be out much if I screwed them up. ). They were only on for two hours unwrapped. When I was done, I scraped the inside clean and made sure the ports were open. As I said there was a small puddle of grease in one corner of the foil pan. It didn’t even cover the bottom of the foil pan. I assumed it was no big deal, since that’s what the pan is for.

Second cook was burgers and I had the temp cranked up. Next think I know, there’s flames coming out of the gap on top of the drawer. It left scorch marks on the front of the cooker and melted the drip pan - the aluminum one, as well as the foil one.

It’s not that weird to think that could happen, given the pan’s location - right under the burn pot, not on the outside like every other pellet grill on the planet. I’m guessing it’s because Weber’s marketing people made that decision so they could say “No icky grease trays to look at!” (And yes, their promo literature says something just like that).

I basically came to the conclusion that I would stick to my Genesis for grilling and use the GreaseFire for a smoker. I’ve done that for maybe a dozen cooks with no issue until Saturday, when it decided to act totally screwy.

As for the much vaunted Customer Service, I called them Monday. They were supposed to get back to me. I watched my inbox and saw nothing. I even kept my junk mail box cleaned out and kept an eye on that. Today I notice a voicemail among all my junk calls. (I have my phone set to ”silence unknown callers”, so I didn’t hear it). I listen to it, and it’s the guy from Weber telling me he needed my email address so he could send me some info and telling me he needed the serial number and I needed to register it… I gave him all that while I was on the phone with him! I know I was already registered because he asked me about my two Genesis grills and my WSM. I also know they already HAVE my email address and it wasn’t going to “junk” because this afternoon, I got a promotional email from them. It’s like he was on another planet while he was talking to me. Yet, where the hell he got my phone number I have no idea because I don’t give it out.

I have been a Weber whore for about 20 years. No more.

I simply don’t believe you. The internet is full of guys like this. They live to troll products and crap on companies. Please get your money back and leave.

Thanks for playing. cheers!

 

[cbthompson]

When I first heard the stories about grease fires, I came to the conclusion that it was just lazy people who didn’t clean the inside of the cooker and let the ports get plugged. The solution was simple: clean the damned thing!

My first cook was a rack of ”shiners” that didn’t have much meat on them, let alone much fat. (I purposely chose those out of the freezer, since I figured I wouldn’t be out much if I screwed them up. ). They were only on for two hours unwrapped. When I was done, I scraped the inside clean and made sure the ports were open. As I said there was a small puddle of grease in one corner of the foil pan. It didn’t even cover the bottom of the foil pan. I assumed it was no big deal, since that’s what the pan is for.

Second cook was burgers and I had the temp cranked up. Next think I know, there’s flames coming out of the gap on top of the drawer. It left scorch marks on the front of the cooker and melted the drip pan - the aluminum one, as well as the foil one.

It’s not that weird to think that could happen, given the pan’s location - right under the burn pot, not on the outside like every other pellet grill on the planet. I’m guessing it’s because Weber’s marketing people made that decision so they could say “No icky grease trays to look at!” (And yes, their promo literature says something just like that).

I basically came to the conclusion that I would stick to my Genesis for grilling and use the GreaseFire for a smoker. I’ve done that for maybe a dozen cooks with no issue until Saturday, when it decided to act totally screwy.

As for the much vaunted Customer Service, I called them Monday. They were supposed to get back to me. I watched my inbox and saw nothing. I even kept my junk mail box cleaned out and kept an eye on that. Today I notice a voicemail among all my junk calls. (I have my phone set to ”silence unknown callers”, so I didn’t hear it). I listen to it, and it’s the guy from Weber telling me he needed my email address so he could send me some info and telling me he needed the serial number and I needed to register it… I gave him all that while I was on the phone with him! I know I was already registered because he asked me about my two Genesis grills and my WSM. I also know they already HAVE my email address and it wasn’t going to “junk” because this afternoon, I got a promotional email from them. It’s like he was on another planet while he was talking to me. Yet, where the hell he got my phone number I have no idea because I don’t give it out.

I have been a Weber whore for about 20 years. No more.

I will add that the grease tray was one of the reasons I went with the smokefire. On the new cheaper genesis grill the cabinet is open exposing the grease tray. Dogs and critters are constantly in those. The same thing for the side exposed drip trays on traditional pellet grills.

 

[JpsBBQ]

Uh, no. I cleaned the entire inside and outside. My mistake was in thinking a grease tray was supposed to hold…grease. Just like the one on my Genesis that I’ve somehow managed to not have go up in flames in 20 years of use.

BTW, the owner’s manual says nothing about field stripping, spit shining and sanitizing after every cook. “20 hours or 12 cooks”, not one cook and three hours. (And it’s not like I had a whole pork shoulder on for hours, either).

View attachment 4358
Stop apologizing for a crappy design. They had five years to develop this thing, a bunch of others to learn from and they still dropped the ball.

I’ve done a hundred hours of uninterrupted cooking without issue. The design is extremely simple, unique and genius. Don’t buy your claims for a minute. Sorry.

Come clean, you work for Rec Tec, right?

 

[Goneincognito]

Uh, no. I cleaned the entire inside and outside. My mistake was in thinking a grease tray was supposed to hold…grease. Just like the one on my Genesis that I’ve somehow managed to not have go up in flames in 20 years of use.

No.. your mistake was cooking on it like it was a 20 year old gas grill. Im not apologising for anything. You just sound like you blindly went into this without researching anything and knowing its possible issues and now you are pissed because you are experiencing them.

Cook on the grill you have not the one you want it to be regardless of what the manual says. You have obviously learnt your lesson on this.

If you cant deal with that them give it back to Weber and move on.