New To BBQ

[Dewesq55]

If you want to stick with Weber, have you thought seriously about getting a kettle, perhaps with a SnS? Gets you the ability to grill or bake over charcoal with little to no "smoke flavor," (IMHO, charcoal flavor and smoke flavor are 2 different things) plus the ability to cook "low 'n' slow" with smoke when desired.

In any event, welcome!

[Dadof3Illinois]

I would recommend just getting one of the Weber SmokeFires. Seems your looking for something you don't need to babysit as much and a mild smoky flavor would suit you best.
As far as grill grates go....I would buy the cooker now and get the grates at a later date once I'm comfortable using the new cooker. Instead I would recommend spending some money on a good leave in wifi enabled multi probe thermometer...say that fast three times...HA!!
I would also recommend finding another weber kettle, seems you can find good used ones on Facebook Marketplace pretty easy. Then reading up on how to dial in temps and maintain them for long cooks.....this way if you would ever want to impart more smoke to the cook you would have the knowledge and equipment to do so.
I think you are going down the right path looking for a pellet grill/cooker first......just don't overlook some of the other brands out there, find one that fits the way your wanting to cook.

[Kingrex]

I just had money moved from my bank to my card to make a purchase. I can actually get whatever I want. But I think the smoke fire sounds very versitile. Even over other brands. It gets good and hot for hamburgers, steak and vegetables on a direct cook. It plays cool for long slow smoke. I don't think there is much else that does that?

[klflowers]

I have never owned a gas grill, so I really can't speak to those. I do have a couple of pellet grills, a Grilla Chimp and a Traeger Tailgater. They are both smaller pellet grills because I wanted portability. Anyway, I come down on the pellet grill side. The smoke flavor is really light, and the control is pretty easy. You have to have electricity is the only drawback. I also have a 22" kettle with the slow n sear, a Weber Smoky Mountain and a 55 gal barrel grill a friend built for me. I use the Chimp more than the others because it is so easy to operate. glitchy, one of our members, has lots of experience with the SmokeFire and may be able to give you his insight.

[Stantonque]

Welcome to the forum! And howdy from So Cal!

[glitchy]

Thanks for the tag klflowers .

Kingrex If you are new to BBQ, I would recommend staying away from the SmokeFire. Mostly, because it’s kind of a moody product. When it works well it’s almost a fabulous grill. However, my experience was that it was extremely bipolar and you never knew what mood you were going to get. As well. you mentioned that your wife isn’t huge on smoke flavor. The SmokeFire lays down surprising smoke for a pellet grill. Most members here think pellet grills a very light on smoke, and many are, but the SmokeFire is not. Smoke is even pretty pronounced and identifiable at high temps. I cooked pizzas at 425 using hickory pellets and really didn’t like them as the were too smoky for pizza. I had to switch to milder flavor pellets which is something I hadn’t ever needed to do on other pellet grills.

I also recently added the 3 burner sibling to the Genesis you are looking at to my cooking arsenal. I’ve only done a few cooks on it and have been very pleased. Minus the very front where heat escapes so quickly when you open it, I’ve been seeing very consistent temps across the grates. Dialing in exact temps on a gasser does take practice. With a pellet grill and charcoal, I don’t have many plans to try to add smoke during cooking, but there are several ways you can add light smoke to gas cooking. You can get a smoker box, a pellet tube, dump chips in a foil pouch, or get some GrillGrates and toss some pellets in between the rails while cooking.

If you want a pellet grill still, I’m not sure if HomeDepot carries CampChef or not, but the Woodwind is a pretty solid performer. It’s a lighter smoke profile than the SmokeFire and even offers a little control over how much smoke to produce. It also has accessories available called a SearBox or Sidekick that are essentially a gas grill attached to the side of the grill. The Searbox is purely a grill, the sidekick can be a griddle, side burner, or grill. Outside of the SmokeFire, most mainstream pellet grills are mediocre at best for searing, so the Searbox is pretty handy.

If you go Weber gasser, I’d recommend the model with the sear and side burner. That might already be the model you are looking at. It adds a lot of options for things you can do, but not really practical to add later if you don’t get it.

Welcome to the pit and best of luck making your decision. My best advise is to buy both a gasser and a pellet grill .

[glitchy]

Kingrex I’m back again already with some more thoughts. I posted before on a short break from our house project only reading your initial post and the post from klflowers. You’ve landed at a great place, but you’ve probably noticed no matter what grills you ask about, you’ll get a dozen posts telling you to buy a kettle, even if you already have one . You usually get a couple recommendations for a PBC too even if you’re looking for a gasser or a stick burner. I don’t know where those are, but I’m sure they’ll arrive shortly.

So, onto my additional thoughts after getting caught up. If there’s a grill that could possibly have nothing to gain from GrillGrates, it’s the SmokeFire. IMO, GrillGrates are grate (intentional) at two things. One, amplifying heat where infrared heat is weak. Two, controlling flare-ups where there’s to much access to the flames. The SmokeFire is not weak for infrared heat like a Traeger, CampChef, etc. It needs no amplification to sear, it does well. I’ll try to find a steak picture later and edit in. The SmokeFire fire pot is also fairly protected, so flare ups are not a big problem and usually go out quickly and actually add a nice flame kiss to food when it does happen. When GrillGrates effectiveness was discovered on pellet grills years ago, the company quickly started making full coverage replacement grates for numerous pellet grills. Well, this ended up being a bad thing. They massively restrict airflow screwing up pellet grills performance and all the pellet grill manufacturers and GrillGrates recommend no more than a small searing station on pellet grills now.

As to your frustrations with your kettle regarding temp control and smokiness, well that could be a 20 page Q&A and knowledge session back and forth with most of the active member base. I have a Weber Summit Charcoal, I love it. It’s a great grill. However, it’s more work than I want most days and I don’t want an hour start up on every smoking session. However, what is important is that your kettle is not satisfying your outdoor cooking desires, so I do have a couple questions that related to your choices in supplementing it with a different type of grill.

When you’re cooking things that are too smoky are you adding smoking wood? What kind of charcoal? How long are you letting it light before cooking and how are you lighting it? Are you sure it’s smoke you don’t like or the charcoal flavor? Some people think charcoal is flavorless, other don’t. I think it does have a distinct taste and different charcoals are subtly different. Are you cooking direct or indirect? Direct charcoal cooking definitely has a distinct flavor due to how it interacts uniquely with drippings hitting the coals. The flavor is different than drippings hitting metal and evaporating or gas flames.

As I mentioned earlier, lots of people are convinced that all pellet grills have a very, very, very mild smoke profile. At higher temps with certain brands of pellets, many are pretty mild. However, different pellet grills and certain pellets do produce a considerably stronger smoke than others. A pellet grill ain’t gonna match a well run stick burner, but many are sufficient enough that there is no denying smoke has joined the flavor party. The SmokeFire is one of those grills. If there was a good scientific way to measure, I’d be willing to put a hefty wager that it’s in the top 5% of all pellet grills in smoke profile. So, if it’s real wood smoke your wife dislikes and you only like to a certain degree, I hate to see you unhappy. I referenced the pizzas earlier, by comparison, I’ve baked pies, breads, and pizzas on other pellet grills and couldn’t distinctly identify there was smoke. In a blind test I might be able to tell two loaves of banana bread were different comparing a pellet baked loaf to an oven loaf, but probably wouldn’t be able to tell you smoke was the difference unless I knew the comparison. If it’s something specific to charcoal a pellet grill may suit you fine. Though, the SmokeFire has its quirks and longevity concerns have been arising recently on top of the noted issues.

Edit: added pics of a try tip reverse seared on SmokeFire and pics of a finished ribeye (that apparently should have been tied before cooking).

[Kingrex]

Glitchy, I'm confused. The Smokefire is Moody, but you also seem to really like it? I heard the new V2 is much less temperamental.

A big part of wanting a more automatic system is not wanting to deal with lighting a fire and getting it under control.
I was using kingsford or some off brand I got at whole foods. I use a chimney. I have the coals all white to the top before dumping to one side and cooking on the other. Unless I am doing Paella. Then the coals are in the center.

I was going to run to a local shop and look at the Saber. I don't really want to spend that money. And it seems indirect cooking would be difficult with isolated fire chambers. How can the heat move and flow. It seems it would be cold over the grills that are turned off.

I wonder about the Genesis II and its heat distribution over the grates. But after thinking about Grill Grates, I'm not to hip on my food in direct contact with all the aluminum. I could see some added strips of steel across the flavorizer bars to distribute heat to cold spots. Who knows. I'm an obsessive "tuner". I like to make things run at peak efficiency. But I also have an eye towards ease of use. So again, gas or pellets where I turn it on and it ramps up to where I asked it to go.

If I was going to do coals again, the Portable Kitchen PK360 looks like a great product. But I do wonder again, what sort of metal is released into the air under all that heat and attaching to my food. All my pans at home are SS clad or cast. I don't have any non stick or bare aluminum like every restaurant uses.

[glitchy]

I no longer have the SmokeFire, I returned it back in February, because it was too frustrating. It was a Gen 2. When it's not moody, it's better than everything else in that price range. However, it's very picky about pellets. I still see issues on FB groups with people having frequent flameouts due to the hopper design and it's picky nature towards anything but Weber pellets. The firmware is still immature and that's where most of the issues lie (outside of the poor hopper design).

[glitchy]

I cooked a lot of great food on the SmokeFire until a firmware update came out and made a mess out of the grill again. It took them about another 6 months to do another update to fix the things they messed up, so it could be better today than it was last fall and winter. Lately, I'm hearing people have rusted out parts already with the pellet chute feeding the hopper. Kinda disturbing for a product only out 18 months.

[Kingrex]

Back again. Like I said before. I am a good cook. And I need repeat performance with little monitoring. When I make a meal, its usually multiple dishes. A meat, a vegetable, a salad and whatever sauce. My outdoor cook station is too far from my kitchen, but it has to be so because of the wind. I don't want smoke and grease in my home. Its about 50 feet and 6 steps away from my kitchen. Gas might let me put it closer.

[klflowers]

Take a look at the Grilla line of pellet grills. Their products are pretty good, and thee customer service is excellent.

Do you have an outlet in the outdoor kitchen area?

[glitchy]

As someone that has gone through 11 pellet grills trying to find the perfect one, I think you might be trying to chase the unicorn cooker. Cooking outdoors with fire has too many variables to create the perfect always constant front to back, side to side never varying temperature control. However, unless you have an amazing oven and load it with something to level it out like baking steels, if you were to put a bunch of probes in various spots inside, you'd probably be surprised at the variations from spot to spot and fluctuations in temps.

Thermostatically controlled gas grills really aren't a thing yet, so there's no set it and have same results every time. Differences in wind, ambient temps (changes gas flow rates and how much energy is lost due to heat escaping), etc. are going to make the same settings on the burner dials vary in actual temps at least a little cook to cook. However, cooking to food internal temperatures instead of by time is the easiest way to counter these variables.

Pellet grills are a little safer to leave unsupervised for a while than gas grills. They are thermostatically controlled, but most don't hold perfect rock solid temps and cycle +/- 20 degrees from the set temp. Where I was focusing on the SmokeFire is that most everything else in the pellet grill world is primarily indirect heat and was focusing on that unique trait about the SmokeFire. Some have 'searing' solutions, but most are very weak and/or having you cooking directly over the fire pot. Which means you have a very small searing zone and that spot is much hotter than everywhere else in the grill.

Some pellet grills have fairly even temps front to back and side to side, others don't. Sometimes it's the weather, sometimes the design of the grill, sometimes it's warping of heat deflectors and drip trays over time changing the airflow in the cooker. Some pellet grills don't have indentations or slots for positioning the heat shields and every time you clean the grill, you put the shield back in a little different spot which changes how the heat and air flow through the cooker. The SmokeFire has a lot of variation across the cooking surface. I have tried to purge most SmokeFire details from my memory so I don't continue to lust over a few amazing cooks I did on it versus all the frustrations, lost time, and wasted pellets on test runs it caused me, but I think I shared a lot of details about most things I saw here over time: https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...okefire-redeux

So, to summarize all the rambling, I think a pellet grill might be a decent option for what you are describing for desires as long as you are sure you actually want some smoke flowing all the time and aren't expecting strong searing performance if you don't buy a SmokeFire or ready for some possible frustrations if you do.

[STEbbq]

From everything you have said Kingrex it still seems like a pellet smoker is the best choice as it will give you the flexibility to tailor the smoke flavor to your needs.

glitchy has covered the Smokefire very well. Since you have the ability to buy anything now, I would also recommend checking out https://grillagrills.com/ . Very well made smokers. The Grilla OG has a heavier smoke profile than most pellet smokers due to its unique design so if you are considering the SmokeFire, the OG Grilla may also be worth considering. The Silverbac offers more capacity though but less of a smoke profile and probably more typical for pellets.

[STEbbq]

GrillGrates would be recommended for both Grillas if you want to sear though

[N227GB]

+2

I highly recommend GrilGrates! See the link in the sidebar on the left for a review.

[Kingrex]

So I went and looked at a Saber grill today. Have any of you used it. The basis for these is individual encased burner enclosures with infrared grills on top. What does that mean. It means these grills have amazing heat distribution right on top of the grill. But there is 0 air circulation below the grill as the 3 or 4 burners are in a sealed compartment. And there is little heat that builds up in the closed cover. It does not act as an oven. Its just a surface to cook on. Because of this, I don't see any way to indirect cook.

Unless I got the entry Select series. This has open burners in one large chamber. This model also has shields over the burners so you could remove the tight fitting infrared plates and just use the grill grates. But, the unit is not really designed to have that space open and drips will be more an issue to clean and manage.

So, is there a grill like a Genesis II that maybe has better heat distribution for indirect cooking. One that can also do a low and slow temperature. But also a quick ramp time to do something like a reverse sear. I don't know I want aluminum Grill Grates. If they were steel I would be much more interested at this time.

What the Saber does have going for it is the grill top will do vegetables very well. They wont fall through the grates. They cant. It will do any meat that wants quick heat like chicken and steak. I just cant see it doing Ribs well. Its totally limited in that respect. A weber will do both, but the surface is not as even a heat and vegetable take more finesse to handle and not loose into the inferno.

[STEbbq]

Well the OG Grilla’s design allows for very even heat distribution and a $16 stainless steel BBQ tray will hold ya veggies.

[STEbbq]

I don’t know very much about Saber, but for 2k I’d be expecting a lot better than what you outlined for sure.

[Kingrex]

I would not say Saber is lacking. As in you should get better. Its very good quality and will do a certain few tricks very well. I am personally looking for a little more versatility.

[STEbbq]

If your budget allows, maybe MAK. A 1-star is 2.2k

https://makgrills.com/

https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/forum/pellet-cookers/mak-grills/1010300-glitchy-s-mak-2-star-first-cooking-impressions

[Kingrex]

So here is a crazy idea. I can get a Genesis II, and in it will fit Saber SS grill grates. The saber is somewhat like grill grates, but made of SS. I am thinking of going this way. I can have a very stable temp grill across the top to cook on. I can also do the slower indirect cook.