Has anyone experienced a glow plug problem with their Weber SmokeFire? I work for the fire department and we got one at our station. We’ve had it a month and I loved it so much I dropped a grand on one at home. Had it a week and attempted 3 cooks. All 3 failed to continue heating about an hour into the cooks. No pellet jams and plenty of pellets in hopper. Blower continues to work and display continues to say heating but the temp falls to nil. Weber is sending a new glow plug, BUT now the one at my fire station is doing the same thing. Weber won’t warranty it because it’s not for "home" use. I called one of our other fire stations and they are experiencing the same issue. Are we alone out there or is this a problem for Weber?
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The glow plug shouldn't be needed once the fire is lit. Seems to me this is flame-out....but it's odd that this is happening on 3 different cookers. A bad plug should mean it doesn't light at all, not dies out an hour into the cook.
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Thank you for responding Huskee. I’m an offset guy and this is my first ever pellet cooker. What’s a flame out and and what generally causes them?
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emtphillips A flame-out is simply when the fire dies. Sometimes it happens, and can happen in any pellet cooker out there. If the fire just dies after having been going, simply power down, then power back up. If the glow plug heats back up and the fire starts again, it's not the glow plug. It could be wind (not very likely), bad pellets (likely), etc.
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Jim Morris
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Is there some commonality such as the brand of pellets in use at home and at the fire station? I know from glitchy 's extensive use of the SmokeFire (two different ones) that it can be sensitive to the brand of pellets used. The Weber branded pellets I believe are a little smaller than most, and may feed more freely. And as Huskee already said - this sounds like flame out, not a ignition problem.
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Are the finger guards still installed on them? The finger guards can cause pellets to bridge over the auger opening which can be hard to diagnose. What often happens is by the time you open the grill or hopper lids to check things out you shake the grill just enough that the bridge collapses. I happened to catch mine doing this a couple times. I gently opened the hopper and then ran me fingers though the pellets and saw and felt a bunch of them fall into the chute.
The other thing could be the Smoke Boost. Are you using that setting? It’s been causing a lot of flameouts recently for people.
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To add a bit more detail, the Smoke Boost issues were introduced in the fall (October maybe) firmware update. As jfmorris and Max Good have mentioned, the SmokeFire definitely prefers Weber pellets. I had less issues with other brands after removing the finger guard though, but some brands have blends that don’t seem to provide BTUs the Weber controller is expecting, causing different quirks. I know it isn’t the best advice to remove a safety, but that guard is a horrible engineering design.
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All I know is that after he's done Max Good donates the cookers he reviews to local fire departments and such. Just saying.....Last edited by CaptainMike; April 2, 2021, 01:18 PM.
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Sorry, late update on this! I suck - I really need to check the board more often.
I have had glow plug issues as well as of late (a writeup for another day). I have been working with Weber to correct the issue, and they asked for several pictures of different things inside the unit. I ended up sending them a three minute video of my startup with the heat shield off and they told me that the glow plug should be glowing for around two minutes during the preheat. With mine you could see the smoke and the pellets starting to smolder and then I got a pop of flame right at the end of the three minutes with no glow from the plug during that pre heat time.
I was to the point that I was ready to move on from the Smokefire entirely, but was asked if I would try one last thing first.
They sent me a new glow plug bracket, and "our new glow plug." I was surprised by that wording but the order sheet that was emailed to me listed Glow Plug Igniter SF '21. I do not know if this is some kind of tweak or redesign, but my package arrived today (I can see it sitting on my porch) and I'll dig into it tonight when I get home to see what I have waiting for me. Will let you all know if I notice any differences or any changes after installation.
Product Name Part # Qty Price Discount Price Item Total Glow plug bracket assembly 68956 1 $0.00 $0.00 Glow Plug Igniter SF '21 69436 1 $0.00 $0.00
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So, just first impressions out of the box, the plug is similar, but not identical to the replacements I have. Length seems to be the same, but while the old replacement plug is flat on the end, the new plug has a bit of a button top.
Old plug - TY 24V 1947
New plug - TY 24V 2044D
I won't have a chance to actually replace the plug and bracket until later this week, so I'll save any differences there for a later reply. This was just quick, out of the box impression.
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Didn't notice anything different about the glow plug brackets themselves, but upon installing the new plug and bracket I had smoke right away as soon as the pellets fell down the chute and touched the plug. Much faster and different than what I had seen previously. Had a roaring flame within a minute or minute thirty rather than a small pop of flame after 3+ minutes.
At this point I've only been able to use it once since then, but I'll update again if I have any other issues.
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