Steaks from tonight. Overcooked, but still good. It’s supposed to be warmer the next couple days, so I’m going to clean it, check the probe calibration and cook a packer.
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Fantastic. Took delivery of mine today, via pickup. Weather delayed the expected delivery today. Couldn’t wait until mid next week.Attached FilesComment
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This poor guy having serious issues, on two separate cooks: https://youtu.be/zLa9CI03Ii0. Glad to see glitchy hasn’t experienced anything similar. Heading out to assemble now and hoping this is an anomaly.Comment
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Cleaned Mary up and checked probe calibration for brisket tonight.Attached FilesComment
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This poor guy had a bad first cook.
This is not the first person I have seen say that the grease is not properly making it to the drip tray and catching fire
Also not the first person I have seen have the pellets get stuck in the hopper.
That has me worried about design issues, not something that can be fixed via firmware updates.Last edited by divisionbell77; February 16, 2020, 07:49 AM.Comment
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Cousin Eddie
To follow up on last response, I was going to name the SmokeFire Mary for the lingerie lady in Christmas Vacation, but this is definitely Cousin Eddie. There are some definite concerns with some design choices. You can see from my cleaning pics that the grease channels were completely caked in grease and ash. This might explain the grease fire videos starting to circulate.
Started my brisket at 9:00 PM last night, set to 200, my Fireboard alarm kept going off as it hit 174 a few times. I started ignoring it knowing I was going to bump the temp to 225 and fill the hopper before going to sleep. I was up too late and went to fill the hopper at 12:30 or 1:00 and when I started pushing the pellets over to the auger side, they collapsed, looked at the controller and grill was 75 degrees, it had sucked a hole underneath and gone out. Tried to restart grill and it said an improper shutdown had taken place and went into shutdown mode. Had to let it run it’s course before I could fire it back up. Wish I had gotten a pic, but didn’t realize there was a problem under the pellets fell (and had had a few drinks).
This morning at 8:30, went to check on it again and opened the hopper to see the pic below, I was probably 10 mins from going out again. This time visible though. Last pic is what? Where did this come from?
At this point, I’m glad I have had time to use it a lot. I am developing some concerns and have not ruled out possibly trying to return it as feed and grease problems can’t be fixed with firmware. It does perform well for grilling, but not sure as a smoker.
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I've glad you've had plenty of time to use it and share with us. I've been living vicariously through you and others until I get more work in on mine. I'm glad to see the inside of your pit didn't look anything like the guys posting with problems. Rumors of a run of serial #'s that need a controller replacement circulating, but I'm glad that wasn't one of your issues. The other main one I've seen is this hopper problem. I saw it too, in a more limited fashion. -
You seem to be having some of the same issues a lot of people are having, sadly.
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On a side note, the brisket still looks good.Attached FilesComment
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He found a minor fix that might help some of you guys for the right side being hotter/right side spitting flames and left not.Last edited by divisionbell77; February 16, 2020, 03:23 PM.Comment
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This series of posts are fascinating as a product development engineer by trade. You never know all the issues until you get a product into the hands of real customers, although some of these issues should have been caught. I really liked some of the design details of this product as a Yoder pellet grill owner, but now is not the time to buy until we know more from Weber.Last edited by BBQPhil; February 16, 2020, 03:32 PM.Comment
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Just finished a hot and fast brisket in the smokefire. I have had none of the shutdown or grease fire problems. I cleaned out the bottom of the grill before I started and I can see why there might be a problem. Since my cook at 400 degrees only lasted 3 hours I did not have a problem with the pellets hanging up. Below is my fireboard plot that helped me adjust the smokefire to get the right temp. I had to set the smokefire at 425 to get the fireboard to read 400. There seems to be a large time constant for the PID controller. But it eventually settles down. It also recovers fairly quickly when I opened the door multiple times to spray water. I will also include my notes. I am not giving up on the smokefire yet. The food that has come out of it tastes fantastic. I plan to fire it up and cook some asparagus to have with the brisket after it finishes resting for a few hours. I hope others who have good experiences with their smokefire post as well. It is getting depressing hearing about all of the failures. I feel very bad for those folks and hope my luck holds out. At best Weber has a quality problem. I just hope there aren't fatal design problems that I have not run into. The picture of the brisket was taken at two hours into the cook.
Notes from cook:
Costco prime brisket. Trim and use Harry Soo hot and fast fundamentals method - except I got rid of much more fat. Let sit in refrigerator for 15 hours. Cleaned smokefire completely because of the grease fire horror stories I have been reading about on the web. Put on bottom rack with two pieces of wood under it to form the brisket in an aerodynamic shape as Harry suggests. Got to 400 in 15 min but fireboard says it is 440. But it dropped quickly. Strange thing is that the Weber probe shot up to 465 and is dropping more slowly. Outdoor temp is 36. It is sunny and no wind. Plan is to cook for three hours at 400 or until the bark sets. I filled the hopper full with a bag of Weber hickory pellets.
The fireboard temp has dropped to 310. I am raising the smokefire to 425 at 12:32.
1:10 - Spray with water
1:28 - Spray with water
1:57 - Spray with water
2:15 - Spray with water
2:36 - Spray with water
3:00 - wrap and put in oven at 230
3:50 - raise to 250
Cleaned grill after shutdown. Less grease than before and grease holes still very much open. Not so bad. It only took 5 min to clean with the scraper. I guess I am lucky not to be having any significant problems.
4:30 - very tender and gelatinous. Call it done and put in cooler with a towel.
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Thanks again for everyone that has contributed to this tread. One of the great's forum there is.Comment
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Excellent write up, thank you! I’m looking forward to reading more reviews before deciding if I want to pull the trigger on one.Comment
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So, this thing just cooked the best brisket I’ve ever made. 21.5 hours total
. I changed temps several time in the graph, 200-225-250-275 for a few hours each. 225 from 1-9 AM.
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BDCarp04 I today agree. Kevin Kolman from Weber keeps talking about the 800-1000 hours of testing he has on the grill alone and I just can’t believe he has not had this happen numerous times. Not that he’d ever admit it and still keep his job. I’m thinking about trying CookinPellets to see if they have the same problem. I can’t imagine that everyone has used only Weber pellets so far though. CookinPellets are slightly larger in diameter, but mine seem to have more shorter pieces in the bag which I’m wonder about helping them fall easier.Comment
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Yeah, I don't get how they did all the QA on it when it appears there are some physical design flaws. One is the pellets not dropping, another is the grease not draining properly.
I also thought their design was to limit ash, but every video and picture I am seeing is there is a lot of ash. It seems that the grease and ash are kind of together a problem, where they combine and the grease then won't drain properly. I've seen it get so bad some have had grease fires.
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Well, I am sure sad to hear that the SmokeFire appears to have a few "glitches" in glitchy 's review, and from others here and on the web. This issue with the pellet hopper cavitating is pretty serious for being able to cook overnight while getting some sleep, and concerns me more than the grease/ash issue honestly. The possibility of fires due to grease/ash accumulation is serious too of course.
I just knew Weber would get this right, and all of the initial reviews and glitchy 's initial cooks made this look like the holy grail of pellet cookers. I am sure Max Good will look into all of these issues during his in-depth review, and I am also sure Weber will do something to correct the issue, but I am not sure it won't just be a correction in next year's model of the SmokeFire. That's kind of what they did with the Genesis II - revised it slightly and added back missing things like sear burners without much fanfare, about 2 years into the Genesis II production.Comment
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That's where I'm really really struggling. I really like the grill. I have a couple ideas for the bridging and rustling the pellets every 3-4 hours isn't that big of deal. However, the grease fires concern me and I'm afraid they won't fix those until they modify the next model. I'm guessing they didn't upgrade all the people that bought the first model. Luckily I haven't had one yet, but can easily see how they happen.
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