Weber SmokeFire reviews

[kenrobin]

Harry Soo has posted a video that is almost 40 minutes long on the SmokeFire. He hasn't received his yet, but he cooked on a SmokeFire owned by one of his YouTube subscribers.

He does a hot spot test & cooks brisket, ribs, pulled pork & steak during the video so he runs it through the paces at smoking & grilling temperatures. Harry has an engineering background & has some observations about what you should & shouldn't do when the controller shows that the cooker temperature has dropped. Harry says the SmokeFire won't work correctly unless you upgrade the firmware. His only criticism is about the design of the hopper. Otherwise, Harry says the SmokeFire works as advertised

I had no plans to purchase the SmokeFire when it was announced but I've been fascinated following the posts about the myriad of issues reported on YouTube & BBQ forums. While Harry is very positive about the SmokeFire, I don't discount all of the folks reporting problems. This leads me to conclude that the SmokeFire is probably not as bad as currently perceived but Weber I think oversold how easy it is to operate. Hopefully, Weber will develop some type of troubleshooting to better explain what to do if you run into problems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALNnTwN2Kak

[Jordan S]

Exactly.

[kenrobin]

Harry cooked the brisket the same way that he usually does. Once the brisket reaches 165, it doesn't take on any more smoke flavor so he finishes them in the oven. It would have been helpful if he showed the ribs & pulled pork cooking in the SmokeFire since the issue of grease fires caused by smoking low & slow appears to be an issue for some. I've taken Harry's class & I find him to be honest & forthright so I'm willing to take him at his word when he says there were no serious issues.

[Old Glory]

kenrobin I am not questioning his integrity. I am just noting the test was not complete because there was no long low and slow cook. He did cook all day long but at higher temps. The flavorizor bars did their job and vaporized the grease. He did not simulate the same cooking conditions that caused the fires for others.

[stevey]

Harry Soo's recent video is great and matches my experience. I am not ready to return the grill as of now. I will certainly wait to see what Weber suggests to deal with grease fires. It is amazingly convenient compared to charcoal. The start up is really fast. 15 minutes to get to 400 degrees is faster than my oven heats up. The shutdown is also amazingly fast. 15 minutes and the grill is completely cooled off and ready to put back in the garage. I have had zero issues with the controller or grease fires but I am planning to cook a pork butt on Saturday that may lead to more grease. I am not bothered by the hopper issue. I check the grill every hour or so to spray water anyway. I also like Harry Soo's hot and fast methods which greatly reduce the time on the pellet grill. I especially like how he finishes the wrapped meats in the oven and save using expensive pellets. These methods eliminate the need for a 14-20 hour cook and the food tastes great. The only issue that concerns me is the potential for grease fires. I hope that Weber can provide guidance to reduce the risk of that happening. It seems to happen at the end of long low and slow cooks. Baby back maniac's video sure showed a grease fire. I did not have that much problem scraping the grease into the grease trap. I do not mind having to do that after a long cook. It only takes 10 minutes. You just need gloves.

I called Weber support today to ask what I should do to prevent a grease fire. The woman I spoke to told me that She had not heard that problem. I told her to please be more honest with me and suggested that she just search on smokefire in you tube and she would hear about it. Then she put me on hold for 5 min and when she came back she wanted to know what version of the app I was using, what model of iPhone did I have and what version of IOS I was running. I was shocked. I don't think a grease fire has anything to do with the app. Then she told me that someone would call me. Hopefully I will get a better support person when I talk to them again.

I purchased the grill from my local Ace hardware store. They have told me that if there are real grease fire issues that Weber can not solve they will let me return the grill. They are great. I really like the convenience, temperature range, and the taste of the food that the smokefire produces. I really want to keep it and hope that the grease problem can be managed.but, if I start getting grease fires I will be forced to return it. I don't want to burn up my food, let alone my house.

[kenrobin]

Just curious, did you assemble it yourself or did you have Ace assemble it? The customer support person should have just asked you whether you had updated the firmware & been ready to walk you through the process if necessary.

[NYC Que]

Too many people are experiencing the same problems. Pellets bridging in the hopper and grease fires. Quite frankly I believe this thing is a POS and I don’t need to wait until Max’s review. Weber needs a fix or response quickly.

[stevey]

I assembled it myself. It was easy.