The poor reviews are piling up on Amazon. With those plus tens of thousands of views of the troublesome reviews on YouTube, you'd think Weber would say something. Maybe we need a review on this site to get them to respond. Or even better, how about Meathead or someone else interview Weber? This is big news, but we've yet to hear a peep.
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I would be curious how many of the reviews are people who actually own the product and how many are trolls.
I would rather Weber have a well thought out plan of attack as opposed to a half baked response or fix. Everyone seems to have forgotten how much they loved Weber for their quality and customer service and that is why they always placed them on a pedestal.
This isn’t really what I consider big news or anything earth shattering. A lot of products have faulty and less than perfect first models. It may be big news in the BBQ world but people p!$$!ng their pants over their $1000 grill that isn’t perfect is kind of a first world problem.
People are quick to bounce on a problem and everyone wants to see the big guy taken down (think everyone cheering against the patriots).
Personally, yes I think Weber has something here that needs to be addressed and Weber’s reputation for quality and customer service I say will ultimately win the day but people need to chill for a minute and let them figure it out.
I also applaud Weber for trying to be innovative and take on something that is widely seen as the Achilles heel with pellet cooking. At least someone is trying something different and maybe it will lead to better innovation of these products.
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mnavarre , I don't entirely disagree. I'm not advocating that they have handled it perfectly. I don't have a loyalty here one way or another. I definitely agree that the product has flaws that they need to address them. I'm not defending the product. I'm just more concerned/annoyed by the OMG the sky is falling mentality because Weber rolled out a faulty product and after all the Weber is the best at customer service rah rah rah I've always heard. I'm just wanting to give it a minute before 911
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kenrobin , explain yourself... they have released 2 brand new products in the last few years and redesigned an entire existing line. Not saying everything has been perfect. Every company is trying to become a superior marketing company in today's attention deficit world. It is how they will survive. RecTec got to where it is by marketing and bullying and censure campaigns anytime someone negatively reviewed them. That hasn't been Weber's response.
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"It may be big news in the BBQ world but people p!$$!ng their pants over their $1000 grill that isn’t perfect is kind of a first world problem."
Not even kind of a first world problem - first rate first world problem. When I was a kid, I couldn't have imagined I would be concerned about a $1000.00 grill. We grilled on grates set up on cinder blocks at times; certainly nothing more fancy than a cheapo grill lol.
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Nate 9 reviews with some pics on the bigger unit at Amazon. 2.2 average. Small sample, not likely "trolled."
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don't disagree with that but plenty of people jumping on the bandwagon with their anti weber commentary... not just on amazon but other places as well. And the way some folks are talking about it and or using it to take cheap shots at Weber.
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Nate anti-weber commentary is just that, un-reviewed. Haters be Haters, no matter the brand.
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In a strange sort of way this is actually an opportunity for Weber Corp. to live up to it's current reputation as a company that builds good products and values excellent customer service.
Weber is fortunate to have a loyal customer base that truly believes that they will be taken care of no matter how difficult things have become.
Some companies in these difficult circumstances rise to the occasion while others fail miserably and face the inevitable challenge of regaining the customer loyalty\reputation that they once enjoyed. This is not something that a company should take for granted.
I believe that over the coming weeks we will be able to observe firsthand what type of company Weber Corp. has really become.
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Dunno, Nate. Thats easy to say for me because I didnt shell out $1k+... but asking people who DID to just chill... no. If I had spent the money and gotten the grease fire like Baby Back Maniac did, I'd be livid. The entire point of buying from Weber is they're WEBER. The company that's famous for their BBQ stuff. That we all grew up with. To layout a thousand bucks and then run into issues like this is inexcusable.
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There is a TON of mud being thrown around about this new Pellet rig. (I bet 80% of the comments we are getting on the free side of the site are about this contraption) It is getting hard to tell who is genuine, who has skin in the game and who just wants something to troll.
Max Good will be the one to push me one way or another on this. I know he is honest and he knows what these units should do and how they perform compared to all the others.
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As far as Pellet rigs go I have no dog in the fight...im neither for or against them, just not my jam.
As an outside observer I've been fascinated (thats the best word I can think of) by watching how the initial positivity turned into a tidal wave of blow-back over the span of basically one weekend. I cant get my brain around how development of the product wouldn't have caught the fire issue (did they just test the thing with thermocouples and not any actual food???) or the tunneling/bridging issue with the fuel. did they not test the thing outside in various weather conditions? I just cannot imagine that to be true.
As far as Weber goes im unshaken in my general support of them. The WSCG is the cats meow in my book and I've never been anything but happy with the numerous other Weber products I have and have had. Their customer support - which I really havent needed until last year - was amazingly good and responsive.
I believe they'll make this right...but I have sympathy for those that put the money out to get one of the smoke fire's.
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Couldn't agree more. As quickly as these problems were discovered by the public, it boggles the mind that they were not caught in testing prior to release of the product. I will continue to buy Weber products nevertheless, unless this becomes a recurring theme. Everybody screws up once in a while.
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Spinaker Most of it is expectations for the price, hype, and functionality they claimed. The SmokeFire is a beast at grilling. I thought I’d hit the jackpot the first week. However, I didn’t have time for much low and slow until a week later. It’s definitely lacking there. Could the problems be worked through, probably. I could remove the safety guard over the auger (don’t tell on me if I do please) to possibly fix the invisible cavity problem. I could lubricate the hopper and/or fabricate a device using cell phone vibrators and timers to buzz the hopper every so often and possibly fix the feed issue. I could use drip pans under greasy low and slow cooks to reduce the fire risk.
The question is, should I have to do these things on a $1000 grill and how it was advertised? Using the grease pans may make it smoke no better than any other pellet grill. Weber originally said not to do this as it messes up airflow, They also advertised super easy cleaning. It’s a bigger PITA than my other pellet grills because there’s 8-10 pieces to remove you have to scrape and scrape and scrape. I whacked my head on the lid trying to get it scraped clean, hard to see everywhere inside. With a standard rig, it is just pulling 3-4 pieces, replacing some foil and quickly vacuuming up some ash. It took more work to get my shop vac from the garage and foil from the kitchen usually than the actual cleaning. There is also no guarantee the hopper mods will solve the problem and how often would lube need reapplied if it did work?
I understand I’m pretty new here to have much street cred, so hopefully Max confirms what many others already have shown through pics and videos. I wish he’d chime in so we knew what Weber is telling him before I return it, I’m just not sure I want to be stuck with it by waiting too long if Weber is not going to do anything until they revise the next year’s model.
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For your average once every week or two user that would only smoke ribs or a butt a couple times a year, but cooks steaks, burgers and brats 95% of the time, this thing would be almost unbeatable in the pellet market. Those aren't the types of people I'm seeing report the problems though...the weather isn't warm enough for them to buy a grill. They may never see the issues at all because they rarely present at higher temps.
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Street cred? You don't need no stinking street cred around here - just some charcoal, pellets, wood or a propane tank. Preferably all 4. I for one appreciate your taking the time to share your results with us. And I look forward to seeing Max's review as well.
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The question is, should I have to do these things on a $1000 grill and how it was advertised?
What boggles my mind is that the thing doesn't seem to have one issue but several that seem to happen easily, with the most basic of smoking cooks. Its not like someone is trying to grill a side of pig for 40 hours or something. The cooks I've seen mentioned are doing some brisket or pork butt. Common, every day cooks that you do routinely and I just do not get how they missed the issues people are seeing. Hell, churn out a dozen of these, give them to employees and have them cook defined things like a pork butt, brisket, ribs etc. Buy the meat for them.
If they'd screwed up the pellet hopper angle, well, that's dumb but they could send everyone a revised hopper with a better ramp angle. But I don't see how they fix the grease fire issue in the current design. I'm just puzzled at how this happened to a company with their resources to test things.
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Nate I agree with rickgregory. I believe Weber rushed the SmokeFire into stores to keep everything aligned with their marketing campaign. A company with their size, history & resources had to know that there were a number of serious issues before the early adopters started providing feedback. Seems like they were more concerned with the grilling side, which is a prime focus in their marketing, than the smoking side.
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Could they not put the ash holes (pun intended) in the bottom of the burn pot to drop out directly below, leaving the grease ramp and exit ports protected from the ash? Only worry there is the hot ash igniting the grease drip pan, so maybe put an ash catcher above the drip pan, directly below the burn pot.
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So what you’re saying is the ash hole is an exit port and you’ll find some of them are greasy. If you play around with greasy ash holes without throwing on a drip pan you might set your poker on fire.
My work here is done.Last edited by Andrrr; February 22, 2020, 11:59 PM.
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I would think you would want the grease to channel away from the heat source into a separate collection area.
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Max says don't count it out just yet, he's doing extensive testing, and with different pellets (a key factor, perhaps) and will update tidbits as he can until the full review is ready. Check this page at the top for any updates, he hopes to begin them today... https://amazingribs.com/ratings-revi...e-pellet-grill
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Originally posted by Huskee View PostMax says don't count it out just yet, he's doing extensive testing, and with different pellets (a key factor, perhaps) and will update tidbits as he can until the full review is ready. Check this page at the top for any updates, he hopes to begin them today... https://amazingribs.com/ratings-revi...e-pellet-grill
Uh... this worries me. "You're using it wrong" is never a good message. Neither, honestly, is "well those pellets don't work you need THESE" esp when glitchy started with... Weber pellets.
I'm really curious to see what Max finds, but only because the product development process here intrigues me. I'm not going to drop a thousand bucks on the thing. Maybe I need an additional hobby...
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The product development process intrigues me as well. Shipping products with problems usually results from marketing and revenue pressures. More times than not the engineers/designers know the product well, but either they are not listened to or are thought to be overly cautious. And to your other point, a good design needs to work over a range of conditions and customers.
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Well, the first time someone bought a kamado after using a kettle they probably thought it was expensive junk since it performed so wildly different, and they likely hated them until they deliberated and figured it out. Certain products may need certain approaches to benefit best from it, even if it seems like it should be the same as any other. Just an idea. I can only speculate so much, but perhaps this isn't as universally "plug 'n play" as many others...let's see what Max's thoughts are.
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