Weber Smoke Fire Comments

[jhedges983]

I am a little disappointed in some of the reviews I have been reading online about the new Weber SmokeFire pellet Grill. I was fortunate to put in my order the very first day of pre-order, and received mine over a week ago. Unfortunately, I have been traveling so much I’ve only been able to cook chicken and pizza in it so far. Many of the people are saying there are grease fires. When I look at their videos, it appears that they are not using drip pans. I would think having a drip pan would only make sense when you have a fan and fire. This weekend, I will smoke a pork butt or beef brisket and hope to give you a better review.

The pizzas were awesome. With the upper rack, I put flatbreads there and rotated around the upper and lower grates. Crunchy, perfect smoke, and very tasty.

Chicken was also great. It will take a while for you to understand the heat of a pellet smoker. I know I am having to learn.

Also, I agree with many of the hopper comments that say the pellets are not feeding very well. If I was Weber, I would give up 2 pounds of pellet space and add a steeper angle.

I am tired of people bashing Weber for this pellet smoker. I knew that I would experience issues because I am one of the lucky ones to get it first. Weber has always had the best customer service and I expect no difference with this smoker. More later.

[ScottyC13]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Let us know how other cooks go too!

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

I don't know if the Weber is different because of the flavorizer bar setup, but almost all other pellet grills have a significant hotspot around the outer edge of the grill because of how the fans move heat and/or the heat shield setup. Curious if you noticed that on your pizzas sitting right on the edge?

[jhedges983]

Yes I did notice it with the pizzas. However, I would think it only makes sense the top grates were showing hotter since the heat rises than comes back down. I’ll let you all know what I discover with brisket.

[jfmorris]

jhedges983 Definitely let us know how it goes. Like you, I am hopeful that Weber will roll out some fixes to early owners such as yourself.

I am a big Weber fan as well. I've had as many as 4 Weber grills going in the backyard at once in the past! I since gave away one kettle, and am soon going to give my daughter my 2002 Genesis when she gets married, which will get me down to two Weber cookers. I'm hoping for a WSM or something to add to them down the road though!

I've got my dad and my son setup with Weber Spirit gas grills, and my son in law has cooked on my grills enough now to where he plans to replace his Charbroil dual-fuel waste of $350 mess with a Weber gas and charcoal grill after the Charbroil rusts out in another year. I am hoping the SmokeFire will be an option for him by then, but it will likely still be out of his budget...

[jhedges983]

We sound alot alike jfmorris. I have a Ranch Kettle, a Genesis 2 3 burner, and a pizza oven from Blackstone (now the Smoke Fire). My wife thinks I like my cooking items better than her.......how would everyone answer that one! LOL. Anyway, I am going to do a brisket this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes. Thank you for the feedback.

[jfmorris]

Yes we do indeed jhedges983! For most of the past year or two, due to the apartments they had moved to, I had my son and my son-in-law's grills, in addition to the 4 that I actually own, and had all 6 lined up down the sidewalk at the end of my house. When you opened the gate to the backyard, it was non-stop cookers until you got to the back corner of the house! Thankfully the kids have bought houses and I delivered their grills the first few days they were in the houses...

[divisionbell77]

jhedges983 the drip pans shouldn't be needed as Weber said they had 'figured out' the grease and ash issues, which they clearly have not.

If adding drip pans is the fix, that's fine, but then I'd point out that all you have to do is remove the heat shield from any other pellet grill and then you can have a great searing pellet grill that way, too.

[jhedges983]

I agree about the intent but I think they missed it. I don’t mind using drip pan if I have to because you can use the juices. Thank you for the note.

[pkadare]

The drip pan issue that people are complaining about is due to the fact that Weber, in their marketing and promotional materials made it very clear that they had "solved" the problem of needing drip pans. Which clearly isn't the case. This is quite clearly Weber's fault and not that of those who believed that Weber had solved the problem as they themselves stated.

[rickgregory]

I am tired of people bashing Weber for this pellet smoker. I knew that I would experience issues because I am one of the lucky ones to get it first.

1) A product from a highly regarded manufacturer that costs, at minimum, $1000 should not be expected to have issues. It might (no one is perfect) but they need to be resolvable and dealt with promptly. By resolvable I do NOT mean that the user should be expected to alter the cooker (a drip pan does that). Bluntly... of course a drip pan will catch grease but if you need one to avoid grease fires it's the user working around a design flaw, one that Weber claimed their design had avoided. I don't pay $1000 so I can fix design flaws.

2) By your own admission, you've not done long cooks. If you do a few of those and it shuts down or has a grease fire (things experienced by people who have done long cooks), will you still call out the people complaining, I wonder?

Frankly, I think weber blew this. There's no reason to get a pellet grill for direct grilling when you can spend half the amount on gas grill and do that. If you just want to roast things, you can do that in an oven. So the only reason to get a pellet grill is because it can be a smoker. The knock on them has always been that you can smoke on them but they don't impart a lot of smoke flavor and you can't do high temp grilling. Weber claimed they had addressed these. If they haven't, well...

[BBQPhil]

Agree completely. When I bought a pellet smoker (Yoder) it was the promise of being able to maintain a low to medium and constant temperature for 10-15 hours at a time for making brisket and ribs. That require safety and the ability to run for many hours unintended.

[jhedges983]

Agreed and good points. I guess if adding a pan to keep a grease fire from happening then I can do it. I bought this to start it and leave. I cannot be happy if the hopper is not fixed. I was on a plane today thinking I could take some sheet metal and make the angle higher. But why should I have to? That needs to come from Weber. I’ll keep it most likely. Thanks again.

[jfmorris]

jhedges983 that start it and leave it seems to be the problem for the SmokeFire so far. Seems it will either go out due to pellet feed issues after a few hours, even if you solve the grease fire issue by using drip pans. I feel like any cook longer than 4-5 hours for ribs runs a risk.

[jhedges983]

Update on the Weber Smoke Fire EX6. Smoked an 8 lb brisket today. No grease fires and cooked at 225 for 11 hours. Ramped up temperature towards the end to 290 for 30 minutes. Wrapped at 180 degrees. Great smoke ring. Weber has to fix the hopper. It will not feed properly. I recommend the smoker.

[jhedges983]

Update on the Weber Smoke Fire EX6. Smoked an 8 lb brisket today. No grease fires and cooked at 225 for 11 hours. Ramped up temperature towards the end to 290 for 30 minutes. Wrapped at 180 degrees. Great smoke ring. Weber has to fix the hopper. It will not feed properly. I recommend the smoker.

[jhedges983]

Michael_in_TX it was brilliant, like a rainbow!! Tasted outstanding. Went home for lunch and had a leftover sandwich with horseradish. Oh man!!!

[jhedges983]

ItsAllGoneToTheDogs, you are correct. I got the note from Weber 2 days ago saying they were sending it with the tools to fix it. I will let you all know what happens. Thank you for responding.

[tbob4]

That is a beautiful looking hunk of meat.

[jhedges983]

Just got an email from Weber saying they are sending me the insert to fix the pellet problem. I am really happy to be a part of the initial issues. Love this smoker.

[jhedges983]

Another Update/Comment on Weber Smoke Fire EX6. I have watched the cooking videos where they have a grease fire. It looks like they have been smoking on this thing for years! The smoker still needs to be cleaned up after every couple uses at least. I do not work for Weber but have had enough Webers that I have had some dealings with their customer service. I believe they will make everything right and for the guys that bought it, tested it, and turned it back in, I'm not sure that wasn't their intent anyway.

[divisionbell77]

People have had it happen on their first cook.

The reason for a lot of those looking like they have never been cleaned is because of the issues they are having. Way too much ash combining with the grease covering the bottom and not draining properly.

I fail to see how having consumers pay money to beta test, and hiding the fact they are using them as a beta tester, is good for any company in any industry. Sorry, I call foul on that theory.

[glitchy]

Wasn’t BBM’s grease fire on his first or second cook? The SmokeFire is definitely a capable cooker and produces great food, but I don’t understand why everyone that’s in love with it thinks it’s necessary to continually jab at or question the intelligence of those that feel it didn’t perform to all of the amazing promises Weber themselves made.

I never had a grease fire on mine either, but I am not going to call those that have videos of them incompetent. Weber billed this grill as the greatest solution to the grease and ash problem and originality claimed no drip pans were needed. I definitely had a lot of grease mixed with the ash in the bottom of mine presenting a high risk and I clean my grills pretty regularly.

[divisionbell77]

For your first paragraph, there are a lot of people that will blindly follow a brand they love. I love Weber, favorite grill is my 22" kettle grill. But I will call them out when they screw up, and this is a screw up. I will also say good job if they resolve the issue.

This new hopper insert is fixing a design flaw(angle) while taking away from advertised hopper capacity(almost 10%). This is not a fix to be praised. A new, properly designed, hopper would be.

[Jreilly]

Just wanted to share an experience I had with Weber. Like most people here I’ve been looking at this for a while now. I’ve been between this the Traeger Pro, and the Silverbac. The reviews and comments here have been extraordinarily helpful, especially about some of the common issues.
I spoke to Weber customer service today and was a bit disappointed in some of their responses. In reference to the grease fires I was told it’s a "maintenance issue". I explained that this is happening on initial cooks before any build up of ash and grease. They continued to insist it’s a maintenance issue, which I believe is a bit insulting, especially to some of the experts here that are religious about cleaning their equipment. After a few rounds I was told to use their drip pans, part number 6416.
Like pkadare mentioned, it was marketed to not need drip pans so that response from Weber was frustrating.
I’d love to have this especially for the great food results everyone claims, but one of the benefits of having a pellet grill is supposed to be not having to stand over it to make sure it doesn’t catch fire and that the pellets are feeding.

[glitchy]

In all fairness to Weber, the hopper ramp Weber is making will probably solve the feed issue. If I had mine now versus one of the very first ones in the wild, I’d probably have a harder time making a decision. I was really worried about being stuck with it having issues. It does crank out pretty amazing food. I would still grumble about how often it needs cleaned though

[BDCarp04]

That's where I was torn. I'm still not happy about their claim and then ending up having to use a pan, but after using one I can't complain about how easy that makes clean up. You don't even have to shop vac the thing at that point, just brush the ash into the channels so it drops into the drawer and you're done. I grumble a lot about cleaning too (it's the worst part) and that's the only reason why I'll keep using a pan.....I'm lazy.

[rickgregory]

So I'm curious... any thoughts on WHY the SF seems to turn out excellent food? Assuming it's better (smokier) than most pellet grills... what might that be attributed to? Their pellets? If so, I'd expect those to perform similarly in other pellet grills. The cooker? If so, what?

[BDCarp04]

Anyone think there's any truth to what they were saying about a chimney pulling smoke across the food too fast versus the vents in the back of the SF? I thought it was BS when I first heard it but now I'm not sure.

[divisionbell77]

BDCarp04 That design is not a Weber invention, look at Rec-Tec 590, 3 vents in back.

[Sweaty Paul]

Think the Traeger Timberlines vent out the back too.

[BBQPhil]

Looking forward to what Max Good has to say. He began with some useful findings about a week ago, but nothing since.

[BDCarp04]

Kevin made a couple of references to talking to Max about it during that YouTube video interview and he implied Max was fairly positive about how different and unique the SF was. Here's hoping he wasn't just blowing smoke (pun intended?)

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

BDCarp04 Max has updated the review in the last few days, and he has praised it for being unique, primarily with the searing capability. Obviously he has also mentioned some of the common concerns as well, but I think the last update was he was planning on trying to reproduce a few of the problems he hasn't experienced so far. I could be wrong though.

[rickgregory]

I guess to me if you want to sear a majority of the time, get a gasser. The reason for a pellet is to enable smoking, specifically longer cooks. it looks like they can fix the hopper feed issue (though I want to see how well this works especially if one doesn't use weber pellets) but the grease fire stuff is a problem. Even if it happens in 5% of the cases... "Hey there's a 5% chance this thing will catch fire. Maybe when you're not around." Um... no.