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Weber CEO's Letter on Smokefire

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    #16
    I mentioned recently that the Smokefire debacle would provide us with the opportunity to see firsthand what type of company that Weber Corp. has become rather that what we nostalgically remember.

    On a much smaller scale, the early reviews for the Weber Connect Smart Grilling Hub haven't been that great either. This is another example of a Weber product that wasn't properly tested prior to market release.

    I sincerely hope that this is not a trend but it looks like any new Weber Corp. product that falls outside it's traditional core engineering competencies and involves software can inherently require new users to become unsuspecting beta testers.
    Last edited by Falcofr; March 31, 2020, 03:52 PM.

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    • Alphonse
      Alphonse commented
      Editing a comment
      I bet they have very little internal engineering capacity at this point and that's what is shining through now. Like many organizations in today's world, they likely decided they could outsource that fixed cost and trimmed it back to the bone.

    • JCGrill
      JCGrill commented
      Editing a comment
      Really no different than any product that has software these days. Unfortunately.

    #17
    Wow. The reviews for this thermometer are awful. 22 reviews on Weber.com averaging 2 stars.

    Here's a typical comment:

    "I believe they released the product before the software was completely developed. I can connect via bluetooth but it does not connect to the wifi. I contacted customer support and they weren't able to help me. They took my information and said they would call me in 48 to 72 hours. I never received a phone call."

    Seems like this product was without adequately testing or finishing the development.

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      #18
      PKNG: it depends on the type of person your friend is. If they like being early adopters and are willing to work with Weber to deal with problems as they come up, then yes I would definitely recommend it. If they want something that will just work and never give them problems, then no I would not recommend it. Pellet grills are much more complicated than charcoal grills. If you spend 3K and get a MAK 2 star you will probably not have any problems at all. Most of us, like me, cannot afford even the MAK 1 star. The smoke fire is really a different beast since it combines low and slow cooking with high, open fire heat searing capability. This is new and it is challenging. I am sure that the future will bring more reliability and control. But, you may need to wait more than a year or two for that.

      I have not yet cooked in a downpour and I have a cover for when I am not using it. So, I can’t really say if the open area near the auger will be a problem. It just looks like a problem. Since I wrote my comment a few days ago, Weber has announced a new welded auger tube/chute assembly that they are shipping (for free) to anyone with problems reaching high temperature. This should solve the gasket problem since they now have eliminated the need for a gasket. This is, in my opinion, a very cleaver fix. I have already received mine but I will wait until I have a problem before I install it. The last auger/hopper replace the with a new gasket has solved all of my problems for at least the last 4 cooks, so like they say, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. The WSF is running like a well tuned race car. But, it is still a race car and I am sure it will have problems in the future and need to be tuned up again. I am kind of enjoying the journey. Hope that helps.

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        #19
        I think 2.0 will be off the chain. A year or so after its release I'll see how many stars it's holding onto.

        Comment


        • Potkettleblack
          Potkettleblack commented
          Editing a comment
          Kinda like Genesis II. The initial models without the sear burner were not good. Once they listened to their customers and fixed the issues, they're back to the top.

          SmokeFire 2.0 will kill it.

        #20
        Does anyone have information on when the WSF Version 2 will be released? I have confidence that Weber will correct the existing issues. Hopefully, most will be resolved in Version 2.

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          #21
          Let's just say that it is disappointing that two months later the original ink to the Weber CEO letter no longer works. I would have thought it made sense to make the link dedicated for future consumers who run into issues.

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