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Originally posted by BDCarp04 View Post
Goooood, goooooood. Come back to the darkside.........
This is awesome. Not only is it on point, but how'd you know we were Star Wars junkies here? This is my home office fidget spinner.
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Just did my first brisket with smokeboost over the weekend. Only for an hour though because it was middle of the night and I didn't want to set an alarm for an hour later to wake up and turn it off. Weber recommends two for brisket.Originally posted by Max Good View Post
Started it Saturday night right after finishing three racks of ribs. This was the first time I decided I wasn't going to touch the pellet hopper to see how far she would go with the ramp in and the finger guard out (I had bridging problems previously). Made it 18+ hours (with a before and after 600 degree burn to clean everything off) with zero problems. First pic was the first time I opened the hopper lid to see where I was sitting when I finished.
Pics don't do the brisket justice. I would have taken more but I got busy with something after I got the first couple of snaps and by the time I got back to it she was mostly gone.........
My point carving needs more work but she was like melted butter under the knife.
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Did steak again today. Reverse seared sirloin strips with Char Crust Roasted Garlic. Turned on the grill set to 225 and started scraping grates. After getting done scraping was looking for smoke to start so I could close lid and go get steaks ready. After thinking about it there was no fan running nor auger turning, looked at controller it said warming up. Shut off grill, waited a few seconds and turned on again. Set to 225 again and fan and auger immediately started. Kinda weird.
In the end steaks were good, but we didn’t like the cow crust compared to Montreal Steak of just SPOG.Attached FilesComment
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Hm. Was yours sitting outside in the sun at all before starting up? I've noticed mine do that a couple of times if the temp is already reading somewhat hot just from the ambient temp outside and it has to kind of think for a second before it catches on. I've never had to restart mine though, I usually walk away to season meat or do whatever and eventually it's running strong by the time I'm back out there.
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Father in-law just had a birthday, so we celebrated a joint his birthday/our Father's Day dinner this weekend......Lobster tails were on sale. Never had them smoked before and they ended up being some of the best I've ever had. Didn't get the steak in the pic (they were already off and resting).
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Glitchy, and here I thought we was payin ya, fer all the work ya put in. I would have liked to been hangin around yer place while ya were doin all the testin fer the sake of the Pit. Good work & good eatin.Comment
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Haven’t updated in a while. The SmokeFire is still the starting QB playing multiple games per week. Today I will go through most of the fourth bag of Grillmaster blend since I got it a month ago, so I will probably try CookinPellets for the first time soon. I’ve grilled many things at high temp, reverse seared steaks 3-4 times, and have done LnS with turkey tenderloins with no pan and a chuck roast with a drip pan.
Last week I got the Wet Smoke Kit, so I stayed up late last night, fired Eddie up and threw on a big ol butt. I hooked up the Fireboard to monitor - which for me is great as I’m a heavy sleeper and can repeat alarms to help wake me if there are problems. I left everything alone for nine hours and ran flawlessly. I took pics of the hopper and the meat when I checked it this morning. I cannot say for sure how much longer I could have ran, but the pellets were still feeding.
At this point I would say the biggest thing with this cooker is just keeping grease out of the bottom. Clean up the first go round was a chore, on the redeux I haven’t cooked anything greasy LnS without a pan under it. With that change, clean up takes just a couple mins to either scrape/push ash down into the pan below or vacuum it out really quickly.Attached FilesLast edited by glitchy; August 2, 2020, 10:05 AM.Comment
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BTW, this butt ended up going 17 hours and ended up with a crazy bark. Definitely the most serious crust I’ve gotten on a pellet grill.Attached FilesComment
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Ooooh, I don't think I've gone a full butt or brisket unwrapped yet to fully test out the bark. Going to have to move that up the priority list now after seeing your pics!Originally posted by glitchy View Post
Seared some lamb chops on mine for the first time this week (Costco had them on sale). I think I overdid them a little, but everyone loved them. Thermapen said they were 135-140 when I took them off to rest for a few minutes, but instead of being rare to medium rare they were a little more in between medium rare and medium. I either needed to take them off earlier and let them rest, or it may be time to calibrate the pen......
Did you use the smokeboost feature in addition to the wet smoke?
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The review on the free side mentions that using Weber pellets is ideal, but it seems like you are having no issues using a variety of non-Weber pellets? Thought that was interesting.Comment
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Looks like I haven’t posted here for a month, so I’ll give a boring update. The SmokeFire is definitely my primary cooker now. The Woodwind is crying about neglect and has been used once since the SmokeFire arrived. I still prefer pork butt on the Camp Chef, but once I figure out how to make them how we like them on the SmokeFire it will probably be gone. We are funny that we don’t like that meteorite type bark on butts and the SmokeFire tends to get a little closer to that style than we really like. I think this is due to the more open airflow through the center and the sugar in my usual butt rub. However, I'm thinking if I started wrapping in butcher paper after the bark is where we want it, might get more to our liking.
The SmokeFire will cook anything I generally cook and very well. I prefer steaks on the WSCG as I feel they get just a little more flavor over the coals, but they often end up on the SmokeFire just because of the convenience. Flip the switch, prep steaks, throw them on to smoke to 110-120, pull them for 5 mins while SF heats up to 500-600 and throw them back on to sear.
Eddie is probably getting fired up 2-4 times a week and has burned through probably 200 pounds plus of pellets. I'm being very meticulous about not letting any grease into the bottom of the grill during LnS cooks either using the wet smoke kit when cooking on the main grid, or cooking on the upper rack with drip pan(s) on the main grate. Doing this, I've found the SmokeFire to be super easy to clean, I just vacuum out the ash or scrape it into the pan below after every long cook or a few short cooks. It requires cleaning more often than the Woodwind, but is easier. I could easily go 40 pounds of pellets plus through the Woodwind without doing anything more than pull the lever to dump the burn pot ash into the cup below. In round one with the other SmokeFire, I wasn't using pans and scraping all the ash/grease mixture was kind of a pain.
(Knock on Wood) So far, this grill has been completely problem free. There are a few quirks, but nothing too frustrating. Sometimes when I change the temps, I notice there's a 5-10 minute delay before it seems to start adjusting to the new temp (upwards). I need to pay more attention as to if it is when I change them in the app or on the controller itself. Once at temp, it does not display the temp on the control anymore unless it drops considerably off from the set point when you have the lid open. Again not a huge deal, I can always hook up the ambient probe to the controller and see that probes temp. The app is still just mediocre. Camp Chef app is a lot better and more intuitive and has better alarms/notifications. However, I have the FB2 when I really want to know details, so doesn't really bother me, but might bother others.
I bought the new folding front shelf from Weber and will say that I'm not overly impressed. Installation was plenty easy, but it feels and looks cheap, flimsy, doesn't go up and down smoothly, really sits too close to the handle so that you can't set much on it until the lid is opened, etc. It is just not designed practically, IMO. I'll keep it on for now, just for the hooks to store the upper shelf which I rarely have in the grill. It does help for space when wrapping things and will work at the end of a cook pulling stuff off the grill when you don't care about leaving the lid open for a long time.
I got the gift/bribe from Weber asking for reviews. I don't know if it's been mentioned elsewhere here, but they sent all registered SmokeFire owners two new spare glow plugs and a set of 4 beer glasses with the red kettle logos on them. It's a decent gesture that's appreciated since they overcharge for the glow plugs and tend not to last as long as they should for a lot of owners.
All in all, at this time I see the SmokeFire and WSCG sharing the main patio for the unforeseeable future. Our patios are small, so the poor WoodWind is over on the other patio all alone. He'll probably get over to the main patio for a visit this weekend while I cook up some pulled pork for a party, but it will just be a day trip, then he will get sent back to his corner and Eddie will go back to hogging most if the cooking attention with Sparky (WSCG) helping some.
As mentioned above, I'm just starting to use CookinPellets in the SmokeFire. So far, that has been problem free with the finger guard removed and the hopper insert installed. I will update here if that changes. I'm also feeling like there is less dust on the outside of the grill, but it's pretty early to determine that for sure.Last edited by glitchy; September 3, 2020, 11:11 AM.Comment
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FYI, with the unsold inventory recall so Weber can update the parts on those grills, I FINALLY got Weber to send me the welded auger. I installed it Friday night and will say it's not hard for anyone even moderately handy, but it's a lot of steps and I could see where it might be overwhelming for someone with no mechanical interest. I'm still frustrated that they wouldn't send it to me originally, but happy I was finally able to get it and install it.Comment
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It seems that if you get a good one, it’s great.Comment
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I think the biggest part of the problems were firmware. After that, just the need for drip trays and the poorly designed finger guard in the hopper were probably the major issues. The auger chute is more of a build up problem over time with the old design. The finger guard is really weird being at the bottom of the hopper. Most grills have it near the top of the hopper so that it's not able to cause pellets to bridge. Nevermind that I pretty much remove it from all pellet grills anyway.
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It's nice to hear some happy user comments for the SmokeFire. It seems like a great idea and a good price point. Too bad it had such a rough rollout. I'm still waiting in the wings for Version 2.0, even though I don't really need or want (smoke flavor too mild?) a pellet cooker. That said, I'm intrigued.
Kathryn
P.S. I'm off to google what Wet Smoke is.
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I'm back. It's essentially a holder for an aluminum pan used to hold water to add moisture to the cook and to function as a grease catcher as well. Did I get that right, glitchy ?Last edited by fzxdoc; September 15, 2020, 11:25 AM.Comment
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Despite the fact I wasn't overly impressed with the front shelf, I ordered the side shelf as well. I will say that I like it better than the front shelf. It still seems to be a little flimsier than competitive products, but it's probably more a feel thing rather than a reality thing. To me, it just feels funny since the grill itself is sturdier than a lot of other pellet grills in the price range. What I really want is a bottom shelf to solidify the legs a little bit. Not that they are unstable, but there is a little play in them that I think a shelf would lock down.
I'm still using it multiple days a week cooking all across the temperature spectrum and still issue free. Over the weekend I made my first salt and pepper brisket. Last night I reverse seared some SRF Wagyu steaks.
My only complaints about the grill are pretty darn minor. First, the mobile app works, but it is very clunky and awkward and the alerts need to be more configurable. Second, if the wind is strong, say 15 MPH plus, I have to pay attention and make sure it's not blowing directly into the back vents of the grill. This is also not a show stopper for me as I can just spin it 90 degrees on the patio (and winds straight out of the south are not the normal where I live) but could limit options if I or anyone wanted to build it in or had a limited space to use it where it could only sit one direction. I also know it's not the only grill that would be affected by this, but it seems to be a little more affected than some others by wind. In the end I'm still happier dealing with this issue than dealing with a smoke stack and the hassle it adds to putting on and taking off a cover all the time, especially Camp Chef's where the stack is off centered on the rear of the grill.Attached FilesLast edited by glitchy; September 29, 2020, 09:55 AM.Comment
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