Welcome!

**jasoncross11** · October 13, 2020, 12:42 PM

Thanks for keeping this updated! It is helpful to see your experience.

**glitchy** · October 26, 2020, 01:45 PM

Ok, I've noticed something over the past couple days. I cooked Beef Short Ribs on Saturday and been eating the leftovers the past couple days. I'm pretty sure these ribs are the smokiest food I've ever cooked with clean smoke. (I used to have a SmokinTex that was really easy to get dirty/creosote smoke from due to limited airflow). I thought they were pretty smoky and tasty Saturday night, but when I was eating leftovers past two days I can say when I opened up the tupperware to get them out, I've never noticed that strong of smoke smell before, and I've put a lot of smoked meat into tupperware for leftovers.

The other thing I noticed was with the SmokeFire, every time I open the lid and lean right in to temp something or rearrange food, I pretty much have to stop, take a step back and wait a couple seconds as there's too much strong eye burning smoke. I hadn't really thought much of that since I often have to do the same with the WSCG, but have recently realized that I don't think I ever really had to do this on other pellet grills when cooking in the 250-300 degree range. Occasionally at 180-225, but still not every time like I feel like I'm catching myself doing with the SmokeFire.

Obviously, this is a very subjective share as everyone's smoke tolerance and desired levels on food varies, but I'm growing fairly confident that this thing produces as much or more smoke than any other pellet grill out there. In my case, it seems to produce just as much or more than I usually get from my WSCG (though I have the ability to create more smoke on the WSCG if I use more wood chunks).

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**zinfella** · October 27, 2020, 03:33 PM

I called Weber. and the new Gen 2 versions will have new model numbers, so they can be differentiated from Gen 1 models. The Gen 2 EX 4 model will be 22510201, but I didn't get the Gen 2 EX 6 model number.

**glitchy** · October 28, 2020, 09:04 AM

RE: SmokeFire 2nd Gen

Just to note regarding the post above from zinfella (since this thread gets far more views than I ever imagined it would), Weber now has a SmokeFire 2nd Gen listed on the web site with the 1st Gen no longer listed. I haven't been able to identify any hardware differences other than the existing known updates being installed from factory yet, nor found anywhere that anyone else has listed any. If that's the case, I'm not sure of the reasoning in calling it 2nd Gen? Maybe to know that the updates were factory installed? Reboot momentum of the product?

Regardless, with the updates I'm pretty satisfied with the SmokeFire after the updates once you give way to the thought of using drip pans. It's a little bit of a pain in a way if you compare to other pellet grills, but not that big of deal if you smoke in a kamado, kettle, etc. regularly as you often use them there too.

The biggest outstanding question for me will be answered in the next 3-4 months. Does cold weather affect the SmokeFIre negatively. When this grill was initially released it was still winter in a lot of the country and several negative videos I saw had plenty of white stuff in the background. Was is just the timing of the updates that fixed the problems or did warmer weather help resolve some too? I'm hoping it was just coincidental timing.

**Dan Deter** · October 28, 2020, 09:09 AM

Even though I'm not in the market for a SmokeFire (I'd like a pellet setup, but don't need another grilling/searing option since I have the Summit S670), this has been a great thread. Thanks for keeping it updated as you learn more!

**Old Glory** · November 11, 2020, 01:03 PM

glitchy Thanks for this thread. I am looking hard at the W SF. Have you cooked in cold weather yet? How has it done?

**glitchy** · November 13, 2020, 12:14 PM

Alright, had a very frustrating cook last night with the SmokeFire. No two probes connected to it wanted to agree on anything. When I first got it, I used my Fireboard to double check things for a few cooks and always check food at the end with my ThermoPen. I've never had them be off at all, so just started using the Weber probes for shorter cooks and believing the pit RTD that the grill is pretty close to set temp.

Last night, I threw some pork burgers on at 375, the Weber ambient probe was still in the grill from the Turkey breast I did Monday, so left it be since I wouldn't be cranking up the grill over 500 or anything. After about 10 minutes, I went out and flipped the burgers and put a food probe in one of them since it was cold and I didn't want to stand out there. About 5 minutes later I checked the app and saw the attached.

I figured something must have happened to the ambient probe, so didn't think too much about it except why was the temp in the grill not recovering after 5 minutes back to 375, plus the burgers were starting to go down in temp. I went out rearranged the burgers, checked the hopper, made sure there were flames inside the pit and let it ride. Since it didn't recover quickly, I didn't want to open the lid a lot letting out heat, so I waited until the food probe hit 160 before checking the burgers again.

What I found at the end was a bunch of charred hockey pucks. The one with the probe reading 160 was 180+ and the others were even higher. So, now I get to run temp test on the grill again before I can use it

I don't know if the firmware update that came out a few days ago screwed something up or if something else is wrong.

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**fzxdoc** · November 13, 2020, 12:32 PM

I hope you get to the bottom of the problem, glitchy . Hocky puck dinners are not good.

Kathryn

**glitchy** · November 13, 2020, 03:09 PM

Of course the gremlins are gone today. no idea what happened last night. I've setup a test and been running for a couple hours now. 225 first hour, now 300, next 375. At 225, every probe was within 5 degrees of its mating Fireboard probe every time I looked. At 300, they are all still within 5 degrees except the Weber probe on the left side which has been 10-15 off. I'm going to go move it a tiny bit to see if that changes anything, otherwise assume maybe we got it damp washing it or something.

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**glitchy** · November 13, 2020, 04:56 PM

Ok, apparently somewhere between 300-375 Weber probes (or the software reading them) get wonky. When I set to 375 the discrepancies between the Fireboard and Weber probes opened up a lot and the temp on the left side of the grill ended up getting quite a bit hotter than the right. I knew at higher temps it's not as even, so that didn't bother me terribly much except at 375 I don't expect it to be pushing 500 on the left side. I'm pretty sure times I've checked before the right side was usually the hotter side, so I must have put the fire pot shield back in a different place than when I tested before.

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**fzxdoc** · November 14, 2020, 07:11 AM

Do those higher temps do any damage to the Smoke Fire probes?

I guess the lesson learned is to trust the Fireboard probes at higher set temps on the Smoke Fire.

Please keep posting your Life with Smoke Fire. I, like many others, am interested in possibly purchasing this pellet grill somewhere down the line, so it's good to know about its advantages, quirks, and shortcomings. Thank you.

Kathryn

**glitchy** · November 14, 2020, 10:57 PM

OK, I’ve been thinking a lot about this and I’m fairly confident that this is new behavior. I’ve done quite a number of cooks at 300-375 and if it was really running 75-150 degrees above the set point and 50 degrees plus hotter on the left I would have seen it in the food. I usually probe stuff on the right since that was the hotter side when I first tested, so everything on the left would have been way overdone and I would have seen a lot of hockey pucks at 450-500 degrees for and hour plus.

Today I went out pulled a grate and pushed the heat shield and center tent over to the left. Neither moved much. I fired it up set to 350 and left side hit 480-499 several times. I needed to work on son's car so I shut it down to think about later.

3 things changed this week. Weber pushed a software update, the weather got colder, and I’m running CookinPellets Perfect Mix pellets. I’ve run one bag of these previously and used most of it on a long LnS. I have mostly run CookinPellets Hickory or Weber Grill Master Blend out of the 400-500 lbs I’ve burned. I’m going to vacuum out the grill, drain the hopper, and waste my last bag of Weber pellets testing the only one of the changes I can control. Not sure it will be tomorrow as we have 25-40 mph wind in the forecast and I want it to be a fair test.

My suspicion is the update, but it was software not firmware so I wouldn’t think it would change grill hardware behavior, but if somehow I can prove it is I’m probably done with this thing. I’ve loved this grill and in the time I’ve had it, I’ve cooked more food on it per week than any other outdoor cooker I’ve owned, but if Weber is going to randomly break it with updates I cannot control, it won’t be on my patio. As well, if it can’t cook well below 40 degrees it will be gone as that could be 4-5 months where I live. I really hope it’s somehow the pellets as I can live with not being able to use certain types for mid to high temp cooks.

**glitchy** · November 15, 2020, 09:49 PM

I went ahead and did more testing despite the wind today. It was mostly out of the WNW which doesn't hit my patio too bad. I'm not 100% sure what to think after more testing. I vacuumed out the grill, emptied the CookinPellets and put in Weber Grillmaster blend, took out all the probes and put in 3 Fireboard RTD probes instead of Thermosister (so I didn't have to worry as much about ruining probes and could test hotter). I fired it up straight to 325 and thought wow, it must somehow be the pellets. After it ran there for a while perfectly, I turned it up to 375. Today the right side went out of control and stayed 50-75 degrees hotter. I opened the lid to see if I could see flames like when it's cranked to 500 plus for searing and didn't see anything like that or odd at all.

So after muttering a few choice words under my breath, I decided to set back to 325 to see if it settled back into rhythm and it did, so I went 325->350->375->425. Doing this they all stayed pretty reasonable with the right side staying around 20 degrees hotter than the left (pretty common at 350 plus temps and fair IMO with the design of the grill), with a brief spike a little more than that gap during the initial climb to new temp. I didn't clear out the auger chute when I drained pellets, but I'm pretty certain all those CookinPellets were burned up plus some Weber in startup and the initial 30 minutes at 325.

It seems the SmokeFire has some sort of roulette quirk at these mid-temps??? I'm not sure, it's really weird. Kinda pulling my hair out (and I don't have much left to pull) trying to think of what it could be. I've done a fair amount of cooks in this range with meatloaf, poultry, etc. and haven't burnt anything or had stuff on one side done before the other until the other night. Those cooks were starting at those temps staying there the whole cook.

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**BDCarp04** · November 16, 2020, 12:10 PM

Hoping it's not the update. Or I guess maybe I'm hoping it is because then it's an easy fix! I'll try to get something going in this range this weekend to see if I can duplicate what you're seeing.

Reverse seared some ribeye caps last night in the cold/wind and didn't have any issues. But I went from 600 (cleaning the grates) down to smokeboost temps (150-170), then to 235-250, and then back to 600 to sear. I didn't hang in the range that you're seeing problems at.

I know a buddy of mine has had to stop using off-brand pellets all together because of the problems he's encountered with them, because of his problems I've specifically stayed with the Weber brand the entire time. But it sounds like you should have been beyond those in the length of your test even if there were some left in the auger after your changeout.

The only other issue I've noticed specifically is coming in and out of smokeboost using the app. A couple of times I've ended smokeboost with the app and the ignitor doesn't seem to catch. So while the grill is pumping pellets the temperature is dropping. If you then manually set the temp on the grill itself it will catch and overshoot where it's going because of the excess pellets already in the firepot. I've let the Weber team know and they were looking into it, but in the meantime I've made sure to end smokeboost by the lcd screen on the unit only. I didn't see smokeboost mentioned in your post so I don't think that was the issue either.

Gives me an excuse to cook some more this weekend! As if I needed one....

**glitchy** · November 16, 2020, 04:55 PM

Well signs are pointing back to pellets, maybe there was enough in the auger and chute to disrupt the test yesterday as everything past the first hour was fine. Today I fired it up straight to 375 and was perfect. It convinced me enough that while running to get the wife cupcakes for her birthday today that I stopped at Lowe’s and picked up the second attachment since they were half price.

Last night I was so disgusted that after a couple whiskeys I had totally made up my mind everything Weber I owned was going bye bye and I was getting out of pellet grills. I was buying a M1, a Napoleon or Blaze gasser, and next spring maybe buying a KBQ. Then this morning I started thinking about how the problems completely disappeared after a while and decided to test again.

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