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[glitchy]

It looks like Weber has been busy with updates to the SmokeFire with hardware, software, and firmware changes. The CEO has published a note finally admitting there are some concerns, hoping most of them have now been addressed and admitting that their support has fallen way behind due to the COVID-19 outbreak and everyone cooking at home. He said they are committed to continuing to address all customer concerns with SmokeFire and stated they will take back the grill if customers are unsatisfied: https://consumer-care.weber.com/hc/en-us/articles/360040719432-Update-from-our-CEO.

I've actually missed my SmokeFire since I returned it. It really does make some of the best food that I've ever cooked and 'grills' like nothing else that I've had outside of the Memphis (and I think the Weber delivers more smoke flavor at the higher temps). Weber and official retailers are taking $200 off both models through July 13, so I sold my OKJ and ordered another SmokeFire. I'm going to keep the Woodwind around at least for now initially planning on using the Weber for high temps cooking only.

[Bar-B-Lew]

I may end up getting one of these in a few years once they work out all of the bugs.

[pmillen]

I'll closely follow your thread.  I, too, am interested in the SmokeFire.

[okie smokie]

I looked at the smoke fire at Lowe's and noted that some of them now have a mod in the hopper where the right slope is now steeper (but capacity is less as a result) The unit was mixed in with the prior units, so the uninformed buyer would not know this. The price is the same.  As for the grease pathway, it still appears to go to the center to drain into the pan.   I think that waiting for now is a good plan for potential buyers.

[glitchy]

They are sending the hopper mod to anyone with feed problems, maybe even coming to your house to install it. I don’t see the grease system changing on this model, guessing if they do change it, might be another year or two before it’s released.

[okie smokie]

They are sending the hopper mod to anyone with feed problems, maybe even coming to your house to install it. I don’t see the grease system changing on this model, guessing if they do change it, might be another year or two before it’s released.

I suppose you would just have to clean out the bottom after a fatty cook. Sorta defeats the idea of easy maintenance. I suspect some pressure was placed on the designers to get it into production before the bugs were worked out. ?

[Osborn Cox]

They are sending the hopper mod to anyone with feed problems, maybe even coming to your house to install it. I don’t see the grease system changing on this model, guessing if they do change it, might be another year or two before it’s released.

I suppose you would just have to clean out the bottom after a fatty cook. Sorta defeats the idea of easy maintenance. I suspect some pressure was placed on the designers to get it into production before the bugs were worked out. ?

Really no excuse for this from Weber, it’s not like pellet grills are in their infancy anymore, they are late comers to the market.   They could have hired 1-2 of the more active members here to act as consultants and these issues would have been addressed, because again, these issues have been encountered with previous manufacturers.    I suspect they tried to design this with staff that had no pellet experience and it shows.    I have faith in Weber because of their track record, but I will wait to see the next model they introduce.   

[glitchy]

My guess is that the overall design is here to stay for them. It will be interesting to see if/when gen 2 comes out and if the drainage system changes. My prediction is that maybe the design of the channels and size or shape of the drain holes change, but the overall design stays. This design greatly improves high temp grilling performance and smoke flavor on food compared to the typical design with large drip trays deflecting all of the heat and smoke around the edges of the tray to be circulated over the food by airflow.

Since release, Weber is strongly encouraging use of a water/drip pan under fatty cuts for low and slow cooking, they're even releasing a special water pan holder that rests on the flavorizor bars under the grate called the 'wet smoke kit': https://www.weber.com/US/en/accessories/cooking/pellet-grill-accessories/7004.html. I've seen pictures somewhere of 2 and 3 of them fitting on the larger EX6 model.

If you keep grease out of the bottom, the grill is easier than the typical pellet grill to clean as you just scrape or brush the ash into the tray below and call it good. If you get grease on the bottom, you have to do more scraping to clean. In that case, I'd probably put in on par with the Memphis on cleaning as it's more scraping than vacuuming. Definitely more work to clean than a Traeger, CampChef, RecTec, GMG, etc. when you let grease get into the ash at the bottom.

I'd love to know their designated target demographic. My guess is the typical gas grill owner intrigued by pellets and knows the Weber name. Someone that's going to do a lot of steaks, burgers, brats, etc. with the few times a year butt or brisket where dealing with a drip pans wasn't an annoyance for this few cooks. At this point, my goal isn't to replace my Camp Chef with another run at the SmokeFire, but to replace my gasser. About the only thing I ever used the gasser for anymore was searing steaks after smoking on the CampChef and that was only because it was already on the patio and heated up faster and more evenly than the Sear Box. Otherwise, I was generally making the time to use the CampChef or Summit Charcoal to cook everything else to get some smoke flavor.

[BigDave83]

I think some of the cooking issues are from people that have had pellet cookers and go into this as a normal pellet cooker, then they have problems because it isn't normal like most of the rest of them with drip pans. So there is a learning curve and a lot of people fail to see it or want to figure it out. Now design and software is on weber, but they seem to be working on them.

[glitchy]

I think some of the cooking issues are from people that have had pellet cookers and go into this as a normal pellet cooker, then they have problems because it isn't normal like most of the rest of them with drip pans. So there is a learning curve and a lot of people fail to see it or want to figure it out. Now design and software is on weber, but they seem to be working on them.

I think what you described is a big part of it for the frustrated early adopters as well as Weber's initial promises of this magical system that separated grease and ash without needing drip pans. The first time around, I was in this group being frustrated that within a week or two of release you now needed drip pans. I've had time to digest that as well as to see their commitment to the product as they are continuing to resolve it for current users. You could hear birds chirping at the launch from Weber in response, but I'm assuming they were assessing the severity of the problems and testing fixes rather than saying anything that would have probably all but halted sales of the unit. That is frustrating to someone having bought one and having problems, but understandable as a long term business decision.

I also had the ability to taste several different foods (mostly repeating the same menus) from four different pellet cookers over a couple months and have longed for the food from the SmokeFire since I returned it to Lowes. I've never had food from a pellet grill that I thought was too smoky except for a couple things I cooked on the Weber. It's amazing the flavor still present at higher temps compared to other pellet grills.

The other big complaint I've seen in negative reviews is failure to get to the advertised top temps. Can you image that happening with any other pellet grill? For that they did some redesign of the auger/chute assembly and my understanding is this auger is the part they are regularly replacing in home for users as well as pushing firmware adjustments to help feed rates. The SmokeFire was probably released a little early, but I think the reviews will start swaying to positive in the next few months as long as they get caught up on the service side and quit making people wait on hold 30-90 minutes when they call or wait a week for an e-mail response.

[glitchy]

SmokeFire was ordered Sunday night and arrived yesterday about 9:00 AM. I am a little concerned that I’m going to have to go back to Weber for parts as the production date on the box was 1/14/20. I ordered direct hoping to avoid old stock. When I started assembling it, I found the new insert in the hopper, so they’ve at least added that. I thought I could tell the auger by the revision sticker, but later found out that I need to check the chute to the auger. I’ll drain the pellets and do that sometime soon.

I removed the finger guard during assembly, lubed up the ramp with food safe silicone spray while the firmware was updating, filled up the hopper and let her rip. It took longer to get to 600 than I remembered before, but I also steam cleaned my stainless grates inside it while waiting for the firmware, so there was quite a bit of water inside the grill that could have affected that. It still got to 600 and overshot to 635 before settling back down. Let her burn for 40 mins, then I turned it down to 450 and threw on some nice 1/2 pound burgers for lunch.

Last night I fired her back up and threw on my pizza steel and made some quick frozen pizzas for a later dinner after the in-laws arrived. Had to toss them under the broiler for a couple mins to finish the tops, but turned out great with a pretty strong smoke flavor.

I didn’t take a bunch of unboxing and assembly photos as that’s still the same as the first time around.

[lil moose]

I can see buying one but i'm waiting for another year to make sure things are fixed before I do

[okie smokie]

So called flavor bars instead of drip pan is the whole thing in a nutshell.  I think they would have been better off with a drip pan and grease collection at one end.  They could have had some form perforations of the pan with a sliding cover, like some of the pits for direct flame. And because of their name and good record, they would have sold a lot of them from the get go! I think the pellet hopper has been fixed and I like the drop feed into the firepot.
1.  They love their flavor bars, as they deflect flame and sizzle some of the drippings, but also they are a big source of income, as they do burn up, rust etc and have to be replaced.  I imagine that the SS FB's last much longer, but still are a planned source of recurring income.  Bet that is why they won over the drip pan idea.  I do not like the idea of allowing grease to get into the bottom of the pit-period! It is so easy to vacuum out the bottom of the barrel when it is just ash.  Also, with a drip pan and bucket, it is hardly any issue to contain and dispose of grease.
2.  The seeing eye that senses low pellets is a waste of resource IMO. No problem to fill up the hopper for long cooks and lift up the lid to check the remaining supply , and top off if nec.
I am not critical of those who are buying and learning how to work out the issues, but to what advantage?  I think that Weber will certainly work out the problems to a reasonable degree. If I were in the market for a new pit, I would be looking elsewhere for now, while they get their act together.  = 4cents.

[glitchy]

Several companies have done the perforated pan or sliding thing. It really hasn't been very impressive, so I see why they didn't make another copy of the vast majority of the market. I think it's similar to when anything new shows up in a market but is drastically different than the rest. The flavorizer bar design is what I think really makes this pit different. If you put any other 5 pellet grills next to it, set them all to 425 and cook up 6-8 burgers on each. I'd guess they are done faster than all the rest on the SmokeFire and have more smoke flavor. I picked 6-8 because many other pits have what you describe, and it works to some degree, but the direct area is so small you can usually only cook 2-4 burgers direct at once. The Weber design is letting a lot of heat rise all through the grill not just up and around the front and back. I cooked 1/2 pound burgers on it Friday at 450 in 20-25 mins. 1/4 and 1/3rd pounders on my other pellet grills took 30-40 minutes. I should have taken a pic too, it almost looked like they had a small smoke ring.

If you want a primarily low and slow pellet grill with super easy clean up, this might not be the right pit. However, if you follow the updated recommendation for drip pans on low cooks, you shouldn't be getting much grease into the bottom of the pit and should be able to vacuum up the ash or just push it into the pan below. I did this just yesterday with all the ash from burn in, burgers, and pizzas. Took a couple mins and didn't need the shop vac nor was there really any grease in it.

Don't take my comments wrong, I still have concerns with the pit and I'm really hoping they are resolved. I just think with this pit they thought outside of the box and as users we have to as well.

I'm frustrated today because I called to try to get the updated auger assembly so I don't run into problems getting to temp down the road, but they won't send it to me UNTIL I have problems. Considering I ordered from them directly trying to get the latest revisions and not old stock, I'm frustrated by this. I'd have been better off going from Lowe's to Lowe's until I found a recent production date. IMO, the response somewhat contradicted the letter the CEO published on the site about the recommitment to both the SmokeFire and customer service.

[BigDave83]

I agree, I think they went out on  a limb to design a cooker that sets them apart from the rest, and they did that. Not in a bad way the flavorizer bars are one of the reasons I would buy one. Open heat across the surface not just wrapping up around a sheet pan and cooking. The grease fires I think were a result of people not willing to cook with an open mind and it didn't work because they cooked on pellet cookers before and never had an issue with grease fires, now they do so it is going back. If I had a place for one and the extra coin I would buy one in an instant. There seem to be a lot of cookers I would like to buy or try out. I showed the GF a Kamado Joe over the weekend when we went in to a sports shop, her response was that is nice, where would you put it, you would have to get rid of a few, you are not spending that much on one of those. My reply was I could get a Joetisserie for it.

I think those that buy the weber and go into it thinking about how they would cook the same things they are going to cook in it, on a gas grill, will have success provided the mechanical and software issues are resolved.

I can't wait to see some of your cooks on it.