I have a camp chef. I’ve had quite a few issues with it and yes, they are great at replacing parts at no charge. Although, I hate their fedex ground method. Once I needed a set screw for the fan motor that could’ve been thrown in an envelope with a stamp and arrived in a few days, but fedex ground took almost two weeks.
I’m not sure if I got a lemon or I just used the hell out of it. I fire it up 3-5 times a week and have burnt out a motor, cracked a fan blade, burnt out all the meat probes, got water in the pellet auger causing them to swell and seize, had a rusted hopper lid, broken a set screw on the motor, and had a corroded thermometer affect how the grill heats up erratically.
I’ve taken the think apart numerous times, learned a lot, and then probably messes a few things up myself. It’s cooked a lot of great meals, but also ruined a few cookouts due to reliability.
Now, I’ve ordered a new offset set to arrive around July. Part of my motivation is to not have any moving parts or electrical so nothing other than wood issues/supply can ruin my cooks. I’ll be using the camp chef for smaller or quicker cooks. But plan on running the offset most of the time. I’m doing my last brisket on the camp chef as I type this out.
