Weber smokefire shipped

[OneHump]

I don't think there's any bashing going on, and that you think I'm bashing anyone speaks to the intense energy going on around this release. What is being bashed is Weber and, more specifically, the Smokefire. This isn't serving anyone, especially those who are canceling orders or not making purchases because of bad information.

I don't think an idiot should be messing with fire. That said, a grill, cooker, smoker of any type isn't going to run without common sense and maintenance.

You're clearly welcome to take any opinion you'd like, especially being that you don't appear to have a Smokefire. I do have one and have paid close attention to everyone having "problems". Yes, some know what they're doing and do have problems. I'm afraid that most have created their own problem. Go look at the "grease fire" video and then read the manual. The lid is wide open and there's no drip pan. This isn't the first mistake he made. Don't believe me, form your own opinion based on facts, as I have. Justin isn't at fault here, but social media has reared its ugly head yet again and is spreading a bunch of fake news that isn't doing anyone any favors.

 

[Baychilla]

A couple thoughts...

Are we using these on a flat, level surface? If not that will contribute to the grease drain issue and the pellet feed issue.

I bet Smoke Daddy is developing a heat diverter. Just kidding.

I trust justin and most brethren to follow the instructions but is everyone? Justin... you did go step by step, right?[emoji23] Not saying y'all didn't but did everyone? I know my Copperhead is a real pita if you don't start it up properly. My Pellet Pro is so much easier.

Should Weber stop selling until they figure this out?

I'm a troubleshooter by nature. I like to figure crap out. I'm no expert or engineer by any definition. I really want one of these to play with. Maybe I can be the first to blow one up...

Also for those that don't like the long shutdown, Weber isn't the only pellet cooker that has this process.

Rant over!

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

The grease running into the firepot seems like a design issue that should've been caught by if not the engineers at least QA. It also sounds like they didn't QA the app (or firmware update system). Everyone thinks QA is too much money until they realize how much not doing proper QA costs them.

The fan blowing ash all over the place also seems like something that should've been caught by QA at the latest. I wonder if they Wiley E'd their QA and had the grill vacuumed out between cooks and then only did hot/fast cooks.

 

[OneHump]

Is the grease running into the firepot? It seems that the grease is close enough to the pot that high temp settings and open lids are throwing a big flame that's catching the grease on the way down.

 

[Dweverett]

Being that I've had no problems whatsoever, I find myself massively perplexed about what's going on. I've been following the hysteria on multiple forums and it's completely out of control. Here is where I'm at with this thing:

1. If you know anything at all about failure mode and exception analysis, you can deduce that if a sample of a population has a problem, and not the entire population, and the problem is not consistently reproducible, the problem is not design.


5. The hopper issue is mind-blowing to me. I have used an entire bag of Weber pellets and two bags of BBQer's Delight and not found the need to touch any part of my hopper. All of my pellets feed and I have had no jams or temperature control issues. Reading comments around the Internet, it's clear that people aren't managing their ash and aren't going through the shutdown process. Just throw some meat on, crank it up to 600F, leave the lid open and let 'er rip fellas!


Thanks.

I think you're overstating #1. The sample sizes are too small at this point to really draw any conclusion. It's quite possible that a pattern may develop on some of the issues where it does become repeatable. (I doubt that will be true of the grease fire -- there are just way to many variables)

It wouldn't surprise me though if the temperature variation that some users reported isn't going to be dependent on wind. Absent it or something light from the right direction, everything's fine. Wrong way and it doesn't run well. If true, I would consider that a design problem even though it might be easy to work around (point the cooker a different direction)

On #4, I would again say the sample size is pretty small at this point. It could be that the design is right at the boundary of being steep enough so any small error in manufacturing or assembly can push you over the ledge. Or probably a number of other reasons including people's patio not being completely level and that being enough to make the difference.

You could call either of those user errors if you want but I think that part of a good design is attempting to minimize the opportunities for a problem

 

[drunkenmeatfist]

I didn't watch all of the Baby Back Maniac video, but I caught what I think is the core of the issue. It sounded like during his time at their facility he asked multiple times about the potential for grease fires and was told that it wouldn't be an issue. Seems like he cooked on it as he saw during the demonstration and immediately had major problems.

I consider myself an unbiased observer since I haven't put money down for one of these. I have been reading what users are saying and I wouldn't shell out any cash for this booger right now. Too many people having the same problems to write them all off as operator error. If it were operator error I would expect that Weber would start putting out info to correct the operator error instead of shipping new parts and accepting a bunch of returns.

 

[pjtexas1]

The grease running into the firepot seems like a design issue that should've been caught by if not the engineers at least QA. It also sounds like they didn't QA the app (or firmware update system). Everyone thinks QA is too much money until they realize how much not doing proper QA costs them.



The fan blowing ash all over the place also seems like something that should've been caught by QA at the latest. I wonder if they Wiley E'd their QA and had the grill vacuumed out between cooks and then only did hot/fast cooks.

I totally agree with the grease drain. Most others drain it away from the fire pot.

The fan blowing ash everywhere is common. Probably be ok if the drain was going away from the fire pot.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[SmokinAussie]

Being that I've had no problems whatsoever, I find myself massively perplexed about what's going on. I've been following the hysteria on multiple forums and it's completely out of control. Here is where I'm at with this thing:

1. If you know anything at all about failure mode and exception analysis, you can deduce that if a sample of a population has a problem, and not the entire population, and the problem is not consistently reproducible, the problem is not design.

2. This is a new product, and isn't perfect but, in my opinion, is of sound design. That said, the defect rate is going to be higher as Weber workers learn how to assemble this new product. This could lead to a systemic issue around QA, resulting in some/many cookers having a defect. This doesn't mean they all do, because they don't.

3. Many of the people posting on the Internet have absolutely no idea what they're doing. This 100% doesn't not apply here, clearly. However, many are coming from gas grills, Masterbuilt, etc etc etc. They think that you can just start cooking without managing your ash and grease and nothing will go wrong. That is a wild expectation that isn't going to work for any cooker.

4. People aren't following instructions: Justin posts a grease fire and the whole Internet is losing its mind. Weber suggests a drip-pan and clearly states not to cook with the lid open and, yet, he cooks without a drip pan and leaves the lid open and here we are. Can the Smokefire have a grease fire? Absolutely! Should you leave any cooker right next to your home unattended? Absolutely not! There are few cookers that won't have a grease fire if not properly maintained and improperly used.

5. The hopper issue is mind-blowing to me. I have used an entire bag of Weber pellets and two bags of BBQer's Delight and not found the need to touch any part of my hopper. All of my pellets feed and I have had no jams or temperature control issues. Reading comments around the Internet, it's clear that people aren't managing their ash and aren't going through the shutdown process. Just throw some meat on, crank it up to 600F, leave the lid open and let 'er rip fellas!

While I can appreciate that the cost of a Smokefire is not a trivial amount to some, most of us here have invested an order of magnitude more on some very expensive equipment. This is not a premium, high-end cooker. That said, it does work, but I'm certainly not going to jump into untested waters head-first, buy a 'cheap' cooker and then look for every little reason to nit-pick the thing to death.

I think everyone needs to take a step back and use the massive brainshare on this site to really understand what's going on. Ask yourself these questions:

Was the cooker properly assembled?

Is it being used per the documented instructions?

Is it being maintained per best-practice and common sense?

Is somebody rendering a lot of fat with the lid open or on a high temperature?
If not, and there's still a flaring problem, have you vacuumed out your ash before cooking? Have you removed the grease from your last cook?

I honestly don't care about Weber at all. I have a couple of WSMs that I haven't cooked on in years as I prefer other gear. That said, it is my objective opinion that they did a good job with the Smokefire. My only problem here is with watching the BBQ community swirl the drain around a toxic cloud of fear, uncertainty and doubt.

For those of you with some influence, please refrain from posting half-baked assessments without a thorough analysis. The need to quickly get some of these videos up on Youtube has not paid service to the product, or BBQ in general.

Thanks.

I like your perspective. If we all went out and bought a COS at one time and started learning on it collectively, there would be internet meltdown. Think of how many fails we all had when going through this process before stepping up to other things. Then this thing comes out from Weber and we all think "awesome, this will be easy" and we forget the fundamentals.

Now I'm not saying there are NO issues. There clearly are issues. But try and figure some of these out. Could any of you be contributing to this? Have you read the factory manual? Did you actually assemble it properly?

No doubt Weber will fix the issues they are responsible for... hopefully even the tiny wheels that might get stuck in a crack and result in you tipping over your Smokefire when it had that flare up and you moved out from the eve to stop it burning your house down...:icon_devil

Man that's gonna happen right???

I'm still not buying one... but perspective fellas!

 

[drunkenmeatfist]

I like your perspective. If we all went out and bought a COS at one time and started learning on it collectively, there would be internet meltdown. Think of how many fails we all had when going through this process before stepping up to other things. Then this thing comes out from Weber and we all think "awesome, this will be easy" and we forget the fundamentals.

Now I'm not saying there are NO issues. There clearly are issues. But try and figure some of these out. Could any of you be contributing to this? Have you read the factory manual? Did you actually assemble it properly?

No doubt Weber will fix the issues they are responsible for... hopefully even the tiny wheels that might get stuck in a crack and result in you tipping over your Smokefire when it had that flare up and you moved out from the eve to stop it burning your house down...:icon_devil

Man that's gonna happen right???

I'm still not buying one... but perspective fellas!

I do think there are people that are going overboard, but the comparison to a COS isn't apt here. COS has "cheap" in the name so it should be accepted that it is not high quality merchandise. This Weber unit is expensive and was marketed as a machine that would be a game changing grill/smoker.

 

[tom b]

I love my MAK 2*, just sayin...

 

[LYU370]

Grease draining near the fire pot is a big no no. The only time I was ever worried about a grease fire in my FEC was when I was cooking about 50lbs. of chicken at 375 for a block party. The draft fan was in high gear and I could just hear all that chicken grease sizzling on the deflector. But it all drained down without a problem.

Like all other things, most people don't post about their successes, but only post about failures. How big of an issue is it really? I'll still wait to reserve judgement. Hopefully, everyone's problems are resolved.

 

[OneHump]

I love my MAK 2*, just sayin...

100%. I’m probably going to be swapping my Smokefire out for a 2 or 3 star once I’m done playing with it. The Smokefire has done a great job introducing me to pellet grills and now I want a real one.

 

[pjtexas1]

Found this in a review. Maybe there's some hope...

"Only after 2-3 days of more frustration did I learn that I have received one of a batch of defective controllers. Yay. The grill itself would work, but I didn't buy it just for the grilling... I want the ability to see the temp and to change the temp on the grill from the comfort of my living room. So, after many more calls, I finally get a supervisor at Weber to send a hopper, a side shelf and a new controller to me. They sent the hopper to me and the controller and side shelf to a service agent who I can not yet get ahold of the give me a time and date to come install this stuff. I also have the option to return this one to Lowes... which I may yet do if Weber's service agent cannot come through in a reasonable amount of time,"

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[ssv3]

I love my MAK 2*, just sayin...

Or Yoder :tape:

Tried and true. I will kiss it next time I get up to the cabin. :laugh: Don't realize what you've got until you read unfortunate posts like this.

Though I have my Yoder, I was seriously rooting for the Weber to be a successful product. I love Weber products and I'm seriously shocked.

 

[Baby Back Maniac]

Can the Smokefire have a grease fire? Absolutely! Should you leave any cooker right next to your home unattended? Absolutely not! There are few cookers that won't have a grease fire if not properly maintained and improperly used...
...
Thanks.

The lid was down both times the fires started.

They don’t encourage a drip pan. They encourage a water pan and it has nothing to do with preventing fires. It has to do with consumers asking for it (mimicking the water pans of the WSM). The guy that built the cooker really dislikes the idea because the whole point in how they designed the cooker was to not need it... or else they would have put one in there. I can not stress enough how proud they are of the drip-panless design. It’s one of the main features they were trying to innovate with and there are a lot of benefits of NOT having one.

With that said...I’ll be using a drip pan in the future. Lol.

There are a several videos of grease fires now. I’m not the only one. I’m glad yours is running so well. Wish mine was.

 

[SmoothBoarBBQ]

@Baby Back Maniac, I'm glad you're still out here monitoring these threads. Lots of silly notions being floated around, and for some reason people don't understand that while shooting a video you'll do things for a short period of time you wouldn't normally do; ie leave the lid open for a minute so your viewers can see the food cooking.

I certainly think there's some "user error" going around with this new grill, but the grease drain system is a huge flaw. Every other pellet cooker I've seen uses a drip plate to divert the grease...it's odd how Weber was so focused on not having one of these. Anyways, serious respect to you for your videos and discussion about this grill. So many of us were over-excited about it, and now we're all demoralized when we see how poorly it's performing (at least for some people).

Good luck moving forward and thanks for doing what you do. You saved a lot of people from a potentially frustrating experience; if anything we can all just wait until they update the design and release the SmokeFire 2.0. Cheers!

 

[ebijack]

Being that I've had no problems whatsoever, I find myself massively perplexed about what's going on. I've been following the hysteria on multiple forums and it's completely out of control. Here is where I'm at with this thing:

1. If you know anything at all about failure mode and exception analysis, you can deduce that if a sample of a population has a problem, and not the entire population, and the problem is not consistently reproducible, the problem is not design.

2. This is a new product, and isn't perfect but, in my opinion, is of sound design. That said, the defect rate is going to be higher as Weber workers learn how to assemble this new product. This could lead to a systemic issue around QA, resulting in some/many cookers having a defect. This doesn't mean they all do, because they don't.

Glad your's is working. But.... have you done a long cook yet?
If you only look at the posts/video's from the Brethren. For months, this has been waited for production with excitement. And lots of pre-orders.
I even pre-ordered. Actually thinking this would get me into using pellets. I'm not a pellet guy. I cancelled a few weeks ago. Changed my mind before they came out. Glad I did. I'm not a weber guy.
Then the first posts arrive after delivery and the dang thing does NOT work. Problems! Not problem.
Most of us here have lots of cookers. Were talking lots of experience from most every country!
If the folks here are having problems. I'll go with the unit is at fault. And is a design problem all the way! I have an expensive cooker that is full of design problems. Reason I modified the heck out of it to get it to work properly. I would not buy a product from that company again.
Justin in one of his video's explains how Weber told him if he used drip pans. He was defeating the designed, engineered "even cooking" weber boasts about.
I know you posted "This 100% doesn't not apply here". But you go on and on pointing at operator error. Not a design problem.
Then you post this " My only problem here is with watching the BBQ community swirl the drain around a toxic cloud of fear, uncertainty and doubt. For those of you with some influence, please refrain from posting half-baked assessments without a thorough analysis."
If the smokefire can not be put together by an average "joe". Which I highly doubt! Then weber should sell it assembled! Cause there is no way I'm going to let a guy from a box store assemble anything.

Most of my career was pre-production/new innovations builds.
Weber really screwed up in my opinion.

 

[barrettd]

I'm sorry, I'm a little gun shy of making recommendations on pellet grills just yet. I hope that makes sense. I'm working on getting a video up tonight (it's uploading now actually...just taking forever). It's very long but very detailed. You can definitely see the problems I was having (and the ones I have not had that other people have experienced.)

I will say this though. I'm not going to lose my receipt. In fact, I would have taken my back tomorrow if my wife hadn't encouraged me to keep it if for no other reason (she knew) I was really in love with the idea of this cooker and didn't want me to give up on it without at least talking to Weber first.

I'm so confused. The folks I met in Chicago worked so hard on this and everything worked perfectly. I just don't understand what happened.

I've been a subscriber of yours for a while, and one of the reasons I enjoy your channel so much is your authenticity. I know that when you're excited about something, you're genuinely excited, and not just shilling for a company. You also test things out, ask questions, show us the real experience, etc. to the point that I can honestly relate with a lot of what you are going through on your cooks.


You have been upfront and honest about everything regarding the SmokeFire, and have nothing for which to apologize. You're clearly dejected by the whole experience, and, while it's tough for you to go through it, your transparency is appreciated by your subscribers. I don't even think your videos would have changed much if you had taken the free grill.


Keep up the good work. You and Mike and all the others showing us real-world experiences are not only helping those of us in the market, but, ultimately, helping Weber (hopefully) fix any issues that need fixing.

 

[OneHump]

So I get that some of you didn't appreciate my earlier comments, though I do stand behind them. I think that a more measured and objective approach to identifying any issues will best serve the BBQ community.

Here is where I'm at:

I've got 40 pounds of pellets run through my EX6. I've cooked steaks, lambchops, ribs, butts and steaks. No problems.

Again, I get that some are having problems and, as I said, some are legitimate. Others are not.

Last night, after walking away from my keyboard shaking my head about the need for people to bash Weber, but not accept a call for objectivity, my Smokefire failed. Here is what happened:

I started the cooker and set the temp to 300. I prepped my meat and went outside to put it on and heard a high pitched, continuous tone coming from the controller. The controller was unresponsive, and showed the temp at 295. I stuck a Thermapen in to one of the rear vents and it read 150F and was dropping about 5F every 15 seconds or so.

I turned off the cooker, disassembled the grates and checked/cleaned the firepot, cleared the auger, etc.

Turned the cooker back on and got "Improper shutdown" error which put the cooker into shutdown mode. Shutdown mode ran for 5 minutes. I shut down the cooker and started it again, setting it to 300. It got to 260 when I noticed no smoke but lots of fan noise. 255... 250... 245 - uh oh.

I did it all again with the same result.

I called Weber this morning and was told I would get a call back. 2 hours later, I was called. I explained everything that happened and they said they have identified a problem with the auger assembly and would send a new one overnight. They would also be sending a bag of pellets as a thank you for my patience.

I asked about hopper issues. They're aware of the complaints but don't agree that there is an issue. I'm sure many here will, but I have had no hopper issues.

I asked about grease fires and they also don't agree. They do agree with me that people aren't following documented instructions. Dump a bunch of grease into your cooker, crank your heat up and leave the lid open and you'll have a grease fire. They were disappointed with the videos they've seen as they're not representative of proper use of the product.

So... it looks like there is a problem that is fully resolvable. I should have my part tomorrow. They offered to have someone come out to install it. I'll do it myself. I'm sure others are having different issues, but I'm still not seeing a great reason to not buy a Smokefire if you're an early adopter who isn't afraid of dealing with few growing pains.

I'm going to order a 2 Star General soon, but I've also seen plenty of auger, ignition, etc issues there and, like Weber, their outstanding customer service resolves them quickly. I'm having a lot of fun with the Smokefire, but have heard too many amazing things about Mak. I'll probably sell my Smokefire over the summer.

My .02.

 

[sudsandswine]

I asked about grease fires and they also don't agree. They do agree with me that people aren't following documented instructions. Dump a bunch of grease into your cooker, crank your heat up and leave the lid open and you'll have a grease fire. They were disappointed with the videos they've seen as they're not representative of proper use of the product.

BabyBackManiac didn't "dump a bunch of grease" into his cooker, he put a relatively small amount of meat in it compared to the capacity of his new cooker and there was a grease fire. I suppose you could make the argument that "proper maintenance" should include scraping out grease after every cook but if it happens during a cook on a cooker that started clean? The EX6 looks like it could easily fit 8 pork butts on just the main grate...then what?

 

[OneHump]

BabyBackManiac didn't "dump a bunch of grease" into his cooker, he put a relatively small amount of meat in it compared to the capacity of his new cooker and there was a grease fire. I suppose you could make the argument that "proper maintenance" should include scraping out grease after every cook but if it happens during a cook on a cooker that started clean? The EX6 looks like it could easily fit 8 pork butts on just the main grate...then what?

I think he clearly had enough grease built up to ignite with a high flame. Weber recommends a drip tray, which I think anyone who doesn't want to deal with a mess would do anyway. The fire chamber in my FEC 120 is isolated, yet I still put drip pans under my meat. They also tell you not to cook with the lid open.

This could be a case of having your cake and eating it to. I've not owned a pellet grill and have done a lot of research lately after being impressed by the quality of cooks on the Smokefire. The Memphis Elite was one that I was considering, but it doesn't smoke well. Mak smokes well but doesn't have the searing capability of the Memphis, even with FlameZone. It's possible that Weber is trying to do too much, making their cooker more prone to a fire than some. I've had grease fires on gas grills and watched my father in law nuke his Traeger with a grease fire. The reason that I bought an FEC 120 instead of a 100 is because of grease fire complaints. I get it.

In the case of BabyBackManiac, he had the lid open, and that results in a decent flame. If you have grease on your rails, and the flame hits that grease, you're going to have a fire. I could also cook a few burgers, turn up my temp or open my lid and show you a video of a grease fire. I guess my point is that, if used and maintained properly, I don't think there's any more of a risk with the Smokefire than any other cooker.