Weber SmokeFire First Cook

Has anyone considered putting a disposable aluminum pan under the meat to catch the grease? I cook with some type of pan to catch grease in almost every one of my cookers. It is just way easier to keep them clean that way. Is there room between the grate and the flavor bars? Not having a heat deflector was one of my biggest concerns with the cooker.
 
gtsum said:
Also, all the bs about being an early adopter of said grill and shame on you and you should expect issues from a first run product and it’s way too much money...etc etc. it’s ridiculous really. It’s a cooker...a grill/smoker that cost $1,200-$1,500 from a reputable company....get over it. Those who paid the money and bought one are free to do so as they choose and should expect a level of performance commensurate with the cost. I’m sure weber will get things fixed and those that own it will be happy. But let’s be real here...it’s a $1,500 pellet grill....it’s not a Memphis Elite that cost more than 3 times as much and it’s not a Mak that is double the cost...I wouldnt expect Amg performance and refinement from a c class car. JMO and no, I don’t have one:)


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Click to expand...


I think you should read your post again.. You just said exactly why it was a bad idea to be an early adopter.. product from a "REPUTABLE company".. people expect quality from Weber.. sure this is their first time venturing into pellet smokers.. but no matter the price.. the consumer should never be a "beta" tester after paying for the product.. And for someone like me.. spending $1,500 for anything is insane when your PREPAYING for the product only to receive it and there's serious issues. After all this time.. Why exactly has these problems never come up before until they ship? I duunnnno!



Ofcourse I agree 100%.. those who bought it, its their money and they can spend it all the want.. But this is happening for so many different things now a days I hate to see the stories of early adopters getting broken products.. only for them to fix it a year later...
 
Looking at the setup I'm actually stunned that there is no "drip plate" to stop the grease from heading right towards the firepot. I'm also curious as to how much Weber tested this cooker outdoors, in wind, and in cold outdoor temperatures. All of the promotional stuff I've found, including the Weber Academy stuff, is indoors, or at least inside a large warehouse.

It's a shame that people are having so many problems with this thing so far. The hopper issue seems like a massive design flaw, and it seems like they must have just ignored it because this issue had to have been noticed during testing. I'm thinking that maybe they just assumed that everybody would be sitting outside their smoker at all times to continuously check the hopper.
 
Here is a video from Baby Back Maniac
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc0NOKaJ_uQ

After all the hype and thousands of hours of testing they said. I am a bit surprised weber would come to the market this late in the game with a so-so pellet cooker. With lots of problems. Common problems of pellet cookers.
This should hit weber's reputation hard over time.
You shouldn't come to market with a deflated shiny balloon and then try to fix stuff after the fact. Do some real engineering and testing. No copy/paste of other pellet grills and try to make it seem like it is a new and better product than it is. The searing temp is the only thing really new/better that I see. This unit has. If, that even works.
I was hoping this would be something I might try. Never had a pellet grill. But I do not see that happening anymore. Pretty said, after all the hype.
 
Maybe they are using the same plan as the company I used to work for. They actually said, "The customer is our beta test site." Horrible idea!
 
Kaptain Kadian said:
Has anyone considered putting a disposable aluminum pan under the meat to catch the grease? I cook with some type of pan to catch grease in almost every one of my cookers. It is just way easier to keep them clean that way. Is there room between the grate and the flavor bars? Not having a heat deflector was one of my biggest concerns with the cooker.
Click to expand...

I line the bottom of my offset with aluminum foil.
 
Is it just my eyes or is BBM"s hopper not as steep as this?
da6a3d602d75101892f6097e7e1d9203.jpg
b298899c32af66175190dfcead3f3276.jpg


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pjtexas1 said:
Is it just my eyes or is BBM"s hopper not as steep as this?
Click to expand...
Optical conclusion :wacko:
BBM's weber still has lots of pellets. Which I think is throwing you off.
Look from the front edge over by the hole (don't know what the hole is). But that distance to the slid plate and angle see to be close to each other. And that would take a production change. Not likely when they have only been for sale for a week or so.

With thousands of hours of testing. How was the non pellet delivery problem not caught? Besides the other problems.
 
Well.... Made in China or wherever they get the parts from, only assembled in America!
 
Someone needs to sell a hopper shaker to stop pellets from tunneling or making voids.
 
I looked at those angles last night from the baby back maniac videos and didn’t see a noticeable difference in the one he cooked in yesterday vs the one he showed at the factory a couple months ago.
 
Last edited:
The look back at the November videos to compare the hopper angles also made me realize that the cooking area of the smoker that had the brisket at the November factory event at 2:45 of this Harry Soo video https://youtu.be/cNdqeLsugsc looks way cleaner than any of the smokers that I saw in the last few day.

I know they put several local pizzeria pizzas in the smokefire for effect. Now I’m starting to wonder what they cooked that brisket in.
 
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