Weber SmokeFire Pellet Grill Review

Smokin D@wg@77 said:
Clearly states in opening part of the video he isn't in any way paid by Weber.

Never cooked on a pellet grill never been around one cookin , but what grill dosnt get grease in the bottom of it ? My stick burner has grease in bottom , my kettle gets grease in bottom , my WSM gets grease in water pan when i use it. Grease is part of what we do , what we BBQ. Tragger got some magic grease sucker outer that i dont know about?

Grease is going to happen i seen nothing in that video that was excessive with the amount of protein he had on there.

Now i watched Baby back maniacs weber hype video and harrys. Now i went back watched it today. How can 6, 8 inch flames roaring out of the cooker be "cool" and just fine in weber hype video.

But when get it to your house a 3 " flare up in the pot , is im scared gone burn my house down , its unsafe gotta send it back ?

I dont get it ...................
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My GMG has 0 grease in the bottom of it (and every other pellet grill) because of the drip pan diverting it away into a bucket. Very low chance of a grease fire if you keep that clean. I have had zero grease fires in almost 3 years even with it cranked at times. Saying that "every smoker deals with grease" doesnt make Weber's sub-par grease management design right in a pellet grill application.

The more I look at this grill, the more I see just a Weber Spirit that just runs on pellets. When I see it as that I don't hate it as much. It will work well as a grill, but be a headache going low and slow (in unmodified form). I think people were looking for a smoker that can grill, not the other way around. We wanted a true all in one. For the same price, I'd rather have a Weber gasser and seperate smoker, pellet or otherwise.
 
Pedro7 said:
My GMG has 0 grease in the bottom of it (and every other pellet grill) because of the drip pan diverting it away into a bucket. Very low chance of a grease fire if you keep that clean. I have had zero grease fires in almost 3 years even with it cranked at times. Saying that "every smoker deals with grease" doesnt make Weber's sub-par grease management design right in a pellet grill application.

The more I look at this grill, the more I see just a Weber Spirit that just runs on pellets. When I see it as that I don't hate it as much. It will work well as a grill, but be a headache going low and slow (in unmodified form). I think people were looking for a smoker that can grill, not the other way around. We wanted a true all in one. For the same price, I'd rather have a Weber gasser and seperate smoker, pellet or otherwise.
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Agreed. I have a 10 year-old Traeger that has fewer issues than I've seen with the SmokeFire. I don't have to baby it, clean it after every cook, use a drip pan/water pan, etc. and it does great. I don't sear on it, but I could crank it up (Savannah Stoker) if I wanted to.

Weber overpromised and underdelivered. That's all. They'll go back to the drawing board and make it better if they want to really move into this market. Plus they'll have a lot of trust to earn back from the early adopters that had issues.

At the end of the day, it's just another grill that some people love and some people don't. Had Weber not promised the moon, they'd have a lot more happy customers right now.
 
Smokin D@wg@77 said:
Clearly states in opening part of the video he isn't in any way paid by Weber. So
My stick burner has grease in bottom. No where near the fire and should
be angled away from the fire end.
,my kettle gets grease in bottom I'm betting you use a drip pan when required. Or gets burned up hitting the coals. No fan blowing on it. weber stated first, their grease management system works. And is superior. Nope
my WSM gets grease in water pan when i use it. Again it goes into a pan that can handle all the grease from all the meat you can put in there. Not so with the smokefire.
Grease is going to happen i seen nothing in that video that was excessive with the amount of protein he had on there. But the total grease the unit could not handle with webers superior grease management system. Or fully drain off. That grease was sitting there in the cooker. One small hot and away ya go. Hope it does catch the drained grease on fire.
.
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That is my take on it.
 
Pedro7 said:
My GMG has 0 grease in the bottom of it (and every other pellet grill) because of the drip pan diverting it away into a bucket. Very low chance of a grease fire if you keep that clean. I have had zero grease fires in almost 3 years even with it cranked at times. Saying that "every smoker deals with grease" doesnt make Weber's sub-par grease management design right in a pellet grill application.

The more I look at this grill, the more I see just a Weber Spirit that just runs on pellets. When I see it as that I don't hate it as much. It will work well as a grill, but be a headache going low and slow (in unmodified form). I think people were looking for a smoker that can grill, not the other way around. We wanted a true all in one. For the same price, I'd rather have a Weber gasser and seperate smoker, pellet or otherwise.
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video has 65 lbs of meat with 75% having fat caps left on. 12 cups of grease diverted into grease catch system but yes there still some grease residue and what not in and around the the flavorizer bars.

Find it little hard to believe pellet cooker or ANY of any brand has zero residue from grease in it ....:roll:
 
KORND4WG X said:
Here’s the insert for the hopper

https://youtu.be/YWFP4uDL71o
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Hard for me to believe that Weber didn't find the tunneling or lack of pellet delivery during their own testing.

I wonder if they have any engineers on staff that knew anything about smoking or poopers?

I guess you could get a hand sander and lay it on the chute, plug it into a timer and let it cycle (vibrate) throughout the cook.....:mrgreen:
 
Its hard to believe that weber keeps releasing these videos with no audio.
 
Goodness...I guess at least it’s good weber came out with the fix quickly, but it’s almost hard to fathom they didn’t see this issue when in the design stage, or certainly during the testing of tons of pellets stage. I’ve never been a weber fan boy, but even I expected better from this thing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
barrettd said:
February 29:
https://www.facebook.com/AmazingRibs/posts/2758601680886972

In this new thread, he also says he has nothing to apologize for his rants, even though he deleted almost all of them. I'm becoming more disillusioned with AR over all this SmokeFire stuff.
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Thanks for that link. I got a kick out of this comment:


"Wouldn’t it be easier just to buy a pellet grill with a proven track record that doesn’t need “work arounds”? Asking for a friend."


That was from Ray Carnes, co-founder of RecTec.
 
barrettd said:
Agreed. I have a 10 year-old Traeger that has fewer issues than I've seen with the SmokeFire. I don't have to baby it, clean it after every cook, use a drip pan/water pan, etc. and it does great. I don't sear on it, but I could crank it up (Savannah Stoker) if I wanted to.

Weber overpromised and underdelivered. That's all. They'll go back to the drawing board and make it better if they want to really move into this market. Plus they'll have a lot of trust to earn back from the early adopters that had issues.

At the end of the day, it's just another grill that some people love and some people don't. Had Weber not promised the moon, they'd have a lot more happy customers right now.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've had my RT-590 for 7 months now and while it's not perfect, I haven't had any performance issues including grease fires or flareups. And I do sear on it. It doesn't sear great, topping out between 400-550 depending on the weather. And it can take a while to get there. But it's good enough that I haven't fired up the gas grill since I got it. The reverse sear steaks I've made on have been the best I've ever cooked.

I mean let's face it, Weber and other gas grills have been using flavorizer bars for decades, it's pretty doubtful nobody thought about doing that in a pellet grill before. Weber is just the first company to try to defy common sense. And since they are Weber, most people gave them the benefit of the doubt. I know I never expected a company with Weber's history and reputation to put out such a clunker. I'm disappointed that not only does it not live up to their claims, but there are several basic design and quality issues including the hopper, auger, controller, ash, and heat distribution.
 
I have watched the different videos from Harry and BBM.

Harry seems to be out to prove everybody wrong and stay on a good foot with Weber.
If you watch his Part 2 video closely, it becomes very clear why he didn't have a grease fire when he opens the grease drain. It's full of water/grease from his excessive spraying of the meat. He always uses water to spritz and I noticed he was spraying his meat a lot in the video, more than usual. So, all the water propably cleaned the bottom of his cooker.

https://youtu.be/jsUri_VoKag?t=2139
 
pbison said:
Thanks for that link. I got a kick out of this comment:


"Wouldn’t it be easier just to buy a pellet grill with a proven track record that doesn’t need “work arounds”? Asking for a friend."


That was from Ray Carnes, co-founder of RecTec.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I thought that was funny, as well.
 
Based upon the review on Amazing Ribs, you have to use Weber branded pellets in order for the Smokefire to operate well. The other pellets are too big in diameter.

I was also really excited about the Smokefire. Love my 22” kettle. And the missus wanted a gas grill for weeknight quick cook sessions. Seriously considered being part of the first wave. One of the rare times where I demonstrated patience before purchasing a new toy!
 
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