To Weber Smokefire or not to Smokefire

rwalters said:
Well said!! And much like you, I could not believe how much I immediately loved pellet cooked food when I first decided to give it a shot. My pellet muncher is by far and away my most used cooker. :)
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Ya agree with all these last few comments!

I freaking love my pellet cookers :becky:. Even with very easy to light, use and maintain things like my egg, hunsakers and previously wsm, gravity it is very nice to turn a dial and be cooking.

With a busy life/family I find myself cooking more than I probably would even on weeknights. Love my stick burning too and glad I have another Shirley, but can't manage it all day like I used to every time I want to cook.

Pellet cookers have great flavor and it isn't of course like running straight wood or charcoal, but when I finally started doing it myself I was surprised on the great food even when cooking hot.

I'm still very interested in the Weber and think I will probably have one this year along with the newer pitboss platinum as I also still want an easy to fire up grill.
 
The Smokefire looks like a beast! As soon as I see some good hands on reviews when its released, I may be getting one myself.

I would be glad to test it out for some honest reviews. If Weber would send me one...hint hint...



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I put down the money on my preorder today. I've cooked on everything from a cabinet smoker, BGE, WSM, pk grill, pit barrel cooker, drum smoker to the offset I welded myself. I've got a growing family and made the decision to go with the Weber smokefire 36" and sell my offset to finance it. It's hard for me to dedicate multiple times am hour tending am offset and Weber is a company I've always had great luck with. I'll post a lot of my cooks on here to help the brethren out with reviews and thoughts. This'll be my first pellet grill.

Regarding the original poster... I think Weber makes good stuff and seems to stand by their products. Im sure it'll be as good as most similarly priced cookers. I'm hoping it ends up quite a bit better but time will tell.

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I shelled out the cash this morning as well and will be selling my LSG to finance it. It's just to much money sitting there when I don't have the time it requires to manage a fire.


mnbadger said:
I put down the money on my preorder today. I've cooked on everything from a cabinet smoker, BGE, WSM, pk grill, pit barrel cooker, drum smoker to the offset I welded myself. I've got a growing family and made the decision to go with the Weber smokefire 36" and sell my offset to finance it. It's hard for me to dedicate multiple times am hour tending am offset and Weber is a company I've always had great luck with. I'll post a lot of my cooks on here to help the brethren out with reviews and thoughts. This'll be my first pellet grill.

Regarding the original poster... I think Weber makes good stuff and seems to stand by their products. Im sure it'll be as good as most similarly priced cookers. I'm hoping it ends up quite a bit better but time will tell.

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mcyork28 said:
I shelled out the cash this morning as well and will be selling my LSG to finance it. It's just to much money sitting there when I don't have the time it requires to manage a fire.
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Same boat I'm in! I love the offset and it's a ton of fun. But with little kids and a busy life I haven't fired mine up in over a year.

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mcyork28 said:
I shelled out the cash this morning as well and will be selling my LSG to finance it. It's just to much money sitting there when I don't have the time it requires to manage a fire.
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mnbadger said:
I put down the money on my preorder today. I've cooked on everything from a cabinet smoker, BGE, WSM, pk grill, pit barrel cooker, drum smoker to the offset I welded myself. I've got a growing family and made the decision to go with the Weber smokefire 36" and sell my offset to finance it. It's hard for me to dedicate multiple times am hour tending am offset and Weber is a company I've always had great luck with. I'll post a lot of my cooks on here to help the brethren out with reviews and thoughts. This'll be my first pellet grill.

Regarding the original poster... I think Weber makes good stuff and seems to stand by their products. Im sure it'll be as good as most similarly priced cookers. I'm hoping it ends up quite a bit better but time will tell.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
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I hear ya guys! By far and away what led me to pellets... just no time to burn sticks. Heck, I have a hard enough time cooking w/ charcoal most days. What’s funny and something I didn’t expect is that I would fall in love with pellet cooked food. Over the past several years, I have seen quite a few guys sell stick burners in favor of a pellet muncher. The majority of them, from what I have seen and heard, have come to really enjoy pellets as well. They turn out a very consistent end product with a very pleasant flavor that appeals to quite a few people, including women who don’t always like the heavier smoke profile. Look forward to seeing and hearing more from both of you :)
 
tenpenny_05 said:
You also have to ignore all the trolls online that tell you your pellet grill isn't a smoker, and call it a driveway oven. Screw those guys.
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Seriously. Anytime somebody posts about a pellet smoker in one of the facebook groups 47 people tell them that it's an "outdoor oven" and to just sell it and use your indoor oven.

Social media is a strange place....
 
I will probably buy another stick burner. Just one that costs a lot less money. I enjoy it when I have the time and I like the food off of a stick burner. Will probably get a an Old Country Pecos or Smokehouse so I don't feel to guilty while it sits unused most of the time.



rwalters said:
I hear ya guys! By far and away what led me to pellets... just no time to burn sticks. Heck, I have a hard enough time cooking w/ charcoal most days. What’s funny and something I didn’t expect is that I would fall in love with pellet cooked food. Over the past several years, I have seen quite a few guys sell stick burners in favor of a pellet muncher. The majority of them, from what I have seen and heard, have come to really enjoy pellets as well. They turn out a very consistent end product with a very pleasant flavor that appeals to quite a few people, including women who don’t always like the heavier smoke profile. Look forward to seeing and hearing more from both of you :)
Click to expand...
 
Question for y'all. I have been reading the pellet thread and have seen everyone talking about having to clean by vacuuming out ash. This sounds like a lot of work. Didn't I hear that Weber did something with the smokefire so this won't be necessary? Did I imagine this? Thanks.
 
SweetHeatBBQnSC said:
Question for y'all. I have been reading the pellet thread and have seen everyone talking about having to clean by vacuuming out ash. This sounds like a lot of work. Didn't I hear that Weber did something with the smokefire so this won't be necessary? Did I imagine this? Thanks.
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The bottom of their fire pot is slotted to allow approx 70% of the ash to fall through into a catch pan. Great idea if it works :)
 
rwalters said:
The bottom of their fire pot is slotted to allow approx 70% of the ash to fall through into a catch pan. Great idea if it works :)
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I can tell from all your posts I've read that you are knowledgeable about pellet grills, is this something you are skeptical about for a particular reason? Or just taking a wait and see approach?
 
SweetHeatBBQnSC said:
I can tell from all your posts I've read that you are knowledgeable about pellet grills, is this something you are skeptical about for a particular reason? Or just taking a wait and see approach?
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In theory, the idea is brilliant. I do know that MAK Grills has tried this in testing and found it not to work, thus the feature has never been released into production by MAK Grills. Pellet ash is kind of like snow as the fan blows it around... in the sense that it falls and sticks, and then starts to accumulate. As it starts to sticks to the "slats" at the bottom of the fire pot, it quickly builds to the point that it blocks the openings. MAK Grills even tried welding round bars to the bottom of the fire pot to see if perhaps the ash would slide off. Made no difference. After multiple attempts they decided that although it's a great idea, it just doesn't seem to work. Perhaps Weber has found the secret to getting ash to not stick... and if so, kudos to them as that would be an awesome feature. I'd love to see it work and then see other pellet grill manufacturers follow suit :)
 
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SweetHeatBBQnSC said:
Question for y'all. I have been reading the pellet thread and have seen everyone talking about having to clean by vacuuming out ash. This sounds like a lot of work.
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Its not ideal, but its not terrible. The only thing that makes it bad is having to handle the often dirty/greasy heat deflector. But once that is out its a quick vacuum then done.

Like my previous reply, my biggest gripe about pellet cookers is cleaning. All the convenience of easy cooking is almost overshadowed by having to deep clean it fairly often. I like keeping my cookers tip top, so maybe I'm a little picky on the matter.
 
tenpenny_05 said:
Its not ideal, but its not terrible. The only thing that makes it bad is having to handle the often dirty/greasy heat deflector. But once that is out its a quick vacuum then done.

Like my previous reply, my biggest gripe about pellet cookers is cleaning. All the convenience of easy cooking is almost overshadowed by having to deep clean it fairly often. I like keeping my cookers tip top, so maybe I'm a little picky on the matter.
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So do you think the smokefire will be easier to clean than current pellet grills? Which pellet grills now are the easiest to clean?
 
SweetHeatBBQnSC said:
So do you think the smokefire will be easier to clean than current pellet grills? Which pellet grills now are the easiest to clean?
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I know the question wasn’t addressed to me, but I’ll offer my 2 cents anyway... lol. There is no such thing as a self-cleaning pellet grill. They all require a bit of effort to keep tidy inside. If your definition of clean is shiny metal, a pellet grill will drive you bonkers. If a good quick scrape down and dumping of ashes is good, then I think you’ll be fine once you get a cleaning rhythm down. For me, one of the things I love about MAK is how easily things break down and also that the fire pot is removable (remove/dump/replace). Any pellet grill that doesn’t require a shop vac is a plus IMO :)

Regarding the Weber Smokefire, I look at it much like the Genesis I used to have. You still need to break things down and give it a good scrape down on a regular basis if you want to keep things working/tasting right... and not have a grease fire.
 
rwalters said:
I know the question wasn’t addressed to me, but I’ll offer my 2 cents anyway... lol. There is no such thing as a self-cleaning pellet grill. They all require a bit of effort to keep tidy inside. If your definition of clean is shiny metal, a pellet grill will drive you bonkers. If a good quick scrape down and dumping of ashes is good, then I think you’ll be fine once you get a cleaning rhythm down. For me, one of the things I love about MAK is how easily things break down and also that the fire pot is removable (remove/dump/replace). Any pellet grill that doesn’t require a shop vac is a plus IMO :)

Regarding the Weber Smokefire, I look at it much like the Genesis I used to have. You still need to break things down and give it a good scrape down on a regular basis if you want to keep things working/tasting right... and not have a grease fire.
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The only grill type that I have ever had that I rarely had to clean was the ceramic kamados. They are pretty much self-cleaning. I loved that about them. That said, there was more I didn’t like so the self-cleaning advantage was kind of overshadowed :(
 
Well you folks have spent more of my money again (or actually Weber gets most of the credit).

Order placed today on the EX6 :-D. Guy said shipping 1st week of Feb and they'll call to confirm the actual shipping date/arrival which is nice to make sure I'll know when to be home and have my squirrels/pig heads/cow head/whole donkey ready to throw on and season it with :icon_blush:
 
Jason TQ said:
Well you folks have spent more of my money again (or actually Weber gets most of the credit).

Order placed today on the EX6 :-D. Guy said shipping 1st week of Feb and they'll call to confirm the actual shipping date/arrival which is nice to make sure I'll know when to be home and have my squirrels/pig heads/cow head/whole donkey ready to throw on and season it with :icon_blush:
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Many of us have the “sickness”... but you my friend should seriously be in the intensive care unit with a whole-lotta tubes coming and going from you... lol [emoji15][emoji12]

What I meant to say was CONGRATS and can’t wait to see and hear more from you [emoji1306]
 
Just a heads up to everybody looking at pre-ordering a smokefire. If you get on bbqguys.com and talk to one of their chat representatives they will likely hook you up with a package deal if you ask for it. I asked for a quote on a smokefire with a cover and two bags of pellets and they changed the price to make the cover and pellets free.
 
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