Weber SmokeFire Pellet Grill Review

Big Weber Original Store Spring opening events coming up in Vienna later this month.
Apart from the season's new Gas grill presentation there are also the usual cooking demos and at center stage the new Weber SmokeFire will be presented / demonstrated in all its glory.


A couple of things that I have noticed.
No charcoal grills are used in the promo pamphlet that came with the post today.

6 x 20x30cm double side colour promo and not one kettle or WSM.
Title page with a Genesis, followed by one page of Genesis models, one page Spirit models, one page SmokeFire, and two pages competitions, promotions, cooking courses, directions, etc.,

The big SmokeFire is retailing for €1,499.- ($1,671US) and the small one €1,199.- ($1,337US)
Big hits in anyone's language.

I wonder if any of the known problems will be addressed by anyone attending ...



I've come to the conclusion that Weber is now a life style product.





:mrgreen:
 
I’ve been a Weber user/fan. I was really hoping this SF was going to be a hit. I was skeptical just because they were coming to market without even having a side shelf. No Front shelf. Ok. I see that as an add on. But no side shelf & a controller that was still in a pretty much beta mode. I see little things possibly needing tweaked in a newer model. That’s normal. But the pellets not sliding down & the grease management system being an issue. Weber should not be selling these at all. Most would respect & give Weber another shot if they had just owned up to it. Call it a supplier error or whatever. I think they’ve probably lost a lot of customers with their whole attitude about this. Their service is usually pretty top notch but I’ve really lost faith in them at this point. Hopefully they take care of everyone involved. All they’ve done is push me into buying another brand’s grill.
 
txsmkmstr said:
I saw that also a week or so ago. Really left me scratching my head. I'm not a pellet guy but I don't get why the caulk was there in the first place. As noted above a very sloppy job - sad.
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I forgot all about the caulk. Maybe not a big deal, but wonder how it will hold up over time, outdoors.
 
Agree. Was interested. But the attitude coming from Weber via their tweets/posts has pretty much ruined the brand for me.
 
WBDubya said:
BTW, the grills were already marked down $200.00
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Meaning the EX4 for $999 and the EX6 for $1199? These are the minimum advertised prices for the grills, the MSRPs are $200 higher, but weber grills always actually sell for MAP. Not sure why they bother listing the higher MSRPs, they aren't fooling anyone.
 
I feel that Weber has really shot themselves in the foot here.

They have a great reputation in the charcoal grill market and someone in leadership decided that wasn’t enough and they attempted this failed foray into modern technology.
This doesn’t come as a big surprise though.

Look at any of their branded tech and it fails miserably. From their igrill to newer gas grills with tech, all done half-assed.

I’m guessing they have partnered with their Chinese affiliates to produce these cheaply and they are tanking their reputation in the process.
 
SirPorkaLot said:
I feel that Weber has really shot themselves in the foot here.

They have a great reputation in the charcoal grill market and someone in leadership decided that wasn’t enough and they attempted this failed foray into modern technology.
This doesn’t come as a big surprise though.

Look at any of their branded tech and it fails miserably. From their igrill to newer gas grills with tech, all done half-assed.

I’m guessing they have partnered with their Chinese affiliates to produce these cheaply and they are tanking their reputation in the process.
Click to expand...


For me, it's more of the same. The original Gen 2 Genesis grills were embarrassing. More expensive, fewer features and didn't get as hot. The revised Gen 2 are better, but still expensive.



10 years ago you bought Weber. Period. Now, not so much across their range.
 
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SirPorkaLot said:
It is as expected.

I’ve always have held a fairly low opinion of Meathead. All he has done is shown that my judgement of him was accurate.
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I always got a bad vibe from him ever since watching this video from their channel

https://youtu.be/7m0WDlohaS4

Kinda felt like she couldn’t stand the dude (or could be the other way around :icon_sh)
 
He lost me at "don't rest your meat".

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
 
mcyork28 said:
He lost me at "don't rest your meat".

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
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I don't know. I've tried a lot of the "myths" he's "busted" and the results have frequently matched with his. Depending on the cut of meat, of course, but I've found it hasn't made a noticeable difference resting my steaks before slicing vs. not resting them.

There's a lot of stuff out there that just isn't true, but still gets repeated, like, "searing seals in the juices". If people find resting their meat makes a big difference, more power to them. It just hasn't for me.
 
rwalters said:
Totally agree with you! Cannot believe the way meathead has handled himself.
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So I haven't paid all that much attention to be honest. But wasn't his main complaint about people questioning the integrity of his site, and not necessarily defending Weber? I can't really fault him there. He may have been a bit abrasive about it and not all that political, but I am fine with that myself. The review they gave the Smokefire wasn't exactly glowing either, and to be fair, a lot of people seem not to be having many of the problems that are floating around out there.
 
alias_rice said:
So I haven't paid all that much attention to be honest. But wasn't his main complaint about people questioning the integrity of his site, and not necessarily defending Weber? I can't really fault him there. He may have been a bit abrasive about it and not all that political, but I am fine with that myself. The review they gave the Smokefire wasn't exactly glowing either, and to be fair, a lot of people seem not to be having many of the problems that are floating around out there.
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Do you have any hard data on the number of people having issues with the new Weber pellet grill? I have seen plenty of folks (that purchased it on the comments made by the folks that Weber invited to their facility for the dog and pony show) that ended up having issues. But I have no data from any others that may or may not have had issues. I can infer from the reactions by Weber proponents (rep and Meathead) that perhaps things have not gone well with the initial roll out.
 
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