I love Weber grills. I have 40 years of experience with them. I couldn't say a bad word about them... until now. My wife bought me the Gen 2 Smokefire. Just put it together yesterday and attempted to season it today. On the first attempt, the grill made it to 400F, then smoke started to pour out of the pellet hopper. I poked around the pellets in the hopper and a bunch of them dropped down into the auger feed. Then, the temperature started to drop, and eventually, the grill went into automatic shut-down because the fire went out. I let the unit cool down, cleaned out the firepot, and tried again. On the second attempt, the grill only went up to about 200F and went into shut-down mode. I let it cool down until the app told me it was OK to power off. I then took everything out of the cooking pot, thoroughly cleaned the burn pot, emptied the pellet hopper, blew out the auger tube with compressed air, vacuumed out all of the ash, and unburned pellets from the bottom of the cooking pot and the grease tray and then made my third attempt at seasoning the grill. Third attempt...ditto second attempt. At this point, I just allowed the unit to cool, powered down, unplugged, and covered to protect from expected showers. I don't want to deal with this thing anymore. I'm calling Weber on Monday morning and looking into returning this poor excuse for a grill for a refund. I'll base my future opinion of Weber on how they deal with this. I don't want to hate on Weber. I have a 12-year-old Weber Spirit gas grill that still operates and cooks perfectly. I've replaced parts here and there over the years, but that's to be expected because I use it a lot. I have a WSM I bought used from a neighbor. It heats up quickly and once you get the air vents adjusted, it holds temperature rock solid and smokes to perfection. I've literally taken Weber grills out of the trash and used them for years with no issues. Everybody fucks up. I'm cool with that, but I'm counting on Weber to do the right thing... We shall see.
try using a drip pan, and also cleaning the grill once and a while helps you caused this grease fire by cranking up the heat . any pit would of had a grease fire doing thaty
I like your short videos. The chicken looks good. I'm glad the WSF is working for you. FYI, you checked the temperature of the leg, but you said thigh. You really need to locate the thigh (wider part connected to the body) when checking the temperature to be safe.
No problems, other than a controller it's running all stock parts. I'm happy with my purchase. But if you ever did have a problem, weber's customer service is amazing.
Yeah...BabyBackManiac is definitely all user error. They seem to work great as a grill, it's the smoker part that is in question for many right now. He went to the Weber preview in Chicago last year and just returned his SmokeFire after smoking issues.
@@CookingJoeFoods Yes you are correct, that part should have been behind the auger.......Had absolutely nothing to do with the ash that bridged up the grease drain causing a pond of pork fat to catch on fire..
Again you have to put drip trays in it. Its not a traditional pellet smoker they are designed differnt and must have a drip tray under a long cook. its in the manual
To be clear - Weber's owner's manual is referring to the disposable drip pan that is in the ash/grease collection bin. That is there regardless of whether you're doing a long cook or a quick grill. It's just like the foil bucket liners you put in the grease catch buckets on other pellet smokers. Just to avoid confusion between that and actually setting a drip pan somewhere else in the smoker just to catch grease from a long smoke.
Weber's problem is a couple of things.... 1...Fan speed is too high. It blows ash into the bottom of the pit around the fire pot. Watch Baby Back Maniac's butt cook video....You have ash everywhere during the cook. 2... They designed it to channel the grease towards the firepot to drop into the tray. The problem with these 2 scenarios is that on a long cook the grease mixes with the ash and cannot leave the pit hense the pooling of the grease and then...."boom" grease fire.
@@CookingJoeFoods It's like this Joe. Pause your video "Weber SmokeFire EX4: What you should do after the burn and before cooking" at 1:25. You will see exactly what I am talking about. Lets say you are cooking 3 butts at 250*...Its gonna take you at least 10 to 12 hours. You think that much ash (which is not supposed to be there) and grease that channels TOWARDS the fire pot. The grease mixes with the ash and forms a sludge that blocks the opening to the grease tray. then you get the hot ash flying around and poof there is your fire. I have had a RecTec for years and I know a lot about pellet grills. Trust me when this came I was pumped because it was a Weber. Now...In my opinion it needs to be taken back to the drawing board. I am not even starting on how the pellets feed. Watch Baby Back Maniac's video and you can see it firsthand. With all that being said I hope it works out for you sir.
@@CookingJoeFoods th-cam.com/video/tGsXw-dvsd4/w-d-xo.html On YT video/weber forums theres been several auger problems... th-cam.com/video/tGsXw-dvsd4/w-d-xo.html
Joe, you have a defective grill. So send me a PM and I will send you my address so you can ship it to me. Oh and you have to pay for shipping. Great video looks like most issues are on the big units and most can be user error.
Wrong. This is a high temp flare up that I have seen on any gas grill....or charcoal grill for that matter. High heat grilling plus grease dripping plus lid open = flare up. Which, in many cases, is wanted so that you can develop a seared crust. It’s the low and slow grease fire after 10 hours of smoking fatty meat that is the issue. Which is easily remedied with a drip pan. So either buy a smoker with a drip pan or spend $1.50 to add a foil drip pan to this grill. Lol
@@RogerPriceDesigns if it is such a good smoker and so much better, than why didn't Weber include the $1.50 drip pan? Answer = because they designed it poorly and didn't think grease near flames is an issue. Thats like saying a 3 wheeled car is awesome but you have to put on the 4th wheel yourself. Fanboyism covering for a company's failure. Weber SmokeFire sucks. POS, waste of money.
@@dryflymaster so if your hatred for the grill comes down to a foil drip pan, you are a troll. Benefits = better grilling, searing. Cons = no drip pan. I think I’ll take the higher temps and buy a drip pan. But that’s just me.
@@RogerPriceDesigns ok fanboy. Many issues, but the consumer shouldn't have to remedy the designer's failure. If they do, then the product is a failure. Face it, the GreaseFire sucks. You just like it because it says Weber on it and you're a fanboy.
The problem stems from Weber not being a Pellet smoker company and therefore not having the knowledge and expertise in designing an on par product. They need to stick with BBQ grills and not give in to greed and trying to capitalize on the reputation they deservedly earned while manufacturing great BBQ grills. Please make a video returning the Grill back to Lowe's, That would be priceless...
@@CookingJoeFoods No Hate, just facts. They are the best at making BBQ Grills but Smokers are a whole other story. Nothing wrong with expanding your product line but when you don't do the proper product research then your opening yourself up for failure. They were focusing too much on profit and not QC...
@@CookingJoeFoods I've worked in manufacturing for 35 years and I know how it works. Unless they are willing to invest large sums in QC, Marketing it will be difficult to catch up to those who have already been producing a successful proven product way ahead of their curve. Char-Griller got it right the first time because this is what they do and they chose to release the product when it was ready and not for the wrong reason.
You have yet to operate it for a long cook with large meats like a pork butt. You will have grease fire and hopper fees issues. Do that before you say " User error, I followed the instructions, I have pellet grill experience" you are fooling yourself.
We really shouldn’t have to trouble shoot this for Weber. But, it seems pretty obvious to PUT A DRIP PAN under the low and slow cooks. And remove them for the high temp grilling. The advantage to the flavorizer bars on the low and slow is FAR outweighed by the grease fire potential. They need to fix the fan speed. I was all excited, waiting for this grill. Dejected after the first week of TH-cam vids. I am coming back now.
@@CookingJoeFoods I just bought a SmokeFire EX4 and have used it probably 10-12 times now. I did have one grease fire, but I immediately knew why. 13 hour cook, then had the tunneling in the pellets (was not using Weber brand), and when I cleared that the grill went into turbo mode to get back up to temp. Weber customer service was awesome (as they always have been) and are sending me parts. Granted, I'm not a person who sets the smoker and leaves it forever. I enjoy the process of smoking, so I futz with it pretty regularly - checking the pellets, mainly. I came from a Louisiana Grills smoker, and the SmokeFire runs circles around it for the quality of smoking it does. I just need to make sure that I clean it out thoroughly after a long, slow smoke before I crank the temp up to 450 or 500. It's super easy to clean, so I'm not mad about that. I'm still glad I bought it - and the recent software and firmware updates seem to have made a big difference.
I love Weber grills. I have 40 years of experience with them. I couldn't say a bad word about them... until now.
My wife bought me the Gen 2 Smokefire. Just put it together yesterday and attempted to season it today.
On the first attempt, the grill made it to 400F, then smoke started to pour out of the pellet hopper. I poked around the pellets in the hopper and a bunch of them dropped down into the auger feed. Then, the temperature started to drop, and eventually, the grill went into automatic shut-down because the fire went out. I let the unit cool down, cleaned out the firepot, and tried again.
On the second attempt, the grill only went up to about 200F and went into shut-down mode. I let it cool down until the app told me it was OK to power off.
I then took everything out of the cooking pot, thoroughly cleaned the burn pot, emptied the pellet hopper, blew out the auger tube with compressed air, vacuumed out all of the ash, and unburned pellets from the bottom of the cooking pot and the grease tray and then made my third attempt at seasoning the grill.
Third attempt...ditto second attempt. At this point, I just allowed the unit to cool, powered down, unplugged, and covered to protect from expected showers.
I don't want to deal with this thing anymore. I'm calling Weber on Monday morning and looking into returning this poor excuse for a grill for a refund. I'll base my future opinion of Weber on how they deal with this.
I don't want to hate on Weber. I have a 12-year-old Weber Spirit gas grill that still operates and cooks perfectly. I've replaced parts here and there over the years, but that's to be expected because I use it a lot.
I have a WSM I bought used from a neighbor. It heats up quickly and once you get the air vents adjusted, it holds temperature rock solid and smokes to perfection.
I've literally taken Weber grills out of the trash and used them for years with no issues.
Everybody fucks up. I'm cool with that, but I'm counting on Weber to do the right thing... We shall see.
Dang brother, sorry for the late reply I hope that Weberade things right for you. Awful that you've had soo much trouble..
try using a drip pan, and also cleaning the grill once and a while helps you caused this grease fire by cranking up the heat . any pit would of had a grease fire doing thaty
This wasn't a great fire... Just a flareup.
I like your short videos. The chicken looks good. I'm glad the WSF is working for you. FYI, you checked the temperature of the leg, but you said thigh. You really need to locate the thigh (wider part connected to the body) when checking the temperature to be safe.
You're right, sorry. But yes I check three places. Breast, thigh and leg. I can probably do without the leg but eh.
You had any problems with it ? About to pull the trigger on one of these
No problems, other than a controller it's running all stock parts. I'm happy with my purchase. But if you ever did have a problem, weber's customer service is amazing.
When you probe the leg, stick it in the thick part of the thigh. Don’t hit bones.
Yup.
Joe Perez looks really juicy! Looks like you hit the perfect temps.
@@ghostgoat5508 Thank you. 👍
looking good
food and ex4, Me think you got it right with the comment know your grill.
Yeah...BabyBackManiac is definitely all user error. They seem to work great as a grill, it's the smoker part that is in question for many right now.
He went to the Weber preview in Chicago last year and just returned his SmokeFire after smoking issues.
His grill was also incorrectly assembled. Maybe some issues came from that.
Can you please elaborate about the assembly being wrong.?
@@ccrx2640 There's a section that holds the flavorizor bars on the rear of the cooker that's supposed to sit behind the auger not on top.
@@CookingJoeFoods Yes you are correct, that part should have been behind the auger.......Had absolutely nothing to do with the ash that bridged up the grease drain causing a pond of pork fat to catch on fire..
You might be right but don't know for sure. For the sake of this all I'm going to do a low and slow without a drip pan. Look out for that video.
Is the Weber4 cook better due to the smaller size vs the 6?
I can't say for sure as I don't have the EX6 to compare it to.
Again you have to put drip trays in it. Its not a traditional pellet smoker they are designed differnt and must have a drip tray under a long cook. its in the manual
Dude here's no grease fire. It's flare-ups.
To be clear - Weber's owner's manual is referring to the disposable drip pan that is in the ash/grease collection bin. That is there regardless of whether you're doing a long cook or a quick grill. It's just like the foil bucket liners you put in the grease catch buckets on other pellet smokers. Just to avoid confusion between that and actually setting a drip pan somewhere else in the smoker just to catch grease from a long smoke.
I was initially scared off by all the bad reviews, but the truth is its a slow cook smoker. It should not be used to sear.
I appreciate your input, i use it for both. 😊
Great video, next time you do a whole chicken, cook at a constant 350 to 375 to get that crispy skin. Glad your product works as advertised.
I agree, I'm still learning the SmokeFire so I learned what temperature not to put it at this time around. Lol. Thanks for watching. 👍
Weber's problem is a couple of things....
1...Fan speed is too high. It blows ash into the bottom of the pit around the fire pot. Watch Baby Back Maniac's butt cook video....You have ash everywhere during the cook.
2... They designed it to channel the grease towards the firepot to drop into the tray.
The problem with these 2 scenarios is that on a long cook the grease mixes with the ash and cannot leave the pit hense the pooling of the grease and then...."boom" grease fire.
If what you're saying is true it's strange to me that I haven't had any issues.
@@CookingJoeFoods It's like this Joe. Pause your video "Weber SmokeFire EX4: What you should do after the burn and before cooking" at 1:25. You will see exactly what I am talking about. Lets say you are cooking 3 butts at 250*...Its gonna take you at least 10 to 12 hours. You think that much ash (which is not supposed to be there) and grease that channels TOWARDS the fire pot. The grease mixes with the ash and forms a sludge that blocks the opening to the grease tray. then you get the hot ash flying around and poof there is your fire. I have had a RecTec for years and I know a lot about pellet grills. Trust me when this came I was pumped because it was a Weber. Now...In my opinion it needs to be taken back to the drawing board. I am not even starting on how the pellets feed. Watch Baby Back Maniac's video and you can see it firsthand. With all that being said I hope it works out for you sir.
@@Theeightmilebend What you're saying is entirely possible but I'll hold of judgement on that until I have a personal experience.
Wesley 'Moon' Mullins in
@@CookingJoeFoods th-cam.com/video/tGsXw-dvsd4/w-d-xo.html
On YT video/weber forums theres been several auger problems... th-cam.com/video/tGsXw-dvsd4/w-d-xo.html
Joe, you have a defective grill. So send me a PM and I will send you my address so you can ship it to me. Oh and you have to pay for shipping. Great video looks like most issues are on the big units and most can be user error.
You sure it ain't a scam? 😭😭😭
You should at least go half on shipping.
@@bmakel lol
At 6:00 that's not flames. That's a barely controlled grease fire. These smokers are so poorly designed it's painful to watch.
What’s the big problem with grease fires tho? I get that they’re not intended to happen. Just curious as to what’s the big problem.
Wrong. This is a high temp flare up that I have seen on any gas grill....or charcoal grill for that matter. High heat grilling plus grease dripping plus lid open = flare up. Which, in many cases, is wanted so that you can develop a seared crust. It’s the low and slow grease fire after 10 hours of smoking fatty meat that is the issue. Which is easily remedied with a drip pan. So either buy a smoker with a drip pan or spend $1.50 to add a foil drip pan to this grill. Lol
@@RogerPriceDesigns if it is such a good smoker and so much better, than why didn't Weber include the $1.50 drip pan? Answer = because they designed it poorly and didn't think grease near flames is an issue. Thats like saying a 3 wheeled car is awesome but you have to put on the 4th wheel yourself. Fanboyism covering for a company's failure.
Weber SmokeFire sucks. POS, waste of money.
@@dryflymaster so if your hatred for the grill comes down to a foil drip pan, you are a troll. Benefits = better grilling, searing. Cons = no drip pan.
I think I’ll take the higher temps and buy a drip pan. But that’s just me.
@@RogerPriceDesigns ok fanboy.
Many issues, but the consumer shouldn't have to remedy the designer's failure. If they do, then the product is a failure.
Face it, the GreaseFire sucks. You just like it because it says Weber on it and you're a fanboy.
The problem stems from Weber not being a Pellet smoker company and therefore not having the knowledge and expertise in designing an on par product. They need to stick with BBQ grills and not give in to greed and trying to capitalize on the reputation they deservedly earned while manufacturing great BBQ grills. Please make a video returning the Grill back to Lowe's, That would be priceless...
I don't understand the hate... 😂
@@CookingJoeFoods No Hate, just facts. They are the best at making BBQ Grills but Smokers are a whole other story. Nothing wrong with expanding your product line but when you don't do the proper product research then your opening yourself up for failure. They were focusing too much on profit and not QC...
At the time they had really done their research. But like all companies, they started somewhere and are making adjustments along the way.
@@CookingJoeFoods I've worked in manufacturing for 35 years and I know how it works. Unless they are willing to invest large sums in QC, Marketing it will be difficult to catch up to those who have already been producing a successful proven product way ahead of their curve. Char-Griller got it right the first time because this is what they do and they chose to release the product when it was ready and not for the wrong reason.
Elon Musk is not a rocket scientist nor a mechanic but he built SpaceX and Tesla. Weber can sort things out...
You have yet to operate it for a long cook with large meats like a pork butt. You will have grease fire and hopper fees issues. Do that before you say " User error, I followed the instructions, I have pellet grill experience" you are fooling yourself.
Maybe? You might be right, I purchased large cuts of meat today and going to put it through its paces.
We really shouldn’t have to trouble shoot this for Weber. But, it seems pretty obvious to PUT A DRIP PAN under the low and slow cooks. And remove them for the high temp grilling. The advantage to the flavorizer bars on the low and slow is FAR outweighed by the grease fire potential. They need to fix the fan speed. I was all excited, waiting for this grill. Dejected after the first week of TH-cam vids. I am coming back now.
@@guydavids9402 So far I haven't had any issues. I'm really liking the grill.
@@CookingJoeFoods I just bought a SmokeFire EX4 and have used it probably 10-12 times now. I did have one grease fire, but I immediately knew why. 13 hour cook, then had the tunneling in the pellets (was not using Weber brand), and when I cleared that the grill went into turbo mode to get back up to temp. Weber customer service was awesome (as they always have been) and are sending me parts. Granted, I'm not a person who sets the smoker and leaves it forever. I enjoy the process of smoking, so I futz with it pretty regularly - checking the pellets, mainly. I came from a Louisiana Grills smoker, and the SmokeFire runs circles around it for the quality of smoking it does. I just need to make sure that I clean it out thoroughly after a long, slow smoke before I crank the temp up to 450 or 500. It's super easy to clean, so I'm not mad about that. I'm still glad I bought it - and the recent software and firmware updates seem to have made a big difference.
A grease fire from chicken. LOL
The sarcasm flew over your head. 😂