New Searwood pic.


 
He is obviously someone who carts his grills in and out of the garage (as I do with my MM). I got a feeling he's gonna get REAL tired of picking up one side just to move it around. Heck even with my MM, I am VERY interested in doing a mod to get rid of the 2 "cart" wheels and add 2 more casters.
OTOH, because the Searwood looks like it will follow simpler and more conventional design parameters he will love that.
 
Todd K Wisc said:
In the middle of this video he talks about some of the things weber is saying about the searwood.

and part 3, where they are swapping out the SF for the SW:
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I watched a few of his videos. He had a tough time of it with his Smokefire. He definitely applauds Weber's customer service thus far. In his prior videos he was debating whether to just accept a refund and buy a more expensive Yoder but ultimately agreed to accept a new Searwood from Weber. He indicated that in his discussions with Weber CS, that they have listened to customer complaints and have addressed all issues with the Smokefire with the Searwood. Will be interesting to hear his impressions of the Searwood once he lives with it a bit.
 
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Bruno said:
amazingribs.com

Weber Searwood 600 Pellet Grill Reviewed

Weber's Searwood pellet grills look a lot more like other pellet smokers than its previous Smokefire model. Will they still produce the excellent results of their predecessors while eliminating their problems? Here's what we know.
amazingribs.com
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Not nearly as detailed as I had hoped to see. Too much time talking about SmokeFire, and not enough on the workings of the SearWood
 
LMichaels said:
Not nearly as detailed as I had hoped to see. Too much time talking about SmokeFire, and not enough on the workings of the SearWood
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Most of it was specs and features. I'd like to know how it performs. I just bought a Sear+ last June, but the mere option of a roti has me thinking about upgrading. (after I have a yard sale to scrape up the cash and beg the wife for permission).
 
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Honestly I've never found myself "wanting" for a rotisserie on my pellet grills. Thanks to fan forced air all around I think they cook just fine. But if you "bite" would sure like to see what you get out of it
 
Am I mistaken though or are they still trying to mix ash with grease? To me, this is one of the major failings of the SF design. Without meticulous maint., it seems like it could be (note not "will be") a potential fire disaster
 
LMichaels said:
Am I mistaken though or are they still trying to mix ash with grease? To me, this is one of the major failings of the SF design. Without meticulous maint., it seems like it could be (note not "will be") a potential fire disaster
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If your goal is to have an "open" firebox designed pellet grill, then I think that this is the necessary evil that comes with it. The SmokeFire went all out using Weber's classic flavorizer bars. This made for multiple places for smoke to come up but also for hot grease to pour down below. Looks to me like they tried to tone this down on the new Searwood by making a single, "fat" flavorizer bar that runs horizontally. Still leaves more open space for the smoke from the firepot to reach your food, than a typical grill (+ they put in some vent holes). The sloped sides channel the grease now to the front and back rather than all over. It still runs down below, though, just differently.

A "regular" pellet grill (like my Recteq RT-700) has a flat shield that channels all the grease to a drain of some sort at one end of the grill. Virtually all the grease is dealt with above while the ash almost all stays below. The downside is that smoke rises up only along the narrow gaps on either side of the shield. Opening things up should allow for more smoke penetration/dispersal, but it makes separation of grease and ash seemingly impossible, although I am hardly an engineer.

I think Weber is counting on users to regularly clean the accessible large pull-out tray (similar to their gas grills). This seems to be the solution they settled on to keep as much of the SmokeFire's open concept - and its great results we have seen here - at least when it is working. I think if you do this every cook on the new Searwood, you would probably be fine. I have to at least hope that Weber has tested this aspect much more thoroughly than it seems they did with the SmokeFire. However, lazy owners who allow junk to accumulate in that tray without cleaning it, I think are highly likely to create a towering inferno sooner, or later!
 
I had a Recteq 680 prior to the SF and yes it kept the drippings and ash separate due to the large drip shield. However there was zero chance of any direct heat and less smoke flavor IMO. I also hated the dumb grease bucket hanging off the side.
I've owned the SF about 5 months now and I don't find cleanup all that difficult. I use a drip pan for pork butts, ribs and briskets which likely solves a lot of the ash mixing with the grease and becoming a mess. I actually prefer scraping the ash into the grease drains at the bottom vs using a shop vac like I had to with the Recteq. The grease tray in the Searwood looks like an improvement over the SF but I'm not quite sold on the large flavorizer bar. We'll see.
 
Not all conventional pellet grills have the dumb grease bucket. I personally made it a point in my hunt to avoid that thing in addition to the stack (another point I really dislike). I also think the more barrel shaped oven chamber no stack and no bucket, contribute to the fact I get plenty of "smoke". Yeah I don't get open flames but honestly don't miss that.
I'm still finding the Searwood intriguing (in concept). Still looking forward to seeing more actual in depth reviews on it
 
The pull out tray is appealing because I would probably clean it after every cook. One of my gripes with the SmokeFire is the constant ash build up on the bottom panel with the slide out ash/grease drawer. Hopefully with the SW that has been corrected, otherwise the bottom shelf between the legs is going to be a mess after a cooking.

After looking at this picture again, I'm not so sure they solved the issue. Looks like some ash under the drip pan. Another thing, if I were to cook something with out a drip tray, like burgers I would only use the left side of the SW, near the opening for the grease to go into the pan. On the SmokeFire there is one on each side of the fire pot so both sides are good to go.

Overall, I would not be overly concerned with a grease fire because I never allow my grills to build up enough crude to catch fire. YMMV.


weber-searwood-ash-tray.jpg
 
Bob Erdman said:
The pull out tray is appealing because I would probably clean it after every cook. One of my gripes with the SmokeFire is the constant ash build up on the bottom panel with the slide out ash/grease drawer. Hopefully with the SW that has been corrected, otherwise the bottom shelf between the legs is going to be a mess after a cooking.

After looking at this picture again, I'm not so sure they solved the issue. Looks like some ash under the drip pan. Another thing, if I were to cook something with out a drip tray, like burgers I would only use the left side of the SW, near the opening for the grease to go into the pan. On the SmokeFire there is one on each side of the fire pot so both sides are good to go.

Overall, I would not be overly concerned with a grease fire because I never allow my grills to build up enough crude to catch fire. YMMV.


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Agreed. They basically have made it easier to clean but I can't see how the grease it going to end up in the drain. It's going to mingle with the ash. As you said I just don't let the grease drip and build up. Drip pans are key with long cooks.
 
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