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What brand of hickory did you use? Unless it was CookinPellets or the Lumberjack specifically marked 100% Hickory it was most likely about 25% Hickory, the rest oak or alder. You have to look at Lumberjack carefully as they also do a blend hickory, 60 oak/40 hickory. Traeger is like 80/20 and a...

I like CookinPellets 100% Hickory, however I would not recommend that for a SmokeFire for two reasons. Yes, you don’t have to use Weber pellets, I agree, but the SmokeFire does seem to feed less reliably on the pellets from the companies that the use the larger diameter dies. The SmokeFire can...

Lew, I apologize that my intent must have come across wrong. I sometimes focus too much on the whole idea it should just work for anyone. However, to those that have a SmokeFire already, you are right, this mod is an ingenious idea and it would be cool if someone improved it. Somewhere a balance...

I’ve tried 10 different models of pellet grills and only have had one feed problem outside the SmokeFire and that was a Traeger Junior that stopped feeding when down to the last pound or two of pellets, which was kind of frustrating because the hopper only held 10-12 pounds of pellets to start...

Lew, that’s a very ingenious solution he came up with, Though, why should anyone that buys a $1000-1200 product have to make any modifications to it in regards to basic functionality? A pellet grill should feed pellets properly out of the box, it’s expected included functionality. I would also...

Food grade silicone spray.

The condensation is a common thing and will come and go. Guessing they won’t replace the thermometer unless it’s broken. Hope they get you taken care of on the grate though.

I previously owned 2 SmokeFires and burned close to or over 1000 lbs of pellets through them. My experience was it is at least a little picky about pellets. You don’t have to use Weber pellets, but some brands will not work near as well in the SmokeFire that work fine on every other pellet grill...

If you do cover grills, those chimneys are a pain. I‘ve had 3 Traegers and 2 SmokeFires and have neither anymore. Traegers are just fine, but there’s a lot better bang for the buck out there in CampChef, Recteq, Grilla, etc. I didn’t dump Traeger because they were junk, just wanted different...

M-Grills M1, MAK 1 Star, Weber Genesis SX-335. I love my WSCG, but would like to be able to sling logs every now and then. I like my 2 Star, but would like a smaller footprint if I had a M1.

There are already numerous products that can do the same thing in Heatermeter, Fireboard, BBQ Guru, Thermoworks Signlas, etc. The difference with those even though they might cost a little more is they can be used with other grills and smokers too. This is a kettle only device it appears, so...

I just discovered the Dawn Powerwash stuff, haven’t tried it on grates yet, but plan to soon. It’s done wonders on everything I’ve tried so far. Spray it on, let it sit a while, rinse it off.

I bought a cheap portable charcoal grill after we were first married and living in an apartment (mid 90’s), It was poorly designed and hard to keep enough airflow to keep coals hot. A couple years later I got a Thermos brand gasser and used it a lot, after replacing parts a couple times in just...

One point on the decade comment made in the OP. MAK grills have a limited lifetime warranty. They design their grills to last and warranty them accordingly. They also generally offer retrofit upgrades. Meaning unlike Traeger, Weber, Recteq that just introduce new models with new features, MAK...

If you are considering the Timberline and Beale Street, IMO you should forget those and look at the MAK 1 Star, Yoder, Cookshack, or Smokin Bros. Memphis is all made overseas now and their quality is not the same. The ones I listed are all American made pits. They are constructed of much higher...

I think most pellet grills are time based like 5-10 mins at the start. I am not disagreeing that your issue was the glow plug at all, just pointing out that once pit is really going, the glow plug should be off for rest of time. Flameouts an hour later should be another issue. Some grills do...

Nice on the fly fix. A bad glow plug ground shouldn‘t cause flameouts though. Once the pit is burning, they usually cut power to the glow plug/igniter. It could cause failures to start for sure though.

It was not meant to be a rant, hope it didn’t come across that way. Just try to point out that it seems like a rookie engineer got the hopper design task. Outside of software, a lot of the issues users have and I think all of the hardware updates have been related to the hopper.

They could have taken the idea from Memphis grills, Smokin Bros, MAKs 3 and 4 star models, etc. If you get an auger jam, the short auger is much nicer, but other than that my experience hasn’t shown that it provides any cooking benefit. For most users, jams should be extremely rare to never if...

LOL, Joe. I spilled more pellets with the SmokeFire than any other pellet grill. I don’t care for that hopper design.