Burn in on New SmokeFire. Grill Lies? Not a great start


 
That makes more sense with the foil pan. I was just coming to terms with having 3 grills. The Q320 for quick stuff as burgers, dogs steaks. The Kettle mainly for rotisserie, and the WSM for long cooks. This has to replace something... doesn't it? I don't think it could replace my Q on the screened in porch because of all the ash that comes out of the beast. It can't replace the kettle because no rotisserie. And I am just starting my adventure with the WSM, I even got a deal on a Pitmaster IQ110 yesterday I could not pass up;-)
 
Joe Anshien said:
That is a very interesting relationship with a grill. If I had your experience I would not have as positive outlook as yourself. It is funny, but even though I am a gadget guy, I like things that simplify my life and work as expected. As I get older I was hoping to reduce the amount of toys. There seems to be a lot of things with a Smokefire that can go wrong, and which the end user has no control over, such as firmware. I will give it more time and tests but I do get frustrated and don't have the option of returning it. I don't think I would even sell it if I can't get it to work. That means that I would have to register it with Weber, and work with them to get it to work, then sell it cheap, because no transferable warranty. I doubt it would come to that, as there are many people out there like you and Lew that are unwavering fans of this grill, even though you have put up with so much and are so helpful. I am starting to wonder if you guys are that impressed with the food it puts out when it works, just masochists, or a combination.
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The only thing that gives me confidence they'll get it all nailed down is that from the end of June until sometime in the fall when the firmware update and redesigned iOS apps came out (I think it was mid October), the grill ran flawlessly. So, I think they'll eventually get it back to that. I guess I just consider it like the pendulum effect since Weber is new to the software side of the grilling world. They're still taking big swings at little things. The swings will eventually get reeled in.

My take is they were trying to fix a few minor inconveniences experienced be a minority of users under various circumstances. What they did was create bigger inconveniences experienced by a larger number of users, at least from what I've seen personally and read. The grill still always functioned. I just ran into major temp swings that I didn't see previously, no app notification functionality for months requiring me to use a 3rd party thermometer, very inconsistent start times and adjustment times. Things like going from 225-450 would start immediately and take 5-10 minutes one day, then a few days later the same adjustment would wait 5-10 minutes to start and take over 20 minutes total. It was making it hard to plan out the rest of a meal and have a predictable dinner time. I never used Smoke Boost as I never saw the need, but read numerous reports of flameouts from users using Smoke Boost after the fall update. None of these things occurred for me between like June 28th and October 15th, but plagued me after that...that's why I'm confident they can get it back and why I think they've taken so long to push another update, not wanting to create so much dissatisfaction with another firmware push.
 
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Joe Anshien said:
That makes more sense with the foil pan. I was just coming to terms with having 3 grills. The Q320 for quick stuff as burgers, dogs steaks. The Kettle mainly for rotisserie, and the WSM for long cooks. This has to replace something... doesn't it? I don't think it could replace my Q on the screened in porch because of all the ash that comes out of the beast. It can't replace the kettle because no rotisserie. And I am just starting my adventure with the WSM, I even got a deal on a Pitmaster IQ110 yesterday I could not pass up;-)
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You get to make a strategic business decision. Keeping all of them and learning them broadens your flipping opportunities. Just a thought.
 
OK - Today went much better. I emptied the hopper (decided I am not crazy about pellets as they are small and fall all over the place). I removed the wire finger protector or whatever it is. I loaded it back with pellets (again they get every where). I reset the grill (when chose save my data nothing happened) so I just wiped it. I set it for 600 and when it got there I set the timer for 40 minutes.
Can kicked to high at 80.
5 min hit 200
10 minutes 600
Everything worked fine.
I set it for 225 and went and got my corned beef ready and put it on the grill.
I set it for smoke boost ( I wanted to try it for 30 minutes)
Set at smoke boost the grill does not give you the temperature, so I hooked up a couple of external ones.
I think smoke boost is some where 160 to 180.
I still don't trust the temperature on the grill. It seems that it just moves the temperature to what you set it for, not what the grill is actually at.
My other thermometers read as much as 30 degrees lower than the Smokefire. I would then raise the the grill temp and in less than 10 seconds it jump to the new temperature, when the other thermometers said no way. Very seldom during the 4 hour cook did the thermometers come close to each other. It seemed they did when I did large temperature swings. Since I set the grill at 225 and my thermometers were all reading about 200 I upped the grill to 240 and they all became close for a while.
Do you feel that the grill gives accurate temps?
On the plus side the probe that came with the grill which was inserted into the corned beef matched very closely to my external probe in the meat.
I am not really a stickler for temps but I do think it should be accurate to about 15 degrees.
I pulled the corned beef off after 4 hours at a temp of 155 and will finish it tomorrow in the Instant Pot with vegetables like I did last time with the WSM.
The funny thing is that my wife and I tried a little piece and we both said it tasted like ham! (very weird)
She also noticed that the meat did not smell much. When I took the last corned beef off the WSM, you could really smell the meat!
So at least I don't hate it any more but I am not sold on it either. I will keep cooking and give it a chance.
 
Joe, the grill probe feeds through the PID controller and there's a smoothing function which I think delays temp readings on the screen. I use an ambient probe in the grill which covers you when using smokeboost and gives you a more accurate reading in the grill. That temp readout on the controller needs work. Was your corned beef saltier than when you cooked it other ways? Corned beef, in my opinion, is better cooked in a water environment because of the salt content. The braising affects the taste.
 
Lew Newby said:
Joe, the grill probe feeds through the PID controller and there's a smoothing function which I think delays temp readings on the screen. I use an ambient probe in the grill which covers you when using smokeboost and gives you a more accurate reading in the grill. That temp readout on the controller needs work. Was your corned beef saltier than when you cooked it other ways? Corned beef, in my opinion, is better cooked in a water environment because of the salt content. The braising affects the taste.
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The last one I cooked was the best ever. I smoked it at around 225 on the WSM for a little over 4 hours. Then into the Instant Pot on the rack with water up to the bottom for 30 minutes on high pressure. Quick release, add carrots, potato, cabbage, and another 10 minutes. Quick release and done. Smokey, tender, and fantastic.
I don't care for that "smoothing" I would prefer real readings. When you use an ambient probe, is it a Weber one for the Smoke Fire, or a different system? Did you purchase extra probes? If so which ones? The meat probe that came with it seems quite good and accurate.
How do you find the smoke from the pellets vs the smoke from charcoal? Seems much different to me. As this is my first pellet grill I am still in learning / comparing mode.
 
Joe Anshien said:
The last one I cooked was the best ever. I smoked it at around 225 on the WSM for a little over 4 hours. Then into the Instant Pot on the rack with water up to the bottom for 30 minutes on high pressure. Quick release, add carrots, potato, cabbage, and another 10 minutes. Quick release and done. Smokey, tender, and fantastic.
I don't care for that "smoothing" I would prefer real readings. When you use an ambient probe, is it a Weber one for the Smoke Fire, or a different system? Did you purchase extra probes? If so which ones? The meat probe that came with it seems quite good and accurate.
How do you find the smoke from the pellets vs the smoke from charcoal? Seems much different to me. As this is my first pellet grill I am still in learning / comparing mode.
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Unfortunately that smoothing function was in my Rec Tec also. My grill came with one meat probe. I bought a pit probe and 2 more meat probes. I'm pleased with them. Recently I had the chance to buy an Inkbird BBQ-4T with 4 meat probes. BTW, you can use a meat probe as an ambient probe in the SF. The only difference in them is the shape. When Weber connect gets a graphing function I'll give the Inkbird to a grandson. The smoke flavor is different but my family prefers it to when I used charcoal. The SF gives a smoother smoke flavor in my opinion. It's not quite like the difference in taste of my uncles "cough medicine" that he made "out back" verses Jack Daniels but you get my drift.
 
For what it's worth my basic camp chef has a built in pit probe which reads on the control panel. It reads very much the same as the temperature setting +/- a couple degrees. I use my smoke to remotely monitor the pit temp and meat temp. The smoke shows about 20 degrees hotter than the control panel and that's with the smoke probe within an inch of the CC probe. The meat probes on the smoke read exactly the same as my thermapen. The CC controller must have a smoothing function because the smoke will change temps much faster than the cc controller when the grill drops more pellets.
I guess I should go out and watch the two pit temps to see if the cc temp catches up to the smoke temp at any time.
 
Rich Dahl said:
For what it's worth my basic camp chef has a built in pit probe which reads on the control panel. It reads very much the same as the temperature setting +/- a couple degrees. I use my smoke to remotely monitor the pit temp and meat temp. The smoke shows about 20 degrees hotter than the control panel and that's with the smoke probe within an inch of the CC probe. The meat probes on the smoke read exactly the same as my thermapen. The CC controller must have a smoothing function because the smoke will change temps much faster than the cc controller when the grill drops more pellets.
I guess I should go out and watch the two pit temps to see if the cc temp catches up to the smoke temp at any time.
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Thanks Rich, I put the Rec Tec controller in my Cam Chef so I couldn't say that all PID controllers on pellet grills have that function but I sure suspect that they do.
 
Wow, this is a somewhat sad and frustrated thread! But thanks for sharing the various thoughts.

I've only read some reviews about the Smokefire, but they had me really excited. But none of them had real life cook experience -- just raves about what "should be". Last year I sold my now seldom used WSM to a good friend (who loves it!). I was planning to also sell my 10-year- old Genesis (with its simple customizations for my usage) and getting a Smokefire. You folks have given me a total rethink and I certainly would not do that until there are much better and consistently good reports. The only reason I didn't straight out sell the Genesis is because I love it so much and can easily make it jump through hoops (you should SEE that!). You have made me happy that my appreciation for a great grill held me back. I'm doing a high heat brisket on it right now and truly am very much enjoying the simple and non-stressed cook.

Good luck to you all -- I'll be following your Smokefire adventures.
 
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