Dave's Smokefire EX6 Experiences


 
Interesting on the divider. I may have put it in too low. But it's about to get interesting!

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With that said, zero pellet feed issues up until this point. No bridging at all. No odd drops in temps. I've not had that happen after running the smoker for over two hours above 300 degrees before. I'm curious what's about to happen though.

The chicken is looking pretty good too:

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I am still impressed with the smoke output of this pellet grill at higher temps. If they can fix these other issues and maintain that, it will give this cooker an edge. There's not one pellet smoker I've owned that will roll clean smoke like this at 350 degrees. Heck once you get to around 250 degrees, it would drastically drop off.
 
Ashmaster 6000, no kidding, I’m trying to talk myself into keeping it, not sure how comfortable I am with the ash everywhere. Going to check out my buddy’s traeger soon and I may just go that route, he got it at Costco and obviously they have a nice return policy.
Funny note, I just bought my Smoke from thermoworks and was mad I wasted the money, with the Weber smart hub about to make make its debut, I was torn , but no the smoke is a great reference tool.
 
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Chicken finished up, so I decided to eat before posting.

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The chicken was great. Extremely moist. Juice was pouring out of this thing. The flavor was really good with a nice smokiness. The EX6 ran good for the cook but at the end I pulled out the hopper divider. I wanted to see what would happen. I leveled out the pellets and left it running at 375 degrees. About 40 minutes later, the temp started to drop. I went outside and opened the hopper. Everything looked ok until I tapped on it and then the pellets fell down into the auger feed tube. I'm going to remove the pellets tomorrow and take another look at that area. It's poorly designed in my opinion with all of the odd angles and ledges.

So with the divider in, the EX6 ran good for well over two hours. With it out, it crapped out within an hour.
 
DWambolt said:
The slope is pretty minimal. On most pellet grills, you can run them on a downhill slope because they normally drain to one side. On the Smokefire, you can't do this. It needs to be leveled pretty well. I'll get some better shots this weekend when I tear the thing apart.

I could CNC plasma cut a piece of light gauge stainless to create a better slope towards the center to promote more aggressive grease drainage. I don't really want to though, but I do have the capability in my home shop. lol
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Gotta love this guy.
Hey I got an idea. Just while you are there cutting this piece. Just spend a few moments designing and shaping a few things and lets test it out. Call it the stovebolt. Yeah thats it. All stainless fully encloses no draft issues, no loose embers, no app flaps, just a brisket machine.
I'M IN
 
BFletcher said:
I wonder how many Weber ME's are reviewing Dave's mods and thinking "well heck!"
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Dave, you're channeling the spirit of Weber engineer extraordinaire Erich Schlosser. He was known for cobbling together solutions that really worked!

www.weber.com

Class Of´85: The Creators Of The Genesis | Behind the Grill | Weber Grills

THIS YEAR MARKS 30 YEARS SINCE WEBER LAUNCHED GENESIS – the gas grill which revolutionized barbecuing like the kettle grill did 33 years earlier.
www.weber.com www.weber.com
 
DWambolt said:
Chicken finished up, so I decided to eat before posting.

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20200220204615-9508174a-me.jpg

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The chicken was great. Extremely moist. Juice was pouring out of this thing. The flavor was really good with a nice smokiness. The EX6 ran good for the cook but at the end I pulled out the hopper divider. I wanted to see what would happen. I leveled out the pellets and left it running at 375 degrees. About 40 minutes later, the temp started to drop. I went outside and opened the hopper. Everything looked ok until I tapped on it and then the pellets fell down into the auger feed tube. I'm going to remove the pellets tomorrow and take another look at that area. It's poorly designed in my opinion with all of the odd angles and ledges.

So with the divider in, the EX6 ran good for well over two hours. With it out, it crapped out within an hour.
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I mentioned before, but I thought the divider in my Rec Tec was to allow you to mix two pellet types. It seems more likely that it is there for sound engineering reasons. At least that would be an easy fix for Weber to implement, although I think an entirely new hopper is what is needed.
 
The divider is looking pretty promising. Out of curiosity, is the pellet pile maintaining its shape on the long side of the hopper as the pellets drop? Or does it form a cavity at the divide but still let pellets through?

If this works and Weber sees this, Weber should Pay the Man!

Now, I'm waiting to see the grease management solution where you've analyzed what percentage of ash needs to be eliminated to prevent formation of the ash + grease slurry & then created some weird metal fin structure to reroute the air flow preventing ash from landing on the cooker bottom. :)
 
I'll keep messing around with the divider to see if I can make it work correctly.

I also ordered up some stainless filter mesh and stainless screen to see if I can reduce the amount of dash and embers. Project Ashtray has commenced.
 
Your cracking me up.

I wonder if Weber actually looks at any of the returns that come back to them. I imagine they do so that like others they can put them out as refurbished, but I really don't know. Anyway, could you imagine if you returned yours with everything you've done and they actually got to taking a good look at it,:D:LOL::ROFLMAO:🤯.
 
Lol. I think I can undo most everything except for the probe port. I kind of wish I would have waited on that, but such is life. I doubt the girl at the Lowe's return counter would be all that critical of it.
 
Jason in CA said:
Now I'm looking forward to how you re-engineer the Camp Chef. :cool::unsure:
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I hope I don't have to. Most pellet smokers I've bought I've done nothing to them except use them. The only one I really tweaked on was a GMG, but they were fun to work with. I pseudo beta-tested their WIFI controller before anyone had WIFI support back in the day. They sent me so many free parts and upgrades, it was pretty fun actually.
 
DWambolt said:
So I did something crazy. I just ordered a Camp Chef Woodwind 36 WIFI, Cover, Sidekick Accessory and the 36" Front Shelf. I figured it would be nice to have a pellet cooker I can cook on while screwing around with the Ashfire.
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I hope you like your Camp Chef Dave, I sure like my new one. Been faultless so far.
 
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