Dave's Smokefire EX6 Experiences

[Dave - Unixadm]

Hello,

I'm an avid BBQ guy, owning a whole lot of cooking equipment. From the little Weber Q1200 to a Southern Pride SP1000 trailer mounted rotisserie smoker. I've got lot of stuff in-between, but I enjoy outdoor cooking.

I ordered the Smokefire EX6 from Lowes on December 1st. It arrived to my residence on February 13, 2020. Shipping was delayed, so Lowes included a free bag of Weber pellets and a thank you card. Pretty decent service.

Upon receiving the EX6, I started to put it together and hit a snag. No hardware, so I opened a ticket with Weber. They responded in less than 10 minutes that they'd expedite me a hardware kit, I didn't hear anything from them the following day. Late this afternoon they replied saying they are trying to find a hardware kit to ship....

I took matters into my own hands and picked up the necessary hardware and got it assembled. Fired it up to be hit by a 15-20 minute firmware update that proceeded at a snails pace. Ok, got that taken care of and then I set it to 600. Nada, went through a cycle, thought it was going to light (some smoke) and then it fizzled out. I decide to cut my losses and turn it off after waiting like 20 minutes. Turn it back on only to be met by a "Improper Shutdown" message, which then made me wait like 15 more minutes even though the grill was cool. Waited and then power cycled it. This time it started right up with no issues. Came up to 600 degrees quickly and this thing puts out some serious heat. The fire was really raging inside, so it's definitely a lot different than the other pellet cookers I've had. Closest to it in terms of heat would be my Fast Eddy PG1000 by Cookshack. It has a direct grill option and will get quite hot as well.

Overall, fit and finish is good, assembly was easy and the ergonomics seem good. I'm going to upgrade the grates to stainless and install 5" casters. The app is bad at this point and from a software perspective, a minimum viable product (MVP) release at best. Back to the casters, I got the thread pitch while assembling for those wanting to upgrade.

Caster Thread Pitch: 1/2-13

I ordered a set of four of them off of Amazon which fully lock with a foot pedal for about $50. The stock casters are pretty meh as expected. More to come...

 

[Dan Leighton]

Dave:
Great review and congratulations on overcoming the oops by Weber. I think they should at least give you some accessories or a cover for your grill since it was their bad and you had to shell out of pocket to make their grill right.

 

[Dave - Unixadm]

First cook is on. A few yellow corn on the cobs, wrapped in foil with butter, Killer Hogs rub and some sriracha. For those out here on the West Coast and in the Sacramento area, I've got a Swingles Kona Tri-tip I'm going to smoke to ~135 degrees. If you've never been to Swingles or tried this teriyaki infused try-tip, you are really missing out. I don't think I've ever had a better one in my life. Just so happened my buddy dropped it by my office at work today after making a trip there this morning on his way down the hill. LUCKY ME.

I'm monitoring the cook using a Thermoworks Smoke.

Cooking Temp: 225
Actual Chamber Temp (Lower Grate): ~203ish

One thing I noticed is that Weber is playing a bit of a game with the temp reading shown. It is not a real reflection of the chamber temp, so we'll need to watch it to determine how much of a swing it's allowing.

So far, smoke output at 225 degrees seems ample.

 

[Dave - Unixadm]

Dave:
Great review and congratulations on overcoming the oops by Weber. I think they should at least give you some accessories or a cover for your grill since it was their bad and you had to shell out of pocket to make their grill right.

Thanks. I did buy the 7191 cover already (it's here as well), so I'll see what I can do with them. Perhaps a front shelf, since that would make it much nicer?

 

[Dan Leighton]

I got one for my Camp Chef and it has been a pretty handy addition. I probably should try to rig one up for my Genesis since the left side often is in use with the sideburner and right side has the valves. I don't smoke much so the Genesis is in use probably 4 nights a week.

 

[Reggie G]

First cook is on. A few yellow corn on the cobs, wrapped in foil with butter, Killer Hogs rub and some sriracha. For those out here on the West Coast and in the Sacramento area, I've got a Swingles Kona Tri-tip I'm going to smoke to ~135 degrees. If you've never been to Swingles or tried this teriyaki infused try-tip, you are really missing out. I don't think I've ever had a better one in my life. Just so happened my buddy dropped it by my office at work today after making a trip there this morning on his way down the hill. LUCKY ME.

I'm monitoring the cook using a Thermoworks Smoke.

Cooking Temp: 225
Actual Chamber Temp (Lower Grate): ~203ish

One thing I noticed is that Weber is playing a bit of a game with the temp reading shown. It is not a real reflection of the chamber temp, so we'll need to watch it to determine how much of a swing it's allowing.

So far, smoke output at 225 degrees seems ample.

Swingles TriTip. I live one town over from there. It’s definitely got a cult following but I can’t eat it too damn much marinade for my taste when I eat beef I want to taste beef. Now the marinated chicken we totally get down on and their Lamb kabobs too.

 

[Bruno]

Great info thanks, how’d the tri tip come out? I just did one in my kettle while I wait til the EX6 comes on Monday.

 

[Dave - Unixadm]

Taking a look at temps, at 225 I kept reading a grate temp of around 200. I bumped it to 235 degrees on the controller and it immediately told me it was at temp. I waited a bit and then went and bumped it to 250 degrees, where it again told me it was immediately at temp. Interesting, since the grate temp dropped down to around 190 degrees. Now after a bit it's up to 225 degrees, so it seems to be reading about 25 degrees lower at the grate than the controller is reporting.

 

[Dave - Unixadm]

Swingles TriTip. I live one town over from there. It’s definitely got a cult following but I can’t eat it too damn much marinade for my taste when I eat beef I want to taste beef. Now the marinated chicken we totally get down on and their Lamb kabobs too.

It's new to me since I've not had it much and I love it. lol. If I want beefy, I just smoke a packer. I have not tried their chicken, but I'm gonna now!

 

[Chris Allingham]

If you've never been to Swingles or tried this teriyaki infused try-tip, you are really missing out.

Waaaaay off the beaten path for me, but will have to try to remember to visit if I ever get out to Jackson.

 

[Reggie G]

It's new to me since I've not had it much and I love it. lol. If I want beefy, I just smoke a packer. I have not tried their chicken, but I'm gonna now!

yeah I can see that I’ll eat it once in a great while

We get the chicken thighs get like 4 in a package for $2 or they have chicken kabobs too

they also have some good stuffed chicken breast. Also if you go in there get their spinach artichokeI can’t remember did it’s stuffed rigatoni or a ravioli but they’re great

 

[Dave - Unixadm]

Finished up the cook. To sum it up, the food was great. I pulled the tri-tip off at around 136ish degrees and took it inside to rest. I then thought, wait a minute, this thing is supposed to grill at high heat. I walked outside and kicked it up to 465 degrees and that's where the Smokefire seems to shine. It went from 200ish to over 400ish in very little time. I do want to upgrade the grates to get more heat retention for better searing, but I did a quick sear of 90 seconds per side and then rested the twi-tip again. It was perfect.

So far I'm liking it. I need to do more low and slow smoking to see how it goes. Maybe I'll go grab some baby backs in the morning and throw those on. It does appear at lower temps the grate temp is lower than the set point. I'm pretty sure that with some time, things will get refined via the firmware and app. What impressed me the most is its grilling capability.

Also at higher temperatures, that's when the embers start coming out of the drip/ash tray. It doesn't bother me a ton because I'm on a concrete patio, but it's something to be aware of. I also noticed a fair amount of ash blowing out of the drawer and landing on the black sheetmetal bracket which is installed between the two front legs. When the fan kicks into it's max speed, it's loud and moves some serious air.

 

[Bruno]

Great info. Thanks.

 

[MikeCantell]

Thanks for sharing the cook, will be looking forward to more when you can post them, hope Weber can make it possible to adjust the temp differences on site instead of playing the guessing game, it should be easy to let the owners tune the electronics to match imo.

 

[Rich Dahl]

Thanks for sharing your experience with your new Weber. Although I don't have one I do have a new Camp Chef so reading everyone's first blush with it sort of mirrors some of my experiences so far with mine.
Would love to get one of those Tri Tips, but just a little to far away for me.

 

[Kyle in Woodstock]

DW,
Wow, thanks for sharing. You already seem like a professional at using the new grill. Very cool how you can chart the temps. Much more tech savvy than my old school kettle low and slows.

 

[Bruno]

DW,
Wow, thanks for sharing. You already seem like a professional at using the new grill. Very cool how you can chart the temps. Much more tech savvy than my old school kettle low and slows.

if I’m not mistaken those charts are from his thermoworks smoke.

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

Excellent review, thank you.
Could it be that the onboard thermometer needs calibration if possible?
The feast looks lovely!

 

[Bruce]

Your discrepancy between the grill temp and the actual grate level temp is pretty common on the gas webers...probably even a bigger discrepancy on them.

 

[Chris Allingham]

I wonder if temp difference is just due to location of probe at back of cook chamber vs. on the middle of lower grate. Stick the ThermoWorks Smoke air probe next to the SmokeFire air probe and see if there’s any difference.