Dave's Smokefire EX6 Experiences

[Dave - Unixadm]

I think that will wind up being one of those mandatory mods on any new Smokefire. Post up some links to the wheels and also any instructions or comments regarding installing them. Is a 2 ton jack going to be necessary for the procedure?

You certainly don't need a two ton jack to lift the smoker. You just need something to raise it. An alternative is to remove the innards and pellets, then tip the smoker onto it's end again. Save that big cardboard shipping end-cap to perform this procedure. For those who have not received their smoker, the best bet is to get the casters so you have them for initial assembly.

 

[Dave - Unixadm]

Ribs are at the 4:30 mark. I have to say I'm impressed with the color and the fact they're not burning on the bottom, give that there's no real drip pan. Normally I do the 3-2-1 method, or 30 minutes at 200, 2 hours at 250, wrap with some stuff then another two hours, sauce and set for 15-20 mins. I know they're going to be smokey since the Smokefire puts out a lot of consistent smoke. Even the water in the pan is a deep brown.

 

[Rich Dahl]

Wow ! Spend a grand+ and you have to bend things, get gaskets and new casters, temperature swings, no parts bag.
I had to get casters for my Camp Chef, but so far that's it and it was less than half the cost of the Weber EX4 and came with a flip up front shelf and side shelf.
Yes, I don't have the app to watch from afar but I didn't want it because I won't leave a grill cooking away while I'm away. But to each his/her own.

Tomorrow will be the test after two relatively small cooks a rack of ribs and a high heat steak cook both came out very well.
Tomorrow will be an 8lb. pork shoulder and a bottom round beef roast for sammies. I will report as to how well it went.
Of course we will have to see about the longevity of both.
I would be bouncing off the walls if that had been me with those issues.
I wish you well.
Still I love all my Weber grills, all old slow and out of date and reliable as a brick. Bring back the good old quality days!

 

[Dave - Unixadm]

Wow ! Spend a grand+ and you have to bend things, get gaskets and new casters, temperature swings. I had to get casters for my Camp Chef, but so far that's it and it was less than half the cost of the Weber EX4 and came with a flip up front shelf and side shelf.
Tomorrow will be the test after two relatively small cooks a rack of ribs and a high heat steak cook both came out very well. Tomorrow will be an 8lb. pork shoulder and a bottom round beef roast for sammies. I will report as to how well it went.
Of course we will have to see about the longevity of both.
I would be bouncing off the walls if that had been me with those issues.
I wish you well.
Still I love all my Weber grills, all old slow and out of date and reliable as a brick.

Out of everything I've experienced, the controller issue is the thing that has me the most concerned. I also didn't qualify my comments, but I am a bit OCD about things. What bothers me may not even be noticed by other folks. It's like when I ride in someones car with a squeak or rattle and I'm going nuts. I ask them, what the heck is rattling in your car?!? They say "What rattle"? Nuff said.

Take my feedback and comments with a grain of salt. I'm a perfectionist, a modder and am very picky. I also was realistic that when I bought something straight away, it's likely to have some teething issues. For me it's part of the charm and experience, though when I didn't receive hardware, charm wasn't what was coming out of my mouth. lol! As long as Weber can address the issues, I'll be OK. When I had my Traeger, they basically told me "Thanks for the TWO GRAND, now pound sand". When I asked to get my money back, they said "Thanks again for the TWO GRAND, now really pound sand". I have confident in Weber, but I also deal with product development and technology, so I know it's hard to get something perfect. Developing hardware, manufacturing, and software, then dealing with various climate and customer conditions is no small undertaking. It may seem easy, but I know there are a lot of engineers, quality assurance folks and assembly techs who likely had a lot of late nights readying this release.

 

[Bruno]

Dave I appreciate the input very much, I am a bit of a perfectionist myself, more in the sense that I have no problem paying top dollar for quality, but I expect QUALITY.

I was never really impressed with my WSM, kind of a flimsy deal, even though Weber’s customer service time and again came through for me on that one.

I have to stay positive I’m sitting on 160 pounds of pellets and I’m going to cook the hell out of this thing.
I think I have until March 28th to return it and if it’s just a turd I will roll that bad boy right in to Kohl’s and test out Amazons return policy.

 

[Dave - Unixadm]

Finished up the ribs and they came out GREAT. Best ribs I've ever cooked on a pellet smoker without wrapping. A little dry - might have cooked them just a bit too long. The bottoms had a slight crisp to them, but the flavor and smoke was awesome. i thought the look and color was spot on as well.

 

[Rich Dahl]

Dave,
I understand, your like I am if it ain't perfect I'm going to make it perfect and that has been the big pain in my A@@ all my life. Sometimes you just can't do that.
I'm sure Weber will be there for all those that got the first copies and I'm sure eventually they will get it figured out. I'm also sure their watching yours and all the others inputs.
I'll keep my mouth shut from now on and watch and see how it goes.
Wishing all of you new to Weber pellet grills the best.
Rich

 

[Bruce]

It is not really fair compare "good old reliable" grills to these new ones. The old ones were so much simpler with so much less to go wrong. The closest thing on the old grills to all the electronic controls and displays on these new grills was the introduction of Piezo igniter about 50 years ago.

But, hey, it sure looks like they do a helluva job on a rack of ribs.

 

[Bruno]

It is not really fair compare "good old reliable" grills to these new ones. The old ones were so much simpler with so much less to go wrong. The closest thing on the old grills to all the electronic controls and displays on these new grills was the introduction of Piezo igniter about 50 years ago.

But, hey, it sure looks like they do a helluva job on a rack of ribs.

Oh man Bruce is coming around!
I grew up with a single mom and had no idea what BBQ was, when I started cooking on my Weber’s it wasn’t lost on me that I wanted my boys to think of me when they smelled charcoal burning. I bring them out back all the time to see how it all works.
They are 6 and 8 now and we have to be pretty strict on iPad time and all the tech garbage. Maybe this is just the next step and when they BBQ it will involve good old fashioned wood smoke with a tech twist.
I’d rather have that then they just order grub hub.

 

[Dave - Unixadm]

BACK TO THE MODS - STAINLESS GRATES and NOMEX...

The stainless grates were delivered, along with the Nomex gasket material. The grates I linked earlier fit perfectly. Someone asked about the difference in thickness. I'll list that below, but the thermal mass of these grates is increased over the stock grates.

OEM: .22 in.
Stainless: .26 in.

UPDATE: Do not seal the top of the door at this time. Investigating back pressure and may use a manometer to read static pressure before/after mod. Noticed a slight amount of smoke coming from the hopper. Unsure if it has anything to do with sealing the lid or not.

I also sealed the door with black Nomex material. When I did this, I had to shim the left hinge with two small washers at the top, and one at the next screw hole down. The bottom two screw holes didn't have any washers added. I'm not sure why this was needed, since the right side was perfect, but my door didn't quite fit right on the left side. I also pushed the top of the chamber upwards at the back of the door area to make a better seal with the lid. Overall, I'd say the seal has reduced the smoke coming out of the lid by 80%. One change that I noticed when I fired it back up was that it came up right to around 225 degrees which was the set point and stayed there. With the leaking lid, the temperatures were not that close before, so it could be a fluke or just a result of better heat retention.

I also put a couple of strips of Nomex gasket on the bottom of the ash/drip pan. This raised it up a bit to hopefully reduce embers coming out of the drawer and some of the ash.

 

[Bruno]

Holy crap, you are a man of action!! Very impressive. I’ll be reaching out as I get started with mine.

 

[BobJ]

Nice review. Are you using Webers new pellets?

 

[Dave - Unixadm]

Nice review. Are you using Webers new pellets?

Thanks and i am. Everything you’ve seen up till this point was cooking with the Weber GrillMaster blend. I have two more bags of those and two bags of cherry. I’ve used about a full bag at this point.

 

[BobJ]

I'd be interested in hearing how much of the improved smoke is due to the new pellets.

 

[Dave - Unixadm]

I'd be interested in hearing how much of the improved smoke is due to the new pellets.

I’ll dump the pellets that are remaining and replace with the cookinpellets blend. I’ll run it for a few hours at 225 to see how the smoke output compares.

 

[Brian B Atlanta]

Dave, Weber needs to hire you as a consultant.

I am a bit OCD also like others, have to say I admire your ingenuity and patience. If that had been me it would have already been strapped back on the pallet waiting to be picked up. I really hope Weber takes care of you and does the right thing tough be an early adopter no doubt.

 

[Dave - Unixadm]

THE WEBER 7191 COVER...

I had preordered the cover when I saw it show up on Amazon and it was the first accessory I received for the Smokefire EX6. I finally got around to opening up the box this morning to see what it was all about. Overall, it's a very light weight cover which is easy to install and remove. Has plenty of hook and loop straps to keep it tied down during windy conditions. I thought it fit well and it has additional room for upcoming Weber accessories. Compared to the OEM cover for the Timberline 1300 (heavier and tighter fitting), the 7191 cover is far less frustrating to work with.

The cover is wrinkled because it was in the box and it was around 40ish degrees this morning. I'm sure once installed and the sun hits it for a bit, the cover will smooth out. I'd recommend it, though since the Smokefire doesn't have a smoke stack, you'll have some flexibility using more generic BBQ covers should you want to. I may buy another cheaper cover to install over the top to keep the more expensive Weber cover from aging as quickly, especially during times when I'm not cooking outdoors as much.

 

[Dave - Unixadm]

I'd be interested in hearing how much of the improved smoke is due to the new pellets.

As and you shall receive, at least in theory. I dumped the remaining Weber GrillMaster pellets and put in 4-5 pounds of Cookpinpellets.com MHC blend.

One thing I noticed is that the Weber pellets are much smaller in diameter.

The Cookinpellets.com pellet is on the left and the Weber GrillMaster pellet is on the right. What are the actual diameters?

Cookinpellets.com MHC: .26 in.

Weber GrillMaster: .22 in.

Another thing to note, the pellet dump worked pretty well. However, I'm not a big fan of the hopper design. It's awkward to load pellets without spilling. The hopper is wide and narrow, and the lid flips up backwards so you can't access the hopper from the rear either. I also found the pellets don't fully slide towards the auger intake perfectly. However, I've seen this on pretty much other pellet grill and it's just the nature of the beast when using pellets from my experience.

I'll let the smoker run for an hour or two and report back (or update this post).

UPDATE:

I don't see much of a difference in smoke output between the different pellets. I do see that the smoker wants to run a bit lower than the set point now, but it is cool this morning and that might play a part. The EX6 continued to output continuous blue smoke for the duration of the test. I went ahead and filled up the hopper with Cookinpellets.com MHC and I'll smoke something else today or tomorrow using those pellets.

 

[BobJ]

I appreciate it, it tells me the better smoke flavor is due to the cookers design.

 

[Bob Swaskoski]

Dave, your detailed analysis and observations are very helpful, thank you so much for taking the time to share with us!