Dave's Smokefire EX6 Experiences


 
I came home for lunch and my stainless baking sheets arrived, along with the disposable drip trays. I took some pics of them, in addition to the grease heat deflectors. I will say they kept about a third less ash out of the grease trough and around the drain holes, compared to what I was seeing before. I'm going to try covering them in thick foil to see what happens.They do also burn off grease which hits them, especially towards the fire pot side. I found no wet grease inside after having a piece of bacon dripping on them for about 45 minutes during last night's cook.

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So in effect you have turned it into a "normal" pellet grill more than the "revolutionary" device Weber envisioned. Not entirely a bad thing though

I'm not so sure how much in the way some of these mods or test items I will use longer term. In some cases I'm just experimenting in the interest of sharing with the community here. A lot of times when I cook fatty meats, I'd cook in a disposable pan anyhow. At lower heat levels, a don't believe grease fires are going to be an issue, though grease mixed with ash can be messy to clean up regardless of temps.
 
Last 2 pix are interesting. Looks like the deflectors are keeping the ash away from & burning off the grease closest to the firepot. Wonder if this would be enough to prevent a grease fire even if there was a lot of grease + ash sludge elsewhere in the cooker during long low & slow cooks.
If so, could avoid the drip pans aside from the messier cleanup if it turns out the drip pans negatively impact the smoke flavor. Would be cool to have options.
 
I honestly think those deflectors will work wonders. After all when you look at how they helped the Genesis (and I have even used a similar idea on my own Genesis grills) and they do truly tame down grease fire issues. So it would not surprise me to see Weber come out with a retrofit kit
 
I have those deflectors coming today and I also am in the process of ordering the hopper adapter.
Looks like I’m definitely keeping her.
 
Going off Dave's mods I grabbed the heat deflector off my Genesis and placed it on the right side of the grill bottom as close to the burn pot as possible.
I took the serving tray that I am using for a drip tray and cut a notch for grease to flow out of.
Took a piece of tinfoil and placed it on the center flavorizer in order to raise the left edge of the drip tray.
My hope is that any grease will flow to the right side of the grill and down the channel to the grease drawer.
I don't really expect that with the low temp that I am doing this brisket at that there is real risk of any fire. I just want to see if the grease will flow without mixing too much with the ash.

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Hi Dave. The auger pics were mine. Not sure what the black stuff is you are referring to?
The whole area in my hopper is aluminum where your pictures show patches of black that I assume is tape. And I assume you were trying to bypass some areas where pellets get hung up. I did that with my former Traeger Pro 34 and it worked great.
 
What are you going to use to cut and shape the metal?

A paperclip, a piece of duct tape folded into the shape of an arrow and a road flare. haha. JK.

I bought some brackets and a stainless shelf to see if I could put something together that doesn't look like crap. Time will tell. :)
 
I just got off of the phone with Scott @ Weber technical support. Good dude, friendly and helpful. They're sending me out a new auger assembly and chute because I've had a couple of issues. I'll post up when I receive those revisions. They also indicated the new version has a better chute to auger tube gasket.
 
A paperclip, a piece of duct tape folded into the shape of an arrow and a road flare. haha. JK.

I bought some brackets and a stainless shelf to see if I could put something together that doesn't look like crap. Time will tell. :)
I don't want to bet against you but without the gum wrapper I just don't see how it's gonna work. :cool:
 
This is cool and nice that is working better but really it departs from the original design and what was advertised, so something has to give; like Weber cutting the price.
There may be other options but Weber need to think at that.
 

 

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