E6 or EX6?


 
B

BRogers

New member
Hi folks…. I’m currently shopping for a new grill to help me out during extreme weather (ie hot summer/cold winter). I am looking for something to help me with butts and brisket…. The 16 hour cooks…. I’m looking for something that I can set up and put the meat on at bed time and let it go on it’s own through the night while I sleep…
I’ve been really interested in the smoke fire and the Kamado grill…
On paper, the smoke fire has everything I’m looking for, but with all of the advertised problems and risk of a fire while the family and I are asleep (not to mention pellet bridging and the cooker shut off) is throwing up red flags.. (I also read a review on amazingribs.com that stated that you could only burn Weber brand pellets in these…. I find this hard to believe but is it true?)

the Kamado is something I’ve been interested in since it’s release, but to slow cook something and then sear it like I want, I don’t really know how I would move the charcoal grate up a level with hot coal still on it….
I also don’t know if it will hold a steady temperature reliably from bed time until I wake up the next morning.

this is to supplement my big offset stick burner to use when I’m exhausted, low on fire wood, or just in more a a hurry or avoiding a 108 heat index…

Are there any folks here that own both that can give me their preferences and answer some of these questions?

thanks for any help you can give me!
 
BBQ Guys say only Weber pellets and not to use pellets with additives. Pretty sure that would mean heating pellets, which use non wood products. Traeger also says you can only use their pellets, or at least did when I got mine. I've used several different brands over the last 8+ years without a problem. I've actually used Weber pellets and see absolutely no physical difference between them and any other brand.
 
I can't talk about the Kamado. Never had one. I've had my Smokefire for 1 year and burned Pit Boss, B&B, Lumberjack, and Weber pellets. Performance was the same with all brands. Lumberjack makes Weber and they're slightly smaller in diameter than the other two. Weber pellets only is a myth. Traeger flavors their pellets with flavored oil and I guess that's an additive but some folks use them all the time and their grill works fine. Amazingribs.com is flat wrong on that one. Some people claim that the Smokefire has to be cleaned after every cook and if that's your bag then more power to you. I last cleaned mine in April and have run it about 20 times.

Mine has never just shut down on me but it has happened to a number of people. The software needs a lot of work to make it more reliable. I'm old and I don't do overnight cooks. I get up early and cook at a temp that will have my food ready for dinner. That means I monitor my grill more than others.

I did a Google search for pellet grill grease fires and found one for the Smokefire in Feb 2020 but I know someone had a fire in March 2020. There were 4 other brands that came up with more recent fires. The standard design pellet grill has a big drip pan that runs the full with of the cooking chamber, 1.5 in. open front and back and grease drips onto the sloped pan, into a scupper, and out into a bucket. The Weber design is open like a gas grill and using drip pans under fatty meats prevents the grease build up in the bottom of the grill. The reason the grease fires aren't being advertised is because folks have found out how to operate the grill and they avoid them.

Pellet bridging is so easy to avoid. I removed the finger guard at the auger chute opening in the hopper and I put UHMW tape on the long slope of the pellet hopper in my EX6. I ran it for 12 hrs. at 250 and never touched the pellets nor shook the grill. Pellets were still feeding when I shut down.

I'm convinced that the open design imparts more flavor to the meat and the grill can generate smoke at higher temps than conventional design grill.

A problem that has recently been reported is metal erosion in and around the fire pot. Heavy users are seeing that after a year of use. I haven't seen it but I'm not a heavy user.

That's the good, bad, and ugly but despite it's warts my Smokefire is the only outdoor cooker I still have and it's staying right where it is.

All pellet grills at this price point are going to have some problems. If the Smokefire still worries you and you want a pellet grill that is a smoker and a grill then you might consider the Camp Chef Woodwind with the Sidekick. I had a Camp Chef and they have excellent cooking space due to the vertical back. I sold mine at 6 years old and it had no rust.

GOOD LUCK.
 
As you research Smokefire, you will quickly find biased input by folks that have never owned one, nor cooked on one, with their opinions. And always something bad to say. Or you will find blatant lies and misinformation. There are few tidbits from happy owners, I suspect because they’re cooking something delicious and not on the internet.

Flat-out, there is no risk of fire. It’s a lie. Why folks choose to perpetuate such a whopper is beyond me. Fires, and flare ups are two COMPLETELY different things; every grill I have flares if I open it up long enough. It’s the nature of the beast. Yet folks felt it necessary to call standard flare ups grease fires on Smokefire. I suspect this is largely from folks who saw something better than what they had and couldn’t admit it. I don’t know.

That blurb from amazing ribs is another blatant lie. Zero fact behind it.
the Kamado is something I’ve been interested in since it’s release, but to slow cook something and then sear it like I want, I don’t really know how I would move the charcoal grate up a level with hot coal still on it….
BRogers said:
I also don’t know if it will hold a steady temperature reliably from bed time until I wake up the next morning.
Click to expand...

I have the Kamado E6’s predecessor, the Summit charcoal, which is the exact same bowl with some different trimmings and items to lower the price on the Kamado.

Through experimentation, I’ve not seen any need to raise the grate to sear; open it up and it kicks the flames up real quick. It is THE best searer I have, out of 8 kettles and two gassers. Those beautiful flames start tickling the surface of the meat and adds that deliciousness and....my my my.

The Kamado will hold temps. It’s just like any ceramic Kamado on the market, only without ceramic. So it will never crack or need replacing. I love mine. Yes the price was a hard pill to swallow but I guess I held off enough and stared at it in the store enough with my girlfriend that she got it for me for my birthday haha. Lucky me! Having had it now for two years, it’s worth every penny and I’m mad I waited so long
 
One of the factors you may want to consider as well....the "sweet spot" for smoking on almost any kamado (metal or ceramic) is a bit higher temp than 225. Somewhere closer to 250-275 depending on the type...I've cooked on three different ones - BGE, Broil King Keg, and now my Weber S6. All the same.

That said, I can hold 225 on my S6 pretty easily (as long as I start the fire right), but 250ish is easier and a bit more reliable for longer cooks, and I get a cleaner smoke profile at the higher temp as well, so most things also cook a little faster. Did brisket last spring and was I think around -15C for some of the night...used a bit more charcoal than I expected, but still handled it without a refill.

My concern here (North/Central Alberta) is the electronics on a pellet grill not handling my winter weather temps and the longevity of the entire system. When you say colder temps (we go down to -30C). What is your normal summer/winter range?
 
I previously owned 2 SmokeFires and burned close to or over 1000 lbs of pellets through them. My experience was it is at least a little picky about pellets. You don’t have to use Weber pellets, but some brands will not work near as well in the SmokeFire that work fine on every other pellet grill I’ve had. I had issues with brands that have a lot of longer pellets and/or larger diameters.

Grease fires are most definitely a higher risk in a SmokeFire than almost all other pellet grills. If you load up a SmokeFire with fatty meat and just let er rip, the grease and ash can mix in the bottom and obstruct the grease drainage greatly increasing the risk for a fire. However, this can totally be negated by using drip pans any number of ways. Weber’s wet smoke kit(s), smoking on the upper rack with pans on main grate, cooking meat in pans with small racks inside the pans (or just directly in pans if you want softer bark).

Even with the finger guard removed and the hopper slicked up, the lower feed angles of the SmokeFire don’t encourage gravity to feed as well as other designs. I still see reports on other forums and FB groups about frustrations with flameouts.

For the Kamado, it has a fan port drilled out so you can run a BBQ Guru, Fireboard Drive, Heatermeter, etc. to control temps overnight, but it will hold temps pretty well without. I’ve done 16-18 hour cooks in Iowa winters without adding fuel using a Fireboard and fan. If your smoke then sear items are usually shorter cooks like steaks, tri trip, pork chops, etc. you can always get a SnS Grills charcoal basket and use like a SnS on the upper charcoal grate slot or even use a couple fire briqs.
 
TimA said:
As you research Smokefire, you will quickly find biased input by folks that have never owned one, nor cooked on one, with their opinions. And always something bad to say. Or you will find blatant lies and misinformation. There are few tidbits from happy owners, I suspect because they’re cooking something delicious and not on the internet.

Flat-out, there is no risk of fire. It’s a lie. Why folks choose to perpetuate such a whopper is beyond me. Fires, and flare ups are two COMPLETELY different things; every grill I have flares if I open it up long enough. It’s the nature of the beast. Yet folks felt it necessary to call standard flare ups grease fires on Smokefire. I suspect this is largely from folks who saw something better than what they had and couldn’t admit it. I don’t know.

That blurb from amazing ribs is another blatant lie. Zero fact behind it.
the Kamado is something I’ve been interested in since it’s release, but to slow cook something and then sear it like I want, I don’t really know how I would move the charcoal grate up a level with hot coal still on it….


I have the Kamado E6’s predecessor, the Summit charcoal, which is the exact same bowl with some different trimmings and items to lower the price on the Kamado.

Through experimentation, I’ve not seen any need to raise the grate to sear; open it up and it kicks the flames up real quick. It is THE best searer I have, out of 8 kettles and two gassers. Those beautiful flames start tickling the surface of the meat and adds that deliciousness and....my my my.

The Kamado will hold temps. It’s just like any ceramic Kamado on the market, only without ceramic. So it will never crack or need replacing. I love mine. Yes the price was a hard pill to swallow but I guess I held off enough and stared at it in the store enough with my girlfriend that she got it for me for my birthday haha. Lucky me! Having had it now for two years, it’s worth every penny and I’m mad I waited so long
Click to expand...
So in your opinion, the Kamado is superior to the smoke fire? Have you ran a 10-12 hour cook on it to test its ability to hold temperature for that long?
Thanks for your reply!
 
GrantT said:
One of the factors you may want to consider as well....the "sweet spot" for smoking on almost any kamado (metal or ceramic) is a bit higher temp than 225. Somewhere closer to 250-275 depending on the type...I've cooked on three different ones - BGE, Broil King Keg, and now my Weber S6. All the same.

My concern here (North/Central Alberta) is the electronics on a pellet grill not handling my winter weather temps and the longevity of the entire system. When you say colder temps (we go down to -30C). What is your normal summer/winter range?
Click to expand...
As far as the “sweet spot”…. I am fully aware…. I had the 18” WSM for years before I got in to stick burners and it was exactly the same way.

mad for the weather…. I’m more concerned about the hot weather and what it does to me and not the grill! Lol…. I have had to do a lot of cooks this year and I like to let my shoulders and brisket rest for 8-10 hours (if you haven’t tried this…. When you take your brisket off the grill, let it cool to 180 degrees, re-wrap it, then put it in a cooler, Cambro, or a warming oven for 8-10 or even 12 hours…. You’ll be amazed)…. So because of this rest time, that is why I’m looking for something I can trust to cook and hold great temps while I sleep at night.:..
The main reason I’m coming to you guys on this question is because my WSM wouldn’t do this…. I tried it multiple times and it ran out of fuel before I woke up. Tried minion, snake, and every other method I could find on it…

thanks again guys for all of your help!
 
I have the E6 and it works excellent. The biggest difference between the 2 in my eyes would be the E6 could wander farther in temps while you sleep compared to any pellet grill. The pellet grills I have seen in person are not very quiet, especially compared to cooking with charcoal.
The charcoal in the E6 lasts forever, I believe it will never need a re fill while cooking anything.
Grant did help me through my buying process when I was deciding to get one.
He recommended buying another of the bottom grates. I have 2 now and it is a good idea and could solve your smoke to sear problems possibly.
In mine the bottom grate never moves and if i need to use it like a grill I just toss in the second grate.
Normally you would move the grate from the smoke position up to the mid level if you needed to grill.
It was $30 or something and is possibly the best hack so far for this bbq I know of.

Good luck with whatever route you decide.
P.S. I sold my Traeger so I could replace it with the E6, but that's just me and I prefer the taste of charcoal vs. the pellet.
We also do not get any open fire bans around here.
 
Strictly personal opinion/preference, but I would choose an E6/S6 and purchase an electronic temperature controller to mate with it (for that extra level of modern temperature management) than a pellet grill....but that's just me.

:summitcharcoal:

I have personal relationship with charcoal for some reason...according to 23andme, I have 3% Neanderthal in my DNA, so that must be some kind of hold over! 🤪

I did rig up a converter so I could use my old Pitmaster IQ 130 on my S6...I've used it a couple times and it holds pretty rock solid and let me sleep soundly. That said, as long as you start the fire correctly, it holds temp without the add-on anyways. I still sleep with a temperature alarm anyways though...just in case.
 
Nothing like waking up at 2:53 in the morning to an alarm going off that the bbq is out of whack....lol
I have never experienced it but it would make you think a lot of things real fast if you were fast asleep.
I also enjoy the temp holding pretty steady in the E6.
I only see it get a little crazy when the coals get a hold of a piece of smoke wood.
Temp goes up 10 maybe more degrees and I do see more smoke coming out so it has to be what is happening.
Long weekend here in Ontario this weekend. Multiple cooks, getting the cob webs off the E6 and try to " gunk " it up a bit more, it's starting to work more like my kettle every time now.
 
BRogers -- the Smokefire and E6 are both great cookers.

But I'm surprised that you feel the need to move on from your WSM due to inability to do an overnight brisket/shoulder cook.

Absent crazy wind or cold, that's one of the things the WSM is really good at. Many of us on here do that all the time.

Spring for an ATC (I use Billows), and you'll sleep like a baby.

There might be a Smokefire or E6 in my future, but that would be to get other capabilities that the WSM lacks (higher heat grilling; bad weather performance).
 
Jim C in Denver said:
BRogers -- the Smokefire and E6 are both great cookers.

But I'm surprised that you feel the need to move on from your WSM due to inability to do an overnight brisket/shoulder cook.

Absent crazy wind or cold, that's one of the things the WSM is really good at. Many of us on here do that all the time.

Spring for an ATC (I use Billows), and you'll sleep like a baby.

There might be a Smokefire or E6 in my future, but that would be to get other capabilities that the WSM lacks (higher heat grilling; bad weather performance).
Click to expand...
I actually gave my WSM to my brother years ago when he moved 12 hours away…. The only Weber I have left is the performer (which I wouldn’t get rid of for anything even now that it is 12+ years old…. But I have never enjoyed the flavor of charcoal on long smokes compared to that of wood…. I figured that it was just the WSM…. I got really good at it and loved the food off of it, but never liked how the temp on it would consistently rise, no matter what method I used and water, sand, no water, etc wouldn’t help the rise…
 
Got it.

On any of these cookers, you really want an auto control of some type for overnight.

Not so much to actually maintain the temp. But more so you can sleep better.
 
So just as a follow up…. I decided to give the Smokefire a try…. I already have the best in charcoal, the performer (albeit can’t smoke anything big on it), one of the best in stick burners, so now I decided to give the easy pellet world a try…. If nothing else, Weber has a satisfaction guarantee…. If I’m not happy in “x” amount of days, I can return it…. It should be in within two weeks and I will try it out with some sausages and tomahawk ribeyes…. I know I have read where there are issues…. The grease fire thing…. I’m not too worried about. On the performer, I always put a pan on the charcoal grate to keep cleanup easy…. So that doesn’t concern me with the smokefire…. The only issue I can see myself having a problem with (barring some weird excessive pellet feed that needs to be fixed with firmware) is the lack of pellet feed due to the hopper design.., but I like a small challenge and if it is as bad as people say (which I’m guessing it’s not), I’m betting that I can build a new hopper to correct the issue and attach it to the cooker if that extreme is needed…
That being said, this will be a completely new realm for me in the cooking world and may ask you guys for guidance from time to time if that is cool with you guys.

thanks again for all of your feedback…. I’m actually a little sad because I have been drooling over the Kamado for 4 years or so…. I hope I didn’t make the wrong decision…. Lol
 
BRogers said:
The only issue I can see myself having a problem with (barring some weird excessive pellet feed that needs to be fixed with firmware) is the lack of pellet feed due to the hopper design..,
Click to expand...
I can see where were pellets not feeding into the auger at a certain point could potentially be a concern but here's the thought process that eliminates me from fretting over it: when I cook outside I'm mindful of just that; I have a fire in a unit in the outdoors, and near my house. I'm not willing to let a cooker run unattended over a large span of time. And while I don't do it often, even if I do an overnight cook I set an alarm to awake me so that I can check on the cook. Plus, there are times when I purposely go to the cooker to spritz or something similar.

Good luck with your SF!
 
BRogers said:
So in your opinion, the Kamado is superior to the smoke fire? Have you ran a 10-12 hour cook on it to test its ability to hold temperature for that long?
Thanks for your reply!
Click to expand...
I have run the Summit for extended periods, both with and without a temp controller. 12-14hrs typically, once or twice up to 16.

Superior? Maybe in some ways, where Smokefire is better in others. I love my Summit, I’ll also be picking up a Smokefire here in the next couple weeks; local dealer has one with my name on it.

Congrats on the Smokefire! Look forward to your results!
 
Lucky I stumbled across this thread. I too am considering the 2nd gen smoke fire (ex4/ex6), and the e6.

I have a 4 burner Genesis II SE410 that I love to use. I added the anodized aluminum GrillGrates and steaks cook excellent on it.

I have a vision ceramic Kamado. Problem with the vision is it's an 18" cooking grid and I'm always wanting more real estate. The other problem is the occasional adjusting when temps drift. Other than that, I like using the kamado style grills. Reverse sear steaks come out really great, although I find myself using the grill grates on the Weber gas grill more often than using the reverse sear technique.

If I go with the smoke fire, I've got the stability of temperature since it's more of a set and forget. And the ex6 does have a lot of real estate. The downside, and not everybody feels this way, is something else that can break. Like a temperature controller, or the auger motor.

But the e6 has the advantages of two zone cooking, and can use a lot of accessories from the kamado Big Joe model, etc.

So I am leaning towards the e6. The model with the table is nice, but it's an almost a $700 upgrade for a table.

Just chiming in :-)
 
10 seconds in for the surprise. I just stumbled across this today. May have been posted here before. Don't know.


Call me skittish, but this is not for me. I suppose we could argue the guy did not know what he was doing.
 
No bueno. I think we can all say we’ve had or started grease fires but that does look concerning. Dude’s lucky it didn’t burn other items like his house.
 
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