EX6 just delivered. Initial impressions


 
Ugh I’ve had my EX6 since a little before Father’s Day and am having my first issues today, E3 error (flame out), followed by E6 (flame failed to start), I just emptied my pellets and am retrying - the glow plug is lighting red, but it doesn’t look like enough pellets are shooting out. I just wanted to smoke some sausage for lunch - that’s not happening at this point, but still gotta get it fixed. The chamber wasn’t that dirty but I vacummed it out. If it doesn’t work after this restart I guess I’m gonna have to unscrew some stuff and do an even deeper clean out.
 
Hunter Butler said:
Ugh I’ve had my EX6 since a little before Father’s Day and am having my first issues today, E3 error (flame out), followed by E6 (flame failed to start), I just emptied my pellets and am retrying - the glow plug is lighting red, but it doesn’t look like enough pellets are shooting out. I just wanted to smoke some sausage for lunch - that’s not happening at this point, but still gotta get it fixed. The chamber wasn’t that dirty but I vacummed it out. If it doesn’t work after this restart I guess I’m gonna have to unscrew some stuff and do an even deeper clean out.
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My only guess is that my pellets got damp and I’ve got a jam, gonna take the auger apart and clear it out. Anyone had luck doing that before?


UPDATE: It was totally a jammed shute, man was that easy to fix. The 2nd gen angered shute is much easier to clean out then Gen 1 based off the youtube videos I saw. This just means that folks (myself included) need to do a good job of cleaning out the saw dust in the pellets before putting them in the hopper. I’ve only ever used Weber Pellet’s, but they are still pretty dusty and that’s what clumped up.
 
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I’ve heard of “sifting“ pellets before putting them in a hopper. Can anyone elaborate on what is needed to do this?
 
Fired up my EX6 tonight. Wanted 450 but my dial spin stopped at 455. Close enough.
Ambient temp was 65 and a little breeze. Grill temp rose fairly quickly to 455 with only short times of pause.
Temp held at 455 for a few minutes then crashed to low 300s. Pushed the pellets around in the hopper and shook the grill a little and temps jumped up to mid 350s and got no higher.
This is really getting frustrating. I’ve owned and cooked on so many different cookers.
This is a great grill when it works correctly. But it’s tough to defend a cooker that you just can’t trust to work when you need it. Ugggg
I guess I will pull it apart and clean it again.
 
I hate to hear of these issues, good luck getting it worked out. Putting on a 10lb butt after work tomorrow, for an all nighter. I‘ll keep you posted.
 
So, I'm on to my second Ex6. Weber replaced my first one due to issues and I really love the taste of my food in this thing. Came two weeks ago. It had a blue sticker on the box label , not sure that that signifies, I know they use it for revisions. This one was born in Aug 2021. First cook was just some chicken thighs, came out great as usual. Last night I tried a boneless ribs overnight cook. Started at 10:45pm and made sure the hopper was full. I happened to be up and on my phone at 4:45a when the low temp alert came on. I went outside and my genius idea of storing my thermometer probes on the inside lid of the hopper with my Thermoworks magnetic holder was not so genius after all. One of them fell off and blocked the pellets from feeding into the auger !! I took it out and shut down the grill. I then restarted the grill and I've never seen so much white smoke in my life !!!! I am lucky no one called the Fire Dept. I then shut it down again and made sure all was clear in the burnpot. There were some burnt pellets at the end of the auger , thankfully I didn't have a hopper fire.I then restarted and all is running good ....
 

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Don D. said:
So, I'm on to my second Ex6. Weber replaced my first one due to issues and I really love the taste of my food in this thing. Came two weeks ago. It had a blue sticker on the box label , not sure that that signifies, I know they use it for revisions. This one was born in Aug 2021. First cook was just some chicken thighs, came out great as usual. Last night I tried a boneless ribs overnight cook. Started at 10:45pm and made sure the hopper was full. I happened to be up and on my phone at 4:45a when the low temp alert came on. I went outside and my genius idea of storing my thermometer probes on the inside lid of the hopper with my Thermoworks magnetic holder was not so genius after all. One of them fell off and blocked the pellets from feeding into the auger !! I took it out and shut down the grill. I then restarted the grill and I've never seen so much white smoke in my life !!!! I am lucky no one called the Fire Dept. I then shut it down again and made sure all was clear in the burnpot. There were some burnt pellets at the end of the auger , thankfully I didn't have a hopper fire.I then restarted and all is running good ....
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Hope your food came out OK. That is a bunch of smoke coming from your grill!
 
Hunter Butler said:
My only guess is that my pellets got damp and I’ve got a jam, gonna take the auger apart and clear it out. Anyone had luck doing that before?


UPDATE: It was totally a jammed shute, man was that easy to fix. The 2nd gen angered shute is much easier to clean out then Gen 1 based off the youtube videos I saw. This just means that folks (myself included) need to do a good job of cleaning out the saw dust in the pellets before putting them in the hopper. I’ve only ever used Weber Pellet’s, but they are still pretty dusty and that’s what clumped up.
Click to expand...
I did a hopper clean today, as well as rest of grill. I pulled the pellet drain slide and emptied as manny pellets as I could from the hopper. I then shop vacuumed as many pellets as could down to the auger. The pellets on the back side of the auger were really jammed in tight. I guess the shutdown process reverse spin jams the pellets and crushes then into the back assembly. I ended up turning on the grill so the auger would spin and I could suck out all the jammed up pieces.
The 3 hex screws holding the wire screen also stick out and hinder flow down the hopper ramp. IMO
 
Put on this boneless ribs last night at 9:30pm , just took it off at 5:30pm this evening. Melts in your mouth. EX6 held perfect temp through 40 degree weather overnight. Had to fill the hopper again in the morning. This machine works much better than the first one.
 

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Don D. said:
Put on this boneless ribs last night at 9:30pm , just took it off at 5:30pm this evening. Melts in your mouth. EX6 held perfect temp through 40 degree weather overnight. Had to fill the hopper again in the morning. This machine works much better than the first one.
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That’s fantastic all the way around!
 
So the EX6 was on for 20 hours straight 9:30pm Sat night to 5:30pm Sun. I then shut it down and turned it back on at 7:00 to reverse sear a cowboy steak. Wow was it good. I'm happy I asked for a new unit and didn't abandon the Smokefire. Performed flawlessly
 

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Don D. said:
So the EX6 was on for 20 hours straight 9:30pm Sat night to 5:30pm Sun. I then shut it down and turned it back on at 7:00 to reverse sear a cowboy steak. Wow was it good. I'm happy I asked for a new unit and didn't abandon the Smokefire. Performed flawlessly
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Hi Don, what was the temperature you set your EX6 at? And do you think you would have used 20Lbs of pellets or more? I am trying to gauge how much of fuel you would need to cook the meat you are showing which looks so delicious. I believe you when you say "Melts in your mouth."
 
I used smokeboost for the first 2 hours, then set it on 225 .Used about 30 pounds of pellets as it was 40 degree outside a whole night and 50 degrees in the afternoon
 
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Had all the kids over for Hanukah party tonight. Make a whole smoked chicken. Then reverse seared another Cowboy steak. Used Weber Cowboy rub. Smoked at 225 till 125 internal temp. Seared 3 min each side on the S670. OMG, I think it was the best steak I ever tasted. Was in kinda of a rush and had the 670 fired up anyway for chicken cutlets and skirt steak, so I didn't sear on the SF. Also used the Smokehouse blend pellets 40lb for $14.99 @ Sam's Club. Great smoke, less ash. Really good all around flavor.
 
Just an update on the 19 hour ribs. I wrapped in alum foil and then Saran wrap and froze it. Took it frozen down to Orlando this past weekend. Warmed in up on a hot plate. I brought some of the drippings along to keep it moist. They were unbelievable. Kids couldn't get enough !!! Even my DIL who doesn't like smoked so much said they were the best she ever tasted ( Her Father is a professional chef) Tasted like it just came off the grill....
 
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