Bruno,
We have all enjoyed your amazing cooking results with your SmokeFire. You have been patient with issues, so I am glad that you were rewarded with a lot of great cooks. But, you are also honest in sharing this disappointing finding. I hope you can get your grill parts replaced. Keeping it going, it seems, may mean abandoning those high searing cooks and concentrating on low and slow bbq. It certainly has done that well for you and others here.
I have said some of this before, but here are a few observations from my on the sidelines viewpoint:
1) The design of the SmokeFire was daring and innovative. It would have been easy for Weber to make one like everyone else's and stick a Weber badge on it. Instead, they tried to up the bar like they did back in the early 80s when they developed the first Genesis gas grill. Unfortunately, pellet grills are trickier and I don't think Weber did anywhere near enough real world testing.
2) The SmokeFire is one of the most stylish pellet grills out there. I do really like my Recteq with its "grab the bull by horns" polished, stainless bull horn handles. I would have to admit, though, that the smoke stack and especially the hanging grease bucket look out of date in comparison to the SmokeFire. I thought it was interesting that the new Z-grill came within a hair's breath of litigation in making their new pellet grill LOOK like a SmokeFire. Those of you who have looked at it, though, probably noticed that they went conventional using the same large shield as most other pellet grills and used a side hopper. They just copied everyone else and then copied Weber for STYLE!
3) As Darian noted above, the SmokeFire isn't the only product to reflect the "bean counter" influence that seems to me to be dragging Weber down. I suppose it is true that anymore most people don't expect grills to really last, but it pains me to see the results of chinsing on materials. I bought a crimson kettle this past summer. Pretty disappointed in the matte, thin finish that does not live up to the high quality, glassy smooth porcelain that Weber kettles were famous for. I don't think you will see many of these newer kettles being passed on to another generation. George Stephen
would not be happy about where things are going.
Gas grills are showing some of the same issues. The Genesis II line is very stylish, but from what we have been seeing here with early corrosion and thin metal, I don't expect the cottage industry of restoring Weber grills to carry on when the supply of the classic old ones finally dwindles completely away.
I am a Weber guy. If Weber really reads any of our posts, I just wish they would, at a minimum, offer options for high grade stainless steel upgrades - maybe bring back the "Platinum" name. And then use thicker, better stuff everywhere else and charge more. We already have an ocean of also-ran cheap grill companies. A grill with the Weber name on it should reflect the proud heritage that implies. Now for that,
George would be happy!
