Keeping my SmokeFire!


 
Great. But lets not sweep a few things away either.
It is not customers fault and certainly not this forums fault.
In the heat they chose to make a grill all in one. Well to that correctly is a whole lot different.
Where was the simple testing let alone all the steps and years before that.
Ah whatever there is more
And look at all the advice given here before and after.
embers
 
Great. But lets not sweep a few things away either.
It is not customers fault and certainly not this forums fault.
In the heat they chose to make a grill all in one. Well to that correctly is a whole lot different.
Where was the simple testing let alone all the steps and years before that.
Ah whatever there is more
And look at all the advice given here before and after.
embers

Then don't buy it. Wow. You are determined to crucify Weber. Don't buy it. Why is that difficult? Why must you also make sure to go after Weber like it's some personal affront to you?

I'm not sweeping anything away. Some of you are being unreasonable. Period.
 
OK, I've been watching patiently for the ash and embers of this debate to dissipate, but they linger. Let's stick a fork in this sucker and move on. Thanks.
 
This is my first pellet smoker, I can’t really speak to others but the smoke ring on my first low and slow was pretty impressive.

I have to say, those pictures are hard to argue against. I have no skin in this game, and Weber, for better or worse, has brought the idea of pellet grills to a much larger audience than before. I am certainly interested now.
 
I dunno if this helps anyone or not....new guy here...also a launch EX6 customer - it has been sitting in my garage in PHX for a week now while I have been alternating between an angry funk and a what now mode....

Been lurking on all the web forums, watched all the videos - good and bad. Actually called and emailed Weber for a return (not a peep by the way over a week later....) and I even called AMEX to start a credit card dispute...BUT....then I watched Trendkill BBQ last video about problems and the stuff he was dealing with and his experiences with Camp Chef and Yoder, etc and clearly he is in a different league than me. I have had a WSM (large) for years - no mods except an aftermarket temp mid barrel and do 3 major cooks a year - last one was a full Costsco prime brisket Austin style for Thanksgiving ,was trying to mimick Little Miss BBQ and I think i got pretty close. This website has been my go to for advice and info when I do a cook of course. But the Trendkill guys last video convinced me to assemble it and get it going.

So - yesterday we assembled it. I noticed a Rev F auger assembly so I am figuring ok that's a good start. Get it hooked up this morning, update firmware, sift some cookingpellets.com hickory, load it and poof of smoke - lots of noise - but nothing. Start pulling it apart yep load of pellets in tray a couple were toasty but no ignition. Went thru shutdown mode (takes a long long time) and tried again. Success. Put all the grates back on - ran it to 600 for an hour.....fine.....dropped it 275 - ran it for 30 minutes - fine - ran it back up to 600 - did it - then dropped it to 200 and ran it for an hour - worked fine. Yes i raked the pellets frequently. Let it sit for 3 hrs then did another start 225 ran it for an hour shut down. No problems.

lots of dust and definitely some hot nuggets flying around bottom at 600. Did a chicken and reverse sear steaks today for first cooks. I’m not sure what I’m gonna do. Gonna pull it apart tomorrow and make my decision then.
 
I dunno if this helps anyone or not....new guy here...also a launch EX6 customer - it has been sitting in my garage in PHX for a week now while I have been alternating between an angry funk and a what now mode....

Been lurking on all the web forums, watched all the videos - good and bad. Actually called and emailed Weber for a return (not a peep by the way over a week later....) and I even called AMEX to start a credit card dispute...BUT....then I watched Trendkill BBQ last video about problems and the stuff he was dealing with and his experiences with Camp Chef and Yoder, etc and clearly he is in a different league than me. I have had a WSM (large) for years - no mods except an aftermarket temp mid barrel and do 3 major cooks a year - last one was a full Costsco prime brisket Austin style for Thanksgiving ,was trying to mimick Little Miss BBQ and I think i got pretty close. This website has been my go to for advice and info when I do a cook of course. But the Trendkill guys last video convinced me to assemble it and get it going.

So - yesterday we assembled it. I noticed a Rev F auger assembly so I am figuring ok that's a good start. Get it hooked up this morning, update firmware, sift some cookingpellets.com hickory, load it and poof of smoke - lots of noise - but nothing. Start pulling it apart yep load of pellets in tray a couple were toasty but no ignition. Went thru shutdown mode (takes a long long time) and tried again. Success. Put all the grates back on - ran it to 600 for an hour.....fine.....dropped it 275 - ran it for 30 minutes - fine - ran it back up to 600 - did it - then dropped it to 200 and ran it for an hour - worked fine. Yes i raked the pellets frequently. Let it sit for 3 hrs then did another start 225 ran it for an hour shut down. No problems.

lots of dust and definitely some hot nuggets flying around bottom at 600. Did a chicken and reverse sear steaks today for first cooks. I’m not sure what I’m gonna do. Gonna pull it apart tomorrow and make my decision then.
Congrats on taking the plunge! I'm still on the fence and going to wait to see how everything is working after the hysteria dies down.
 
As a follow up - I rescinded my return this morning. It's running at 250 right now. Spent 2 minutes vacuuming it and then it started right up. Gonna run it for 6 hours at 250 mostly unattended and see how she runs.

I want to say I don't think Weber did themselves any favors with the way it rolled this out and the associated problems. I mean wood pellet grills have been out for a while but most who use them regard them pretty jaundiced if you ask them and they usually have a gasser near by. Probably a combination of hype, unrealistic expectations and some manufacturing line flaws and some engineering issues. Guilty on the 1st two.

I'm still worried about it - a lot! But i am giving it a reprieve for now.

I did order that ramp mod and will use pans for longer cooks.

As an aside, i used my thermopen probes and those plugged into the EX6 and seemed to work fine. Although the bottom temps on the screen was not centered with all the probs plugged in. Otherwise no controller issues - yet!

But the 600 degree sear mode is something spectacular to behold - I don't think you can get that on anything else other than a top of the line gasser. Which i do not have.

Really something when you consider it's just a continually fed wood fire.

I do think they need to address the ash issue and grease issue however - my 2 cents. Here is my pan after final shutdown after running it hard all day with numerous starts and stops and a somewhat greasy cook (half chicken and 2 ribeyes). So a lot made it here....but a lot did not.

IMG_1138.jpeg
 
It's great to hear the fire in the forum is settling down and fixes are being made and people are making some great cooks on the SF. Hopefully if Weber makes some changes to the design they will offer those who were first testers those upgrades for free..
Even though I opted for a deferent brand of pellet smoker it is surrounded by 10 Weber's:)
 
It's great to hear the fire in the forum is settling down and fixes are being made and people are making some great cooks on the SF. Hopefully if Weber makes some changes to the design they will offer those who were first testers those upgrades for free..
Even though I opted for a deferent brand of pellet smoker it is surrounded by 10 Weber's:)
Rich I am with you on that, if Weber makes improvements or adds parts to the design it would only be right to offer those to us as well.
 
A couple of other forums been skimming the auger rev F seems to be one of the fixes. A few people complaining to Weber with pellet issues were sent a new auger which is rev F. The original was D I guess.
 
I wanted to add a couple of items I am doing as well based on the problems i saw others having to give this thing a fair shot - meant to do this earlier:

1) Initially i plugged directly into a socket and then moved it so i have a thick heavy duty extension cord of about 10'. I am doing this because i think this thing draws amps heavy. I have a older craftsman oil compressor 30 gal upright probably the heaviest you can buy without going 220 60 gal....I have noticed when I have that plugged into a older outdoor 100' extension cord - it won't run very well. It struggles. Plug in into a short extension cord or directly works fine. I think those fans and glow plug do create a big draw when this thing is running full tilt.

2) Got a gold pan sift to sift the pellets before putting them in. I just sift the pellets over a shop vac canister and the smaller bits fall thru. i got the 1/4 inch one but some bigger bits fall thru. As i sift i can also break up the bigger pieces. I did remove the finger guard as well.

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B008B0T5Z2/tvwb-20
 
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Did my first slow smoke today on the Ex6 with the new auger. Five and a half pound brisket flat. Cooked for a little over 8 hours at 250 using the Weber performance blend pellets. Temp fluctuations were less than 5 degrees throughout the cook (other than when I opened the lid). I had the brisket on the upper left shelf and the temps (according to my ambient probe) ran about 15 degrees cooler than the grill ambient (but temps were stable). Pulled it off a bit too early but the smoke ring from the ex6 was awesome! Overall I am happy considering it was my first attempt at a brisket.
 

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Did my first slow smoke today on the Ex6 with the new auger. Five and a half pound brisket flat. Cooked for a little over 8 hours at 250 using the Weber performance blend pellets. Temp fluctuations were less than 5 degrees throughout the cook (other than when I opened the lid). I had the brisket on the upper left shelf and the temps (according to my ambient probe) ran about 15 degrees cooler than the grill ambient (but temps were stable). Pulled it off a bit too early but the smoke ring from the ex6 was awesome! Overall I am happy considering it was my first attempt at a brisket.
My first brisket ended up in the garbage!!
 

 

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