Hello All, I Started thinking about getting a pellet grill earlier this year. Being a huge Weber charcoal fan, I was pleased to see that Weber had developed their own pellet grill. However I was hesitant to buy one early on after seeing all the poor early reviews.
I live in a part of AZ that is extremely hot in the summer, firing up a charcoal kettle, or the WSM, is not very pleasant experience in the extreme summer heat. I thought that a pellet grill might be the answer for a more pleasant experience to cook in our summer heat by eliminating the charcoal start up process.
I looked again at the reviews on the Weber SmokeFire grills later this year and saw improving reviews, and a lot more satisfied people than their were early on.
So I took a leap of Faith, and decided to ask for one for Christmas this year, thinking that by now Weber would have a handle on the problems with the GEN 2 models.
So My new Gen 2 EX6 was delivered on Christmas eve, I carefully assemble it on Christmas day after all the AM family stuff was done, and on saturday a box of accessories arrived along with a bag of Grill Master Blend pellets. I performed the recommended burn in procedure yesterday AM, and made plans for my first cook on this new machine. Baked potatoes, Grilled veggies, and Rib Eye Steaks were on the menu. This thing was great, performed flawlessly, made a great meal, I could see myself falling in love with this thing.
I still had 3 racks of Spare Ribs in the freezer that I refused to do on the WSM back in the summer, so I decided I would do them (get them out of my freezer) today on the new pellet machine. I refilled the pellet hopper, and cleaned out the ash from the last night, I cut the spares St Louis style, and made up a batch of Wolfe Rub for them. Ready to go I stepped outside, plugged in the EX6, turned it on set at 200 degrees and stepped back inside for a moment. When I came back out (Ready to start smoking the ribs) it was off !... Dead, no display no sound, just dead, I unplugged it, plugged it in again, and turned it on again, and got nothing. I tried my extension cord on something else, and it was fine. The controller just up and died, during start up on only its second cook!, not happy about that at all.
I had such high hopes for this thing, I am very very disappointed right now. Fortunately I had two bags of kingsford, a bag of apple wood chunks, a bag of cherry wood chunks, and my trusty 22" WSM on hand. So dinner will still be served about an hour or so late, but whatever...
I trust that Weber Customer Service will make this right and send me out a new controller for it without delay. Regardless, it is still very disappointing to have this thing fail so quickly, and after all I have read about unit throughout the year , I have a very bad feeling right now about what the future holds for me and my relationship with this new cooker.
I live in a part of AZ that is extremely hot in the summer, firing up a charcoal kettle, or the WSM, is not very pleasant experience in the extreme summer heat. I thought that a pellet grill might be the answer for a more pleasant experience to cook in our summer heat by eliminating the charcoal start up process.
I looked again at the reviews on the Weber SmokeFire grills later this year and saw improving reviews, and a lot more satisfied people than their were early on.
So I took a leap of Faith, and decided to ask for one for Christmas this year, thinking that by now Weber would have a handle on the problems with the GEN 2 models.
So My new Gen 2 EX6 was delivered on Christmas eve, I carefully assemble it on Christmas day after all the AM family stuff was done, and on saturday a box of accessories arrived along with a bag of Grill Master Blend pellets. I performed the recommended burn in procedure yesterday AM, and made plans for my first cook on this new machine. Baked potatoes, Grilled veggies, and Rib Eye Steaks were on the menu. This thing was great, performed flawlessly, made a great meal, I could see myself falling in love with this thing.
I still had 3 racks of Spare Ribs in the freezer that I refused to do on the WSM back in the summer, so I decided I would do them (get them out of my freezer) today on the new pellet machine. I refilled the pellet hopper, and cleaned out the ash from the last night, I cut the spares St Louis style, and made up a batch of Wolfe Rub for them. Ready to go I stepped outside, plugged in the EX6, turned it on set at 200 degrees and stepped back inside for a moment. When I came back out (Ready to start smoking the ribs) it was off !... Dead, no display no sound, just dead, I unplugged it, plugged it in again, and turned it on again, and got nothing. I tried my extension cord on something else, and it was fine. The controller just up and died, during start up on only its second cook!, not happy about that at all.
I had such high hopes for this thing, I am very very disappointed right now. Fortunately I had two bags of kingsford, a bag of apple wood chunks, a bag of cherry wood chunks, and my trusty 22" WSM on hand. So dinner will still be served about an hour or so late, but whatever...
I trust that Weber Customer Service will make this right and send me out a new controller for it without delay. Regardless, it is still very disappointing to have this thing fail so quickly, and after all I have read about unit throughout the year , I have a very bad feeling right now about what the future holds for me and my relationship with this new cooker.