New Weber pellet grills for 2020


 
I think they definitely should have targeted the Christmas buying season for the release. Maybe a release at or around Thanksgiving.

It does sound like the grill will not just be a copy of some of the other ones on the market and hopefully they have come up with some nice and useful tweaks and changes to set them apart a bit.
 
Bob Correll said:
Looks like the manual has as many pages of troubleshooting as it does of instructions.
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I caught that too. But realizing it has a lot of electronics and moving parts that your standard charcoal or gas grill doesn't have I can understand the need for all the trouble shooting pages.
I'm sure Weber is thinking that if something goes wrong the consumer will go to the manual instead of calling Weber first.
 
While it weighs less than a Yoder, it is also in a completely different price range. The Rec Tec Bull 700 weights 195 pounds. The ex6 should be a similar size to the Rec Tec and will likely be a similar weight. It is heavier than the similarly sized Traeger Ironwood.
 
Lynn Dollar said:
This is gonna be " tinny " like the Traegers. I've lifted the lid on Traegers and get immediately turned off by how light they are, feels like they're made from sheet metal.

This Weber weighs 156#.

For comparison, and yes these are much higher priced, but the Yoder 480 weighs 270# at $1600 and the Yoder 640 weighs 335# at $1800.

I gotta think the thicker metal on the Yoder is gonna hold heat better and lower fuel consumption.

And If I were gonna go this pooper route, I would not try to get by on the cheap. Either pay for quality or don't go at all. Too many moving parts. Too many things to go wrong.
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Good points, Lynn. I do think that Yoder and MAK are much more robustly built than their more plebeian, lower priced competition. Not as sure that either has electronics that are any better (maybe even not as good) as Rec Tec's which have a very strong reputation. I can vouch for them working well for me. The Rec Tec is Chinese sourced with maybe some assembly done in GA. On the other hand, they do use quite a bit of stainless steel in some critical areas. For $1,200 I don't feel it is "tinny." Some Traegers are, and even the top line and pricier Timberline gets some knocks in reviews for build quality.

I think my Rec Tec is a decent middle of the road solution that if taken care of reasonably will have a life long enough that by the time it needs to be replaced things will have advanced so much I would want to get something new. Of course, time will tell. I would just say that based on my experience with Rec Tec so far (and their excellent customer service reputation) I think buying one is not going the cheap route. More like buying, say a Honda, when you wish an Audi was in your budget. But at least you didn't go with a loser cheapo car either. (I would offer a name, but no matter what I pick I am liable to insult someone:rolleyes:!)
 
They don't directly state this, but it sounds like this Weber does not have a convection fan. Somehow they use the flavorizer bars to create air flow. Not sure I'm a " fan " of that :)

Air flow is important for convection. But a fan in a pellet pooper can stir up ash that gets on the meats.

Best I can tell, Yoder does not use a fan. They've configured their poopers like an offset smoker, with a firebox on one end and a stack on the other, so it creates air flow across the cooker.

Yoder also has a direct grill option, of removing a diffuser plate and replacing the cooking grates with grill grates. Not sure how that would be accomplished with the Weber.
 
It looks like it uses something similar to the igrill app which I despise with the fury of a thousand suns. You want to cook meat to 160? TOO BAD this stupid circle thing goes up to 155!! Oh that reverse sear you are working on? This app acts like it's connected. Your steak isn't at 115, it's at 135. Surprise!
 
Lynn Dollar said:
They don't directly state this, but it sounds like this Weber does not have a convection fan. Somehow they use the flavorizer bars to create air flow. Not sure I'm a " fan " of that :)

Air flow is important for convection. But a fan in a pellet pooper can stir up ash that gets on the meats.
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The Weber has a fan. See page 24 of the manual.
 
I knew a fella who bought a Rec-Tec Bull. He was really happy with it till he discovered the ash on his meats. But that could've been user error, as he was new to the smoker and may've had the fan turned up to high ??? I don't know if the fan is adjustable speed or not.

I've read some other complaints about this issue at the BBQ Brethren.
 
I don't know that much about smokers or pellet grills, but I was under the impression that you want some air movement, but very little overall. Just enough to keep the airflow moving.
 
When it comes to an offset stick burner, the more air flow the better. That ensures a clean fire and plenty of convection.
 
Lynn Dollar said:
I knew a fella who bought a Rec-Tec Bull. He was really happy with it till he discovered the ash on his meats. But that could've been user error, as he was new to the smoker and may've had the fan turned up to high ??? I don't know if the fan is adjustable speed or not.

I've read some other complaints about this issue at the BBQ Brethren.
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I guess I have been fortunate since I have not encountered that to date. I would be very interested to know how well the errant grills are cared for. I use a small shop vac to clean mine about every other cook. The ash layer at that point is very minimal, but if you tried to push that or were otherwise lax on removing the ash, I could see it becoming a potential problem. The stainless shield that is between your food and the fire pot doesn’t leave a lot of leeway for ash to blow over it, but I could see an over accumulation potentially blowing around.
 
On some of the images shown by Weber, it seemed that there were flames under the steak on the grill: I’m not completely familiar with pellet grills but I thought they worked on indirect heat. Does this grill work differently?
 
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I had my first Traeger Ironwood 780 Turkey last weekend at a friends house, it was pretty darn good. The probe was acting up until he cleaned it, but other than that it was a solid cook.
I looking forward to the Weber Smokefire reveal.
 
I've found that Yoder's do have a fan, maybe two fans. But I still haven't found the speed of the fans to be adjustable on any of these smokers.
 
Lynn Dollar said:
I've found that Yoder's do have a fan, maybe two fans. But I still haven't found the speed of the fans to be adjustable on any of these smokers.
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I can ask my client manager when he comes in this morning. He picked up a Yoder a couple of years ago and loves it.
 
Some temp controllers vary the speed of the fan as part of the temperature control, having it user adjustable may defeat the purpose. I have read that going with too strong a fan can cause ashes to blow around.
 
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