New Weber pellet grills for 2020


 
I just watched the Harry Soo video on the new pellet grill. You know I like old Harry. Smart guy he uses Jealous Devil. Watching the review, I just wonder if the internal parts are heavy enough so they wont warp over time & extended usage. Time will tell. Also kinda funny that 2 of the exhaust ports dump right on top of the pellet lid. Not cool. You would think that they would put a piece of rolled metal to protect the lid from the smoke & grease that will eventually discolor it & get junked up. Don't know about a 12 volt motor, because in RV trailers which are 12 volt motors in the furnace never last a winter or two. Matter of fact if you live in a RV year round & stay in cold weather you know to have a motor or two on hand. Yet a furnace in a big house running on 110AC may last 10-15 years. So a little surprised to see a DC motor. Makes you wonder when it has to be replaced what the cost will be? As compared to a AC motor. Looks like they got a nice design as it should push other manufactures to up their game. Which is a good thing for everyone. Gonna be interesting to watch.

Wow a light bulb just popped on in my head. The reason that they are using a DC motor is because they want to sell it around the world where the power grids can be different or there is no power at all. You know like in CA at times. That way you can just hook it up to a battery. That is why it is DC power. But I have never seen DC motors last as long as a AC motor.
Will see, time will tell.
 
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The one thought I have in deciding between the two sizes is having room for adding side dishes during a meat cook and I would wonder if the EX4 would provide that desired space.
 
Bob Correll said:
I keep wavering back and forth, but won't decide until it's been field tested.
I was very impressed seeing those strip steaks grilled over a live wood fire.
Put steaks on the upper shelf/grate, run the temp low while monitoring the meat temp, remove them when they're ready for searing, kick up the pit temp, and the fun begins!
If it only worked well for barbecue, I wouldn't be interested.

Controlling the amount of smoke flavor on meats could be a problem, but that must hold true for any pellet grill.
Also interested in seeing out how many cooks you can expect from a full hopper of pellets.
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In the Harry Soo video review, he mentioned it is about 1hr per lb of pellets and he said about 20 hrs total for a full hopper. Now, I don't know if that is at searing temps or low and slow brisket temps. I am not planning on buying a pellet grill any time soon, but if I was, I would certainly want to see some real world backyard cooking on these things before I made the jump. I have seen enough "Showroom" reviews. Time for some in depth road tests.
 
Can someone explain the AC/DC aspect of this grill? Does it need to be plugged in to work, or does it have a rechargeable battery or ?????
 
Bruce said:
Can someone explain the AC/DC aspect of this grill? Does it need to be plugged in to work, or does it have a rechargeable battery or ?????
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I read that the augur motor is DC that makes easier to make the motor reverse if it gets a pellet jam which it will do automatically if it can't get the Jam undone it will shut down and you will get a error code. The grill works off of AC and would have a rectifier to convert the AC to DC for the augur motor.
 
Bob Correll said:
I keep wavering back and forth, but won't decide until it's been field tested.
I was very impressed seeing those strip steaks grilled over a live wood fire.
Put steaks on the upper shelf/grate, run the temp low while monitoring the meat temp, remove them when they're ready for searing, kick up the pit temp, and the fun begins!
If it only worked well for barbecue, I wouldn't be interested.

Controlling the amount of smoke flavor on meats could be a problem, but that must hold true for any pellet grill.
Also interested in seeing out how many cooks you can expect from a full hopper of pellets.
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Bob here's the link to the Harry Soo video if you haven't seen it yet. He does a good job of explaining how it works and why they did a lot things.

https://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?78673-New-Weber-pellet-grills-for-2020/page8
 
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Good review by Harry, and he seemed very impressed. He said the grates are stainless, if I heard him right.
The smaller one looks perfect. One thing I wonder is are the firepots the same size for each?
Seems like the larger one would need to be larger.
 
Bob Correll said:
Good review by Harry, and he seemed very impressed. He said the grates are stainless, if I heard him right.
The smaller one looks perfect. One thing I wonder is are the firepots the same size for each?
Seems like the larger one would need to be larger.
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I heard the same thing about the stainless grates also, might have been a pre production change if true.
The fire pots could be the same and temperature control could be by how fast the augur feeds the pellets and fan control.
Won't know until I can get a stare and compare of both.
 
Regarding the AC/DC aspect which means the grill has a converter to convert the AC to DC. Which is another part to fail. AC pellet grill will NOT have this part at all. And believe me converters fail in RV's all the time.
This will be determined by their quality of their sourced parts. My question will be if & when the converter fails will it by pass it & just run it on 12volt? That will the ? for the experts when they come on line. If it doesn't by pass the whole unit will shut down regardless. If that's the case better have a spare on hand. As stated above not a fan of DC motors in RV's they just never seem to run that long.
 
Hey Lynn, I live 30 miles NE of Disney World. If you get down this way we could cook some ribs on the pellet pooper. That's a serious offer.
 
Lew Newby said:
Hey Lynn, I live 30 miles NE of Disney World. If you get down this way we could cook some ribs on the pellet pooper. That's a serious offer.
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I appreciate that offer, Len .......... but anymore, it takes a team of wild horses to get me out of this house. I really like sleepin in my own bed and travel just does not appeal to me.

If I ever get out of here again, I will be headed to Austin to stand in line at Aaron Franklin's :)
 
I think the biggest plus to a dc fan is being able to vary it's speed easily, the down side would be the need for an ac to dc converter, which you'll need anyway for the controller.
 
russ olin said:
Regarding the AC/DC aspect which means the grill has a converter to convert the AC to DC. Which is another part to fail. AC pellet grill will NOT have this part at all. And believe me converters fail in RV's all the time.
This will be determined by their quality of their sourced parts. My question will be if & when the converter fails will it by pass it & just run it on 12volt? That will the ? for the experts when they come on line. If it doesn't by pass the whole unit will shut down regardless. If that's the case better have a spare on hand. As stated above not a fan of DC motors in RV's they just never seem to run that long.
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Those converters in RVs are also fairly high amperage compared to what I'd expect a pellet smoker to require. In any event, the electronics in Weber's new device will still require some DC power, so it's going to have an inverter/rectifier anyway. And quite honestly, I don't remember the last time a small wall wart style converter has failed on me, with the exception of a cable problem caused by myself.
 
BBM has a new vid, there's one shot here that looks like a grease fire rather than wood .

Really, grilling is not what I would buy one of these for

 
Worked servicing instruments in the medical field for 38 years and if you want variable speed and reverse capabilities then you are going to go DC motors. And probably a stepper motor to prevent damage if it jams. Since this is low speed it will be a low amperage motor geared down so the rectifier crapping should not be an issue if sized properly. The controller will be monitoring the motor current and if it goes above a certain threshold it will be sensed as a jam and reverse the motor to clear it. If it still senses high current it will shut it down to protect the controller and post an error code. This type of circuitry is used everywhere in the commercial field. As others have said, there will be multiple DC voltages used in the electronics as well as possibly for the fan. IMHO it is the Quality of the components that determines the lifespan. Let’s hope Weber goes for Quality!

Just my two cents worth,

Richard.
 
As far as pellet grills & motors. Go look at the MAK site. Maybe the best pellet grills in the US. What does their power source say? Only good in the good old USofA. Because they aren't interested in selling pellet grills in 3rd world countries to run on DC power volt. They talk about the auger getting stuck & reversing. Never happened on my dads 13 yr old Traeger in all those years. Never happened on my Earth Stove in 23 years burning 4 to 5 tons of pellets a year. Maybe the problem is their DC motor is weak like a lot of DC motors that I have been around. It just doesn't have the power to run pellets vertical up hill. DC has nothing to do with reversing or running this grill. It has to do adapting to power grids in 3rd world countries so they can make a bigger profit. Which Weber is known for & #1 for. Personally I would stay with MAK or other US manufactures who manufacture to run on our power grids. Motors last longer, everything last longer. USA #1!
 
Russ, I have a 18 year old 4runner with 200,00 miles on it and in Arizona the air is on most of the time it's flow is run by a DC 12 volt blower which works still perfectly. I understand your passion for USA made products. But geez man give it a break.
Show me some statistics about how DC motors are less powerful or don't last as long as AC motors, I researched it and can't find a thing that says AC is superior to DC and from my years of experience in the phone company power teams where we had both DC (most) and AC motors for various power plant uses there was virtually no difference, you used what ever application that was needed.
I think Richard in NS nailed it.
 
Bruce said:
Rewatch the video. He flashes on the screen that they are actually plated steel.
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I assume they are STAINLESS plating on regular steel. Not the best, but for low and slow bbq probably would never be an issue. But, they are pushing this one for high heat searing as well. With a lot of that, stainless plating will fail - presumably a lot faster than real solid stainless. Looks like Dave Santana/rcplanebuyer's next upgrade opportunity to me. If I could buy one I might also look at doing, as at least one person here has on his gas grill, switching out any regular steel nuts and bolts that are accessible and replacing with 304 or better yet 316 stainless.
 
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