New Weber pellet grills for 2020


 
Rich:
Thanks for more info. I have been impressed with the construction of the grill and it was very well packed for shipment. The instructions recommended two people to get the legs on it and back to upright, but one can do it. Almost everything was assembled with one allen wrench which was included. Just needed a regular philips and due to a substitution needed an allen wrench to attach one handle. Pretty straight forward. I goofed the first fireup sequence to burn off the shipping oils and their support quickly got me back on track. Of course, that one was really smokey. I did a small simulated cook before shutting down and dumping the pellets out of the hopper. The pellets in the auger remained, but would rapidly be used in the next cook. Firebox cleanout cup was easy too, but as with any ashes, I left them outside away from combustibles. The grill is heavy and the modification that Lew Newby did would make it easier to move around. Still wondering if the grill in question had the propane sear grill attachment on the right side. Not something I would want. Sidewinders forever!
 
Just had a chat with the local “Ace” guy, he says that when he went to the “reveal” they said they were planning on SS grates and thinks this will be giving Traeger a serious run! Accepting preorders and they will offer 15% off any accessories when purchase comes to fruit. Since they are not including a cover that might be nice!
Just a little information for the locals.
 
I just watched a video of a Traeger blowing up. I had a similar event last May with my Rec Tec mini while I was trying to fine tune the feed rate for low temp cooking. I did a test run with the setting and then put a Brisket Flat on to cook. After a 4 hours I check the temp on my phone and saw that the grill had flamed out. I walked out into the garage and the grill was in front of the garage smoking heavily just like the video showed. The difference is the guy pulled out his phone to take a video. I hustled to the grill and opened the lid. Upon cracking the lid I heard the unmistakable sound of fuel igniting. As I jumped back a ball of flame shot out but I was just far enough away not to get burned. I shut down the grill, grabbed the Flat and put it on a tray, and checked for damage. As there was a grease fire in the grill I decided to leave the grill open to burn off the grease. (If you watch the video you can see the flames of a grease fire burning in his Traeger.) I finished the Flat in the oven. No damage to the grill.

My analysis was that when the grill flamed out there were unburned pellets in the cup and the grill did a restart which put more pellets in and after smoldering heavily (the billowing smoke) for some reason they all lit off at the same time. Hence the loud woosh sound I heard. The guy in the video actually had a big bang explosion that blew off the door. If I hadn't opened the door I wonder what I would have gotten.

BTW I reset the controller to factory settings and the grill has operated flawlessly for 7 months.

Dan, in both cases there were no Propane bottles nearby.
 
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Lew:
Thanks for sharing that. I'd been researching pellet grills since last summer since my Genesis only does it with an awful lot of babysitting. Never saw anything like that. It is akin to what we called a backdraft where oxygen was introduced into ready to go space. I don't think my pellet grill has a automatic restart feature. The instructions for mine have a warning section telling the owner to clean out the burner before starting. "improper use can cause an uncontrolled fire." I guess I'll have to watch that using my Smoke since I don't have a wifi unit or phone that would support that. The digital display would show "flame" and would require shutdown and restart after cleaning the cup, etc.
 
Dan,
The grill did not have the propane sear attachment per the owner. Son says he has no idea why it did what it did. just glad no one was hurt.
 
Like all grills, you need to be careful with these things. Number one is keeping them clean. I shop vac mine every other cook and at least hand clean out the fire pot pretty much every cook, refilling with a small handful of fresh pellets before starting the next cook. Gas grills and even charcoal grills can start dangerous grease fires or even worse.
 
I am not that meticulous with cleaning my grills. I guess that stems from picking up so many of them that haven't been cleaned under grate level for 3 or more years.
 
Thanks to all on the pellet experiences. My first attempt of starting the grill ended up with the "flame" message. I don't think it ever fired off at all due to me not having enough pellets augured into the unit. I went to shutdown mode and called Camp Chef support. They had me check check the ash cup which was full of unburned pellets. They had me re-sequence the start with the lid open until I saw smoke. I guess there are a bunch of little unsaid things like every grill that one needs to know. Jon is right about keeping any grill clean. I line the drip tray of my Genesis just to make cleanup easier and even then, I don't change it often enough. Same with the bars. The grates get all the attention.
 
The ‘explosions’ are why so few pellet grills go below 200 degrees and few let you adjust feed rates anymore. The design of pellet grills and how fast compressed sawdust burns just doesn’t work well with 150-200 degree smoking temps. What happens is there’s enough heat in grill to hold a low temp until everything burns up or almost and then a bunch on pellets are dumped into the pot because the temp suddenly drops and drops and this smothers the ashes if there is still any fire until boom a pot full of pellets and maybe even overflowing ignites when the lid is opened or a gust of wind hits.

I’ve never had this happen in ten years of pellet grills, but I don’t try to cold smoke either. I’ve had one flame out, but knew to empty the pot before trying to start the grill again.
 
Grease fires are also very rare in external bucket pellet grills. The grease by design is never anywhere near a flame. Usually when it happens it’s user error or never cleaning up your grill at all.
 
Shane:
Thanks for sharing those insights on these grills. More info is always welcome, especially for new pellet grill owners such as myself.
 
Dan Leighton said:
Shane:
Thanks for sharing those insights on these grills. More info is always welcome, especially for new pellet grill owners such as myself.
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You're welcome, I was hoping they didn't come across as snarky at all. I'm just trying to share from my experience in the pellet world as I have learned quite a bit here about the charcoal world. I'm growing impatient already waiting for my SmokeFire. It looks pretty amazing, but the only thing that has me worried is the internal grease collection. I hate the stupid buckets, but after dealing with several fires in another internal collection pellet grill, I'm a little nervous about this and hope they have it perfected.
 
ShaneF said:
You're welcome, I was hoping they didn't come across as snarky at all. I'm just trying to share from my experience in the pellet world as I have learned quite a bit here about the charcoal world. I'm growing impatient already waiting for my SmokeFire. It looks pretty amazing, but the only thing that has me worried is the internal grease collection. I hate the stupid buckets, but after dealing with several fires in another internal collection pellet grill, I'm a little nervous about this and hope they have it perfected.
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My thoughts exactly, super excited about receiving my EX6 but nervous about the grease collection and the way probes will go into the cooker.
 
I already see folks posting that Weber is having temp issues and there not even out yet,I asked a guy who posted it and he said a friends buddy has a brother who works for Weber told them, this was on the FB page for rec tec smokers, I don't FB so I put it off as BS . We will see some reviews soon and the weak and strong features will show up. I never met a smoker or a grill I didn't like and have never been so brand loyal as to kick something I haven't had hands on experience with,
 
MikeCantell said:
I already see folks posting that Weber is having temp issues and there not even out yet,I asked a guy who posted it and he said a friends buddy has a brother who works for Weber told them, this was on the FB page for rec tec smokers, I don't FB so I put it off as BS . We will see some reviews soon and the weak and strong features will show up. I never met a smoker or a grill I didn't like and have never been so brand loyal as to kick something I haven't had hands on experience with,
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I read on the interweb of a guy who saw it posted by a guy who has a friend who has a buddy whose brother works for Weber who saw it on Facebook. I think I'll wait for the hand-on reviews before taking that to the bank.
 
In addition to the questions of reliability of the information, the nice thing about a WiFi connected grill is that auger and fan control algorithms can be adjusted via a software update.
 
I would love to see an in depth video of a long smoke on the Weber EX6.
How’s it hold temps, how accurate is the temp controller, how’s it clean up?

I’m torn in keeping my preorder considering I won’t be smoking much in January, I may wait to see some reviews.
 
I have no fear of them not performing well, will they be perfect? I doubt it but very little in life is but they will take care of any problems this aint no fly by night company who could give a crap once the product is unloaded imo.
 
MikeCantell said:
I have no fear of them not performing well, will they be perfect? I doubt it but very little in life is but they will take care of any problems this aint no fly by night company who could give a crap once the product is unloaded imo.
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Your right on that one Mike, Weber’s customer service has been amazing from day one. I bought a Q-320 a couple kettles and a 22.” WSM and WAY TOO MANY accessories and I love them all. Every time I’ve reached out to Weber they have come through.
 
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