New Weber pellet grills for 2020


 
DWambolt said:
I have a set of stainless grates showing up from Amazon today. I had to buy four grates, even though I only need three. Less than $100 shipped for those. I'll let you know once they arrive how they fit.
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Too bad those things are pricey to ship or you could work a deal to send it to someone else who needs the extra grate. But shipping will nearly wipe out the cost.
 
Bruce said:
Too bad those things are pricey to ship or you could work a deal to send it to someone else who needs the extra grate. But shipping will nearly wipe out the cost.
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Yeah, but if anyone is local in the Sacramento area, maybe we could make it work. They fit perfect!

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Brian B Atlanta said:
Jon, not sure about that by the way did you see my observations which do not include cooking of course. Is it a higher level well that depends, the build quality as well as the cook quality is to be determined.

Sharp edges, crappy caulk job, software not working would not exactly call that above anyone else for $1000 bucks. Shipping grills without the hardware to put them together what really bothers me is the multiple comments about the ash flying around everywhere this is not the only place that has reported that. Most people I think have wood decks not all and I do, so now I need to buy a mat even on the concrete are these embers flying around in your back yard?
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Brian,
I guess my extreme busy time (February here for our organization is like Fourth of July weekend in Gatlinburg🤪) didn't allow me to more carefully read the articles. The SmokeFire DOES look nicer to me than most of the mid-level pellet grill competition. Unfortunately, Weber was pretty late to the party and I guess feels a lot of pressure to push these things out. That probably explains at least some of the deficiencies noted. The other explanation is that Weber chose what I think is an admirable route. They could have just rolled out a carbon copy of the typical pellet grill but instead pursued a lot of new ground with this grill. Teething pains are probably inevitable, especially for these first ones rushed out of the factory. That goes ditto for the app and related software. Personally, I don't see a need for so much hand-holding and would have been content if they just made a simple, straight up app to monitor and control temperatures. However, many BBQ novices will probably find this app - with all of its detail instructions - very supportive. That is, once they get it working!

At this point, these very early results do make me like my Rec Tec more since it doesn't exhibit the bad traits with ash/embers, has good workmanship and a great, simple app. But, it is also looking a little dated - although I DO still really like its "bulls horn" handles. As I posted elsewhere, it CAN do a steak or burgers, but still not like what we have seen with this new SmokeFire. I think we need to try and forgive Weber for responding to the pressure to get these things out - and, hey, we all were part of that pressure! I believe it will get better and am trusting them at this point to make things right for those of you brave enough to jump in first. Finally, Traeger - who did not have this pressure on them - has had plenty of missteps with their recent grills. The Timberline ought to offer some better things than the SmokeFire: it costs a TON more! But, it too, has gotten some bad reviews, at least for the early adopters. And their customer service - as you have read here - doesn't seem much to talk about other than to yell "Foul!"
 
I'm curious if he got a lemon or if these issues are more wide spread. He's not the first one to note controller problems.

I also wonder why Weber decided to basically show the set temp on the controller instead of actual temps.
 
Jason in CA said:
I'm curious if he got a lemon or if these issues are more wide spread. He's not the first one to note controller problems.

I also wonder why Weber decided to basically show the set temp on the controller instead of actual temps.
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I don’t understand the thinking on that one either. The temp shown should be the temp.
 
Seems the temp on the display is the set temp.....I never noticed it fluctuate at all. As with any reviews, you usually hear more and louder complaints than you do compliments so before anyone gets too excited, just keep it mind that there is probably a lot of ribs that were cooked today on Weber Smokefire grills and a great many of those went off without a hitch.
 
Got my EX4 yesterday from Lowe’s. Assembled it this morning, and did a chicken with Hickory pellets. Just followed the suggested time and temp in the app, and it was done in 1hr 25mins. Very happy with the results.

I didn’t have the same issue with the embers that others have had.

Going to do a brisket or ribs this weekend.

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Bruno said:
I don’t understand the thinking on that one either. The temp shown should be the temp.
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It looks to me that, just like my Rec Tec, it shows BOTH temperatures. I can understand them making the set temperature the larger one. Since my Rec Tec "only" has two probes, the screen also displays both of those actual temperatures.
 
A Harrison looks like he had a good cook on his EX4. All of the failed cooks that I saw so far were on EX6 grills. Hmmmm, is there a trend developing?
 
It does not look like Home Depot is going to sell the SmokeFire. They have other Weber grills however.
 
Bruce said:
A Harrison looks like he had a good cook on his EX4. All of the failed cooks that I saw so far were on EX6 grills. Hmmmm, is there a trend developing?
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I like to think the EX6 is the big seller because it's a lot more space for only $200 more. I went EX4 because I didn't wan't to crowd my patio that much more and have other grills if I need huge capacity, which is very rarely. There's so little different between the two, that I can't see much affecting one and not the other except maybe more temperature variations across the grate for the EX6.
 
Bruce said:
A Harrison looks like he had a good cook on his EX4. All of the failed cooks that I saw so far were on EX6 grills. Hmmmm, is there a trend developing?
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Kinda like the time I bought my WSM 22 knowing it likes to run at 250 and not 225, and the WSM 18 is as rock solid as they come. I still ordered the 22 because I like to complicate things.
 
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Surfing some other sites this morning and I did see BBM's video seems to be fairly universal thinking that the hopper is going to need some kind of fix or redesign. Shane and Dave's issues with the pellets getting stuck or whatever you want to call it is very common with some people getting around it by opening the lid on the bin every hour or so and giving the pellets a push to free them up.

Interesting also there was somebody who had enough and bought theirs from Lowe's so they called Lowe's to see if they could return it and there was no problem doing so.

Bruce, my local Home Depot and the surrounding HD stores only stock Traeger's for pellet grills, right now they have about 17 in stock various models. They have some Camp Chef's and other brands available for ship to store. Its a little early for grill season down here so maybe their will be a better selection in stores next month.
 
ShaneF said:
I like to think the EX6 is the big seller because it's a lot more space for only $200 more. I went EX4 because I didn't wan't to crowd my patio that much more and have other grills if I need huge capacity, which is very rarely. There's so little different between the two, that I can't see much affecting one and not the other except maybe more temperature variations across the grate for the EX6.
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If I were buying one, I would go with the EX4 also. I don't need the capacity and getting even temps across the grate would be more likely. And I think the convection would be better.
 
Lynn Dollar said:
If I were buying one, I would go with the EX4 also. I don't need the capacity and getting even temps across the grate would be more likely. And I think the convection would be better.
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I had a Traeger 36" a couple years back. I only used the full capacity like twice and once was just to see how much food I could really put on it. Two butts, 6 bone in chicken breasts and a rack of ribs all fit, lol. Since then I got the Summit Charcoal, so I'll just fire both up if I want to cook that much, then I can run different temps too if needed. If I regularly cooked for parties or events, might be a different story.
 
Brian B Atlanta said:
Interesting also there was somebody who had enough and bought theirs from Lowe's so they called Lowe's to see if they could return it and there was no problem doing so.
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This is on the back of my mind, I really like the grill, but not sure how they are going to fix the hopper and the grease issues without tweaking designs and guessing that will not be retrofitted to existing grills.
 
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