New Weber pellet grills for 2020


 
This is the message I got from Lowe’s:

“Thank you for your recent purchase of the pre-order Weber SmokeFire Pellet Grill. Recently, you received an email indicating that your merchandise has been delayed, providing a new shipping date.

We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause you and we understand the disappointment in not receiving your original merchandise as planned. Therefore, we are offering a $25 gift card to use on a future purchase on Lowes.com or in store. Your gift card information is below...”

“We’re making every effort to get your Weber SmokeFire Pellet Grill to you as quickly as possible. Thank you for being a valued customer and for shopping at Lowe’s.”

They referred to an email that they previously sent but I have not gotten any emails until now. From what I know, Lowe’s sent the gift card to everyone who preordered. If you preordered through Lowe’s and don’t see one in your email, make sure to check your junk mail.
 
As we wait for the release date I figured I would share the most recent video on the Smokefire from the CES show.
https://youtu.be/1x_K9b8n4Us

Why did they have the brisket on the upper grate ? And it was not centered on the grate, it was over to the left. I also noticed they had something cooking in an aluminum pan on the top grate of another unit.

I've read some concern about bottom burn, with the bottom up heat design. There's gonna be some direct heat deflected off that " tent " in the middle. There's also going to be radiant heat coming up from the flavorizer bars, which may be why they have the brisket on the top grate.

As to the vid, I don't think that guy doin the vid is a barbecue guy. That YT channel is about tech gadgets, not barbecue. He implies that Aaron Franklin quality brisket will come off that cooker, I don't think so. He also seemed to be more interested in the tech / wifi ability of the cooker, which IMO, is highly over rated.
 
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If ya wanna sear a steak, it does not need a $1,000 pellet pooper. Weber is promoting this SmokeFire as a pellet pooper that will sear a steak. But is that really needed ?

Kosmos grills cowboy ribeye on a $19 Walmart grill . I would not want to smoke the steak on this grill, way too close to the fire, but it would put a helluva sear on a steak. Something like searing with Smokey Joe.

And ya don't need Wifi


 
ellet hopper where the vents blow out to keep the area clean.
That said looks awesome and I am looking forward to receiving my EX6, take your time Weber and get the app and any updates to the cooker right!![/QUOTE]

Totally agree. Just get it perfect. Can't afford to let even the first one have issues. Weber name is on the line here. Not with the people here of course, but with the general population. The Weber name needs to be reinforced.

I am looking forward to an idiot er fool-proof brisket machine. Show your best Weber.

Agree that the ability to sear is not paramount, but for marketing reasons. Nice to have in one machine, lets hope it doesn't make the unit too compromised.
 
I agree with the sear feature, my new Camp Chef has the same feature but I doubt I'll ever use it. It wouldn't be my first choice for grilling.
I bought it for the features it has other than the sear feature. When it's all said and done I still will have two gassers the Smokey Joe and the performer to do that kind of grilling.
Hopefully this cold snap will go away (16 this morning :p) and I can do a long cook on it and see how it works.
Again hope every thing goes well for those of you who preordered.
 
I agree with the sear feature, my new Camp Chef has the same feature but I doubt I'll ever use it. It wouldn't be my first choice for grilling.
I bought it for the features it has other than the sear feature. When it's all said and done I still will have two gassers the Smokey Joe and the performer to do that kind of grilling.
Hopefully this cold snap will go away (16 this morning :p) and I can do a long cook on it and see how it works.
Again hope every thing goes well for those of you who preordered.

Rich, this fella's YT channel was sent a Camp Chef to review , I think its very similar to yours. His first cook was a brisket.

 
Rich, this fella's YT channel was sent a Camp Chef to review , I think its very similar to yours. His first cook was a brisket.


Lynn, thank you for posting that review. It is very similar to the one I have although I do not have wi-fi on mine, didn't see the need for it. The two things he mentioned that he didn't like was the cover was too tight with the burner on the side addition and the lack of wheels on the front. I can only respond to the wheels and that is, what were these people thinking?! With the pellet box on the front with 20 lbs. of pellets that sucker weighs 150lbs! They do have a set of legs with casters that's optional which is now in my garage awaiting installation to the tune of $90. Weber's fold down front shelf is optional I got a fold down front shelf with mine but the casters were optional and Weber has front casters.
Like what was said earlier in the thread add on items are the name of the game with these things. Oh well I'm still under $500 so I'm still okay with it.
 
Lynn:
I too have a similar model and like Rich have added the shelf and legs with casters on the left legs. I don't have the wi-fi either, but after watching the video, should my control module die, I'd upgrade to the one on that Woodwind model. I enjoyed the video and totally agree with Rich about adding the caster legs. The thing is a bear to move since the two wheels on the right legs are tight, the grill is heavy and the handle to move the grill is high on the pellet box. I added caster legs on the left this past week and what a difference in mobility in a good way. The reviewer mentioned the casters and I don't have the side sear box. I like the Camp Chef cover which is the full length one. One thing I noticed is it is tight getting it off the stack when removing it. Could just be that it is so new. I'm staying with my sidewinder Genesis for grilling. Add-ons is the name of the game for everything from all sorts of sellers.
 
If the " smoke setting " is changed, what actually happens inside the cooker ? How do they create more smoke ?
 
Not totally sure. My grill only has two settings unlike the one in the video. Low smoke (225degrees) and High Smoke (160 degrees). It also has higher temp settings which are regulated in conjunction with the temp. sensor inside the grill. Not sure if the smoke is regulated by the blower or feed auger.
 
Basically more fuel less air = more smoke

Well yeah, quite possibly yes, but how is it done ?

These things don't have vents that can be opened and closed.

And others that create smoke, like Traeger, do it at low temps. They run the smoker at temp below 200 till they put smoke on the meat, then raise the temp.
 
Yep, learned that in 8th grade Science class. Burning stuff was the only part that kept my interest.
 
Barb has three days off so tomorrow I'll finally get my caster legs on. Then I can move it and do a burn off and then some SL ribs as a first cook.
Don't have any trouble with my cover for it as of now, it's a free with any purchase blue tarp from Harbor Freight fits just fine. ;)
 
This Camp Chef YT vid partially explains, they make the pellets smolder. That's no mystery, like duh .......... but that has to happen at low temps.

Get up to 275 and the pellets are gonna burn cleaner. I doubt they can increase smoke at those temps without cutting off air flow, and if they do that, then the temp lowers .

 
There is only so much air that can enter. Also IIRC these types of cookers also use a fan to increase airflow. I have noted these fans tend to be brushless DC motor fans so they''' respond well to pulse width modulation for speed control. My guess is they decrease the fan speed/output and slightly increase amount of fuel added and voila combustion temps go down and smoke levels go up. All fuels have a stoichiometric level. Whether liquid, gaseous or solid. Go over that ideal level and you get cooler combustion and smoke. Go under it and again cooler to non existent combustion but no smoke due to excess oxygen
 
There is only so much air that can enter. Also IIRC these types of cookers also use a fan to increase airflow. I have noted these fans tend to be brushless DC motor fans so they''' respond well to pulse width modulation for speed control. My guess is they decrease the fan speed/output and slightly increase amount of fuel added and voila combustion temps go down and smoke levels go up. All fuels have a stoichiometric level. Whether liquid, gaseous or solid. Go over that ideal level and you get cooler combustion and smoke. Go under it and again cooler to non existent combustion but no smoke due to excess oxygen


Yeah, Larrry, you are stating the obvious........ but they're claiming they can create smoke at higher temps

Did you not watch that first vid I posted ?

Air flow + fuel = cooker temp.

Decrease air flow to make pellets smolder, and you decrease temp.

As I said before, other pellet manufacturers have a high smoke feature, but its at low temps. And Dan says his Camp Chef is the same.

This is a new feature that supposedly allows dialing up smoke at any temp.
 
Well, I dug deep down in the comments below Ry's brisket cook and someone asked Ry how the smoke set worked, here's the reply


jgranahan
jgranahan
6 hours ago
Great vid, Ry! I’m excited to see more with this new grill. I’m curious, from the shot of the camp chef display, (on the front, I assume), there are separate controls for temp and “smoke”. How is smoke independently controlled on this model? I took a look at the link and even the pdf of the instructions but I didn’t see this mentioned. . . .
1
Cooking With Ry
Cooking With Ry
5 hours ago
They say that with a higher smoke setting you will have wider temp fluctuations. I’m guessing it has to do with the fan running slower at times into the burn pot to allow more smoldering.

So the cooker is not maintaining steady temps. It drops down to create some smoke, then reheats again.

Not sure I like that idea, on first thought.

But on second thought, my stick burner fluctuates , sometimes a large amount. I don't want it to do that, its just really hard to keep it from happening. I'd like for my temp swings to be a lot tighter.
 
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Some users augment their pellet grills with a smoker tube filled with pellets and started on one end to create additional smoke. It will create a hot spot, so you can’t use it with a crammed full grill. Most of the time, that is not an issue. It is probably a good plan for relatively higher heat scenarios (say 350 degrees) but maybe not as necessary when doing 225 degree barbecue.
 
As far as I can tell all of the Camp Chef pellet grills now use the same two probe controller except for the Wi FI models. So how ever they control the smoke has to be via some manipulation of the temperature and our fan speed.
As Dan said ours can only increase smoke on the low temp setting.
 

 

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