New Weber pellet grills for 2020


 
ShaneF said:
Pellets are Weber Hickory left, CookinPellets Hickory right. Drawer is after almost full bag of pellets, cooking steaks and ribs. Embers in drawer are 600 degree initial burn in.
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Hot embers made it into the ash drawer by the grease drip pan? I know it was your initial burn in, but if there had been grease in the drip pan... 😲

That food looks delicious, Shane! Overall, it looks like a wonderful cooker that will be a joy to use for many years.
 
J Grotz said:
Hot embers made it into the ash drawer by the grease drip pan? I know it was your initial burn in, but if there had been grease in the drip pan... 😲

That food looks delicious, Shane! Overall, it looks like a wonderful cooker that will be a joy to use for many years.
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Thanks! As far as the embers, it looks like the system does well at keeping them out of the grease tray, but they do fall into the drawer with some still burner. A couple even popped through to the patio too. Might be something to keep in mind if using a wooden deck or on really dry grass.
 
Bruno said:
Nice work Shane! How was the temp control?
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I haven't noticed much fluctation, but I was actually pretty busy all weekend selling 2 other grills and other chores, so didn't watch it super close. I'm hoping to do a brisket Saturday night and will hook up the fireboard during that, so may have accurate tracking of it soon.
 
Bob Swaskoski said:
Shane, very impressive pix, thanks for the broad menu! BTW, is that a Williams Sonoma serving tray?
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Thanks and good eye. If you were going to ask, they are just OK. The size it nice for prep work, but they seem to take a little more elbow grease to get clean than I would have thought and they don't fit in our dishwasher.
 
Bruno,
Definitely will be interested in your review as well. The more opinions we get the better idea others will have about what they may want to try.

On all this discussion about "filler" I think what it comes down to is 2 things. Some brands use oak and/or adler as a base and then add the specialty wood to the mix. They apparently can get away with not even mentioning that if they word it correctly. Weber seems to have chosen maple as their base wood - or filler if you want to call it that. So, when they say 40% cherry it really is 40% cherry. Some brands, like Lumberjack, do offer pellets that are 100% of the type of wood they indicate.
 
Yeah I’m stoked, just cleaned up the back yard and reorganized my grills. She’s gonna get the top spot👍🏻👍🏻
 
Just got back from Lowe's they had 2 EX4's on the floor. My observations and please don't have the picture thing down yet so apologize.

So and I think this is what Stefan meant about sharp edges. The sheet metal L brackets the top grate sits on have a very sharp edge on them almost like when they were cut somebody did not smooth them think of if you cut some thin sheet metal and did not run a file over them and they are pretty thin. The Lowe's guy was talking with me and he thought they were very sharp also and he made a comment why did they not put another rivet on each side in the middle of the brackets they don't lie flat front to back a bit bowed in the middle another rivet would have taken care of that. This was the same on both grills as I rubbed my fingers over the other one also.

The caulk job people were talking about is hideous, anyone one of us with a caulk gun could have done a better job and for $1000 grill I certainly would expect better. Do they not make a high heat clear caulk which would have looked so much nicer, may not effect the performance but its first impressions that count.

There was a couple beside me obviously starting to look at pellet grills. They went to the Weber I was kind of eavesdropping then they went over to the Pit Boss Pro, his first comment is about how much better quality the grates are to his wife. Pit Boss uses the thick enameled grates so just one couple but they considered the grates to be superior to the Weber.

This will make us cringe or make Weber cringe he walks by a Spirit S-315 for $599.00 and says to his wife the price is ridiculous.

Weber's are not for everyone I get it.

I wanted to edit this by saying its really a beautiful looking grill.

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Based on your pictures, I would say the SmokeFire looks pretty decently built. I agree with Brian that the plated, widely spaced grates are totally fine for typical low and slow barbecue. If you plan to regularly take advantage of this new grill’s searing capabilities then I would spring for a nice middle of the road set of stainless grates such as Hongso or Qulimetal after verifying that classic Genesis grates really do interchange with the SmokeFire. That would give you a bottom half of your grill that can lay down good sear marks and with tighter spacing and stainless longevity. If you are willing to spend more, take a look at bbqparts.com’s really impressive grates or Midwest Hearth’s very nice, tightly spaced ones. And, if money isn’t a big object, of course Dave Santana “rcplanebuyer” is the ultimate standard for thick, tightly spaced stainless rod grates.
 
Do the Genesis grates fit the Smokefire? Or do they require an entirely different sized grate?
 
Bruce said:
Looks like Weber is making some immediate inroads on the Pellet Grill Market. Traeger takes a hit on this one.

madison.craigslist.org

Traeger w/cover and Under Warranty! 1.5 yr old - appliances - by...

Excellent condition Traeger. This is my first pellet and I’m expecting my new Weber Smoke Fire on...
madison.craigslist.org
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You can see that the Traeger he has for sale is nowhere close to the new SmokeFire in what you get. Not that it is a bad grill, but the SmokeFire is at a higher level and therefore - fairly enough -more expensive.
 
Bruce said:
Do the Genesis grates fit the Smokefire? Or do they require an entirely different sized grate?
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I read that they do fit. Hopefully, someone who just got one an confirm measurements. The small one would need two, like the Genesis, while the larger SmokeFire would need three. This, of course, only covers the main bottom grate level.
 
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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Well, ash is one thing, probably not tasty on the food, but likely not a fire hazard. But if they are actually "embers", then that really is a problem.
 
Bruce said:
Do the Genesis grates fit the Smokefire? Or do they require an entirely different sized grate?
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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.
 
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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I've been looking at why ash is flying around and have a couple of ideas to make it better. One is the back of the drip/ash tray assembly which you install as part of the assembly process, does not seal well at the back where it meshes up with the chamber assembly. I'm going to seal that with some Nomex gasket. I'm also going to add a couple of strips of Nomex gasket to the bottom of the pull out drawer assembly to tighten up the gap at the front. I think doing both will reduce the ash/ember issues, but I'll report back in my thread after I attempt those mods.

My biggest gripe besides the controller freezing up is the ill fitting door on mine. I've emailed Weber about my issues, so hopefully they'll address this after screwing up my hardware.
 
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