Saw this on a FB SmokeFire group post


 
Jon Tofte

Jon Tofte

TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
I happened to see this post (name withheld) tonight. It was along with a bunch of other commiseraters lamenting problems with very early failure of the glow plug housing (and other ills):

I’m not a Weber or Smokefire moaner.
Rarely post about the SF as I don’t want to get into the argument on how great or ****e it is.
I own a first gen SF and plenty of other Weber BBQs, Genesis, MT premium, WSM.
For a couple of years now I have really tried to love the SF. Every time it appears to be ok I have another problem, glow plug, controller, motor, pellet jam etc etc
When it works, it’s great, when it don’t I hate it. Problem is I simply don’t and can not trust it.
In December I bought a Weber Summit Kamado grill station………. By a country mile it’s the best grill I have cooked on (should be at the price).
Not one of the other grill has had a look in and I cook out at least 4 times per week.
Long story short…….SF, MT & WSM going up for sale and sticking with the WSK.
Really wanted the WSF to work out and kind of feel gutted it has not but as I say just can’t trust it.
Hope your issues get sorted out quickly

I don't know. I see some decent looking used Camp Chef pellet grills and have to wonder if it would be better for me to play it safe. Not that they can't have problems. They do. But you don't read the same kind of stuff about a CF as what I copied above about the SmokeFire, at least not so continuously and so strongly worded. I know some here have had an overall good experience with their SmokeFIres for which I am very glad. I would love to join you, but I don't want a grill I can't at all trust. Hard to know what to think... :unsure:
 
Jon Tofte said:
In December I bought a Weber Summit Kamado grill station………. By a country mile it’s the best grill I have cooked on (should be at the price).
Not one of the other grill has had a look in and I cook out at least 4 times per week.
Long story short…….SF, MT & WSM going up for sale and sticking with the WSK.
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I fully concur. And Weber doesn’t pay me to shill for them (yet).
 
I feel pretty lucky my SmokeFire has been working flawless for a long time. I get nervous when updates come out and skipped the last one. I read good things about the latest update so I updated and last night the SmokeFire worked perfectly on a very windy day.
I haven’t cleaned it in a few cooks and I’m still on my original glow plug.

I do have some serious corrosion on some parts but I have been sent replacements. I’m probably waiting until total failure in those before I install, I’m only under warranty for another 9 months. Weber has always been generous with me though so I’m hoping they will still help out if I have issues after warranty.

I love being able to monitor cooks and adjust temps from my phone, I hope the SmokeFire continues to get better and look forward to seeing where it goes in the next 5 years.

I also highly recommend the top grate I had built, it allows you to cook a ton on the top and it’s much easier to manage drip trays on the bottom. Thanks again to Lew for the guidance on that top grate, it’s a beauty.
 
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Interesting post Jon, I can understand the frustration some folks have with the SF. Although my Camp Chef has been faultless after seeing the successful cooks owners of the SF have done I don't think the CC has the ability to create the results like the SF can do.
With that said being in my mid 70s I didn't need or want the frustration many and I'm sure not all went through or are going through, in my younger days, yes I would have taken the challenge.
The results I get with the CC are always good but not great, but I'm content with it.
With our summer charcoal bans the CC works for me.
 
I have a hard time wrapping my head around these problems.

Frankly, pellet jam is a user issue. Once I figured that out mine has been pure gold. I get it, people want to set it and forget it, which is in my mind absolutely stupid. You’re cooking, with fire, the last thing I want to do is forget it. So yeah, walking out and running my fingers into the pellets isn’t difficult.

Mine is a Gen 2. But I love her and can’t recommend enough.
 
I feel like I could have wrote the same post Jon, except I already had a WSCG and replaced the SomkeFire with another pellet grill. The line in the middle says it all “when it works, it’s great, when it doesn’t I hare it…” In fact, it was so great when it did work, I fell for it twice and ran close to 1000 pounds of pellets through the second one. I still believe if Weber solidifies the software, it’s going to be a great grill. The hopper changes they’ve made on the new stealth version will hopefully improve compatibility with more pellets and lessen flameouts and jams. I don’t agree that it’s reasonable to expect people to shuffle pellets every hour or two as you might as well be using a stick burner in the sense for overnight cooks.

In the end, my problems weren’t physical though. It was I couldn’t trust the software/firmware. Food probes would freeze mid cook, cook temps would randomly be inaccurate, One time it would go from 225-550 in 5-10 minutes, the next time it would be 10-20 minutes before the temps even started moving from 225. I just never knew what it was going to do cook to cook.
 
I'm a little younger than Rich but I share his sentiment: I'm old enough where I want to avoid frustrations. It would be nice to have facts--data on failure rates--but I don't know how we can get access to that detail. I don't have experience with mechanical components but on some of the stories I hear about electronic-related issues (and my own experience with my first SmokeFire in contrast with my well-liked second unit) I sometimes wonder if there is or was a dual-sourcing strategy where two contract manufacturers produced printed circuit board assemblies and for some unknown reason one of them was not producing them to the correct spec. My second unit is just simply so much different (flawless) than my experience with my first unit.

But let me qualify: I have so many cookers that I don't currently use any of them with extreme regularity (that may change in the not too distant future, though).
 
Jon, as you know I'm kinda active on that FB group. :D yeah, I talk too much. I keep saying that these grills behave differently for different people and I don't know why. I'm sure as heck not going to say that a problematic grill is all user problem because I'm not there. I am only certain about the performance of my 2 grills and there are times when I have to scramble to get my grill to settle down. My jury is still out on the latest software updates. My first impression is that we still have problems and I would think that 2 years after release, temp control wouldn't be the problem it is. The 24 in. Camp Chef has excellent capacity with that deep top shelf and seems ideal for what you want to do with it.
 
I had a one year, 100+ cook review planned, but it was too long, and I didn't feel like editing it all down, since most of what I had to say has already been said and the new SF is out now. But, the long and short of it is that I'm at 116 cooks on mine in less than one year, same glow plug, and rarely cleaned, no internal corrosion, holds temps great, runs every brand of pellets that I've tried, and no real problems to mention. A couple of flameouts turned out to be excessive ash in the fire pot smothering out the starting flame, due to my lack of cleaning. More often than a full clean, I occasionally now lift off the internals and proactively give the pot a tap to knock down any accumulated ash. There are a few design things that leave me scratching my head where my hair used to be, (short hopper, 15 min shutdown) but for the most part it has been trouble free and cooked fantastic food. The real test was this winter where I cooked on it in 20F and windy weather, where it performed without a hiccup. Because of it's ease of use I use it quite often, and although I still use my WSMs and Performer, the EX6 wins out on most busy nights.
Oh, and it is a rib-cooking mf.
 
Some great posts, guys! They show the wide range of experiences and reactions this innovative, but by most accounts temperamental, grill generates. I so want to try one for myself. Maybe it will work out eventually. There's a nice used 24" Camp Chef (not a Woodwind) for just $300 not all that far from me. I wish I could be Tom Horsman and do a YouTube video comparing it to a EX-4.
 
Lots of brands out there that work well. I "restored" a very new Pit Boss that I gave to some in-laws (there's a post about it somewhere on here) and they've been using it all year with no problems. I had bought a ZGrill prior to the SF, and sold it to my neighbor, who has been using it constantly and has had zero problems with it. I guess it's just luck of the draw.
 
C Lewis said:
Lots of brands out there that work well. I "restored" a very new Pit Boss that I gave to some in-laws (there's a post about it somewhere on here) and they've been using it all year with no problems. I had bought a ZGrill prior to the SF, and sold it to my neighbor, who has been using it constantly and has had zero problems with it. I guess it's just luck of the draw.
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I think the same as well. It's personal care and maintenance, storage and lots of things play into how well whatever brand you have performs for you. I tend to over care for my stuff and it all serves me very well, plus I like to piddle on stuff. piddlermike out
 
Jon Tofte said:
Some great posts, guys! They show the wide range of experiences and reactions this innovative, but by most accounts temperamental, grill generates. I so want to try one for myself. Maybe it will work out eventually. There's a nice used 24" Camp Chef (not a Woodwind) for just $300 not all that far from me. I wish I could be Tom Horsman and do a YouTube video comparing it to a EX-4.
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Jon, I hope you don't get an ulcer trying to decide. For 8 months I tried to talk myself out of the Smokefire and still bought my EX6. It's one persistent itch.
 
Agreed with Lew. I actually went in planning on likely walking out with a Green Mountain Jim Bowie, but the particular one I wanted (a mix of Prime legs but no windows nor WiFi) wasn’t in there. So I itched that Smokefire itch and love it.
 
I'm new to the WSF so my opinion probably don't mean much, but here goes. I went into this with a completely open mind, i did heaps of research and here in Oz and looked at virtually all pellet grills on offer here, and watched more youtube videos than I believed possible.

The cheap and nasty, no name dropping, to the supposedly top of the range and price bracket.

I found that most offerings here apart from the big price Y***** came from China, now being a retired tradesman I have an aversion of chinese 'produced to a price' crap.

Poor quality control abounds in their products usually, although some stuff does make the cut (Foxcon-Apple ?)

Now for all I know the Webers parts may also be sourced to some extent from there, but in general the actual quality of the unit I bought, the EX4, simply shone through.

I have had a few Weber products and their customer service has been exemplary, one Weber baby Q I had, had some rust on the grates and the lid powder coating was very slightly bubbling after nearly 5 years of hard use, they sent me new grates and a new lid straight away no quibbles.

To me that was the deciding factor, anyway enough spiel, I'm still in the early stages just 2 cooks in, and am not a 100% sure I'm a pellet cooker person yet, but it's easier and cleaner to operate than my fornetto razzo I just sold. I still have a Q2000 in my shed, but I make my own bacon,hams and other goodies so need a smoker of some sorts.

Like most things I'll give it a fair go, but my recent bacon smoke and NY strip grill and sear were simply the best I've had so far.

Hopefully I'm one of the lucky ones and my unit is going to be reliable long term.
 
Well its been almost 4 years since I bought my PitBoss Austin Lx, I can say it has had 1 flame out due to bridging of the pellets, don't remember the brand but there were some long pellets. smoke taste has always been lite for my tastes but have found that the Kingsford might actually have more flavor than a lot of other brands. They are short and I don't see that any pellet smoker would have feed problems. I wanted a Weber when they came out and with all the problems they had early on glad I didn't get 1. If the PB ever wears out it might get replaced by something but I don't think it will be anything much over $500. that's what I paid for the PB. not sure the flavor profiles from the different grills are much different using the same pellets, it would be fun to do a blind taste test against all of them to compare. If $$ wasn't a issue I would probably buy a Weber but as it stands I am happy with the performance of what I have. I love my Weber grills and hope that the company can keep making great products and stay in business for a lot more years, I dont look at other grills as I'm not in the market but I am simply interested as how the others are made. I want a top end Weber gas grill and may end up with 1 in a few years. I see a lot better quality in the upper end units vs my Spirit . Wife may dayvorce me for buying a $2000+ grill but after 37+ years She might not try to upgrade lol
 
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