Should i be concerned
- Thread starter Issom
- Start date
Jon Tofte
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
First let me say that I am not a SmokeFire owner, so I will defer to those here on our board who have been using them and learning their quirks for almost two years.
To my eye, what you are showing seems to indicate that pellets are not all falling into the firepot and yet are getting ignited. So, I would say, "Yeah, that's not good." Let's see what some real users think.
To my eye, what you are showing seems to indicate that pellets are not all falling into the firepot and yet are getting ignited. So, I would say, "Yeah, that's not good." Let's see what some real users think.
Lew Newby
R.I.P. 1/26/2024
I have seen pellets in all of those spots and members in the FB group have posted pictures of the pellets there. I spent some time on it but have never figured out how they end up there. It never happened with my Red Tec or Camp Chef but they have a different pellet feed design. It troubled me at first but the grill kept performing so I quit worrying about it. The only pellets that were charred were those at the fire pot. BUT - I rarely run high heat and I thought that may be a factor. In Dec, I ran a burn test where I induced a pellet void, flameout, explosive reignition scenario and I had pellets in all of those spots plus an overflowing fire pot, and pellets half way up the pellet slide when the pellet fire finally erupted. After the conflagration settled down, I shut it down and the pellets in the auger tube were uncharred. Since that's a place I really don't want my pellets igniting I figure it handled the worst case scenario and came out OK. It would be interesting to hear what Weber says.
Darian Hofer
TVWBB Pro
Ideally, should all the pellets fall into the fire pot, stay there, and burn? Yes, definitely. But it certainly isn’t going to hurt the grill if a few pop out and smolder/burn on the bottom of the grill.
Mine were burned in the back of the fire pot and a few at the top chute.. my concern was a hopper fire aswell since the fire was under the auger pipe. But I took the chute out and put it over the flavorizor bar holder and I'm testing it as we speak
Darian Hofer
TVWBB Pro
A couple pellets burn off so fast, no matter where they land in a hot zone they will burn away fast. Only way, realistically, you would get a chute fire is from a hot burning grease fire that lasts at least a few minutes. A couple smoldering or burning pellets around the chute will do little as pellets are constantly being pushed out of the chute.
Lew Newby
R.I.P. 1/26/2024
I ran my EX6 for 6 months with the slide UNDER. I moved it to over and saw no change in performance. It doesn't matter.
Lew Newby
R.I.P. 1/26/2024
Save the parts you replace. They work, so if you get a motor failure then you have the part on hard to get you up and running before parts arrive from Weber.
Darian Hofer
TVWBB Pro
I think the pellets or pellet pieces get blown in odd places by the control fan.
I‘m curious to hear what Weber actually thinks causes this not just them throwing parts at it.
Maybe lighter weight pellets or pieces of pellets being blown by fan. I know that fan can really get blowing. Enough to blow sparks and ash all over and out of the gaps around the lower part of the grill.
I hope the new parts somehow help.
So waiting on weber reply. They sent me a new auger assembly and 2 bags of weber pellets. Uninstaller the old one which was easy.. I installed the new one and fired it up. Right to 600 for 15 min the 225 for half hour and then 400 for 3 hours.. you can look under the old auger assembly to see where the fire is burning the chute
Hi, did you hear back from Weber? I had the exactly same problem. I reached out to Weber and they suggested using a new auger. Installed the new auger and the same results as you are having again. I reached out again to Weber and they had no solution for this problem. Just told me to clean it more.