SmokeFire issues on YouTube.


 
An interview with Kevin Kolman. Asked the tough questions, but responded with alot of spin. The bottom line he hit on a few times is that Weber is still learning about the grill and have planned updates. One thing that he kept doing was kind of blaming users for issues but then saying, "in a few months we will have an update to the smoker to fix that problem." What I got out of it was they did not test as much as they claimed and now are responding to the real-world testing that early adopters are doing. I think they will get it right in the end, but obviously not there yet.

I do hope that the early adopters will get access to the updates and fixes they are planning.

 
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One thing that he kept doing was kind of blaming users for issues but then saying, "in a few months we will have an update to the smoker to fix that problem." What I got out of it was they did not test as much as they claimed and now are responding to the real-world testing that early adopters are doing.

🤦‍♂️ A month into this debacle, when they are finally starting to recover with the hopper insert and the Rev. F auger, and they are still clueless about messaging.
 
While Kevin is obviously a company man, i do agree with a lot of what he is saying.

It’s a hell of a grill and smoker, I know I have said many times I wanted a brisket machine, however I love just turning this on and putting a ton of smoke to a piece of meat (tri-tip for example) and cranking it up to a roaring fire to sear it. Convenient and great results. Possibly the best reverse sear results I’ve had.

Maybe (obviously) they over hyped the grease management but I use drip pans in my WSM and kettles on big fatty cuts(shoulders, briskets) already, its grease and fire.

My wife convinced me to give the SF a chance and now she makes fun of me for trying to cook everything on it all the time. I do really like this thing and hope Weber keeps doing exactly what they did today, upgrade and continue to make the SF the best it can be.
 
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Bit disappointing this unit is not working as advertised I had my eye on it, I've just gone from start to finish & from the first post I thought 'that hopper hasn't got enough angle it'll get a log jam', sure enough, another thing, the fans seem to be on one side only, not centered to the outlet, well, that air is going to hit the burn bar at an angle & push to one side of the outlet, possibly why the flame comes out the RH side, I've noticed that in all vids the units temp sensor is always covered in grease & gunk, honestly, can a temp sensor give accurate readings in that state?? And this is a unit that depends on what sensors tell it to perform correctly, why I say this is that I had a lot to do with Harleys 1st fuel infection bikes & a head temp sensor that was failing, gave grey hairs to all tech's that worked on them, it never showed as a trouble code, it just failed, wondering if some problems could be similar?
 
I put the Smokefire back on my wish list but I'm quite happy with my current grill. The percentage of satisfied customers seems to be going up. Weber seems to be responding with a fix for problems. In time I'm hoping they have a fully functional app. I can wait until they work out the bugs.

Temp sensor - mine works fine even when gunked up. I know a lot of folks say clean them regularly and I clean mine occasionally. I read somewhere that experiments had been run on the subject and they concluded that a dirty sensor still performs as advertised.
 
Temp sensor - mine works fine even when gunked up. I know a lot of folks say clean them regularly and I clean mine occasionally. I read somewhere that experiments had been run on the subject and they concluded that a dirty sensor still performs as advertised.

I've never had a problem with the pit sensors for my Stoker getting covered with smoke deposits. However, the first time I used my Meater+, the ambient temp sensor agreed with the Stoker for the first 45 minutes of a WSM rotisserie chicken cook, then the Meater+ ambient temp started falling until it was 100 degrees off. I've used it since with no problems. It turns out the chicken cook was super smokey and a build-up of smoke deposits on the ambient sensor caused the temp reading to drop.
 
Well I'm lucky I guess, I have zero issues with my new EX6.

The only thing I"ve noted is that the actual temperature on the cooking surface is below what the controller states. I know what it is and the temperature across the grill is very uniform. It is nice weather, not cold here in Idaho, don't know how much that changes with the weather. I emailed Weber to see if there was a possible calibration or if something was in the works. As long as I'm aware of the difference and things are consistent under the hood I'm good.
 
My SmokeFire can be a pain in the ***, but I’m getting great results just about every time.
 
I discovered Trend Kill BBQ because of the Smokfire. He made a video Old Country VS Webber. You can look it up if you want to see the results on that one.


Apparently he also got the attention of Old Country BBQ Pits at some point. A couple of announcements came in a recent video.

Since this is the Smokefire thread he also gave some more thoughts on the Smokefire that he's been using. That comes at about minute 7:50 in the video of you want to skip to only Smokefire news.

 
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I saw this vid this morning. Trendkill was very positive about his SmokeFire and now he says he got rid of it , took a big loss. IDK what happened ?

But he's getting an Old Country Brazos, same offset I have. I will be VERY interested to see him operate the smoker.

Glad to see good things for him, he seems to be a straight shooter.
 
Trendkill was very positive about his SmokeFire and now he says he got rid of it , took a big loss. IDK what happened ?


The shot answer, It had more issues during his VS video. The next day, after cleaning everything it still was having issues. Plus the previous issues. So he said he can't trust the thing to work and cut his loses.
 
I discovered Trend Kill BBQ because of the Smokfire. He made a video Old Country VS Webber. You can look it up if you want to see the results on that one.


Apparently he also got the attention of Old Country BBQ Pits at some point. A couple of announcements came in a recent video.

Since this is the Smokefire thread he also gave some more thoughts on the Smokefire that he's been using. That comes at about minute 7:50 in the video of you want to skip to only Smokefire news.

Yeah I like the guy. What’s up w the SmokeFire?
 
Ok watched the video, sucks but who can blame the guy, I get so pissed when the temps fluctuate or just take forever to come to temp.
I’ve emailed Weber many times just reminding them they have some work to do!!
I’m not getting sent free pits like this guy so I need I’m the damn thing to work.
 
Ok watched the video, sucks but who can blame the guy, I get so pissed when the temps fluctuate or just take forever to come to temp.
I’ve emailed Weber many times just reminding them they have some work to do!!
I’m not getting sent free pits like this guy so I need I’m the damn thing to work.
He really liked the Smokefire when it worked. And did everything he could plus everything Weber recommend make it work. I think he gave it more than a fair chance. Weber IMO really dropped the ball on this one, and continues to kick the can down the road.

He also just bought a master built with out of his pocket money. Did a couple videos on it before he was contacted by a company for a BBQ. I wasn't sure about his in the beginning, but I'm starting to like his content. As Lynn said, he seems like a straight shooter, and I respect that.

I'm curious what thermometer he was talking about in the video. For a company to send a YouTuber a free product for review, then demand it be sent back or paid for because they didn't like the review is pretty sad. I get they do it so the product can be praised, resulting in sales. But it's pretty bad if they can't take criticism, then demand payment or return of the sample they sent. When I have time I'd like to go through his videos and see if I can find out what company it was. If I'm able to. They may have had him pull the video and not discuss, due to some kind of contract. I've seen that happen before.
 
He really liked the Smokefire when it worked. And did everything he could plus everything Weber recommend make it work. I think he gave it more than a fair chance. Weber IMO really dropped the ball on this one, and continues to kick the can down the road.

He also just bought a master built with out of his pocket money. Did a couple videos on it before he was contacted by a company for a BBQ. I wasn't sure about his in the beginning, but I'm starting to like his content. As Lynn said, he seems like a straight shooter, and I respect that.

I'm curious what thermometer he was talking about in the video. For a company to send a YouTuber a free product for review, then demand it be sent back or paid for because they didn't like the review is pretty sad. I get they do it so the product can be praised, resulting in sales. But it's pretty bad if they can't take criticism, then demand payment or return of the sample they sent. When I have time I'd like to go through his videos and see if I can find out what company it was. If I'm able to. They may have had him pull the video and not discuss, due to some kind of contract. I've seen that happen before.
Let us know if you find out.
 
Trendkill said he was gonna take out his pellet bins. I guess , for the time being, he's done with pellets

If I were looking for set and forget, I'd be far more inclined to go with the Old Country Gravity Feed or even the Masterbuilt gravity feed, before I went with pellets.
 
Trendkill said he was gonna take out his pellet bins. I guess , for the time being, he's done with pellets

If I were looking for set and forget, I'd be far more inclined to go with the Old Country Gravity Feed or even the Masterbuilt gravity feed, before I went with pellets.
Yep he’s taking a break from pellets, can’t be having his wife say the SmokeFire food was better anymore. Lol, that was funny. He was like “WHAT”
 

 

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