SmokeFire on Fire...

[Jon Tofte]

LOL, Joe. I spilled more pellets with the SmokeFire than any other pellet grill. I don’t care for that hopper design.

Weber took the idea of the rear hopper - a good one as it relates to having a short auger - from Recteq. Recteq’s hopper is not as shallow front to back. I think maybe Weber was trying a little too hard for style over substance in making theirs so long and narrow. Still, the shorter auger this allows, I think, is a positive improvement over side-mounted hoppers.

 

[Shane - glitchy]

Weber took the idea of the rear hopper - a good one as it relates to having a short auger - from Recteq. Recteq’s hopper is not as shallow front to back. I think maybe Weber was trying a little too hard for style over substance in making theirs so long and narrow. Still, the shorter auger this allows, I think, is a positive improvement over side-mounted hoppers.

They could have taken the idea from Memphis grills, Smokin Bros, MAKs 3 and 4 star models, etc. If you get an auger jam, the short auger is much nicer, but other than that my experience hasn’t shown that it provides any cooking benefit. For most users, jams should be extremely rare to never if you keep pellets dry. My guess is Weber wass more concerned with a drop feed design for less chance of burn back at 600 degrees and wanted a central burn pot, which heavily favored choosing either a front or rear hopper. Several aspects of the hopper are the biggest hardware shortcomings of the SmokeFire, IMO. Poor slope, ignorant design of finger guard, flimsy lid that can warp and not seal well, lid opening the wrong direction. goofy rear design with the hopper only going partially across. Pellets easily fall between the hopper and the body. Imagine the capacity and slope increase they could have added if the just ran it all the way across the back. They probably trumped practicality to boost cover sales so people bought their custom shaped cover over a generic universal cover.

 

[BFletcher]

Poor slope, ignorant design of finger guard, flimsy lid that can warp and not seal well, lid opening the wrong direction. goofy rear design with the hopper only going partially across. Pellets easily fall between the hopper and the body.

Aside from these issues is the hopper okay, lol?

 

[Shane - glitchy]

It was not meant to be a rant, hope it didn’t come across that way. Just try to point out that it seems like a rookie engineer got the hopper design task. Outside of software, a lot of the issues users have and I think all of the hardware updates have been related to the hopper.

 

[Jon Tofte]

There are definitely some short-comings. If Weber survives this "Generation 2" roll-out, hopefully in a couple years you will see a fully improved SmokeFire II or whatever they choose to call it. Still, we have seen some REALLY GREAT food cooked on this grill, in spite of its current shortcomings. I still admire Weber for not just churning out a "me too" pellet grill but instead taking the risky route and trying to innovate. I also appreciate that it is priced in the lower middle part of the market. When you compare it to what is available at that price, the SmokeFire stands out as being a much nicer grill than most in my view. It's not fair to compare it to a MAK, Yoder or even Traeger Timberline that all cost a lot more. Start looking at big box store cheaper Traegers, etc. and you will see what I mean.

At the same time, Weber has been justifiably licking their wounds as the result of a rushed launch. It is very hard for me to believe that the issues many experienced would not have been detected had serious testing been done. I still am a Weber fan and am glad that they realized - a little late, but still in time - that this launch needed a reboot and that early buyers needed some real help.