Smokefire Shutdown "Feature"


 
C

C Lewis

Closed Account
Does anyone know the reason for the seemingly ridiculous 15 minute shutdown that the Smokefire goes through? On my previous pellet grills, you just shut it off. They continued the fan for a few minutes until cool, and you could fire it back up at anytime. On the Smokefire, Weber decided to make it continue to run and feed pellets for 15 minutes. I get the prevention of burnback in the auger, but for goodness sake, the auger is 10 inches above the fire pot. Just stop the auger feed, fire up the fan, and burn out the remaining pellets in the pot and be done with it. Shouldn't take more than a minute or two. The continued pellet feed and the fan cycling on and off for 15 minutes just seems silly. At least offer a way to bypass. I was cooking and pulled the food a bit too early, and hit the shutdown. My fault. Realizing that I needed a couple of more minutes of grill time, I was out of luck though. No way to stop the shutdown once it starts. The actual shutdown/burnout/cool down was quick, but it had to go through the entire cycle, wasting time and pellets. Meanwhile, my almost-cooked food is getting cold and dinner is delayed. Of all that I like about my Smokefire, it is the thing that I hate the most, right next to the 1/2 hopper on the back. Maybe the same intern developed both. Rant over, thanks for listening and being there.
 
Yeah, my Recteq takes a lot less than that. Still, safety first. Not being an engineer I cannot really say if that is just way overkill or not.
 
There's a shortcut. Select shutdown and let it start the shutdown process. After 10 to 15 seconds, or whatever, turn the power off and back on. You will get the improper shutdown message. Let it do it's thing until it beeps at you. Turn the power off and turn it back on. You're back to the start sequence. Less than 3 minutes.
 
ChuckO said:
I just open the lid when I shut down. I'd be surprised if it takes 5 minutes by doing that, but I don't time it, I'm busy eating BBQ :cool:
Click to expand...

So based upon your comment it sounds like the shutdown process is based upon internal temperature and not strictly on a pre-defined shutdown procedure.

Even the manual states to perform the shut-down procedure with the lid open! ChuckQ sounds like you read the instructions which I did not until today. Weber even cautions about doing this with the lid open.

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I'll shut down next time with the lid open and see if there is a difference.
 
I've left the lid open, only to have pieces of lit burning particles (ash) flying all over the place. Got hit last week with one and it hurt... Don't need a backyard fire , I'll keep them lid closed.
 
From what I’ve seen, most shutdown processes are getting longer not shorter. My MAK is 20 minutes. I want to say my Woodwind was 10-15 as well as my last Traeger. For a lot of pellet grills, I think this is an extra precaution to prevent burn back in the auger. Even though that really doesn’t apply to the SmokeFire, they probably have reasons for implementing a shutdown cycle.
 
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