Well Look What Arrived Early


 
When I read Larrys post I went out and hugged my Camp Chef. Almost three years of fault free cooks, zero problems. The only time I had an issue was when I forgot to fill the pellet hopper and it ran out of pellets. Filled it up did a restart and problem solved.
My CC doesn't have remote access, no apps to deal with just a basic controller that I monitor with a TW Smoke.
Yes, I will concede that a well functioning smoke fire will probably produce a little better product. But is it worth the hassles that the more complex grills have? In my opinion, no, but that's just me. I really admire those that have the patience to see the problems through, I would have a permeant room in hotel silly by now.
Me, I guess I just believe in the KISS scenario.
Rant over.
 
Rich Dahl said:
When I read Larrys post I went out and hugged my Camp Chef. Almost three years of fault free cooks, zero problems. The only time I had an issue was when I forgot to fill the pellet hopper and it ran out of pellets. Filled it up did a restart and problem solved.
My CC doesn't have remote access, no apps to deal with just a basic controller that I monitor with a TW Smoke.
Yes, I will concede that a well functioning smoke fire will probably produce a little better product. But is it worth the hassles that the more complex grills have? In my opinion, no, but that's just me. I really admire those that have the patience to see the problems through, I would have a permeant room in hotel silly by now.
Me, I guess I just believe in the KISS scenario.
Rant over.
Click to expand...
I get that. Which is why I am contemplating simply getting another Member's Mark like the one I already have. My only real "gripes" with it are twofold. I really would like ability to control/monitor remotely for those long cooks (ribs, chuck, brisket what have you) when I REALLY need to get away from the casa for errands or such and it's a bit "tight" inside. Which is what brought me to the Z Grill. Everything pointed to it being much like the MM but with added size and feature of WIFI. I found it quite odd about the display going "wonky" but the app working flawlessly. Which makes me think the issue is simply in the LCD itself not in the "brains" of the grill.
I ran it a long time yesterday. It seems quite fuel efficient (certainly as much so as the Member's Mark), it's easier to clean out than the MM (because of the extra height), it does not seem to make any more ash to clean out either. The photo shows what was left after running it between 3 to 4 hours total. Seems about the same as the MM (BTW with Costco pellets) and those hours of running (much of it at full tilt to "burn it in"), only used about 2 cups of pellets total. It has a lot going for it, and perhaps the fault could be the result of the careless handling by the shipping company as the hopper assembly was left to bounce around pretty good thanks to being "stood up" with the heaviest end (hopper side) up during it's truck ride.
Note the photo(s) showing how things bounced around. The end where the hopper mounts, the bottom liner dented, bottom of the outer shell creased, and so on as well. Yet the box showed no outward sign of damages to account for this. I can only attribute it to careless handling by the freight company. I think boxes are marked with arrows and shipping instructions for a good reason. I also have isolated a part of the hinge on the left side which was "tweaked" causing the lid to bind on open/close and ripping the gasket. Anyway basically a photo progression. Look too at the box. No outward damage including the bottom of it to account for the "buckle" in the outer sheet metal of the grill.

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I completely understand the freedom of being able to roam at will with the remote access. In my case I won't leave a grill or any fire unattended so having that ability is a mote point for me.
I won't go into the reason why, let's just say it was a very bad experience.
Well, I certainly hope the next one is in great shape. Maybe this one the box will be honked but the grill will be okay. Hard to believe with that much damage the box wasn't screwed up also.
Hang in there I'm sure it will get resolved. Looking forward to some pictures of your cooks on both of those pellet poopers.
 
We shall see. I have not been having the best of luck. Some may recall back in Feb my MM went into an ERR mode. Been fighting trying to get this issue resolved fully. I was able to repair the driver circuit but I still want MM to supply a fully working control panel that I did not have to rework myself. They sent me a second full hopper assembly and again it has a faulty control panel. They're still trying to find me a new updated control panel they say will work. We shall see.
The Z Grill, I think that hopper assembly weighs something like 45#. That is a crazy amount of weight to be up high and pounding on the grill body because of the way the freight company stood it on end for the truck trip. Total idiots in my book. Bouncing up and down in the back of a straight 30' box truck is not the way to do this. It was packaged at the factory to endure normal stresses if and only if it's placed as the instructions on the box show it should be. Stand it up and it's like placing the engine of your car on the roof while it's being shipped to the dealer. Not gonna look too hot. Whether this caused the electronic issue IDK but given the amount of physical damage I saw/found who knows?
 
Well I got a notice from FedEx I have a package on the way from Chino CA. I have not ordered anything, so I have to think it's from Z Grills as they are headquartered out that way. And the CSR I spoke to said that if they have a new controller they will express it right out to me. Could be I got lucky?
 
LMichaels said:
Well I got a notice from FedEx I have a package on the way from Chino CA. I have not ordered anything, so I have to think it's from Z Grills as they are headquartered out that way. And the CSR I spoke to said that if they have a new controller they will express it right out to me. Could be I got lucky?
Click to expand...
Hope so!
 
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