Tony-Chicago
TVWBB Wizard
Was going to write about how much this section has slowed down so much lately. It reminded me of an early post about the coming excitement , how a disturbance in the force this large would be all the rage. Then I saw this excellent post by Jon and I wanted to see how the smokefire had lived up to the original benchmarks, and what is its status today. Again all hail Jon and his original post.
Tony,
I think there are several pellet grills that Weber has to look at as benchmarks. There are high-end ones like Yoder and MAK that are priced out of the middle market that Weber operates in. Both great brands with very different approaches. Excluding them (and maybe a few other high end brands I am not thinking about) that leaves at least two in my mind:
Traeger Ironwood (Traeger's Timberline is better, but appears to be their attempt to go upmarket. Priced a lot higher than what we are being told Weber will be offering.) Anyway, there are still things to like:
1.) High chamber that allows three grate racks or cooking something like turkey or beer-can chicken.
2.) Up to date WIFI and computer controls.
3.) Double wall cooking chamber
4.) "Downdraft" exhaust which makes sense at least in principal.
A few things not as good:
1.) Looks like non-stainless grates
2.) Ditto for the body...what about hardware? Probably not.
3.) Dinky side shelf
I would offer that the Rec Tec RT-700 Bull would be the other target. I can directly vouch for these comments since I own and use one.
Things to like:
1.) Stainless grates of decent quality, certainly perfect for BBQ
2.) Stainless barrel, heavy stainless heat deflector & firepot, and lots of stainless hardware
3.) Available large stainless fold-down front table (extra cost, however)
4.) Well respected up to date controller and WIFI. The WIFI app works really well.
5.) Very large center rear mounted hopper which allows for a short auger that is less likely to jam.
A couple things not as good:
1.) A second stainless shelf is available. That's good, but it is not a grate that slides in like Traeger's but a shelf that rests on top of the main grates.
2.) The typical - and I think going out of style - grease management with the bucket on the side is messy and a pain.
I think Weber has to meet or exceed these two pellet grills. The limited teaser pictures seem to show that the Weber SmokeFire will have a more modern grease management system and maybe something like Traeger's "Downdraft" smoke system. They are also claiming 600 degrees to allow for true high heat searing. Neither Traeger or Rec Tec can genuinely claim this.
It is going to be interesting to see what it will be like. I sure hope they don't skimp on using stainless steel. Using stainless in key components and great customer service, are two of the big positives about Rec Tec in my mind.