Simon.W

4 minutes ago, sotv said:

New Firmware out 4054 for it. Seems to be mainly for Smokeboost from Webers description. Got a couple of racks of ribs on at the moment, put Smokeboost on for just over an hour, worked fine, when set 250F temp after Smokeboost showed it had been running at 180F

Overall I though my startup seemed a little slower, but machine sounded much quieter fan wise (not tested at 600F yet). I got the impression there was more visible smoke out the back of the machine on Smokeboost since this update.  

Will update if any problems at end of cook, fingers crossed it works ok.

I'm kind of scared to update mine.  I've only just got the grill back to working properly again!

Suffering from the same problems folks. Mine won't get over 230, the the temperature dropping quicky when the lid is open seems to be happening since the software update in december.  

I've got a new motor and auger sat here waiting to be fitted to see what it does.  The nut and bolt instead of cotter pin is purely a manufacturing imrovement from what I've been told, so I'm not expecting it to make any difference.  I guess we'll see.

6 hours ago, James17 said:

So weber bless them sent me pellets to do a test burn. Turned grill on and after 10mins my phone flashed improper shutdown error. 
 

ive tried everything but the controller keeps flashing on and off and flickering. Has ruined a £30 rack of beef ribs. 
 

I am this close to asking for a full refund. I have had to replace 3 controllers, install the hopper insert. Then they replaced the whole grill. Then I had to replace the auger and now it’s broken again. 
 

 

Yikes man, that really sucks.  Chewing through that many controllers seems like there is some external factor involved.  Is it the same issue each time?  

1 hour ago, James17 said:

That will certainly stop it reaching top temp. Thanks I’ll give it a clear out 

Keep me posted!

49 minutes ago, James17 said:

I might try that. I have the welded auger but it did put its self out a while ago. Pellets everywhere. 
 

maybe there is a blockage and it’s not able to feed enough. Been running great otherwise 

Yeah it's definitely worth a look. 

This is what mine looked like and it took a screwdriver to pry it all out.  The picture doesn't even show half of it.  

I hoping that most of it was caused by shutdowns done before firmware 4042 and the latest version will stop it from re-occuring.

1 hour ago, James17 said:

Anyone having issues getting to full temp in the colder weather?

I've had temperature issues on my EX6, but it turned out to be the the shutdown process jamming up the pellets in the auger.  That's the welded sing-piece auger as well.  After removing the motor and cleaning it all out, it's working as normal.  Cold weather doesn't seem to bother it.  

1 hour ago, sotv said:

Had some intermittent freezing and the whole control panel locking up and could only be powered down by turning of the mains switch rather than the shutdown method. They're sending me a new controller to fit.

Had an email with a £25 voucher sent this week as a Thank You for being a a Weber VIP, assume it is something to do with purchasing a Smokefire, although I bought it elsewhere and not Weber.

 

 

Oh heck, that really sucks that you are still having trouble.  At least you are being looked after by Weber I guess.  

Hopefully everything will be sorted once the new controller is fitted.

On 9/18/2020 at 4:32 PM, sotv said:

Finally got round to installing the new augur and chute. Pretty straightforward. Reached 600F in 15 minutes and then grilled at 400F for just under an hour and held rock steady for the duration. Fingers crossed a good start, going forward

I didn't get a notification of your reply for some reason, is it all still behaving as you would expect?

Mine is working superbly, like a different grill entirely.

Just placed my order for the front and side tables!

1 hour ago, sotv said:

Glad to hear it, did a Lamb Shawarma using a marinated Boneless Shoulder on a kebab spike and it turned out well also, hoping to fit the chute this week.

Reading Weber have pushed a new firmware (4042) update out for it, over the weekend (No details on what it does) Had my Smokefire on twice over the weekend and no offer of an update either time though....

Excellent stuff.  The new welder chute and auger seems to have dramatically changed the behaviour of my smokefire, it just seems more eager to do what I tell it to do now.  I'm impressed.

I've just seen a few posts about 4042 as well, I'm intrigued as to what it does.  Firmware is usually a phased rollout so if something goes wrong, it's not the entire user base that's effected.  I guess we'll see!

On 9/12/2020 at 11:59 AM, sotv said:

Well let's hope it is an uncommon thing, as can't see anywhere to buy replacements on their website, if their not willing to replace them if warranty runs out.

I'm doing a Lamb dish tomorrow, first time done lamb on it, drip tray underneath it. (Bit worried about the amount of fat from lamb), looking forward to how it turns out, are you doing a skillet cook or a leg of lamb cook for your Raan?

Got a rack of Baby and St Louis Ribs on at the moment, first to see if it properly behaves over 6 hours.

I decided to leave it without a trip tray on my cook, two lamb legs that had been marinated overnight.  It behaved flawlessly!

13 hours ago, sotv said:

Thanks will do, going to do a couple of cooks in the coming days so going to sort it after. 

My original problem was it shot to 700F+ according to the controller on a 450F cast iron skillet cook (so no fat dripping down) and although I didn't see it, my neighbours knocked my door to say flames were shooting out the back 3 vents, close to the wooden fence. So I put it into shutdown and once it had cooled I started it up again. It reached 370F and then started dropping in temp, once it reached 260F I shut it down again. 15 minutes into shutdown it flared up again and had a proper fire in the pot that was going up the Augur chute and an electrical burning smell. Not a lot I could do and had to let it burn its self out. When it had all finished I could see the pellets coming out of the augur were all burnt and smoke coming out the hopper and the flavoriser bars had a hard/grey crust (due to the intense heat) over them, which has cleaned off, but took some vigorous scrubbing.

It was all videoed, they had a conference call with Weber America about it, got the impression they weren't to concerned (I was) they said a new glow plug assembly, glow plug and the new Augur/Chute should sort it. Gives me the impression they have experienced this before, personally I found it scary and the glow plug ended up with a hard green crust all over it and the wires going down the assembly were burnt out. I will give more of the internals a check when I change the chute/augur, but touchwood it seems to be working ok now and I will get through the couple of cooks I have planned this weekend. 

Did some potato wedges on them after changing the plug and assembly and it all seemed to be behaving itself 🤞

Has taken nearly 3 weeks to get the spares to me, which I.m not to impressed by, understand the chute, but the glowplug should have been here in days imho

Keep us posted how you get on, hopefully it will all settle down and behave properly for you. 

I think Weber are having some issues with the glow plugs where they are prematurely burning out.  Possibly something to do with the earth connection, but I cant be certain.  They are also sending out glow plugs as gifts to people who have had any problems with their smokefire in the US, so I wonder if that has put some stress on the supply chain.  Who knows.

In other news, Lamb Raan in on the menu tonight, maiden voyage after the new chute and auger was fitted.  I'll post the results later 👍  

9 hours ago, sotv said:

Hoping to fit mine the weekend. The glow plug and assembly, I swapped over yesterday have got it working again after my firepot fire after shutdown and thankfully they were the only 2 items that showed signs of burning and damage from it from the internals of the machine, but will be interested to see what has happened with the augur and chute as flames went up the slide and burnt pellets on the outside of the augur.

Good to hear the benefits of fitting the Augur, how long did it take to fit and did you use a video or the instructions to do it?  

Yikes, I'd be very interested to know how that happened as well.

Ok so it took me about 3 hours, but I was taking the time to to brush and clean the the SF at the same time, I was in no particular rush.  I read through all of the documentation supplied with the new componants and also watched these two videos by Harry Soo - The first one gives a good idea of what is involved and the second is extremely important as he corrects a mistake he made.

The new auger mechanism comes with a new base plate that attaches to the motor with four bolts and has two more holes to attach it to the back of the auger chute, these two holes are raised in one direction and it is important to get them the right way around.  The two screws that hold the motor to the chute are now supplied with crush washers and these must be installed so the motor doesn't work loose.  

Interestingly, this is how to original cotter pin was installed by weber.  The instruction for the new one tell you to splay the legs of the cotter pin in opposite directions.  

Any questions, let me know!

@sotv

New auger and welded chute have been fitted, 315 reached in 10 minutes and 50 seconds instead of 33 minutes.  Night and day difference. 

How are you getting on? 

44 minutes ago, sotv said:

My welded chute and augur has arrived today, have you fitted yours yet and was it an easy enough job to do? Changed the glowplug yesterday, which is simple enough to do, but the welded chute and augur looks a lot more involved.

Mine arrived today as well! I'll be fitting it a bit later and I'll keep you posted.  

WOWBBQ currently aren't sure whether the smokefire accessories will be in stock in October or January, but they are going to keep me posted.  As soon as they are live, I'll post here. 

On 8/30/2020 at 9:09 AM, sotv said:

Seen some pictures of Reddit with the front tables on the EX6 and they look quite good. Tbh I think the side table with the chopping board will be what I look at when they finally get released over here, as that is what I would get most use out of I would imagine.

I can see the benefit of the front tables and top rack storage, when not in use, I have left it out after shutdown and covering the machine, numerous times. But can see a lot of grease and liquid getting over that front table, during a cook. Certainly with the way i make a mess 😀

I'm quite tempted by the front and side shelves for mine as I like to spread out when I'm preparing things.  

The storage for the top rack is also pretty exciting as I'm also forever leaving that thing propped up against a wall overnight! 

Slightly off topic, I'd be interested to see what people are doing for pellet storage.  Most of the solutions people are suggesting online are all US links and can't get them over here.  Same thing with the casters... Trying to find 1/2-13 UNC threaded anything over here is a practical impossibility! 

On a slightly different note.  It looks like the accessories for the smokefire are now available on the american Weber site.

The front foldable front shelf has a place to hang the top cooking rack when not in use (That's awesesome!)

The foldable side shelf has a bottle opener and a place to store the wooden cutting board, nicely thought out!

I hope they are available soon!

16 hours ago, sotv said:

Not fair to go into to much detail as Weber are looking into it as I had the incidents all videoed as it was happening and it has been passed onto the International side of Weber as well, due to the nature of what has happened.

It's not the fastest process as Weber CS working from home, but they seem proactive and hopefully will get it sorted albeit slower than what it would be pre-covid as means replacing some parts, to see if it works again and if not further parts etc, etc. Hopefully just a few parts damaged, but won't know till I start replacing them.

Without a working machine at the moment and I'm missing it, may even have to use the PRoQ for the first time this year, this weekend.

 

That's fair enough. I hope all goes well and you are back up and running.

4 hours ago, James17 said:

well I can say that the customer service (which I have used a bit) including on the international side where I have the US on the phone, has been very very good, no complaints on that side. Ive have numerous parts and even a whole new replacement BBQ. fingers crossed but it seems to all works wonderfully now. 

 

Enjoy the old BBQ, I have been making an effort to cycle through mine as I do love playing with fire!

I can't complain either, they have been very good to me so far and I know they'll eventually sort out the issues that I'm having.

53 minutes ago, sotv said:

Jinxed myself, saying I have had no real problems 😀 Serves me right, should have kept my mouth shut, bit of an incident over the weekend, replacements parts being sent.....

Oh no!  What has happened?

7 hours ago, Wade said:

All new types of automated smoker have teething problems to begin with, however it is not something that you would normally expect from Weber. 

My Cookshack FEC-120 pellet smoker was one of the first to be converted from 115v to 220v. I had problems with it for several months before they realised they actually needed to redesign the main board. They shipped and I fitted the new board and it has been working well ever since.

Persevere - it should be worth it in the end. 

Completely agree.  The new welded auger has been ordered so I'm going to do a full set of tests before and after to see what the difference is.  If it helps Weber improve the product in some way then it was worth the effort.  

Bit of a disaster with my reverse sear rib eye steaks today.  The smokefire took around 20 minutes to reach 135oc, once I had got the steaks up to the right temperature, I removed them and set the smomefire to 310oc to get a good sear.  Unfortunately, after a further 20 minutes, the smokefire was hovering around 210oc.  I turned on my oven to 260 to preheat my cast iron pan to finish the steaks.  The oven got to temp and the smokefire still had not.  Although it wasn't a bad steak, it wasn't up to standard.

Fresh pellets from weber and everything was clean and free of ash/debris as i'd cleaned it out for my smokeboost testing.

27 minutes ago, sotv said:

It must be very frustrating for the people experiencing problems and certainly not cost effective for Weber sending out these replacement parts.

You would hope their R&D department is looking into what the problem is with mainly the Augur for some people and coming up with a software/hardware solution. 

Customer Service default seems to be either to send out a new augur, control unit, motherboard or glow plug and I can't imagine some of those parts are cheap. I am sure actually doing some proper research and fault finding & identifying the problem and getting a solution would be cheaper in the long run than throwing parts at it, hoping that sorts the customers problem out.

That being said they must have sold 10's of thousands of them now worldwide and as frustrating as it is if you are experiencing problems, hopefully they're in the minority rather than the majority. Speaking for myself currently using mine 4 or 5 times a week (oven indoors is pretty redundant at the moment) and for me it has been the best investment I have made in an outdoor bit of cooking equipment and I love using mine and the results whether a 15 minute pizza/burger or 14 hour lo&slo cook always surprise me how well it does it. 

Yeah, some people seem to be having it a lot worse than I do, which must being pretty infuriating.  Fortuantely, my SF behaves very well under normal operation and only seems to be falling down on the smokeboost part.  I would probably be a tad less relaxed about the whole thing if I couldn't even cook on it normally.

I think you are right, sending out all of the replacement parts much be having an impact and they really need to get to the bottom of it as they seem to be stabbing in the dark a little bit.  The support representative did they are having weekly "smokefire" meetings held between the EU and US aftersales departments and are interested in the results of the testing I am doing.  Personally, I am fine to help out and make the product better, but I can definitely see other people not being so interested in having to test a product they've spent a small fortune on. 

I absolutely love mine. The results I am getting with such a high level of convenience and control is more than making up for any of the issues that I am encountering.

1 hour ago, sotv said:

Do you use a mixture of branded pellets or mainly one specific type, as seen reports the Smokefire although meant to be compatible with all pellets, doesn't work so well with some other brands.

I have only ever used Weber and The Alfresco Chef brands and touchwood they both seem to feed well with mine. Although there is a bit more ash overall produced by the Alfresco Chef brand, but they do Cherry, which I can't get with the Weber brand yet.

I had read the same thing about branded pellets, so I decided to play it safe until more info was available. 

The only pellets that I've used so far are the Weber ones, mainly Hickory and Apple.  The bag that Weber support sent me was the grill academy master blend, which is the actually the first time I've used that one as it's always sold out when I go to place an order.  

On 8/20/2020 at 10:38 PM, James17 said:

New auger for a month now I think. Runs perfect, no issues with smoke boost. 
 

on another note I pulled the trigger on a Kamado Joe 3 as sold my kettle and need charcoal in my life.... aside from my WSM lol 

I've got a new glow plug coming which I've been asked to test.  Personally though I don't think it's going to fix anything as the glow plug has no issues firing under normal cooking modes. By the time this Weber support person has finished, I'll have an entirely new BBQ made out replacement parts 😅.

I must admit, since getting the smokefire, my interest in berbecue and smoking has dramatically increased, I think it's the convenience of it all and that I can monitor what's going on whilst I'm working that has made the difference.

Let me know how you get on with the KJ, I've got my eye on one as well! 

On 8/19/2020 at 12:16 PM, Lleyton Mac's Backyard BBQ said:

i started getting issues with pellet dust build up and e3 errors and was taking 30+ minutes to get to 600f i contacted weber they said the welded chute will fix it which i replaced now i get upto 600f in 13-15 minutes

I must admit, mine is kicking up a lot of dust as well.  It took 9 minutes to get to 120oc earlier.  Have you seen a drop in the amount of dust since fitting your new auger? 

The new bag of pellets hasn't done anything for the smokeboost issues.  Not that I was expecting it to.

It just smothers the fire.  Interestingly I didn't get errors this time around, I just got a complete flame out and the auger continued to fill the firebox with pellets until it overflowed.  

I guess we'll see what Weber say about it tomorrow.