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Weber smokefire (pellet grill)


James17

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3 hours ago, James17 said:

I’m about 15 cooks in now and apart from one controller crash, it kept temp just couldn’t change it so not a disaster, it’s been flawless. Obviously this is my second as the first got replaced. 

Haven't used it since the new firmware update, but mine gets up to temp within 20--25 minutes for 5-600F but around 15-18 minutes for 225F which I find a bit strange for the temperature difference. But it always gets there, unless the new firmware is going to muck it up?

Found it holds temps pretty well, occasionally notice a brief  20-30F drop in temp on the app during the cook but it has always got it back up to the desired temp pretty quickly and my old bullet smoker, had more temperature variants in a cook than this appears to.

Only thing that surprises me is the rate of pellets it gets through, having never owned one before, it is probably normal. But I can see it is going to be quite a bit more expensive for fuel than using charcoal overall at this rate.

 

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23 minutes ago, sotv said:

Haven't used it since the new firmware update, but mine gets up to temp within 20--25 minutes for 5-600F but around 15-18 minutes for 225F which I find a bit strange for the temperature difference. But it always gets there, unless the new firmware is going to muck it up?

Found it holds temps pretty well, occasionally notice a brief  20-30F drop in temp on the app during the cook but it has always got it back up to the desired temp pretty quickly and my old bullet smoker, had more temperature variants in a cook than this appears to.

Only thing that surprises me is the rate of pellets it gets through, having never owned one before, it is probably normal. But I can see it is going to be quite a bit more expensive for fuel than using charcoal overall at this rate.

 

I spoke to weber the other day, he said it should only take 8-12 mins to get from 225F to 600F. Mine takes over 25 mins.

It does chew through pellets though, a lot more than my old GMG

I've got some GMG and Lill's levels pellets I won't to try, have done a bit but not a fair test as my grill is not working properly.

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15 minutes ago, Is it dun yet said:

I spoke to weber the other day, he said it should only take 8-12 mins to get from 225F to 600F. Mine takes over 25 mins.

It does chew through pellets though, a lot more than my old GMG

I've got some GMG and Lill's levels pellets I won't to try, have done a bit but not a fair test as my grill is not working properly.

I think I got to 225f in 10 mins the other day. I think it’s important to note that we are cooking at 3-8 Celsius outside so it has to work a lot harder to get to and hold temp. 
 

im doing an 8ish hr pork shoulder cook this weekend and a few steaks and a whole chicken so I’ll let you know how it goes. 
 

I would expect 1.5lbs an hour of pellets at 250f in these temps  

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5 minutes ago, James17 said:

I think I got to 225f in 10 mins the other day. I think it’s important to note that we are cooking at 3-8 Celsius outside so it has to work a lot harder to get to and hold temp. 
 

im doing an 8ish hr pork shoulder cook this weekend and a few steaks and a whole chicken so I’ll let you know how it goes. 
 

I would expect 1.5lbs an hour of pellets at 250f in these temps  

let us no wot pellets you get through.

Sounds like your in for a good weekend and you should have the weather for it.

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How are people finding the amount of ash at the bottom it after a few cooks? Used mine for the first time in over a week today, so though I would clean out the bottom first. I had done 3 cooks since the last time I used it and with start up and shutdown and cook time no more than 7-8 hours cooking time. I was surprised how much ash had accumulated in that time on the the bottom of it.

I opened the draw and there was probably a cupful of ash in the drawer and aluminium tray, by the time I had swept it away through the holes the foil tray was practically full. Very little grease as except for chicken wings I had used a drip pan and plancha for the other 2 cooks.

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Well, I’ve put in a big old Boston butt this morning. Was 5° C outside and it took about 18mins to get to 225°f. Didn’t hold the temp very well though initially - was up at 315°f then down to 170°f. 
As I type it’s back down to 170 🙄

Oh well, we’ll see how it goes....

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10 minutes ago, wow400 said:

Well, I’ve put in a big old Boston butt this morning. Was 5° C outside and it took about 18mins to get to 225°f. Didn’t hold the temp very well though initially - was up at 315°f then down to 170°f. 
As I type it’s back down to 170 🙄

Oh well, we’ll see how it goes....

That don't sound good, never experienced that variant in temps. Can't ever recall it going over in temp during  a cook myself , occasionally get a drop of 10-20F during a cook but it has stabilised back to the desired temp I set within 5 minutes and I don't find or think that is a  problem for myself personally. I would definitely be having a chat with Weber on Monday if the temps continue swinging wildly like that throughout the whole cook.

The sooner they get the graphs working on the app to show the temps throughout the  cooking time the better. It can be done, I had a smokefire before this and they showed graphs for the temp of the cook and meat via the probes, through the app in real time and kept a history of previous cooks, that you could access. Not sure if it is a software development problem or a cloud problem, but they need to get that side of it sorted asap.

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Interestingly, I’ve just connected up an old Maverick remote thermometer system and it’s constantly showing 15°f hotter than the temp probe of the EX6....

The Smokefire temp really has been up & down like you wouldn’t believe but now, after 90 mins, has settled at target - be interesting to see how it holds it from now on 😳

Agree with the point about the graphing - mind you, that would very quickly show any inconsistencies!

Bet Weber will be in no rush to implement this 🙄

FWIW, I’ve put a foil container of water below the butt to add a bit of moisture & more importantly, catch the grease.

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I certainly haven't experienced some of the problems others are reporting, and as for a 15F temperature difference between the Weber probe and Maverick probe, I personally wouldn't be that worried tbh. If it was +30 or 40F then I might. But it is your experience and what you expect from it that matters.

Good look with your cook, I am sure you won't need it. For all its teething problems, the food I am producing so far is of a way higher and consistent quality than my previous ProQ , I think, only thing lacking is the strength of the smoke flavour compared to charcoal, but that is to be expected from any sort pellet grill I believe?

I am going to use the Weber Roaster for the first time today and do a full chicken Sunday dinner with it including potatoes and veg to see how it turns out.

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21 minutes ago, wow400 said:

Interestingly, I’ve just connected up an old Maverick remote thermometer system and it’s constantly showing 15°f hotter than the temp probe of the EX6....

The Smokefire temp really has been up & down like you wouldn’t believe but now, after 90 mins, has settled at target - be interesting to see how it holds it from now on 😳

Agree with the point about the graphing - mind you, that would very quickly show any inconsistencies!

Bet Weber will be in no rush to implement this 🙄

FWIW, I’ve put a foil container of water below the butt to add a bit of moisture & more importantly, catch the grease.

Finished mine yesterday (only a half butt) and used a water pan. Temp held throughout the cook but next time I’ll add a thermoworks to see how accurate the BBQ temp gauge is as at 275f it took 11 hours and I wrapped in paper after 6. 
 

good smoke ring and flavour though

 

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14 minutes ago, sotv said:

I certainly haven't experienced some of the problems others are reporting, and as for a 15F temperature difference between the Weber probe and Maverick probe, I personally wouldn't be that worried tbh. If it was +30 or 40F then I might. But it is your experience and what you expect from it that matters.

Good look with your cook, I am sure you won't need it. For all its teething problems, the food I am producing so far is of a way higher and consistent quality than my previous ProQ , I think, only thing lacking is the strength of the smoke flavour compared to charcoal, but that is to be expected from any sort pellet grill I believe?

I am going to use the Weber Roaster for the first time today and do a full chicken Sunday dinner with it including potatoes and veg to see how it turns out.

I did a beer can chicken on it last weekend. Turned out great but not the same as charcoal (but it is super easy and that’s why I bought it. Going to get the kettle fired up today for a whole chicken. 
 

 

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4 minutes ago, James17 said:

I did a beer can chicken on it last weekend. Turned out great but not the same as charcoal (but it is super easy and that’s why I bought it. Going to get the kettle fired up today for a whole chicken. 
 

 

It will be all about how crispy the skin turns out for me. I was super impressed with the chicken wings I did over a week ago. Probably more down to my poor cooking skills on charcoal. But there is know way I could have got the skin cooked liked that on charcoal that i did on the smokefire.

Cooked whole chickens on charcoal before and they always taste super juicy and nice, but the skin always came out rubbery. With the ease of upping the temp on the smokefire, hoping to be able to get crispy skin with it now. We shall see.😀

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1 hour ago, sotv said:

I certainly haven't experienced some of the problems others are reporting, and as for a 15F temperature difference between the Weber probe and Maverick probe, I personally wouldn't be that worried tbh. If it was +30 or 40F then I might. But it is your experience and what you expect from it that matters.

Good look with your cook, I am sure you won't need it. For all its teething problems, the food I am producing so far is of a way higher and consistent quality than my previous ProQ , I think, only thing lacking is the strength of the smoke flavour compared to charcoal, but that is to be expected from any sort pellet grill I believe?

I am going to use the Weber Roaster for the first time today and do a full chicken Sunday dinner with it including potatoes and veg to see how it turns out.

No, exactly - 15f is neither here nor there but I would like to know which one is correct!

At least when my Weber thermo is saying 200f, the Maverick is showing the right temp 😁

As you say, so much easier than the ProQ - I had the SF up & running in 20mins, it used to take me bloody hours to get the ProQ up to speed!

I'm using the Weber Hickory as apparently it has a 'moderate' smoky flavour so will be interesting to see - I love a strong smoke flavour but my wife isn't so keen so the proof will be in the eating 👍

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As this thread is getting very large at the moment and a lot of pages to go through if looking for answers to problems maybe you are experiencing with your Smokefire.  Wondering if people would find a seperate thread just for hardware/software problems people are experiencing and any resolutions or discussions you have had with Weber etc.  Maybe it would useful guide for any old or new users to reference this sort of thing in a  seperate thread and easier to find answers possibly along with if any new firmware/software updates becoming available etc  in a smaller thread than this.

Then keep this thread for general discussion and cooks etc.

What do you think? If it seems like a good idea, I will create one later and go through this thread and transfer any known problems and solutions etc, that have been discussed to it.

 

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