FredSC
Active member
So I have to say overall I'm happy with my purchase.
Mods I have done.
I removed the finger guard over the auger opening,
I added some non-stick reynolds foil to the shallow side of the pellet hopper opening. (I'm not sure I'll keep this or not yet.)
All the food I've cooked has had a wonderful flavor and visual appeal.
1) Seared Steaks the first night at 500 F in the pit. Beautiful sear marks. Wonderful smoky flavor. Conclusion this grill will sear with the best of them in my opinion.
2) Baby Back Ribs. This was a low and slow cook at 225 set point. I did experience a bridging in the pellets during this cook 3 times, the first two times resulted in a flame out situation, which required moving the ribs to the oven while I went through shutdown and emptying the pellets from the fire pot. The Third time I was watching, and stirred the pellets before the fire went out. Weber does need to have a low temp alarm. The ribs turned out great!!! Tasted wonderful with a great smoky flavor and nice smoke rings. The bridging problem now appears to be solved with the removal of the finger or lawyer guard.
3) Smoked Turkey Breast smoked at 375 F, no issues with pellet feed or temperature. Turned out awesome with a wonderful flavor.
4) Seared scallops on a cast iron griddle set on the grill racks, worked perfect no issues. Baked Crab Cakes at 375, no issues, and tasted awesome with a good smoky flavor.
5) Sirloin Roast low and slow at 250 F, great smoke ring, nice and rare the way I like roast beef. Awesome smoky flavor.
6) Current cook a beef Brisket (2/23/20 @ 11:00) 7 hours into the smoke and no issues of the pellets bridging or issues in the hopper. I have pans in the bottom without water. I will post photos at the end of the cook today.
During this current cook I used a Maverick XR-50 to measure the temperature on the left and right side of the pit and found a difference of 10 degrees, which when cooking low and slow in my opinion is just fine as when I use my Weber smokey mountain plus or minus 25 degrees around the setpoint is just fine in my experience when BBQ.
When you open the lid and the heat escapes, I've naturally seen a big swing in the temps, but the Smoke Fire has recovered nicely.
The controller on the smoke fire has an averaging filter in the software for the temperature reading, so you're not going to see the temperature cycles around the set point like you will on a Maverick or other temperature monitor system. My observations have been this cycling is quite tight, and shows 1/4 wave damping of a convential PID loop controller.
I was going to smoke a butt today as well, but decided to wait until next weekend to do pull pork.
Conclusion: Unless I come across something really wild I'm going to keep my smoke fire. I like the way it cooks and the flavor I get from the food. I plan on doing a bunch of weekend cooks before my returned window is closed.
Mods I have done.
I removed the finger guard over the auger opening,
I added some non-stick reynolds foil to the shallow side of the pellet hopper opening. (I'm not sure I'll keep this or not yet.)
All the food I've cooked has had a wonderful flavor and visual appeal.
1) Seared Steaks the first night at 500 F in the pit. Beautiful sear marks. Wonderful smoky flavor. Conclusion this grill will sear with the best of them in my opinion.
2) Baby Back Ribs. This was a low and slow cook at 225 set point. I did experience a bridging in the pellets during this cook 3 times, the first two times resulted in a flame out situation, which required moving the ribs to the oven while I went through shutdown and emptying the pellets from the fire pot. The Third time I was watching, and stirred the pellets before the fire went out. Weber does need to have a low temp alarm. The ribs turned out great!!! Tasted wonderful with a great smoky flavor and nice smoke rings. The bridging problem now appears to be solved with the removal of the finger or lawyer guard.
3) Smoked Turkey Breast smoked at 375 F, no issues with pellet feed or temperature. Turned out awesome with a wonderful flavor.
4) Seared scallops on a cast iron griddle set on the grill racks, worked perfect no issues. Baked Crab Cakes at 375, no issues, and tasted awesome with a good smoky flavor.
5) Sirloin Roast low and slow at 250 F, great smoke ring, nice and rare the way I like roast beef. Awesome smoky flavor.
6) Current cook a beef Brisket (2/23/20 @ 11:00) 7 hours into the smoke and no issues of the pellets bridging or issues in the hopper. I have pans in the bottom without water. I will post photos at the end of the cook today.
During this current cook I used a Maverick XR-50 to measure the temperature on the left and right side of the pit and found a difference of 10 degrees, which when cooking low and slow in my opinion is just fine as when I use my Weber smokey mountain plus or minus 25 degrees around the setpoint is just fine in my experience when BBQ.
When you open the lid and the heat escapes, I've naturally seen a big swing in the temps, but the Smoke Fire has recovered nicely.
The controller on the smoke fire has an averaging filter in the software for the temperature reading, so you're not going to see the temperature cycles around the set point like you will on a Maverick or other temperature monitor system. My observations have been this cycling is quite tight, and shows 1/4 wave damping of a convential PID loop controller.
I was going to smoke a butt today as well, but decided to wait until next weekend to do pull pork.
Conclusion: Unless I come across something really wild I'm going to keep my smoke fire. I like the way it cooks and the flavor I get from the food. I plan on doing a bunch of weekend cooks before my returned window is closed.
