My SmokeFire EX6 Journey Updated: Contacted Weber

[GriLLMaRksRseXy]

I just got my EX6 put together yesterday but haven't had time to do anything yet. May be a dumb question but where exactly are you putting this tape? I had someone put mine together and am not the most handy person in the world so any help is greatly appreciated.

I will let you know how it works once I fire it up and test but if it does work then you run the tape down the silver metal "ramp" on the back of the hopper on the bottom of it. If you watch my video it is what the pellets are sliding down on.

 

[GriLLMaRksRseXy]

I was under the impression it was going to be hefty like a Genesis. So it’s not?

I havent owned a Genesis in over 10 years but my last one was porcelain enamel and there is a huge difference in materials between the two. Same with my gas SS Summit. There is no comparison. I haven't touched a spirit decades. I know it is Weber's cheapest line of gas grills so I assume the smoke fire and the spirit are similar quality builds.

I'm not saying its gonna fall apart. my only two concerns is the shelf and the brackets and metal the top grill warmer rack sits on. They could have done better in those places for sure.

 

[dsone]

I will let you know how it works once I fire it up and test but if it does work then you run the tape down the silver metal "ramp" on the back of the hopper on the bottom of it. If you watch my video it is what the pellets are sliding down on.

Thanks much and sorry, missed the video but totally get it now.

 

[RedGrave]

I havent owned a Genesis in over 10 years but my last one was porcelain enamel and there is a huge difference in materials between the two. Same with my gas SS Summit. There is no comparison. I haven't touched a spirit decades. I know it is Weber's cheapest line of gas grills so I assume the smoke fire and the spirit are similar quality builds.

but the Summit costs double, they are hella nice
The SF costs more than the Genesis but it’s far more complicated than a gas grill.

I was looking at the Timberline before and that’s nearly double the SF.

 

[Frank Neher]

So, just to add to your thread and not create a new one, I got my ex 6 on Monday and also put it together tonight. Mine was built 1/28/20, serial number UD0177381. It went together with no issues, I didn’t use brake cleaner but I did try to wipe off the heat plate. No mods as of yet. But I did somehow receive an extra glow plug, so that’s nice to have.

I had no issues at all downloading the update and pairing with the app. Took about 15 minutes for the update. I did however have an issue trying to do the burn in. Started it up, saw some smoke and closed the lid. But after a couple minutes I didn’t see the temp changing and did not see any more smoke. So I shut it down. I think with the auger empty there wasn’t enough pellets when the glow plug was trying to start the burn. So on the second try I just left some of the pellets in the burn pot and started up fine.

It is 25 degrees here and once started it took about 12 minutes to get up to 600, stayed there for 40 minutes at 600, I didn’t open it at all but checked every 10 minutes to see where it was.

waiting for it to run through shut down right now, probably won’t cook anything until Saturday or Sunday. I know I have baby back ribs to cook Sunday, just need to figure out what to cook Saturday.

It will be interesting to see if we have any different issues with our EX 6’s being that they were made a couple months apart.

mine would not get above 540 with 36 degree temp outside

 

[JmanOhioBBQ]

mine would not get above 540 with 36 degree temp outside

So are you plugging in directly to an outlet? Or using an extension cord? If so how long?? The reason I ask is I am hearing that if you use too long of an extension cord or even too small a gauge of extension cord, that could cause some issues with the controller and getting to full temp. I don’t know if it’s true. I have to use an extension cord but I have a 12 gauge, 12 foot extension cord and so far it is working fine. The manual says to use at least a 14 gauge no longer than 13 foot extension cord. Just curious to see what your using and if you change it, how it affects the temp, if at all.

 

[GriLLMaRksRseXy]

Initial burn in last night:
I used Pitt Boss Competition Pellets for burn in. Firmware and App fully updated. Temperature here in Tallahassee was around 55 and dropping. Wind was minimal. From startup to 600 degrees was exactly 20 minutes. I burned at 600 degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Temperature dropped twice after reaching 600 to around 570 and then climbed back up to 600.

At this point I attempted to turn down the temperature to 350 so I could test it with a couple of frozen pizzas for real world Left to Right and front and back cook temps. I could not do anything with the controller. It was stuck at 600 degrees and trying to press any button, turn the jog dial or click the jog dial had mixed results.....if any. See attached Video. I had to kill the power and then do a shutdown procedure once the grill restarted.

 

[GriLLMaRksRseXy]

So are you plugging in directly to an outlet? Or using an extension cord? If so how long?? The reason I ask is I am hearing that if you use too long of an extension cord or even too small a gauge of extension cord, that could cause some issues with the controller and getting to full temp. I don’t know if it’s true. I have to use an extension cord but I have a 12 gauge, 12 foot extension cord and so far it is working fine. The manual says to use at least a 14 gauge no longer than 13 foot extension cord. Just curious to see what your using and if you change it, how it affects the temp, if at all.

The rated Max wattage on the actual box by the barcode states 204 watts. At 110V line voltage that works out to just under 1.8 amps. We will call it 2 amps........Soooo....even an 16 gauge extension cord that is 200' long will carry that voltage and provide enough current by my calculations and even then that is around a 4% drop in voltage and it is usually acceptable for 5% or less.

The recommended 14 gauge 13' or less will carry the FULL 15 amp capacity of a standard American wall outlet several times over. For normal use anywhere near a house, almost any proper 16 Gauge or better extension cord will work at almost any standard length of any store bought extension cord.

It is crazy Weber would recommend this other than to rule out ANY possibility of a crazy length or thin gauge extension cord.

 

[GriLLMaRksRseXy]

I did a long cook last night with some 3-2-1 Baby Back Ribs. I have figured out the initial startup regardless of what temp you select is going to take about 20 minutes. The grill is simply NOT going to over shoot the fuel load or fan and give you a hot fire fast. Whether you want 200 or 600 degrees its going to take about 20 minutes. I have no issues with this now that I know how it is working.

First 3 hours were at 200 degrees. Grill created great smoke at this temp. Left to right temp was within 10 to 15 degrees and back to front temp was about the same. I did use a small disposable thin steel water pan on the right 1/3 of the grill under the grates and on top of the flavorizer bars to help with temperature distribution and add some moisture to the air.

I started with a full hoper and never once touched the pellets. I also made sure not to bang the lid or shake the grill during the entire 6 hour cook. No issues at all with pellet feeding with the tape mod and finger guard removal. I did get a low fuel warning towards the end but there was plenty of pellets on the right side sliding down for the rest of my cook.

Ribs were amazing as were my completely from scratch barbecue baked beans with peppercorn bacon. The grill did an amazing job overall. It has some quirks but Im fairly happy so far and I am super picky. I would like to see more posts from users with the new auger entire assembly. The post I saw last night clearly showed the fire EVEN on both sides of the grill. That will be my next quest now that the hopper and pellet feed issues have been eliminated.

 

[GriLLMaRksRseXy]

I have put in a few cooks since my weekend Rib Fest. USDA Prime Burgers, some Brats, Barbecue Chicken thighs (with skin of course! ) and I am doing some pork tenderloins tonight with smoked corn on the cob.

I did put a list together of real issues that I am having with my Smoke Fire and emailed Weber Support 2 days ago. I still have not had even an acknowledgment of receiving my email. I am sure they are busy but that has not been the course in the past. I will update my thread when they do.

A few new wrinkles:
-I have had a reoccurring issue of not being able to get the grill above the 525 range consistently. I originally thought my fire pot needed to be cleaned out but when I tore it all down it was almost completely empty. Even after cleaning everything up and wiping down the glow plug the best I can get within a 45 minute time frame in North Florida weather is about 540-550 regardless of which brand of pellet I use so something is going on. I was able to get to 600 during initial burn off and one other time the next day before I started test cooking but have had no luck since and I have checked everything.

-I have noticed partially unburned pellets sitting at the bottom of the auger assembly right before the pellet chute the last 2 times I tore the grill grill down for cleaning. I have always done the shut down procedure so something must be up with the controller since that should not be happening based on what I have seen the shut down procedure does. I have seen another post with pictures on here with the same issue.

-The fire pot heat deflector table.......Sorry I forgot to discuss this or post the pic after my initial burn in. As I stated in my OP, I completely cleaned all of the standard metal parts with brake cleaner to remove all oils and grease before burn in. There has been several posts from users commenting with pics above the "scale" type residue flaking off after using the cooker. One OP states they contacted Weber and were told this was oil and would continue to do this until it is all cooked off. Sorry everyone.. I call BS on this one! My pic is almost the same as everyone elses and I removed every speck of oil and grease from it. The scale is CLEARLY a silver metallic paint product period after inspecting it. Not a big deal but It pisses me off when any company states information that is totally inaccurate. Honestly, in my opinion, it should never had been on there because it burning off is just fine....whats not is when the flakes potentially clog up the grease mitigation ports of other customers grills that do not pay attention.

 

[SmokeMeister]

Yet another thing that makes you wonder how much testing they really did with production units. Maybe the production heat deflector is not the same as what was used in development? Not a huge deal, but it is concerning when the customer service folks seem to have bad information.

You haven't replaced your auger, have you? I wonder if you have the "old" version or the new one?

 

[GriLLMaRksRseXy]

Yet another thing that makes you wonder how much testing they really did with production units. Maybe the production heat deflector is not the same as what was used in development? Not a huge deal, but it is concerning when the customer service folks seem to have bad information.

You haven't replaced your auger, have you? I wonder if you have the "old" version or the new one?

I agree. I am pretty sure your right on point!

My Auger is REV D. I know this because it was easy to see the stickers when I assembled the grill and inserted the glow plug. So it is the old one. So weird I got to temp twice. I will tell you that on both of those times my temp did drop a lot and then came back up on the initial burn but on the second burn it dropped to around 575 for a few minutes but I didn't think much of it because I was just doing a quick burn off. It was the last time I saw 600...

I am waiting on Weber to contact me. I would assume and hope they send me the whole new auger assembly. I saw a post on here with a vid that clearly showed they got to 600 and there was no flame thrower to right....

 

[Rickyjk619]

So are you plugging in directly to an outlet? Or using an extension cord? If so how long?? The reason I ask is I am hearing that if you use too long of an extension cord or even too small a gauge of extension cord, that could cause some issues with the controller and getting to full temp. I don’t know if it’s true. I have to use an extension cord but I have a 12 gauge, 12 foot extension cord and so far it is working fine. The manual says to use at least a 14 gauge no longer than 13 foot extension cord. Just curious to see what your using and if you change it, how it affects the temp, if at all.

I’m using a cord that is 15 feet long and 15 gauge and it works perfectly. As I mentioned in a earlier post these Smokefires are vey very wind sensitive. If they get wind blowing against the backside and vents it will not hold temperature. Once I turned mine away from the wind it held 250 for over 6 hours.

 

[Rickyjk619]

So, just to add to your thread and not create a new one, I got my ex 6 on Monday and also put it together tonight. Mine was built 1/28/20, serial number UD0177381. It went together with no issues, I didn’t use brake cleaner but I did try to wipe off the heat plate. No mods as of yet. But I did somehow receive an extra glow plug, so that’s nice to have.

I had no issues at all downloading the update and pairing with the app. Took about 15 minutes for the update. I did however have an issue trying to do the burn in. Started it up, saw some smoke and closed the lid. But after a couple minutes I didn’t see the temp changing and did not see any more smoke. So I shut it down. I think with the auger empty there wasn’t enough pellets when the glow plug was trying to start the burn. So on the second try I just left some of the pellets in the burn pot and started up fine.

It is 25 degrees here and once started it took about 12 minutes to get up to 600, stayed there for 40 minutes at 600, I didn’t open it at all but checked every 10 minutes to see where it was.

waiting for it to run through shut down right now, probably won’t cook anything until Saturday or Sunday. I know I have baby back ribs to cook Sunday, just need to figure out what to cook Saturday.

It will be interesting to see if we have any different issues with our EX 6’s being that they were made a couple months apart.

Well I have made some modifications as well to my EX6. Fixed the cord issue so it doesn’t come detached when you move it. I also added the tape to the pellet shoot and have drip/water pans that I will use on big greasy smokes. They sit on top of the flavor bars and can be moved when I want to use it as a grill. I haven’t done a hard reset because I have seen some bad results. I’m happy with the Bluetooth it works just fine. I received my new auger shaft update kit today with two books of installation instructions. I guess they think everyone is a handy man and can fix things. Luckily I’m fairly handy. The auger tube they sent me is SF 20. I’m happy with my Smokefire because I am learning more about It with each cook. I believe in Weber and have been a Weber guy since the 80’s.

 

[abmet]

Interesting, most of the other auger replacements I’ve seen included the entire assembly not just the tube.