WiLLc
New member
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2020
- Messages
- 7
- Reaction score
- 13
- Location
- North Carolina
- Grill
- SmokeFire EX6, 2007 Spirit E-310 SS, 18" Weber Kettle Master Touch
Like many I was scared away from the SmokeFire by some early reviews and the reported issues. With the Grilling/Searing/Smoking capabilities, this pellet grill is what I've always wanted. I found a good deal on a brand new in box EX6 at Lowes on Saturday for $950 so decided to go for it. They wanted to give me a pre-assembled unit. Didn't want that so asked for a boxed one and luckily they had one in the back. Unfortunately it was an early production model from 2019 and didn't have any of the updates. I called up Weber and asked them to ship the new Auger assembly and pellet slide. They did so without question so I'm happy about that.
I found the Smokefire to be extremely easy to assemble. It seems sturdy and well built to me except the pellet hopper. I think they could have done a better job there. I did the firmware updates and then fired it up for the initial burn-in. Got to 600 degrees in under 15 minutes so I was impressed with that. This thing is rippin' hot on full blast. Very nice and no other pellet smokers do that really. On Monday I got to do some more testing with it. First thing in the morning I fired it up at 600 again to test the time to temp target. It got to about 450 and stalled and appeared to flame-out. Temps started dropping and never recovered so I shut it down. There was a light wind from the North that was hitting the vents. I re-positioned the grill and tried again. This time we hit 600 in about 10 minutes. There needs to be some sort of wind block in front of the vents. I do like the fact that it doesn't have a smoke stack since it makes putting on and removing the cover much easier. On my Camp Chef the cover would always get snagged on the smoke stack and grease bucket. Very annoying.
I dialed the temp down to 250 and let it run for 10 hours with a full pellet hopper using the weber pellets. From left to right there was about a 20 degree temp difference at times. The hotter side was down wind so not sure if that has anything to do with it. It does hold temps well and produces nice smoke. I did experience the pellet void/bridging issue. My Camp Chef Smoke pro would do the same thing. I never thought much of it since I always check on the smoker regularly during long cooks (who doesn't?). I took out the stupid finger guard thing as suggested here so we'll see how it does without that.
Overall I'm excited and look forward to cooking on it. I'm glad I didn't follow the herd to Rec Teq before at least trying the SmokeFire. I think Weber is a better company. From what I understand the Rec Teq's are 100% made in China. Even if they are a good design, no thanks.
I found the Smokefire to be extremely easy to assemble. It seems sturdy and well built to me except the pellet hopper. I think they could have done a better job there. I did the firmware updates and then fired it up for the initial burn-in. Got to 600 degrees in under 15 minutes so I was impressed with that. This thing is rippin' hot on full blast. Very nice and no other pellet smokers do that really. On Monday I got to do some more testing with it. First thing in the morning I fired it up at 600 again to test the time to temp target. It got to about 450 and stalled and appeared to flame-out. Temps started dropping and never recovered so I shut it down. There was a light wind from the North that was hitting the vents. I re-positioned the grill and tried again. This time we hit 600 in about 10 minutes. There needs to be some sort of wind block in front of the vents. I do like the fact that it doesn't have a smoke stack since it makes putting on and removing the cover much easier. On my Camp Chef the cover would always get snagged on the smoke stack and grease bucket. Very annoying.
I dialed the temp down to 250 and let it run for 10 hours with a full pellet hopper using the weber pellets. From left to right there was about a 20 degree temp difference at times. The hotter side was down wind so not sure if that has anything to do with it. It does hold temps well and produces nice smoke. I did experience the pellet void/bridging issue. My Camp Chef Smoke pro would do the same thing. I never thought much of it since I always check on the smoker regularly during long cooks (who doesn't?). I took out the stupid finger guard thing as suggested here so we'll see how it does without that.
Overall I'm excited and look forward to cooking on it. I'm glad I didn't follow the herd to Rec Teq before at least trying the SmokeFire. I think Weber is a better company. From what I understand the Rec Teq's are 100% made in China. Even if they are a good design, no thanks.
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