Update on Grill Flame Out

[tomrc276]

Update.
Two weeks ago I reported a Grill Flame Out and then nothing with my SmokeFire EX4. I received a number of responses (thank you members) with the hope that the welded auger assembly would fix the problem and get me going again.
I received and installed the welded auger assembly and new auger over the weekend. Started a cook yesterday at 230. SF ramped up and held at 230. Looking good. Put some ribs on and the temp immediately began dropping down to 160. I stopped the cook and waited 30 minutes to try it again at 245. SF ramped up to 245. Put the ribs back on and the unit again dropped down to 180 and stayed there for about 10 minutes. All the while the pellets were dropping and the fan was blowing. Temp went to 275 then dropped down to 245. I was curious about the actual temp inside so I put in an air probe on the lower grill and the internal temp read 298. For the next three hours the temp on the SF stayed at 245 and the air probe varied between 279 to 303. I dropped the temp down to 225 to try to get the internal temp down, but it stayed anywhere from 50-80 degrees greater than that shown on the SF. I was hoping that the auger assembly and new auger would fix my SF. No such luck. The Air probe was checked against another probe on my Signal temp unit. No issues, both within 1/2 degree of each other. This is so frustrating. Any thoughts?

 

[Rickyjk619]

Update.
Two weeks ago I reported a Grill Flame Out and then nothing with my SmokeFire EX4. I received a number of responses (thank you members) with the hope that the welded auger assembly would fix the problem and get me going again.
I received and installed the welded auger assembly and new auger over the weekend. Started a cook yesterday at 230. SF ramped up and held at 230. Looking good. Put some ribs on and the temp immediately began dropping down to 160. I stopped the cook and waited 30 minutes to try it again at 245. SF ramped up to 245. Put the ribs back on and the unit again dropped down to 180 and stayed there for about 10 minutes. All the while the pellets were dropping and the fan was blowing. Temp went to 275 then dropped down to 245. I was curious about the actual temp inside so I put in an air probe on the lower grill and the internal temp read 298. For the next three hours the temp on the SF stayed at 245 and the air probe varied between 279 to 303. I dropped the temp down to 225 to try to get the internal temp down, but it stayed anywhere from 50-80 degrees greater than that shown on the SF. I was hoping that the auger assembly and new auger would fix my SF. No such luck. The Air probe was checked against another probe on my Signal temp unit. No issues, both within 1/2 degree of each other. This is so frustrating. Any thoughts?

View attachment 779View attachment 780

I’m still having temp drops and flame outs after installing the welded chute. Weber is sending me a new rev F auger motor and a new glow plug. We will see if this helps. I’m hoping they will get these problems fixed soon. I have had about enough of this.

 

[tomrc276]

I’m still having temp drops and flame outs after installing the welded chute. Weber is sending me a new rev F auger motor and a new glow plug. We will see if this helps. I’m hoping they will get these problems fixed soon. I have had about enough of this.

I agree. I emailed Weber and am awaiting their response.

 

[abmet]

Hope they get your issues resolved. Are you on the most current firmware, software, and app? The new firmware definitely impacted the fan speed and way my grill hits temps. Will sometimes go over when I set to 225 and then drop down to 190 or so for a while before going back up. Hasn’t caused any actual issues for me just behaves different than the old firmware.

 

[Rickyjk619]

Hope they get your issues resolved. Are you on the most current firmware, software, and app? The new firmware definitely impacted the fan speed and way my grill hits temps. Will sometimes go over when I set to 225 and then drop down to 190 or so for a while before going back up. Hasn’t caused any actual issues for me just behaves different than the old firmware.

That’s when I started having the issues with E3 and E6 error codes was after the update. I think they should go back to the old program now that they have fixed the auger chute issue. I plan on pestering them until they fix it. I have 4 different people involved in my emails to Weber at this point. We will see what happens.

 

[Bruno]

Update.
Two weeks ago I reported a Grill Flame Out and then nothing with my SmokeFire EX4. I received a number of responses (thank you members) with the hope that the welded auger assembly would fix the problem and get me going again.
I received and installed the welded auger assembly and new auger over the weekend. Started a cook yesterday at 230. SF ramped up and held at 230. Looking good. Put some ribs on and the temp immediately began dropping down to 160. I stopped the cook and waited 30 minutes to try it again at 245. SF ramped up to 245. Put the ribs back on and the unit again dropped down to 180 and stayed there for about 10 minutes. All the while the pellets were dropping and the fan was blowing. Temp went to 275 then dropped down to 245. I was curious about the actual temp inside so I put in an air probe on the lower grill and the internal temp read 298. For the next three hours the temp on the SF stayed at 245 and the air probe varied between 279 to 303. I dropped the temp down to 225 to try to get the internal temp down, but it stayed anywhere from 50-80 degrees greater than that shown on the SF. I was hoping that the auger assembly and new auger would fix my SF. No such luck. The Air probe was checked against another probe on my Signal temp unit. No issues, both within 1/2 degree of each other. This is so frustrating. Any thoughts?

View attachment 779View attachment 780

Honestly I have the same issues and it’s pissing me off!!
I was mad I bought a smoke thermometer form thermoworks right before the SmokeFire and now I couldn’t live without it. SmokeFire constantly puts out BS numbers.

I do get good results grilling and smoking but man it aint no set it and forget machine.

 

[Rickyjk619]

Honestly I have the same issues and it’s kissing me off!!
inwas mad I bought a smoke thermometer form thermoworks right before the SmokeFire and now I couldn’t live without it. SmokeFire constantly puts out BS numbers.

I do get good results grilling and smoking but man it aint no set it and forget machine.

AMEN!! That’s exactly how I feel. You better have a little experience with BBQ and smokers before you purchase a Smokefire.

 

[tomrc276]

Honestly I have the same issues and it’s pissing me off!!
I was mad I bought a smoke thermometer form thermoworks right before the SmokeFire and now I couldn’t live without it. SmokeFire constantly puts out BS numbers.

I do get good results grilling and smoking but man it aint no set it and forget machine.

Still no word from Weber. I reset the controller last night and set it at 225. When the internal temp reached 385 I shut it down. I do not know what else to do. The SmokeFire seemed to be a real game changer. Now, its not even in the game.

 

[dudemcnally]

Still no word from Weber. I reset the controller last night and set it at 225. When the internal temp reached 385 I shut it down. I do not know what else to do. The SmokeFire seemed to be a real game changer. Now, its not even in the game.

I would suggest calling them to get a response in a timely manner...

 

[FredSC]

Yes calling works best in my experience, emails have taken weeks for a response and my wait times calling have been around 5 minutes.

I used a Maverick 4 temp probe during one cook one probe on each side about half way between the end of the pit and the location of the smoke fire thermocouple and I found that if I set the smoke fire to 250F, I was seeing 225 plus or minus on either side. It appears the smoke fire software as a strong averaging value that does not show the temperature swings that you see in another temperature measurement device that does not have this smoothing. From my experience plus or minus 25 degrees during a cook is fine for BBQing. So as I watched the swings on the Maverick displays, which showed as low as 190F up to 240F, I kept that in mind, The ribs and butts I was smoking turned out great!

I think if you keep calling Weber and working with them, they will get your Smoke Fire working for you. They have for me. I hope and would expect them to do that for everyone who has purchase one.

 

[tomrc276]

Hi FredSC. Thanks for the insight. I am going to hang in there and hopefully Weber will get this temperature control issue worked out in a not too distant future update.

 

[Bruno]

Hi FredSC. Thanks for the insight. I am going to hang in there and hopefully Weber will get this temperature control issue worked out in a not too distant future update.

I think one of the big problems is that we all now have potentially different parts in our SmokeFires and they have to make them all work with the new updates.

 

[laketater]

Update.
Two weeks ago I reported a Grill Flame Out and then nothing with my SmokeFire EX4. I received a number of responses (thank you members) with the hope that the welded auger assembly would fix the problem and get me going again.
I received and installed the welded auger assembly and new auger over the weekend. Started a cook yesterday at 230. SF ramped up and held at 230. Looking good. Put some ribs on and the temp immediately began dropping down to 160. I stopped the cook and waited 30 minutes to try it again at 245. SF ramped up to 245. Put the ribs back on and the unit again dropped down to 180 and stayed there for about 10 minutes. All the while the pellets were dropping and the fan was blowing. Temp went to 275 then dropped down to 245. I was curious about the actual temp inside so I put in an air probe on the lower grill and the internal temp read 298. For the next three hours the temp on the SF stayed at 245 and the air probe varied between 279 to 303. I dropped the temp down to 225 to try to get the internal temp down, but it stayed anywhere from 50-80 degrees greater than that shown on the SF. I was hoping that the auger assembly and new auger would fix my SF. No such luck. The Air probe was checked against another probe on my Signal temp unit. No issues, both within 1/2 degree of each other. This is so frustrating. Any thoughts?

View attachment 779View attachment 780

I've had similar experiences. Sometimes I do the shutdown, clean out the extra pellets, then start up again. The last time I said screw it--let ti start with all of the pellets in it. Holy smoke!! There was so much smoke I couldn't see 6" in front of me. Once it cleared, all good. I take it apart and clean things every so often down under so the grease and ash doesn't build and cause a fire. I have to say that the last 5-6 cooks have been flawless. Not sure if the smoke experience was the ticket or not. Not advising you to do the same, just telling you my experience. Good luck!

 

[tomrc276]

Last week I went and talked to the folks where I purchased the SF. I did not order it from Weber as the guys here in Houston will assemble it and deliver it for free. I told them of the temp issues I was having. They gave me an oven thermometer to check the temps and said that the probes I was using were not designed to measure what I was measuring. It seemed to me that a temp probe designed to measure the temp would do just that, measure the temp. In any event, I put the oven thermometer in the SF and turned it on. I checked it at 225, 350, and 500. The oven gauge was spot on and the air probes were not even close. Surprised me to say the least. I will keep using it and monitoring the temps. It will still take some time before I really trust this thing.

 

[dudemcnally]

That doesn't surprise me, I have several wireless thermometers. Some probes will only work correctly with their own thermometer. If I try to mix and match the temps will be reported very different than reality. They can be 40-70 degrees off. Now I plug a probe into the port and ensure it's close to ambient to ensure I got the correct probe

Glad to hear yours is working correctly! Remember the temps reported on the WSF screen typically aren't the actual air temp on the unit, think of it more as an oven readout. From what I've seen, if the temps are within 20 degrees or so to the desired setpoint, the screen will just report the set temp. I don't have a problem with that, the temps will swing up and down, as long as it averages my desired temp, I'm good with it. Within reason of course, I'm not talking about a 100 degree swing or anything. My WSF typically runs about +/- 10-12 degrees of whatever setpoint I use, verified by an external inkbird bluetooth temp probe.