Weber SmokeFire EX6

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Re: Weber SmokeFire EX6

Postby spacetrucker » Sun Mar 08, 2020 4:30 pm

watching and reading :happ:
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Re: Weber SmokeFire EX6

Postby TX1911 » Sun Mar 08, 2020 9:11 pm

Penultimate test run today. Reverse seared 9 HEB Prime 1 tenderloins, seasoned with 1836.

Thoughts on the steaks: they turned out tremendously. I didnt take pictures, but it was the Mrs.'s birthday. 2 were ruined to medium ( :P ) and the rest were medium rare. Had quite the smorgasbord with steak, baked potato, steamed cauliflower, smoked/seared brussel sprouts, and farm grown greens. Followed it up with a Haydels pecan praline king cake fresh from NOLA. She seemed happy, so I am counting it a success.

Now, the pit.

Ran it at 200 for a while to get some smoke on the steaks. Bumped it to 250 to finish the reverse portion of the cook. Removed the steaks once they hit 95IT and cranked it to 600. It took about 10 minutes to get there. There was a definite hot side and cool side (right and left, respectively). The grill seared well. To the point the outside of the steaks were literally sizzling when I flipped then removed them.

All in all, the grilling function of this grill is far above adequate.

I plan to clean it out tonight and run my final test tomorrow with an 8lb Boston butt. If there are no grease fires i will likely keep the grill. If there are fires, its going back

Hope to put a period at the end of this particular sentence tomorrow evening.
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Re: Weber SmokeFire EX6

Postby RCAlan » Mon Mar 09, 2020 12:44 am

Good luck and thank you for the detailed updates.... I hope everything gets worked out.
Pellet Pro Austin XL and a few more mods... in SoCal and Always... Semper Fi.
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Re: Weber SmokeFire EX6

Postby TX1911 » Mon Mar 09, 2020 7:41 am

Well, we are rolling. Got the butt out, slathered and rubbed. Went ahead and put it on before we hit temp, because I do have some work to do today.

20200309_071810.jpg


20200309_072225.jpg


A couple of things from the smoking perspective on this pit. 1. The app was presented as being able to control the temp of the pit. In reality, that just isnt true (or I just cant figure it out). 2. It does have some nice features. There are step by step instructions in the app for novices. Trimming instructions, seasoning suggestions, etc. 3. When you use the provided probe, you can track that particular cut of meat, and they have an estimated time remaining. Not necessary, but a nice feature to have. So, at the moment, split on the app.

20200309_072845.jpg


There is a fairly quick startup. Turned it on about 715am, and had the pork on 10 minutes later and the pit was already at 230.

More to come!
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Re: Weber SmokeFire EX6

Postby TX1911 » Mon Mar 09, 2020 10:44 am

So far so good. No fires yet.

Tunneling in the hopper has been minimal with the replacement part. No more than I had with my Camp Chef. One minor complaint on the app. When you use the program and the probe they provide, the app controls the entire cook. Meaning, it tells you how much time until the next step instead of the current temperature of the meat. Great if youre a novice, but it would be nice to be able to access internal temperature during a program.

Progress pic:
20200309_084129.jpg
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Re: Weber SmokeFire EX6

Postby TX1911 » Mon Mar 09, 2020 12:03 pm

Roughly 5 hours into this cook. After reading a lot of the online content, I entirely expected this grill to be fully engulfed in a grease fire at this point. Not the case at all. Not even any flare ups. Its performing admirably so far. I doubt that will change as per my usual method with a pork shoulder, it is in a pan to collect the juices now and will finish that way.

Updated pic: color is looking great.

20200309_115655.jpg
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Re: Weber SmokeFire EX6

Postby TX1911 » Mon Mar 09, 2020 1:02 pm

Last post on this until it is done cooking. Still no fires or flare ups. Once it is done, I am going to check grease trap and interior to see how it performed. The comor on the butt is tremendous though.

20200309_125910.jpg
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Re: Weber SmokeFire EX6

Postby TX1911 » Tue Mar 10, 2020 9:59 am

So, I think I am putting a period at the end of this sentence. The cook went very well. No grease fires. Minimal tunnelling, great flavor on the pork. I know a lot of people are having issues. I don't know if I got lucky, but, the functions on this pit, coupled with Harry Soo's 65lbs with no fires, I'm going to keep this pit. I hope its not an exercise in bad decisions, but that is something only time will tell. Here are a couple pictures of the finished product!

20200309_172039.jpg


20200309_182201.jpg
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Re: Weber SmokeFire EX6

Postby GRailsback » Tue Mar 10, 2020 10:04 am

I know it sure looks a whole lot better than those taco's I had last night.
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Re: Weber SmokeFire EX6

Postby txsmkmstr » Tue Mar 10, 2020 10:59 am

One should always make their decisions based on personal experience... glad you are happy with it. It's too bad they rolled out the product with issues but hats off to working thru them (along with your patience). I was not aware of the firmware upgrade that lowered the fan speed. Hope to see many more pictures like those above.

Again........... Congrats on your purchase. :chef:
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Re: Weber SmokeFire EX6

Postby spacetrucker » Fri Mar 13, 2020 2:07 pm

good job on the write up and the pictures; On the decision, well I have a whole patio full of cookers and here I am wanting to watch your feed back on your cooker. Maybe we should buy what we want and after a year or two of use trade cooking resources... :idea: :dont: :cheers:
Don't count every day, Make every day Count
Good Cue to ya..
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Re: Weber SmokeFire EX6

Postby daBertl » Sun Mar 29, 2020 6:55 am

Are there any more results of your new machine?
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Re: Weber SmokeFire EX6

Postby TX1911 » Mon Apr 06, 2020 11:23 am

daBertl wrote:Are there any more results of your new machine?


Actually, there's a little more.

I started to develop a pellet feed issue. The tunneling has been corrected by the insert Weber provided, but when the pellets would feed to the auger, it seemed as if there was a void created. I would be cruising along, then all of a sudden my temps would experience a precipitous drop. I'd take a bartenders spoon and poke towards the auger and the cavity would collapse and the pellets would feed again. Did some research and it seemed Weber is aware of the issue and is shipping out replacement auger units.

Contacted them and they asked me to send them pictures of the auger unit, which I did. 5 days later, my replacement arrived. I installed it yesterday. It took about an hour to do and involved removing the hopper, but none of it was too difficult. Once completed, I ran it at 250 for about an hour and a half and no issues developed. Not ready to call this one fixed yet, but it looks promising.

In comparing the two auger assemblies, there are a few notable differences. In the old assembly, the chute that brought the pellets to the auger had a bend in it. And there was a lip where the chute met the auger tube. In my (admittedly) amateur engineering opinion, this is what crated the void, and the void would develop just past the bend in the chute.

The new assembly is straight, welded together (instead of bolted as the old was), and the lip has been removed. I'm going to run it up to 600 tonight to see how that works. After that, I am cooking a turkey breast for Easter dinner to test a longer cook. If I run through these two cooks without issue, I'll call it fixed.

This is the main reason I chose to keep the grill. I figured whatever issues developed, Weber would make it right, and so far they haven't let me down. The grill puts out more smoke than any other pellet grill I've used or been around. Most have periods of smoke followed by periods of smokeless heat. This one is constantly smoking.

Since I decided to keep it, I did do a couple of the modifications I had been considering. First, I put a gasket along 3 sides of the door. I did not do the top because there is a substantial amount of heat that vents out of there, and I did not want to cover the gaps for the thermometer wires. Then, I ordered 5 inch locking casters with rubber wheels. I'm having to roll the pit around more because it started to stain the bricks. Moving it around now is like a dream. I'll update tomorrow after the steak cook, and again Sunday or Monday after the turkey cook.
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Re: Weber SmokeFire EX6

Postby Papa Tom » Mon Apr 06, 2020 3:00 pm

I have had early unit issues with Traeger (x2) and FEC the companies were helpful and things were made workable.
Doesn't mean ideal it seems that different units have different characteristics that you just learn to deal with.
My first pit was a 2nd generation Traeger (1997) and it was high maintenance mostly because there was no grease drain and was prone to grease fires but I still have it and occasionally use it.
My second Traeger had a control unit that would go nuts and yeah caused more grease fires, Traeger sent a new unit and it has worked for years now.
My Pit Boss 820 has really been the most trouble free losing only a igniter.
My FEC500 S/N 16 had a series of controller issues, pellet drop issues, and a few other things but Cookshack support has been very good.

Seems Weber is experiencing new product issues like other fine companies and I'm sure they will get them all worked out.

BTW all of my pellet pits are still in use....well except the vertical Pit Boss that I got for Christmas and haven't unboxed yet...
tarde venientibus ossa....
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Re: Weber SmokeFire EX6

Postby spacetrucker » Sat Apr 11, 2020 4:20 pm

ditto on the cookshack support for my FEC100; its been so long since I have called them they probably don't know me anymore, their forum has totally changed;
Traeger is maybe a 95 or so Texas offset, I replaced the controller a few years ago and the temperature probe and still use it. I really wish one of them would implode so I could move on to a pit boss or Webber, they both look good to me...
Don't count every day, Make every day Count
Good Cue to ya..
Vernon

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Webber genesis
Blackstone pizza oven

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