Weber Kettle Club Forums
Cooking & Food Talk => Charcoal Grilling & BBQ => Topic started by: bbqking01 on March 04, 2020, 05:06:30 PM
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So I picked up a second hand SmokeFire, for around 600. Lots of bad reviews on this thing. I posted to resell, but priced it high, no bites. Decided to just give it a go, if it bombs I’ll just resell cheap. Started a pork shoulder around 2pm Arizona time. There was some pellets in it when I bought it. Fired it up and it was just turning them to powder. Not cool. Emptied them out. Put in brand new Traeger hickory, fired right up. Set it for 230, and let her go. By 6:30 the pork shoulder had barely turned color, and was only at 115. The only issue is the internal temp reader was going back and forth between 185-230. Mostly at 230 after a couple hours. At 6:30 I turned it up to 300. It has stayed right at 300, and the shoulder is starting the get some bark. I started also spritzing with lemonade, lemon juice, and water. I will add more picture as it goes. But so far so good, for a first time pellet grilled/smoker. I tried to put pictures in order. The last one is around 6:45
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That’s what I’m saying. With all those returns will weber sell them at a discounted price? They already have a fix.. so if I can get a 36 for $500 I’m there!!
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Just a side note. I didn’t get this from Weber, but they already sent me a meat probe and the pellet ramp at no charge.
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I know they r fixing the problem but all those that were retuned what r they going to do with them?
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I like weber but their pricing is outrageous weber summit $1200 kamado joe , BGE $1000. Really??
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Curious to see your thoughts on how pronounced the smoke flavor is ? That’s definitely a draw back on all pellet grills and the higher the cooking temp even less. Not sure about the Smokefire , but with my traeger timberline , I have a decent sized heat shield over my fire pot. I’ll take 4 smaller pieces of wood chunks and lay them directly on top of the shield . Those chunks with a Amazen tube does a decent job at 275 for me. Enjoy the cook bro
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It’s taking forever, plus I’m probably going to go through most of a 20lbs bad of pellets! I can say this, once I cranked it up to 300 it’s stayed right there, until I open up to spray. I think it’s in a stall right now now at 150. It looks to me like it’s going to have a decent smoke flavor, but I haven’t tasted it yet.
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Stalled at 150. So I wrapped it in foil turned it up to 400. In an hour it is at 170 now. Pic is right as we wrapped it.
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Ok so there is ash all over inside and out. Will be able to vacuum it up and wipe it down so no great concern there. The other thing is at the end I had to push pellets into the auger because they where caving in and kept dropping temp.
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But it turned out well.
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Ok so there is ash all over inside and out. Will be able to vacuum it up and wipe it down so no great concern there. The other thing is at the end I had to push pellets into the auger because they where caving in and kept dropping temp.
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That’s what left from a 20 lb bag ?
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Thanks for sharing details on the first cook. Will be interesting to see how it goes in the future. From what I've seen and supported with your results is excessive ash when ramping up the temps. I'd imagine that if the cooker was kept at 250F throughout there wouldn't have been quite the ash blizzard that you experienced. And if not for cleaning/vacuuming it out after this cook, I'd imagine there would be a grease drain blockage in the future.
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That’s what was left from a 20lbs bag, but the last 2-3?hours I was at 350-400 degrees. And also there was more ash after turning up the heat. Also I used a pan with a rack in it to avoid grease spills. I added apple juice lemonade mixture to the foil when I wrapped it, and some of that spilled, but very little got down by the ash. Also interested is the shut down process. Basically you push the temp controll button in, hold it, then select shut down. Then leave the lid open, and the fan will blow until it reaches 120 degrees inside. At least that’s what mine did. It took about 15 minutes to cool off.
That being my first ever experience with a pellet grill, I was pretty satisfied with results, it just took ALOT longer than expected. Not completely sold on it yet. Results=10 hour cook very yummy pork shoulder, used almost a whole bag of pellets. I used treagar hickory pellets. And didn’t have any issues with the pellets not feeding till the end.
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10 hours doesn’t sound too far off for pork shoulder to get nice and tender.
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$15-$20 for a bag of pellets gone in one cook? That would bother me a little bit. Maybe that’s normal for a large size pellet grill at those time and temps. I don’t know.
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I think I normally use half a $6 bag of royal oak to cook 4 butts on the 26
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That’s crazy it used almost a whole bag of pellets. I watched a YT where a guy used 30 lbs on a brisket cook. I can get 2 long cooks out of a bag with mine.
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$15-$20 for a bag of pellets gone in one cook? That would bother me a little bit. Maybe that’s normal for a large size pellet grill at those time and temps. I don’t know.
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My timberline 1300 is a bigger and I can get 2 long cooks on a bag at 275-300 .
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HoosierKettle- you get four butts on the 26?
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HoosierKettle- you get four butts on the 26?
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Yes sir. I have a smokenator 2600 that helps. An old pre sns relic. It’s really better than an sns for this specific task because it has a top. It gets 5-6 hours before I need to stir and add coals which works pretty good because that’s usually when I wrap.
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For my pellet grills @ 250 on most days I use about 1 lbs per hour. I get pellets at about $.40 per lbs so for me running a pellet grill is very cheap.
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HoosierKettle- you get four butts on the 26?
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You might be able to get 5 butts on a 26” if you used a set up like mine where I have a WSM charcoal ring and my 22” flat griddle used as a heat deflector
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HoosierKettle- you get four butts on the 26?
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You might be able to get 5 butts on a 26” if you used a set up like mine where I have a WSM charcoal ring and my 22” flat griddle used as a heat deflector
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But more fun to have 5 kettles going each with one pork butt! ; )
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HoosierKettle- you get four butts on the 26?
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You might be able to get 5 butts on a 26” if you used a set up like mine where I have a WSM charcoal ring and my 22” flat griddle used as a heat deflector
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But more fun to have 5 kettles going each with one pork butt! ; )
Lol! YES!!!!
But I unfortunately don’t have that many grills.....yet [emoji1787][emoji23][emoji1787]
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HoosierKettle- you get four butts on the 26?
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You might be able to get 5 butts on a 26” if you used a set up like mine where I have a WSM charcoal ring and my 22” flat griddle used as a heat deflector
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But more fun to have 5 kettles going each with one pork butt! ; )
Lol! YES!!!!
But I unfortunately don’t have that many grills.....yet [emoji1787][emoji23][emoji1787]
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I only have a fraction of the grills most people have on here but I just figured up that I could easily cook 20 pork butts if I used all of my grills.
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HoosierKettle- you get four butts on the 26?
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You might be able to get 5 butts on a 26” if you used a set up like mine where I have a WSM charcoal ring and my 22” flat griddle used as a heat deflector
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But more fun to have 5 kettles going each with one pork butt! ; )
Lol! YES!!!!
But I unfortunately don’t have that many grills.....yet [emoji1787][emoji23][emoji1787]
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I only have a fraction of the grills most people have on here but I just figured up that I could easily cook 20 pork butts if I used all of my grills.
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I could make about 12-13 [emoji3]
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So back on to the subject of pellet consumption, I did crank mine up to 300 a little less than halfway through then the last 3-4 hours at 400, so that chewed through them very quickly, if I had left it at 225-250, I might still be out there...lol
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So back on to the subject of pellet consumption, I did crank mine up to 300 a little less than halfway through then the last 3-4 hours at 400, so that chewed through them very quickly, if I had left it at 225-250, I might still be out there...lol
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I use my pellet grill mainly during the week while out of town for work in my camper. Majority of cooks are whole chicken , chuck roasts , beef ribs and salmon and cook temp average is 300. A bag will last me for the whole week and early into the next week. I’m curious about my total consumption now and will pay attention to my next bag.
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Maybe it’s a design flaw? Since this was my first ever pellet grill experience I didn’t know, I’m wandering if the holes in the fire pot let air in to burn faster, plus I’ve read some stuff about the blower, blowing too hard. Something to keep in mind. I do know after cleaning the grill today, there was WAY more ash in the bottom of drum than in the foil ash catcher. In fact, there was hardly any in the foil ash pan. When I opened the drawer there was ash in the drawer, but hardly any in the actual pan...sigh.
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Maybe it’s a design flaw? Since this was my first ever pellet grill experience I didn’t know, I’m wandering if the holes in the fire pot let air in to burn faster, plus I’ve read some stuff about the blower, blowing too hard. Something to keep in mind. I do know after cleaning the grill today, there was WAY more ash in the bottom of drum than in the foil ash catcher. In fact, there was hardly any in the foil ash pan. When I opened the drawer there was ash in the drawer, but hardly any in the actual pan...sigh.
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From what I’ve seen the fan is mounted close to the fire pot and pointed upwards from the bottom. Think that’s why it’s slinging ash out the vents and all over the outside. All other pellet grills has a heat diverter that also allows grease to run into the grease trap. Surely the metal helps with even heat retention which helps with fuel consumption and even cooking ?
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Never saw the need for a pellet pooper, and when Weber came out with one... WTF?!
Sorry, butt I am of old school... charcoal and wood. I dislike things that WILL break.
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Interested in the sounds that the grill makes..... fan, auger and the torch sounds. Grilling for me is a time of relaxation and I love hearing the embers popping and a nice sizzle but that's about it unless I turn on some Eagles on the bluetooth speaker. Are the sounds very loud and intrusive?
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Bbqking01- apologies for hijacking the thread - now back to our regularly scheduled program
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No problem...it’s all good. The fan is kinda loud but not obnoxious, auger can barely here, when it turns on. Plus the fan kinda comes and goes. But this isn’t sitting around the camp fire out in the woods with the wind blowing through the trees either...lol I’m all for charcoal and real wood. But if I’m going to do a big crowd, this would work great!
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Not sure how much SmokeFire experiences have been discussed in the forum, but I'll add my 2 cents. The other night at work, we fired one up and cooked about 25 brats. We cooked them in a couple of batches, and ran it for a couple of hours.
We had no problems with grease flare-ups. The smoke flavor was evident. For the last 10-15 minutes of each batch, we cranked up the heat, and got beautiful grill marks on the brats, along with a crisp casing that snapped with the bite. It can definitely put out some heat. There was minimal ash -- no more than you'd expect with a charcoal kettle.
We didn't measure, but the pellet usage didn't seem out of the ordinary.
And almost throughout the cook, there was smoke coming from the cooker. I've used other pellet cookers, where there seldom seemed to be smoke.
I think what people need to understand is that the SmokeFire is a different type of pellet grill. If you want a low-and-slow cooker that gives a small amount of smoke flavor, get one of the other brands. I've used some of the other brands, and sometimes they leave me wondering why I didn't just use my kitchen oven. If you want one that gives a lot of smoke flavor and can sear, the SmokeFire is an excellent option.
The key is to read the directions. And if you're worried about grease, use a drip pan. I usually use a drip pan anyway for fatty cuts like pork butts, simply because I like to keep my grills clean and don't want to deal with grease buildup.
Bottom line, I think I'm going to buy one. Hope this helps.
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Right on! I’m in agreement with you!
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