First used Smoke Fire?

[pbe gummi bear]

Imo this is the best and most objective overview of the SmokeFire features and issues: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Me-dfmlZFmw

[Troy]

wow what a cluster

I hope Weber can get this turned around. I've been considering the smokefire or a charcoal summit, but after seeing the recent videos the answer is clear

[LightningBoldtz]

wow what a cluster

I hope Weber can get this turned around. I've been considering the smokefire or a charcoal summit, but after seeing the recent videos the answer is clear

Troy, you have to go with Charcoal Summit on this one,  I absolutely love mine, Weber really did a great job on it, only complaint I have ever had with it is the price.  all units should have sold for $400 to $500 less than what they do.

[mcgolden]

wow what a cluster

I hope Weber can get this turned around. I've been considering the smokefire or a charcoal summit, but after seeing the recent videos the answer is clear

Troy, you have to go with Charcoal Summit on this one,  I absolutely love mine, Weber really did a great job on it, only complaint I have every had with it is the price.  all units should have sold for $400 to $500 less than what they do.

I totally agree. The Charcoal Summit is fantastic and the quality is top notch. But yes, Weber should drop the price.


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[bamakettles]

I watched both BabyBack Maniac and Harry Soo's videos as well.  Justin did a well thought out low and slow cook and had a ball of grease and ash mixture in the bottom that caught on fire which is a design issue IMO.  As you said, Harry cooked fast and only for two hours finishing in the oven inside.  There was ash everywhere in Harry's video too along with him having to manually adjust the pellets in the hopper just to keep it going.  Reading through the comments on each demo I can tell that Justin is concerned with the product and Harry is concerned with himself and not serious.  I don't have a pellet grill and don't want one.  Happy with my kettles and WSM.  I do hope that Weber addresses the issues.  Will be interesting to follow......

[Troy]

wow what a cluster

I hope Weber can get this turned around. I've been considering the smokefire or a charcoal summit, but after seeing the recent videos the answer is clear

Troy, you have to go with Charcoal Summit on this one,  I absolutely love mine, Weber really did a great job on it, only complaint I have ever had with it is the price.  all units should have sold for $400 to $500 less than what they do.

Yeah i'm pretty much decided now.
I'm moving again this spring though, so it will have to wait until "grilling season"

[pbe gummi bear]

wow what a cluster

I hope Weber can get this turned around. I've been considering the smokefire or a charcoal summit, but after seeing the recent videos the answer is clear

Troy, you have to go with Charcoal Summit on this one,  I absolutely love mine, Weber really did a great job on it, only complaint I have ever had with it is the price.  all units should have sold for $400 to $500 less than what they do.

I think the summit would be selling itself short at that price point. If the Kamado companies can get away with what they charge and not include all the required accessories, then the CGS is right to be at that price point.

[Brain_STL]

I just watched the shotgun of Kevin Kolman hastily produced videos the Weber put out a few hours ago. I was kinda embarrassed for them by seeing the backpedaling as well as the new introduction to drip pans between the grated and the flavorizor bars underneath your meat. Talk about CYA! I love this company's products, but this is unreal. Aside from Harry Soo, I haven't heard a good thing about it and I also saw a guy already making mod's to try to make it work correctly. I'll wait for Gen 2...


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[Troy]

I just watched the shotgun of Kevin Kolman hastily produced videos the Weber put out a few hours ago. I was kinda embarrassed for them by seeing the backpedaling as well as the new introduction to drip pans between the grated and the flavorizor bars underneath your meat. Talk about CYA! I love this company's products, but this is unreal. Aside from Harry Soo, I haven't heard a good thing about it and I also saw a guy already making mod's to try to make it work correctly. I'll wait for Gen 2...


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saw the same
i hope they're putting equal effort into fixing as they are into covering up

[crowderjd]

Holy cow, just saw Baby Back Maniac's grease fire and "I'm taking it back to Lowes" videos.  Honestly, I kind of feel bad for everyone involved EXCEPT Weber.  I think we all love Weber and want Weber to succeed...but, we have ALL noticed the shifts in quality and products over the last few years.  I'm not a China basher, as we all use Chinese made products every single day, and in almost every possible way...good grief, my garage is full of Chinese made Harbor Freight tools, and I'm generally thrilled with Harbor Freight, and I know what I'm getting going into it. 

I think Weber's real problem is the fact that they were sold to a PRIVATE EQUITY FIRM, BDT Capital Partners, in 2010.  Since then, the shift has CLEARLY been maximizing profit first, quality second.  taco handles, lighter legs, overseas Spirit production, and SOME of the new generation Genesis production...with the move to more plastic and less steel parts on the new gen Genesis...and now the dumpster fire (or should I say grease fire) that is the Smoke Fire.  I'm afraid of two things.  First, there's going to come a tipping point where Weber loses its long earned reputation for quality, and second I'm afraid they are going to become Char Broil...just another example of a disposable product not built for generational use, but a thing that will be designed to fail and re-buy in quick succession.  To be clear, I want Weber to succeed, and I get companies need to change with the time, but I'm afraid they've had a decade long drift away from what made them great.

Finally about Private Equity Firms.  They're the lurking shadow running our modern economy.  Look up BDM Capital Partners.  They don't even have a website.  They're run by the mysterious Byron Trott...and if you didn't know they now own a lot of brands we may love.  This link (a bit of clickbait I know, but a decent overview) lets you know what they own. 

https://heavy.com/news/2019/06/bdt-capital-partners/

[GrillGuyMosier]

I just want a light blue 26

[HoosierKettle]

Just picked up this old girl. Haven't cleaned it up yet but I can put some pellets in a smoke tube and I'll have a poor mans smoke fire



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[MagnoliaTom]

Just picked up this old girl. Haven't cleaned it up yet but I can put some pellets in a smoke tube and I'll have a poor mans smoke fire



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That grill is awesome. I have the redhead with wood slats version of it and it's by far the best gas grill I've ever owned and I got it used....and it's over 20 years old!


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[LightningBoldtz]

Holy cow, just saw Baby Back Maniac's grease fire and "I'm taking it back to Lowes" videos.  Honestly, I kind of feel bad for everyone involved EXCEPT Weber.  I think we all love Weber and want Weber to succeed...but, we have ALL noticed the shifts in quality and products over the last few years.  I'm not a China basher, as we all use Chinese made products every single day, and in almost every possible way...good grief, my garage is full of Chinese made Harbor Freight tools, and I'm generally thrilled with Harbor Freight, and I know what I'm getting going into it. 

I think Weber's real problem is the fact that they were sold to a PRIVATE EQUITY FIRM, BDT Capital Partners, in 2010.  Since then, the shift has CLEARLY been maximizing profit first, quality second.  taco handles, lighter legs, overseas Spirit production, and SOME of the new generation Genesis production...with the move to more plastic and less steel parts on the new gen Genesis...and now the dumpster fire (or should I say grease fire) that is the Smoke Fire.  I'm afraid of two things.  First, there's going to come a tipping point where Weber loses its long earned reputation for quality, and second I'm afraid they are going to become Char Broil...just another example of a disposable product not built for generational use, but a thing that will be designed to fail and re-buy in quick succession.  To be clear, I want Weber to succeed, and I get companies need to change with the time, but I'm afraid they've had a decade long drift away from what made them great.

Finally about Private Equity Firms.  They're the lurking shadow running our modern economy.  Look up BDM Capital Partners.  They don't even have a website.  They're run by the mysterious Byron Trott...and if you didn't know they now own a lot of brands we may love.  This link (a bit of clickbait I know, but a decent overview) lets you know what they own. 

https://heavy.com/news/2019/06/bdt-capital-partners/

RE, what Weber will be in the future, with what I have seen out of their gas grills I have been saying for some time now that it is only a matter of time before they are in the Charbroil category.  The reason they I got into Weber's 10 or so years ago was because I seek products that are not made for the dump.  I am so frustrated with planned obsolescence.  While I still think the Genesis II line still has quality(not like previous Genesis) I would not recommend at all the new Spirit grills, they are garbage.  They are clearly using the Weber name to keep prices high and cut many corners.

Now back to this, I was at Lowes the other day and l looked at the SmokeFire.  I honestly don't think this is a quality issue, I think the quality of the grill is actually pretty good.  I just think they didn't think through some of the issues at hand.  More design than quality.
The hopper needs a better angle so the pellets drop properly, how they are going to solve that mid stream?  not sure.
The grease fires, this is rather simple, they need a defuser for "smoke setting" that  sits on the flavorbars.  From the post above, it looks like they may have already proposed this.  I have not seen the Kevin Kolman  videos.
Other issue is ash,  I have a couple of pellet grills ash happens, not sure this is an issue.

They clearly tried to make this a grill that any backyard gas grill user could used for burgers, and oh btw cook ribs too.

[LightningBoldtz]

Watching this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Lxkhz_UZiU

I think they should make something specifically for smoke setting that covers both sides of the flavorizer bars.  Just my thoughts.