Never thought much about pellet smokers until the new Weber showed up. Anyone have first hand knowledge of these. Rave reviews abound on other sites.
I have no experience with the SmokeFire, and I was skeptical when I heard it was coming (I am skeptical of any pellet/smoker/grill combo). However, THIS REVIEW cured a great deal of my skepticism about the SmokeFire. If anyone can make something like this work, Weber can. The price also doesn't look terrible when compared to purchasing a pellet smoker and grill separately. It's still cheaper to get them separately, but not by as much. If I were in the market for such an animal, the SmokeFire is the only one I would even consider.
That said, I am still happier with having separate items, as I find myself using both at the same time often enough (and I have no space concern). The greatest drawback of the combo is that it can do only one thing at a time.
The second most significant drawback is that a standalone grill still is a better grill than any existing combo. While the SmokeFire does seem to do a fine job of searing, lump charcoal still does it better as a grill.
I don't take amazing ribs reviews too serious as he's a big name guy and makes big bucks and promoted brands in his books etc.
I'll take a B&B review from someone who paid for it himself after saving up for a couple years over his reviews.
Agree 100%. I’m active on a pellet grill forum and there are a couple of members who have just recently gotten their hands on them (and spent their own $ on them) and are currently doing some testing and cooks with them. One of the guys has had many different makes and models from very basic to super high end so I am especially looking forward to hear how he thinks it compares.
Starting see some negative reviews and problems pop up. Several people have had problems with the pellet hopper creating bridges and running out of pellets on long cooks even though there are plenty of pellets still in the hopper. That leads to the having to go through a complete shutdown cycle, because apparently it doesn’t have an automatic re-light programmed if the temperature drops low enough. The re-light issue could be addressed by an software upgrade, the hopper is a design issue and would be harder to address. One of the biggest selling points of a pellet grill is the ability to set and forget, its negated if you have to go check to make sure the pellets aren’t hanging up in the hopper. Also have read some are having issues achieving high temps, but at this point I willing to believe that could be weather related. I have faith that Weber will work to get the issues ironed out but I will wait a while and see.
Looks like my previously mentioned concerns regarding grease fires are unfortunately becoming validated
Me too.Methinks I'll stick with old school.
Dude, Kamado is so old school that it’s now new school. When my Chargrill Kamado wears out, I will be getting a KJ.View attachment 1064552
Methinks I'll stick with old school.