what y’all think about the weber smoke fire?

[chadinsc]

Im sure glad they made it because thats the grill that led me to research pellet grills. i remember being impressed last year when i seen the smoke fire grill at lowes. but now that i have the bull and have gotten used to its construction that smoke fire feels more like a $500 grill than a $1200 grill. the grates are thin and the hood flimsy. the pellet hoper is small and flimsy. great gas grill but that grill seems like a poor value. what do you guys think about them? any experience with them?

 

[C. Keeper]

IMHO Weber was late to the game.

 

[CarpeInferi]

They've got some interesting ideas, and looked promising during the pre-sales media blitz, but the early reviews were not good even by those who were invited to the influencer events and spoke highly of the pre-production units.

 

[chadinsc]

they definitely promised to be the perfect grill when introduced. but they must have rushed the design because it had alot of problems. very unusual for weber. i really respect weber for there gas and charcoal grills. they are great in there price range. they could have done alot better with the smoke fire. it doesn’t have the same feel as even there 399 gasser. just felt flimsy. but did look sharp

 

[Lager1829]

It's what got me interested in pellet grills. But lessons learned, I avoid first generation products. The more I researched, I knew Weber needed to come out with a redesign. Now I have the RT 590 and extremely pleased and grateful I made that choice.

 

[Treborwd22]

Now that the Smoke Fire Gen2 is out looks like they fixed all the original problems. With that said I still like the design of my RT590. I'm not a fan of the flavorizer bars in a pellet smoker. It may work great but clean up is a pain vs the foil lined drip pan in the Recteq models. Also like others have said build quality is not even close to my Weber Genesis ii and is subpar in comparison to Recteq.

Here is a pretty good review and video...
https://www.bbqguys.com/expert-reviews/pellet-grills/weber-smokefire-gen-2

 

[BretM]

I think RT stands alone at it's price point.

The RT-700 was my entry into pellet poopers and overall, I am happy. It is slightly gimmicky with the bull ring and the handles, but overall a very good unit. I can't see why someone would would buy a Weber or Traeger for the same cash.

However, I am on the wait list for one of these bad boys and I just may have to let the Bull go when they get to my number on the production line... https://lonestargrillz.com/collections/pellet-smokers-coming-soon/products/pellet-smoker

 

[sdynak]

A Weber what??

 

[SweaT-rex]

I have a similar experience. My brother has the Weber pellet grill which got me looking at them. He had problems with his from the get-go & if memory serves, had to get a new processor for it. I was raised on Weber products & have owned many of their products over the years. I have given away 3 older Weber grills or smokers to friends/ family members after getting their latest/ greatest offering. My RT-700 was the same price as my brother's Weber SmokeFire, but the difference in build quality, warranty, customer service made the RT-700 Bull a no brainer for me. The typical response when a friend first grabs the horn handles & lifts the lid is "wow, that's heavy!"

 

[jamorgan3777]

I did a lot of research on pellet smokers and looked for years at them. I finally pulled the trigger on the RT700 and still think its the best overall value. The only thing I would trade it for is a Yoder YS640. Im having a blast making new things on it. We did a boneless leg of lamb on it for mothers day that was out of this world.

 

[ghuns]

...However, I am on the wait list for one of these bad boys and I just may have to let the Bull go when they get to my number on the production line... https://lonestargrillz.com/collections/pellet-smokers-coming-soon/products/pellet-smoker

That removable burn pot is a pretty cool design.

 

[okie]

Im sure glad they made it because thats the grill that led me to research pellet grills. i remember being impressed last year when i seen the smoke fire grill at lowes. but now that i have the bull and have gotten used to its construction that smoke fire feels more like a $500 grill than a $1200 grill. the grates are thin and the hood flimsy. the pellet hoper is small and flimsy. great gas grill but that grill seems like a poor value. what do you guys think about them? any experience with them?

They had problems from the get-go..
1. Pellet hopper slope on the right was too shallow and pellets would not slide down well. They jury rigged that by putting a false bottom in over the right side with a steeper slope. Thus reducing the capacity of the hopper.
2. Because of the flavor bars, instead of a drip pan, the grease would drip into the bottom where it was directed by gravity toward the center, with the drain hole adjacent to the fire pot column. There it would mingle with the accumulated ash to form a sludge that did not drain out the hole provided. Result: grease fire!. I see no evidence that they have corrected that anatomy. Solution could have been to dump the famous flavor bars and use a drip pan with drain to one side. But not done to date. Drip pan can function as a nice "flavor bar". For direct flame, several competitors have solved that nicely with slide panels on a perforated drip tray. (Drip pan Pride??)
3. I think if they had been more conventional, that their name and reputation would have been sufficient to sell the units in large numbers.
They are a big successful company and will recover their losses, but I do not feel that the Smoke Fire will succeed without more profound modifications. IMO

 

[Partimewages]

I think RT stands alone at it's price point.

The RT-700 was my entry into pellet poopers and overall, I am happy. It is slightly gimmicky with the bull ring and the handles, but overall a very good unit. I can't see why someone would would buy a Weber or Traeger for the same cash.

However, I am on the wait list for one of these bad boys and I just may have to let the Bull go when they get to my number on the production line... https://lonestargrillz.com/collections/pellet-smokers-coming-soon/products/pellet-smoker

That's a beast at nearly 400lbs!