My SmokeFire EX6 Journey Updated: Contacted Weber

GriLLMaRksRseXy

GriLLMaRksRseXy

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My EX6 arrived in Tallahassee last night and R&L Delivered it early for me! I have couple of important work days so I wont be assembling for a day or so but I wanted to let everyone know I fully plan complete a series of posts regarding my initial performance findings and moving up to attempting to tackle each shortfall we have seen so far on the grill.

I plan on keeping mine. Why? 1. Full disclosure. I believe in Weber. If they do not make things right then I will jump ship and I am sure there will be other actionable courses to take in the future......... 2. I love to modify stuff and solve problems (Our wives probably call this "accessorizing.......")

Initial Thoughts So Far:
BBQGuys: WOW. Amazing. Shipped next day. Shipment was palletized, strapped and shrink wrapped better than any freight shipment I have received in awhile! Great job on chat and completed a very large order accurately.

R&L Carriers: Absolutely Perfect. Contacted me upon shipment on Valentines day from BBQGuys and estimated it would arrive after midnight last night and wanted to know if I wanted to have an early delivery instead of scheduling it for tomorrow if it really did arrive then. I said yes and they said they would call me within 30 minutes of delivery if they could get the shipment in when they thought would. I got a phone call today and within 30 minutes my grill was being unloaded into my garage from a very long driveway from a lift truck that I didn't have to pay for. Pallet was perfect. Not a dent, ding or tear to the boxes or even the shrink wrap.

My EX6:
Production Date: 11/12/2019 She was born on a Tuesday..............After Monday and well before Friday!
Serial Number: UD0046556. Oh Dear...... I was reading some posts about "early" production models having a bad controller that wont update and the serial numbers started with 8. Either Im looking at that info wrong or I have preproduction unit that is flawless like the ones demoed in Chicago!

Immediate plans during assembly:
Clean that grease of a mess heat deflector with brake cleaner. Those pics are pretty disgusting you guys. Will find out for sure if it is oil or something else...Stay tuned folks....
Apply UHMW "slick tape" to the metal surfaces of the pellet chute slopes and remove the "lawyer guard"
Level it completely. Because I am a little OCD but I really want a "level" playing field as I experiment with everything..
 

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Love it! Thanks for letting everyone know how it went. Looking forward to your thoughts on it having heard all the "horror" stories. I feel like we do hear mostly the negative stuff and hopefully you have some positive experiences to share! For what it's worth, for my first cook after getting mine fixed, I cooked a couple pounds of chicken breasts, a couple packages of brats, and some halved zucchini. Everything went perfect and tasted amazing!
 
I got around to assembling my EX6 Today.
Box is huge. Measure your door(s) route first guys!

Initial Thoughts:
Unpacking:
Well put together, thought out and engineered box system. Good Job Weber!

Instructions:
Straightforward. Super Easy to follow.

Build Quality:
I am VERY mixed on this one. The legs are very sturdy as are their posts attached to the cook box. All the seams and welds look good and all the hardware fit very well. I had no rounding, bulging or bending where it should not be. Casters are actually fairy beefy. To everyone that said it is build like a Weber.........I am not so sure. The double walled cook box to me is flimsier than expected. Nothing like my old Genesis and absolutely nothing like my Summit. I could tell when I picked up the lid. It is not bad but I would not call it Weber that I know.

The inner lining of the "double wall" sides are flimsy like the heat deflector metal inside a patio heater. Attached to the same cheap metal is a thin long L bracket on each side made of the same cheap metal and its attached by two tiny rivets on each side. This is what your heavy top wire rack sits and slides on.....before you load it up with meat. I can bend it away from the inner wall with my fingernail.

The Flavorizer bar brackets sit on thin metal brackets too though this metal is a little thicker I am still a little shocked by its use. Time will tell. My drip pan front panel plate is dinged and missing the enamel at both top corners of the rectangular cut out for the drawer. It is not just purely cosmetic (though it is on the front of the grill too) because I am sure the exposed shiny metal will eventually rust the thin plate. I will reach out to Weber on this one for a new one for sure.

The hopper box bead of caulk looks like I did it (thats not good.) The hopper lid itself is very flimsy compared to even the hopper lid on my Pit Boss Austin XL and it is a little warped and will not sit fully flush on one side correctly.

I also do not like the void between the cook box and hopper. There is THREE different areas your wood pellets or debris from trees, etc. will fall down and get caught in it. I think it was done to lower heat transfer from the cook box to the hopper but people still seem to say its pretty warm inside and others have condensate in their hopper too. I think we could add some heat relfective tape/insulation between that void to definitely help with that. On another note, I wonder if all the condensate is coming from the steam/heat coming out of the back vents while people stir the hopper and/or take videos can you can clearly see it "blowing" in there on every video...

Out of everything though it was the stainless shelf that surprised me the most. It is NOT Weber quality I am used to. It has a lot of flex in it. I cannot remember the last grill I had that the shelf was this flimsy. Dont get me wrong. It is good quality, just thin. If I gently try to pick up the grill from the shelf it flexes A LOT. My old Genesis, My SS Summit and even my Pit Boss Austin XL does not flex as much

Modifications:
I installed two of the new Weber Grill Lights to the handle. I will update everyone on their real time performance. The removability of the lights seems to be more of a gimic than a functional use because it is a pain to remove them and they are only held in by a cheap plastic bendable tab.

I cleaned every part of the firepot assembly and heat plate with brake cleaner to remove all oils and dirt. I will let you know if I get the same scale on them as everyone else during the initial break in.

I removed the finger protection cover (left the 3 screws in) and installed 2 Layers of 3' UHMW "Slick Tape" It is supposed to be a slick as PTFE Teflon but is self lubricating, longer lasting and higher temperature adhesive. Plus its a whole lot cheaper. I just went over the hopper dump door but after testing will cut it out with an exacto knife so it stays functional. I am attaching a pic of the installed tape and a video of the pellets sliding down. So far it looks good but as soon as the rain breaks I will test it out during a burn in and some long term temperature testing.

20200220_165211.jpg
 
Last edited:
So, just to add to your thread and not create a new one, I got my ex 6 on Monday and also put it together tonight. Mine was built 1/28/20, serial number UD0177381. It went together with no issues, I didn’t use brake cleaner but I did try to wipe off the heat plate. No mods as of yet. But I did somehow receive an extra glow plug, so that’s nice to have.

I had no issues at all downloading the update and pairing with the app. Took about 15 minutes for the update. I did however have an issue trying to do the burn in. Started it up, saw some smoke and closed the lid. But after a couple minutes I didn’t see the temp changing and did not see any more smoke. So I shut it down. I think with the auger empty there wasn’t enough pellets when the glow plug was trying to start the burn. So on the second try I just left some of the pellets in the burn pot and started up fine.

It is 25 degrees here and once started it took about 12 minutes to get up to 600, stayed there for 40 minutes at 600, I didn’t open it at all but checked every 10 minutes to see where it was.

waiting for it to run through shut down right now, probably won’t cook anything until Saturday or Sunday. I know I have baby back ribs to cook Sunday, just need to figure out what to cook Saturday.

It will be interesting to see if we have any different issues with our EX 6’s being that they were made a couple months apart.
 
JmanOhioBBQ said:
So, just to add to your thread and not create a new one, I got my ex 6 on Monday and also put it together tonight. Mine was built 1/28/20, serial number UD0177381. It went together with no issues, I didn’t use brake cleaner but I did try to wipe off the heat plate. No mods as of yet. But I did somehow receive an extra glow plug, so that’s nice to have.

I had no issues at all downloading the update and pairing with the app. Took about 15 minutes for the update. I did however have an issue trying to do the burn in. Started it up, saw some smoke and closed the lid. But after a couple minutes I didn’t see the temp changing and did not see any more smoke. So I shut it down. I think with the auger empty there wasn’t enough pellets when the glow plug was trying to start the burn. So on the second try I just left some of the pellets in the burn pot and started up fine.

It is 25 degrees here and once started it took about 12 minutes to get up to 600, stayed there for 40 minutes at 600, I didn’t open it at all but checked every 10 minutes to see where it was.

waiting for it to run through shut down right now, probably won’t cook anything until Saturday or Sunday. I know I have baby back ribs to cook Sunday, just need to figure out what to cook Saturday.

It will be interesting to see if we have any different issues with our EX 6’s being that they were made a couple months apart.
Click to expand...
I am wondering the the lack of a "Prime" function of our grills is the problem as far as the first start petering out. I am sure the PID has some type of expected fuel quantity baked into its program for startup. Without a way to prime the auger on the first burn there is probably not enough fuel(pellets) in the pot to start the initial burn.

I am looking forward to your posts too. It will be nice to see what variables your grill and mine have based on the different dates of manufacture!
 
GriLLMaRksRseXy said:
I got around to assembling my EX6 Today.
Box is huge. Measure your door(s) route first guys!

Initial Thoughts:
Unpacking:
Well put together, thought out and engineered box system. Good Job Weber!

Instructions:
Straightforward. Super Easy to follow.

Build Quality:
I am VERY mixed on this one. The legs are very sturdy as are their posts attached to the cook box. All the seams and welds look good and all the hardware fit very well. I had no rounding, bulging or bending where it should not be. Casters are actually fairy beefy. To everyone that said it is build like a Weber.........I am not so sure. The double walled cook box to me is flimsier than expected. Nothing like my old Genesis and absolutely nothing like my Summit. I could tell when I picked up the lid. It is not bad but I would not call it Weber that I know.

The inner lining of the "double wall" sides are flimsy like the heat deflector metal inside a patio heater. Attached to the same cheap metal is a thin long L bracket on each side made of the same cheap metal and its attached by two tiny rivets on each side. This is what your heavy top wire rack sits and slides on.....before you load it up with meat. I can bend it away from the inner wall with my fingernail.

The Flavorizer bar brackets sit on thin metal brackets too though this metal is a little thicker I am still a little shocked by its use. Time will tell. My drip pan front panel plate is dinged and missing the enamel at both top corners of the rectangular cut out for the drawer. It is not just purely cosmetic (though it is on the front of the grill too) because I am sure the exposed shiny metal will eventually rust the thin plate. I will reach out to Weber on this one for a new one for sure.

The hopper box bead of caulk looks like I did it (thats not good.) The hopper lid itself is very flimsy compared to even the hopper lid on my Pit Boss Austin XL and it is a little warped and will not sit fully flush on one side correctly.

I also do not like the void between the cook box and hopper. There is THREE different areas your wood pellets or debris from trees, etc. will fall down and get caught in it. I think it was done to lower heat transfer from the cook box to the hopper but people still seem to say its pretty warm inside and others have condensate in their hopper too. I think we could add some heat relfective tape/insulation between that void to definitely help with that. On another note, I wonder if all the condensate is coming from the steam/heat coming out of the back vents while people stir the hopper and/or take videos can you can clearly see it "blowing" in there on every video...

Out of everything though it was the stainless shelf that surprised me the most. It is NOT Weber quality I am used to. It has a lot of flex in it. I cannot remember the last grill I had that the shelf was this flimsy. Dont get me wrong. It is good quality, just thin. If I gently try to pick up the grill from the shelf it flexes A LOT. My old Genesis, My SS Summit and even my Pit Boss Austin XL does not flex as much

Modifications:
I installed two of the new Weber Grill Lights to the handle. I will update everyone on their real time performance. The removability of the lights seems to be more of a gimic than a functional use because it is a pain to remove them and they are only held in by a cheap plastic bendable tab.

I cleaned every part of the firepot assembly and heat plate with brake cleaner to remove all oils and dirt. I will let you know if I get the same scale on them as everyone else during the initial break in.

I removed the finger protection cover (left the 3 screws in) and installed 2 Layers of 3' UHMW "Slick Tape" It is supposed to be a slick as PTFE Teflon but is self lubricating, longer lasting and higher temperature adhesive. Plus its a whole lot cheaper. I just went over the hopper dump door but after testing will cut it out with an exacto knife so it stays functional. I am attaching a pic of the installed tape and a video of the pellets sliding down. So far it looks good but as soon as the rain breaks I will test it out during a burn in and some long term temperature testing.

View attachment 184
View attachment 185
Click to expand...
That's a good idea, will have to find some of the tape!
 
You two will probably help me decide if I keep my delivery scheduled for next Thurs 2/27 or tell them to keep it and send it back. Also absolutely nothing from Weber on this other than a lot of the problems they've seen can be chocked up to user error. This is what I was told by customer service two days ago when I wanted to know where the company was at with all the negatives out there. Weber has to come out and stand in front of all this and not try to hide or bury their heads.
 
Mine finally comes in Saturday. I’ll post videos and pictures along with my notes as well.
Thanks for sharing all of your notes.
 
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