Yo & Hello

[GriLLMaRksRseXy]

Newbie here. Senile gray haired old man who just got rid of my Treager, Timberline 850 grill and now thinking about buying the Webber EX 6?? Any help appreciated with it and how is Webber’s tech support??

Disclaimer. I am long term Weber Customer. My Grandfather was a Weber Customer. My Dad was a Weber Customer. My Stepdad was a Weber Customer. I have converted dozens if not hundreds of friends, family and online friends into Weber Customers.

That being said, let us start with Tech support since that is what you asked about and we can go further after that. Webers tech support is generally the best I have every dealt with in the 43 years I have been alive. It is the reason that I stand behind them even though I have had absolutely nothing but problems with my first Smokefire (caught on fire, Weber made it right and arranged to pick my old one up and sent me a new one. Still have issues with this one but the parts they sent me should fix my issues but for physical reasons I have not been able to put them in yet.) Other than my Smokefire purchase I have only ever had minor issues with my Weber products and Weber has ALWAYS stood behind them. They have shipped me countless parts for free for countless grills even after the warranty has WELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL expired. They have (other than this year with the smokefire, covid, everything else going on) responded quickly. I have had product development team members, executives of the company and senior members of product support contact me this year and a few times over the years. I would say over the 25 years I have been a grown man I would give them 5 stars for 24 years of support and go to war for them. This past year I would give them a 3 star rating and push back for them to make things right. That still equals out to 4 or 5 stars. They are a great company. Yes I feel the smokefire was rushed to market with production parts that were not built to the same specs as the engineered parts but at the end of the day they seem to be doing everything they can to make things right.

As for the Smokefire. It has its issues as you can well read about but I am encouraged about what Weber has been doing and what the forum members (especially the new ones) have been saying about the product, especially with the newer revisions and parts. At the end of the day we really cannot have our cake and eat it too...There is going to be trade offs. Weber seems to really be getting to a great compromise. And by the way........this is coming from a guy with a completely non operational smokefire. I have the parts, I just have not been physically able to install them. Once I can replace my parts I am sure most of my issues will be resolved ( and I am VERY VERY picky) If not, I am sure Weber will take care of me while it is under warranty and even afterwards. They always have.

 

[Corners]

Stay Away!!!
I bought mine in February directly from Weber and have been extremely unhappy with the product and with the customer service. I am currently in a battle with customer service to get credit on my unit. I would advise to stay away until at least Rev 2.0. First round has too many problems and the customer service has been horrendous.

TKS. I will have to take my chances. I ordered it already.

 

[GriLLMaRksRseXy]

High Corners. Welcome to our forum. I gave an honest answer to your question. If you get the time please read it and ask questions if you need to. I think you will be just fine

 

[Corners]

Disclaimer. I am long term Weber Customer. My Grandfather was a Weber Customer. My Dad was a Weber Customer. My Stepdad was a Weber Customer. I have converted dozens if not hundreds of friends, family and online friends into Weber Customers.

That being said, let us start with Tech support since that is what you asked about and we can go further after that. Webers tech support is generally the best I have every dealt with in the 43 years I have been alive. It is the reason that I stand behind them even though I have had absolutely nothing but problems with my first Smokefire (caught on fire, Weber made it right and arranged to pick my old one up and sent me a new one. Still have issues with this one but the parts they sent me should fix my issues but for physical reasons I have not been able to put them in yet.) Other than my Smokefire purchase I have only ever had minor issues with my Weber products and Weber has ALWAYS stood behind them. They have shipped me countless parts for free for countless grills even after the warranty has WELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL expired. They have (other than this year with the smokefire, covid, everything else going on) responded quickly. I have had product development team members, executives of the company and senior members of product support contact me this year and a few times over the years. I would say over the 25 years I have been a grown man I would give them 5 stars for 24 years of support and go to war for them. This past year I would give them a 3 star rating and push back for them to make things right. That still equals out to 4 or 5 stars. They are a great company. Yes I feel the smokefire was rushed to market with production parts that were not built to the same specs as the engineered parts but at the end of the day they seem to be doing everything they can to make things right.

As for the Smokefire. It has its issues as you can well read about but I am encouraged about what Weber has been doing and what the forum members (especially the new ones) have been saying about the product, especially with the newer revisions and parts. At the end of the day we really cannot have our cake and eat it too...There is going to be trade offs. Weber seems to really be getting to a great compromise. And by the way........this is coming from a guy with a completely non operational smokefire. I have the parts, I just have not been physically able to install them. Once I can replace my parts I am sure most of my issues will be resolved ( and I am VERY VERY picky) If not, I am sure Weber will take care of me while it is under warranty and even afterwards. They always have.

Now THIS is a reply, statement, whatever you want to call it, that is by far the BEST I have read. One that lets me know that Weber is a five star ️ company. I’ll take my chances with Weber, knowing there is a customer like this. ️️️️️

 

[GriLLMaRksRseXy]

Now THIS is a reply, statement, whatever you want to call it, that is by far the BEST I have read. One that lets me know that Weber is a five star company. I’ll take my chances with Weber, knowing there is a customer like this.

Just want to give a shout out to some of the other members that posted above me. They gave good advice. 1. Scrap the finger guard. I have watched it shred pellets on both units. I have seen it cause cavitation and clogging on both units. Some of us call it a "Lawyer Guard" its useless in function as long as you do not sink your fingers past that hole it covers....Then it becomes vital. 2. Update, Update, Update. Make sure you do not go to fire up and cook on your smokefire only to see it is downloading and installing an app or product update. Things get better with each update but I have found if I am "caught" updating while cooking, I generally have some type of failure to ignite, keep temp, etc.

 

[Corners]

Just want to give a shout out to some of the other members that posted above me. They gave good advice. 1. Scrap the finger guard. I have watched it shred pellets on both units. I have seen it cause cavitation and clogging on both units. Some of us call it a "Lawyer Guard" its useless in function as long as you do not sink your fingers past that hole it covers....Then it becomes vital. 2. Update, Update, Update. Make sure you do not go to fire up and cook on your smokefire only to see it is downloading and installing an app or product update. Things get better with each update but I have found if I am "caught" updating while cooking, I generally have some type of failure to ignite, keep temp, etc.

I SINCERELY APOLOGIZE if I have offended anyone that has posted advice. ALL those posts contained information that was useful. Sometimes I fail to give credit where credit is do. When you get like me, senile, old gray haired man, a lot of the time the “gears don’t mesh” properly.

 

[Captainmike]

I agree and am in the same boat as Grillmarks. I was originally going to buy a Traeger Timberline in January then at last second (literally night before going to store) I thought “hey wouldn’t it be great if Weber was making a pellet grill.” Don’t know why, but at that moment I looked outside at my ‘08 Genesis (which I bought used) and how well that has stood, how great Weber CS has been with me on that, and said let me check first. Voila found the Smokefire and made my mind up, “patiently” waited

For example, last week I received an entirely new lid for my Genesis, it has a small chip that was rusting and I brought it up to them just to see if it was covered. The lid has a 25 year warranty, and didn’t matter I bought it used. They said they’ll send me a completely new one and overnight it, juts that they were busy and it would take a while. Received it and the lid even has updates to it such as a double walled interior which is an improvement to the previous!!!! Any time I ask or asked for assistance, they provide. If it wasn’t for Covid I’m sure they would be faster. But I’m not going anywhere.

And by they way, my EX6 is purring like a kitten. The only reason I use my Genesis now is for a) side burner or b) overflow. Any other time I go straight to my EX6. Keep that fire pot clean (easiest to access of many pellet grills I believe) and you should have limited start up issues.

 

[Bruno]

I agree and am in the same boat as Grillmarks. I was originally going to buy a Traeger Timberline in January then at last second (literally night before going to store) I thought “hey wouldn’t it be great if Weber was making a pellet grill.” Don’t know why, but at that moment I looked outside at my ‘08 Genesis (which I bought used) and how well that has stood, how great Weber CS has been with me on that, and said let me check first. Voila found the Smokefire and made my mind up, “patiently” waited

For example, last week I received an entirely new lid for my Genesis, it has a small chip that was rusting and I brought it up to them just to see if it was covered. The lid has a 25 year warranty, and didn’t matter I bought it used. They said they’ll send me a completely new one and overnight it, juts that they were busy and it would take a while. Received it and the lid even has updates to it such as a double walled interior which is an improvement to the previous!!!! Any time I ask or asked for assistance, they provide. If it wasn’t for Covid I’m sure they would be faster. But I’m not going anywhere.

And by they way, my EX6 is purring like a kitten. The only reason I use my Genesis now is for a) side burner or b) overflow. Any other time I go straight to my EX6. Keep that fire pot clean (easiest to access of many pellet grills I believe) and you should have limited start up issues.

Weber customer service has always been amazing to me. I think this Covid crap has slowed them down, but they will recover.

 

[GriLLMaRksRseXy]

I SINCERELY APOLOGIZE if I have offended anyone that has posted advice. ALL those posts contained information that was useful. Sometimes I fail to give credit where credit is do. When you get like me, senile, old gray haired man, a lot of the time the “gears don’t mesh” properly.

I do not think you offended anyone. Especially not me. As a brand new forum member I loved the fact that you had already replied to several with thanks. It was me that was remiss to shout out to the rest of the members that had given you great advice when I first posted, hence my follow up post

Let us know when you get it in. Assembly is pretty easy. You will need ONE person to help you flip it onto its legs once it is assembled though.

 

[Corners]

I do not think you offended anyone. Especially not me. As a brand new forum member I loved the fact that you had already replied to several with thanks. It was me that was remiss to shout out to the rest of the members that had given you great advice when I first posted, hence my follow up post

Let us know when you get it in. Assembly is pretty easy. You will need ONE person to help you flip it onto its legs once it is assembled though.

TKS! All is well.