Weber SmokeFire EX4 Wood Fired Pellet Grill, Black, 2nd Generation

Goes hotter than the competition, is reliable, easy to use and the app is very good and actually works (would love it if more than one person could use it at a time). The hopper is on the back so while a bit more effort to fill, it does mean the until has more usable space for the shelf and it will fit in a smaller space. It heats up very fast and the automated shutdown basically eliminates needing to monitor or manage the pellet clean out. I also like that it uses the same grills as the E series Webers so many of the accessories are interchangeable between them. Having 4 independent temp probes is beyond my expertise to manage currently but hope to eventually use the app to build my skills. The control panel also allows timers to be setup directly (as well as via the app). The app needs its own review as it does everything from startup and shutdown remotely, to guiding you thru how to cook numerous meals from scratch including telling you what you need for ingredients, what temp to use, monitoring the internal temp of the meat, when to turn over, change temp, remove and how long to rest for! Basically you can grill/smoke things you've never tried before simply by following the walk thru in the app.

Save your money. The Weber SmokeFire EX4 (2nd Gen) Wood Fired Pellet Grill is garbage!!I was really high on this Pellet grill and really wanted to love it. I read the horrible reviews and saw the YouTube videos stating to stay away. My long time ReqTec 590 died and I was looking for a replacement. Low and behold Prime Day comes along and the Weber SmokeFire EX4 (2nd Gen) is on sale for $429.99. I am thinking at half off I could deal with a few quirks if the grill delivered excellent BBQ.The problems started with the long, convoluted and confusing assembly process. Took three hours to assemble and figure out how to install the glow plug. Tried to get guidance from YouTube but Weber had jerry rigged and changed the parts so many times on this grill that all the Weber instructional videos had different parts and were useless!Burn in went well so I had high hopes. The problems started right away. Fired up the Smoke Fire to cook some St. Louis ribs and started out with the smoke boost and boy was it working fine. 1 hour into the cook the smoke was gone and the grill was not warm. A few minutes later I got a notice on the app saying the flame was out and it was completing a forced shutdown. Pulled the grill apart and there was a mountain of pellets in the fire pot that put out the flame. Cleaned out the pellets and fired the grill up and everything was working fine, and 1-hour later 2nd flame out warning from the app. Took the grill apart and same issue; mountain of pellets put out the flame. Cleaned out the fire pot again and started the grill again. 1 hour later you guested it mountain of pellets puts out the flame. Me being stupid cleaned out the fire pot for a 4th time on the same cook only to have the flame put out by a mountain of pellets. All this happen during my 1st cook!!Finally gave up and finished the ribs in the oven 4 hours after my planned dinner time.All the negative reviews are correct on this pellet grill. It is not set it and forget it. It is more hands-on maintenance than cooking with charcoal. There is no way I could trust this grill for a long overnight porkbutt or brisket cook.I really wanted to love this grill, the sear mode looked promising, the smoke boost put out fantastic smoke and the built quality of the grill is excellent. There are just too may design and execution flaws that doom the grill. With all the negative reviews about dealing with Weber Customer service I was not going to roll the dice and bet that this grill’s problems could be fixed by working with Weber and I had to return the Weber SmokeFire EX4 1 week after it was delivered.

I've had this pellet smoker for almost 5 months and I have to say I love it but there is 1 thing I think everyone should know that I didn't easily find from reviews or the user manual. My first few cooks I made the mistake of setting my target temp on startup. This is an absolute no. Always start this grill at the lowest temp (200 degrees) then when you reach that set your target temp. My first 3 or 4 attempts at starting this grill above the 200 degree temp resulted in me shutting down the grill (takes no less than 15mins even if cool) and then taking out the grates, flavorizers, emptying the over filled pellet box, removing pellets from the bottom of the grill because of overflow, and putting it all back together.Once I found this out I haven't had a single problem with this smoker. The weber pellets work amazing and the food always comes out perfect. It's a hands off approach to smoking and I would suggest it to anyone alongside the knowledge of how to start it.The only gripe I have about the app is it doesn't push to a locked screen which would be really nice for monitoring temps and time without having to unlock your phone.