So I just purchased a Camp Chef DLX24 from MeatEater.com. I've actually had the same smoker model for the last 4+ years but a temperature sensor failure and lots of creosote/grease buildup led me to just buying a replacement before they're completely discontinued. Mistake.
I assembled it and did the recommended 350F burn in to remove shipping/storage greases and coatings. I noticed some issues immediately but hoped they'd resolve after a bit of time being on. Before my first cook, I decided to take a look around inside and I'm glad I did. So here's what all I noticed in or immediately after the first ~45 minutes of burn in:
1 Paint peeling around the firebox
2 Loud, mechanical whirring/friction noise from. My guess is the fan bearing is bad
3 Binding of the ash cleanout port, can barely open and close it
4 A large gap between the hopper and smoker body
I have an older version of the same model that I've used for years, so I have some sense of what is normal for this particular smoker.
I contacted Camp Chef and was told the paint peeling was due to pellet overfeeding, something that isn't true. They claimed the loud noise was normal. They couldn't explain the binding of the ash cleanout port. To their credit, they admitted the gap between the hopper and body was a problem, but declined to do anything about it and told me to go back to my point of purchase. I pushed back on them and was told I'm on my own entirely, no room for discussion.
I've talked with MeatEater and am going to ship it back to them at their cost and get a refund. So other than the hassle of unassembling and trying to repacking the damn thing, no loss on my end.
But I wanted to post this here because I have been a big fan of Camp Chef until now and had heard generally good things about their customer service. Build quality was never stellar but being defective out of the box and getting no help from customer service is unacceptable. If you're looking for a reasonably priced entry-level smoker, I'd look elsewhere.
by HordesOfKailas