Camp Chef Woodwind 36 Pellet Grill - Stainless Steel Barbecue Grill with WiFi Connectivity - Compatible with Sidekick Barbecue Accessories - 1236 sq in Total Rack Area

Pellet grill arrived in 2 boxes which make handling a little more bearable. The bottom of the smoker got dinged up during shipping (looks like it was dropped) but was able to get the dents out and the seller helped me out as well which was appreciated. Assembly is a 2 person job for part of the build, a little more involved than the Traeger I previously had, but everything was there and went together fine. Instruction manual is "fair" but there are online videos if you want to review before tackling. Startup was pretty straightforward. I was able to connect to the grill easily, unlike the Traeger Wifire that never worked after numerous failed attempts. Just follow the instructions and use your phone's bluetooth to get the update to download. Cycled power and I was connected. The app is not bad but does what I need it to do. You can adjust temps, smoke setting, and see temps on all 4 probes that come with the unit, which is a great feature when you have multiple proteins on the grill. The graph feature is nice to have, nothing fancy but nice to see trends. The smoke setting is legit, tried it out but your temperatures will fluctuate more if you have a higher smoke setting. Having smoked meats with charcoal for almost 20 years, my first go in this one was an all night full packer brisket, my first time trying it overnight. Set at 195 and put on before bed. Grill fluctuated some in temp through the night, but overall average was pretty close to setpoint. Went to 225 and finished it out. Turned out wonderful. The 4 probes that come with it are a great feature and work well. The smoke stack is on the back which allows you to have a place to put meats,etc on both sides of the grill. The oversize lid on the hopper is a great staging area. Not sure if this was a design issue, but the back of the lid that attaches to the body is even (no overlap). This results in a small gap between the lid and the smoker. My opinion this would allow a ton of smoke to get out. Before I did my first smoke, I bought some grill gasket material (1/2" wide by 1/8" thick) and went around the lid. This provided a better overall seal to the top. Didn't stop it 100%, but significantly cut down and forced it out the stack. Didn't get the sear plate or griddle as I have a charcoal grill for that. Pellet cleanout is slick. I bought a cover as well. Hard to tell on longevity of the product. Mine is kept in my garage so should last a while. So far, it's a rock star and no regrets.

I bought my first pellet smoker when they were becoming the rage and it lasted several years of constant hard use. I don't regret that purchase at all. But now that I needed a new one, this Camp Chef shows me all the features that have developed since that time. The WiFi was easy to understand and set up. The centralized burner, the ash dumping, exposed flame grilling, multiple probes, etc. I've been impressed. I've used it probably a dozen times now and each time is a perfect consistent smoke. It didn't hurt that it was far more affordable than my first smoker.

Well got this grill about a week ago after waiting several weeks to get it and spending a lot of money, it worked for one cook. The second cook on it I got a notification that the temp was dropping unexpectedly so went and checked it after watching it for 5 minutes on the app. No sooner did I get out to it did I notice the temp jumped up a bit and the grill was engulfed in smoke. The hot rod had stopped working so no pellets were burning. the auger kept feeding pellets into the grill to boost the heat which is what happens when it is working properly. Instead all of the pellets it pumped into it self that didnt ignite while the hot rod was malfunctioning then ignited all at once once the hot rod decided to work again. I managed to unplug it in time before it turned into a fire. But I pulled about 4 full cups of pellets out of it since it overflowed the burn cup inside the grill. I've emailed the manufacturer hopefully they make it right for me or else I just wasted 1,000 bucks.

Packaging - excellent. No way this thing will get damaged unless it is hit by a train. Unboxing is equally impressive. They really made it easy.Material quality and construction - again, excellent for a non commercial smoker. Very impressed.Assembly.......not so much. Instructions were mediocre at best. Illustrations are small and lack details that are important to assembly. I had to do some filing to make parts fit correctly. Hardware is not well labeled or mismatched with assembly instructions. Also, some hardware missing and I had to go to the local hardware store to pick up several screws to finish the project.Connection to Bluetooth was a PITA, but many Bluetooth connections are that way. After that, the WIFI set up nicely.I will fire this thing up tomorrow and expect to be pleased based on comments from friends who are using this unit.I'm just a bit surprised that given the quality and price of this smoker, Camp Chef has not yet addressed some of the problems that I experienced despite pretty consistent documentation in on-line reviews.

I really like this smoker, I have had several others, the quality of this one is far superior to the others, There are a few items that I really love about this one, The digital controls are easy to use and simple to read, also it has the built in temperature probes, four of them, but mostly, the easy to use ash dump lever, I used to have to take apart my old smokers after just a few uses, and vacuum out the left over ash, other wise it became a hard brick of ash. Also this one just feels more solid, It's more expensive then the average smoker, but if your a big BBQ fan, it's worth the extra cost. Plus when I bought mine, they came and set it up at no additional cost

Wow. Tremendous machine, works perfectly. Excellent temperature control. Also capable of traditional grilling if you turn it up to high! DO NOT be discouraged by excess particulates in the smoke during the first few hours of use, that will die off very quickly.