Several appliances come with a dedicated app these days, add your pellet grill/smoker to the list.
With a Wi-Fi connection, you can connect and communicate directly with your grill which makes for easy, almost effortless cooking.
Not all barbecues are built for remote operation, which can mean they keep those dedicated cooks at the grill instead of letting them mingle.
Barbecues are meant to be entertaining, for you and your guests.
While you are checking the temperature, you are missing out on spending some quality time with your nearest and dearest.
While you want to provide delicious food that they will salivate over, the point of a social gathering will have been missed.
With the best Wi-Fi pellet grill/smoker, you can make delicious food while checking in with your guests.
No more manually adjusting the temperature, adding more pellets, and continually monitoring your food.
You can simply set the temperature, grab a beer and check your smartphone when you need to.
For a Wi-Fi Pellet Grill/Smoker that takes care of pretty much everything, you should expect to pay top dollar for it.
Not only do you get the expected functionality with a Broil King Crown 500 Pellet Grill but also the stylish design.
A high-quality stainless steel construction looks great and does the job.
This is also a versatile design that is capable of cooking for different styles.
Whether you want to sear some meat, slow cook, or simply grill, the precise temperature control makes it so easy.
There is also a pellet hopper with a huge capacity and 18 pounds of pellets really should last all day.
A clear-out chute means easy emptying which we liked in our testing.
Of course, it comes Wi-Fi enabled but also through Bluetooth for easy operation via your smartphone.
All that and some lengthy warranties make this a surefire investment.
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Also available directly from Broil King
When you opt for a Wi-Fi pellet grill/smoker, you should expect a lot from the technology.
With the Traeger Grills Pro Series 575 Pellet Grill and Smoker, you can use a dedicated Traeger app to adjust the grill temperature, monitor your cooking, or even find inspiration from over 1,600 recipes.
The 575 refers to the 575 square inches that can be found on the easy-to-clean porcelain grill.
That’s enough room for 24 burgers, or five rib racks, or even four chickens.
You will need that space when you consider the 6-In-1 versatility that includes six different cooking methods.
Whether you want to slow smoke, bake, roast, BBQ, braise, or grill, all are options you will want to try.
Ideally while keeping the lid on so use the included meat probe to check the temperature, which we liked in our testing.
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Also available directly from Traeger
With all that technology, it should be simple to achieve a consistent temperature.
Thankfully, the Camp Chef 24 in. Pellet Grill & Smoker has that nailed with Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) technology.
For your grilling, that means being able to slightly increase or decrease the temperature by 5 ºF increments.
Taking care of your pellets is also simple. From an Automatic Pellet Auger to control their dispensing during the cooking and Ash Cleanout to get rid of the debris after.
We enjoyed both of these features in our experience of this product.
Yes, you can even get a pellet grill/smoker where you can control the smoke settings yourself.
With the Camp Chef 24 in. Pellet Grill & Smoker, you can turn it up or down from 1 to ten depending on how much, or how little, you like your smoke.
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Also available directly from Camp Chef
Wi-Fi Pellet Grill/Smokers may be the epitome of technologically advanced BBQs yet they needn’t be super expensive.
The Green Mountain Grills Davy Crockett Wi-Fi Grill is affordable yet portable, with the functionality you would expect.
From a thermal sensor to look after monitoring your grill temperature to an app where you can time the temperature changes.
Smart alerts will also inform you when the temperature is dropping or the grill requires more wood pellets.
A peaked lid is a feature we liked in our testing and is ideal for cooking a stood-up chicken.
There is also that functionality of foldable legs that make it the grill to take with you in the trunk which we enjoyed in our experience of this product.
Your camping trips and tailgating parties will be greatly improved.
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Also available directly from Green Mountain
For someone who likes an extra-large gathering, here is a pellet grill/smoker that should have room to spare.
The Weber SmokeFire EX6 (2nd Gen) Wood Fired Pellet Grill includes a huge 1,008 square inches of dual grilling space.
Just imagine how many burgers, steaks, or racks of ribs you can cook with that.
Weber’s own Flavorizer bars are specially designed for an even grilling heat which is ideal for reliable cooking.
The porcelain-enamel finish retains heat while preventing cracking so the grill should be long-lasting.
There is easy maintenance with a removable drawer for ash and grease.
Easy checking too with two meat probes which we liked in our testing.
Even the Weber Connect app sends you notifications and offers grilling assistance, meaning you can spend quality time with your guests.
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Also available directly from Weber
Some may deem Wi-Fi functionality as a bit gimmicky yet it can really make a difference to your grilling.
Let’s be honest, a lot of us spend more time than we should being fixed to the grill when we should be socializing.
Whether that time is spent checking the temperature or monitoring the pellet amount, or probing a steak to inspect the doneness stage.
All of that could be done remotely from an app on your smartphone.
With Wi-Fi-enabled controls, you should be able to look after the temperature remotely.
A simple smartphone app can be used to tweak the cooking temperature up or down by around a couple of degrees.
The more worthwhile controls include setting the temperature to be at a level for a certain duration.
This is great for slow smoking a brisket as you can leave it for a few hours at a certain low temperature then let it rest.
Slow cooking can be tricky and having the versatility to set the time for when your guests are due to arrive is ideal.
The temperature control should also come with a handy LED interface.
With that, you can check the constant temperature whenever you pass the grill.
You can also look out for smart alerts that will send a notification to your smartphone once a temperature has been reached or a period of time that you set has elapsed.
For pellet grills, these alerts can also tell you when it is time to refill the pellet hopper.
The best apps will not only make temperature monitoring and pellet control seem effortless, but they should also offer inspiration too.
Several manufacturers have included hundreds of recipes on their apps just in case you are struggling with certain ingredients.
As these are smokers, you can also consider smoking settings that allow you to increase or decrease the smoking level just how you like it.
They are simple to use too and typically go from 1 to ten.
A high-end grill should come with a top-quality build. That tends to be stainless steel which looks great and provides durability for long-lasting performance.
Stainless steel should not rust as long as you take proper care of it with regular cleaning after each use.
Dual-wall insulation should also enhance that temperature consistency and make it efficient if the weather is not exactly warm.
Check the material used inside the grill too, stainless steel can be used as a selling point though only features on the outside.
The meat grate can also include a porcelain-enamel finish that is ideal for heat retention and an even heat distribution.
Certainly, you should be able to expect even heat distribution with straightforward temperature control.
The last thing you want is burnt meat after such a significant outlay on a grill where you should be able to set the controls adequately yourself.
Flare-ups should be a thing of the past though you can still expect the grill to hit high temperatures, the difference is that you can control that.
Headroom is another feature to look into for the grill, especially if you want to cook a large rack of ribs or a whole chicken standing up.
Alternatively, you could want an upper warming rack for some extra items you want to keep ready and waiting.
Various components on the grill matter more than you may think. That includes the flame deflector, drip pan, grates, and the fire pot.
If all of these are made from stainless steel then they should last for years.
The temperature range can be telling and set a limit to your cooking. You should be looking for a significantly wide range to fit in various cooking styles.
From searing at 900 °F for a quick steak to slow cooking a rack of ribs at 150 °F for hours.
Having a PID control should allow you to change the temperature by 5 °F which can lead to really precise cooking.
An LED interface can prove really handy here to make sure you have all the various settings just as you want them.
Having that versatility can mean baking, roasting, braising, and grilling are all options you can choose quite readily.
There may also be an option to change the grilling method really easily.
This can be from traditional slow and low to more extreme direct flame grilling that is pellet-wood fired.
The grilling area is good to consider as it may give you an idea of the size of the gatherings you wish to host.
If you are only having a couple of guests over then perhaps 500-odd square inches for 20 burgers is excessive.
However, for a huge family get-together, you may want to consider a dual grilling space and around 1,000 square inches.
This can mean space for cooking a whole chicken while also taking care of steak, vegetables, and burgers.
The grilling area should also include a hood to really get your smoke on.
While you should expect such an investment on a grill to be kept at home, you may want some portability.
Certainly to impress on a camping trip or at a tailgating party, you should take your favorite grill.
A lot of that functionality may depend on whether the Wi-Fi signal is good enough yet if it is, this is another excuse to get it in the trunk.
Few Wi-Fi pellet grill/smokers are designed for portability yet if you need only 219 inches of grilling space then there are options.
One is the Green Mountain Grills Davy Crockett Wi-Fi Grill that has foldable legs and is an ideal grill size for a few friends.
The functionality includes the GMG app that allows you to set your own cooking profiles and set timers, or even alarms.
That comes along with the temperature monitoring you can come to expect in this type of technology-enabled grill.
Not only should your pellet grill/smoker be easy to use, but it should also be easy to maintain.
Considering how many wood pellets you get through, the ash should be simple to remove.
Clear-out chutes are ideal to collect the ash then take them out after you have finished cooking.
Grease can also be a problem as the fatty liquid leaves your meat and has to go somewhere.
A removable drawer should be an easy method to remove the ash and grease without putting much effort in at all.
Of course, checking the cooking temperature should be relatively straightforward with a smartphone app.
Letting the grill check your meat temperature with one or two meat probes continually operating is a lot easier than the rudimentary method which includes lifting the lid.
Some grills even have up to four probes which can be ideal with several types of meat on the go at once.
Having that temperature on a display is such utter convenience that you may wonder how you coped without it for so long.
How your pellet grill/smoker consumes the wood pellets is also important.
With an app, you should be able to be alerted when the pellet level is running low so your barbecue keeps cooking.
The capacity of the pellet hopper is essential too, especially for an all-day barbecue where you may be expected to be cooking for hours.
If you did want a decent pellet hopper capacity then 18 pounds is a good level to keep in mind, though you can double that for bigger grills.
This all depends on the kind of cooking you will be doing.
As a rough guide, a 40-pound hopper should give you 40 hours of cooking time at a standard smoking temperature.
Given how big your piece of brisket is, if you only have an 18-pound hopper capacity then this may be a problem, especially if you live in a colder climate.
Ideally, the pellets keep on coming so you do not have to worry about them.
But not too quickly, top-quality wood pellets can be expensive so you need to ensure that the barbecue does not run through them too readily.
Should the metal in the barbecue be too thick, it could act as a ‘heat sink’ and store the heat you want to use for cooking.
You may desire a handy door to remove any unused pellets so you can keep them together for your next cooking session.
A pellet clean-out system not only makes pellet removal easier but you can also switch up the pellet flavor pretty easily too.
The various elements of control you can do from your smartphone come in really handy.
This can even mean setting a specific duration of time at a certain temperature to align it with the arrival of your guests.
You should also consider the grill size to ensure you can fit everything that you want to cook at the same time.
Given how much of an investment the grill can be you should ensure it has a top-quality build, easy maintenance, and gives you the hands-free experience you desire.
Get your last-minute questions answered here!
Wi-Fi is great for hands-off cooking, where you can entertain your guests and make alterations via your smartphone. Being able to change temperatures, add smoke, or simply monitor your cooking temperature is a technological advancement, but just that.
Unfortunately, only new models come with Wi-Fi capabilities built-in so unless it has the feature when you bought it, you are not able to add Wi-Fi capabilities to a pellet grill/smoker.
No, you do not necessarily need to have Wi-Fi capability on your pellet grill. To put the technology into perspective, pellet grills have been around for decades and those who grill have been quite happy to add the pellets themselves.
You can easily get thermometers so you know the cooking temperature and you can see the pellet level for yourself. Sensor alarms are useful but these should be basic checks that you should carry out as you are cooking anyway.
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