In addition to Traeger’s handy app that allows you to control and monitor the grill remotely, the Ironwood series grills ship with a pellet sensor. This add-on keeps tabs on your fuel supply, so you don’t have to worry about running out. The app also houses a wealth of recipes, which you can send directly to the grill from your phone. The Ironwood has a barrel-shaped design, which circulates smoke and heat before it exits the exhaust port on the back, and a small side shelf to rest supplies on as needed. And because the grill has an internet connection, you’ll be privy to regular firmware updates that improve grill performance. 

Buy Ironwood Series at Traeger – from $1,200

Buy Ironwood 650 cover at Amazon – $80 

Buy Ironwood 885 cover at Amazon – $71

Masterbuilt Gravity Series 560

Billy Steele/Engadget

For the most part, built-in WiFi connectivity is for pellet grills. More often than not, if you want the same feature on a charcoal grill, you’ll have to settle for a separate purchase. Masterbuilt’s Gravity Series 560 is one exception. It’s a gravity-fed charcoal grill you can monitor from your phone.

Another key thing here is price. The 560 is $499: hundreds of dollars less than a lot of WiFi-enabled pellet grills, and less than half of what you’d pay for an Ironwood. The build quality isn’t quite up to Traeger’s standards, but the performance is great. In seven minutes, the 560 can be at smoking temperature (225 degrees), and the grill can hit a blazing hot 700-degree searing temp in less than 15. Plus, the fuel source is easier to find. Almost every grocery store carries charcoal while, despite the popularity of pellet grills, you still have to visit a hardware, sporting goods store or go online to buy pellets.

You will have to make some sacrifices here, though. For starters, the app isn’t as full-featured as those that come with some connected pellet grills. You can basically only monitor things, not make any adjustments. Second, some components of the grill are rather flimsy, especially the sides of the charcoal hopper. Even with those caveats, getting a grill that can reliably do low-and-slow BBQ and high-heat searing — and that also uses a common fuel source — is an interesting proposition at this price. 

Buy Gravity Series 560 at Home Depot – $500

Buy 560 cover at Masterbuilt – $50

Weber iGrill series

Billy Steele/Engadget

I’ve been using the Weber iGrill Mini for years now. Until I added it to my grilling arsenal, I had a bad habit of overcooking steaks. And in my defense, it’s really easy to do if you don’t have some type of thermometer. With the iGrill, you can insert a food probe before you start cooking, select your meat or seafood, pick your desired doneness and an app will alert you when the food is ready. It will also warn you when you’re getting close. And if you like a manual route, you can skip the food preset entirely and just go by internal temperature. The iGrill also lets you use a probe to monitor ambient grill temps, should you need to do so. 

Weber offers a range of options here, starting with the single-probe iGrill mini (under $50). The iGrill 2 can support up to four probes at once, as does the iGrill 3, which is specifically for use with some of Weber’s gas grills. Those are both $100.

Buy iGrill Mini at Amazon – $35

Weber Connect Smart Grilling Hub

Billy Steele/Engadget

Weber won Engadget’s Best of CES 2020 award for Best Connected Home product with the Weber Connect Smart Grilling Hub, and for good reason: The standalone cooking device offers all of the smart features of WiFi connectivity on literally any grill. The Weber Connect app has step-by-step guidance for a range of meats and seafood, so you have a sous chef on your phone at all times. What’s more, the Hub features June’s software that uses algorithms to estimate completion times and tells how long until the next phase of cooking. 

The Weber Connect app is somewhat limited in terms of presets right now, but you can opt for a manual mode to bypass the software guidance. The company has committed to adding more profiles, so you should see new items pop up in the app over time. The Hub ships with two probes — one food and one ambient temp — but it can support up to four simultaneously.

Buy Grilling Hub at Amazon – $130

Buy meat probe at Weber – $15

Buy ambient temp probe at Weber – $15

Thermoworks Smoke X2 and X4

Billy Steele/Engadget

If you already have a grill or smoker you like, and you don’t need the fancy app-based guidance of Weber Connect, Thermoworks’ newly redesigned Smoke X thermometers are worth a look. These devices give you the ability to watch food and grill temperatures without having to venture outside. They use RF wireless technology to relay info from the hub at your grill to a handheld receiver. You can set high and low temperature alarms yourself, so this is a completely customizable device for more experienced users. 

Thermoworks says the Smoke X has a line of sight range of up to 6,562 feet (1.24 mile). I’m not sure you’d want to trek that far away while cooking, but the increased signal strength means you won’t have to worry about walls and other obstacles around your house. The Smoke X also has a long battery life. Because it doesn’t rely on WiFi, it can last up to 330 hours on two AA batteries (1,800 hours for the receiver, Smoke X2). The device duo is also protected against outdoor hazards with an IP66 splash-proof rating. Lastly, the Smoke X2 and Smoke X4 ship with all the probes you’ll need, so you don’t have to make any additional purchases there. 

Buy Smoke X at Thermoworks – from $170

Thermoworks Thermapen Mk4

Billy Steele/Engadget

I get it: not everyone needs or wants to keep tabs on what’s cooking from afar. No shade there, but you do need a reliable thermometer to confirm when your food is done. I’ve been using the Thermoworks Thermapen Mk4 for a while now and it’s the best instant-read option I’ve found. There are cheaper models available elsewhere, but the Mk4 has a backlit display that rotates based on how you’re holding it. It also has motion sensing activation, so it automatically turns on when you pick up and shuts off after you put it down. The Mk4 is waterproof with an IP67 rating, so you don’t have to worry about getting it wet when you’re saucing chicken. 

Buy Thermapen Mk4 at Thermoworks – $99

Anova sous vide

Billy Steele/Engadget

A sous vide device might seem out of place in a grilling guide, but hear me out. Since I started using an Anova Precision Cooker as part of my steak process, I’ve massively upped my game. Steaks are tender and juicy, with edge-to-edge doneness that’s difficult to achieve on a hot-and-fast grill. Basically, I sous vide for a couple hours (or more) and then sear the steaks on a grill to finish them off. Perhaps the best part is you don’t have to invest a ton to get one of these app-connected machines (they start at $99 from Anova), and they’re great for cooking other things, too. 

In order to make the most of your sous vide setup, you’ll want to also invest in a vacuum sealer. I have the FoodSaver FM2000, a model that doesn’t have some of the flashy features of more expensive units, but it does the basics just fine. Plus, you can use this to seal leftovers for the freezer or store other goods you don’t want air to get to. I’ve also found vacuum-sealed packs handy for reheating things like pulled pork. With sous vide, the meat doesn’t dry out like it would in the microwave. What’s more, the pouches are great for marinating, which is essential for cuts that aren’t very tender, or just imparting flavors over time. Sure, you could just use Ziploc bags, but I’ve done that, and the FoodSaver is worth the investment. 

Buy Anova sous vide at Anova –  from $99

Buy FoodSaver FM2000 at Home Depot – $83

The hardware is nice, but the real star here is the Weber Connect app. It’s the software that runs on JuneOS, which powers June’s smart ovens. Weber Connect functions in a similar manner: It uses a combination of internal food temperature and grill temperature to guide your cooking process. You can select from a number of meat and fish presets that will give you step-by-step directions for almost everything. That includes food prep, grill setup, how to insert the probe, when to flip, when to wrap (if needed), when to remove and how long to let things rest before slicing.

Thanks to some behind-the-scenes calculations, Weber Connect can estimate when cooking will be complete if you’re using one of these presets. It also estimates when you’ll need to do the next step. All of this is paired with instructional video clips embedded in the recipe steps.

These videos are helpful for a variety of things, particularly stuff like trimming a brisket or other pre-grilling prep work. These are the kinds of skills that come with experience, and it’s guidance you typically have to research on your own. I’ve used a Serious Eats in-depth guide or two, so there’s no judgement if you like to do your homework. Weber saves you time by putting everything in the app, so even if it’s your first time cooking a brisket, you know exactly what to do and when to get it right.

If you don’t need this much assistance, you can set a target temperature and use the Smart Grilling Hub in a more manual fashion. If you know you need to wrap a pork shoulder at 165 degrees you can set an alert for that temp, and then another for the final target temp. With either method, the Weber Connect app will send you alerts when it’s time for the next step or when you’re approaching that target temperature.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve used the Smart Grilling Hub in both regular and manual modes. I’ve tested recipes that were hot and fast on a charcoal grill (steaks and chicken breasts) and low-and-slow barbeque on a pellet grill (pork shoulder and beef ribs). Using the target temperature option, I’ve also reverse seared Tri-tip. The Hub led me to great results every time, but there is room for improvement.

First, while there are plenty of recipes to choose from, with options for your desired doneness and thickness along with the cut, there are several omissions in the first round of presets. There’s no option for pork ribs, for example, and the steak settings are limited to rib eye and a generic “steak” setting. (You can still select thickness.) Weber has committed to adding new recipes regularly and hopes to do so every quarter. In fact, the company says the next round will be ready soon. This means that over time, you’ll have more options to choose from, and they’ll come with that step-by-step guidance if you need it.

The estimated completion times can also be slightly confusing. During shorter cooks, I had no issues. They worked well, and the estimated times for both flipping and removing food from the grill were pretty accurate. For multi-hour sessions, it’s a different story. There’s a lot more variables and a lot more math involved. For example, if you open the grill to peek or spritz your meat, the estimate will adjust to that temporary loss in temperature. My advice is to make note of the first number you get and treat is as a rough, but reasonably accurate estimate.

Both times I cooked pork shoulders, the estimates were continually changing due to those recalculations. However, the estimate at the beginning proved pretty close, getting within 30 minutes each time. That’s not bad for a cook that can go well over eight hours. Trust me, it’s much better to have some idea when you’ll need to wrap and when you’ll be done than to be relying solely on temperature readings.

Right now, there’s no way to skip steps in the guided recipes. Now, normally skipping steps in a recipe is, well, a recipe for disaster. But if you’re smoking a pork shoulder, for example, skipping the wrapping stage allows you to build up more robust bark, especially if you’re spraying with something like apple juice or cherry soda. This really only applies to longer cooks though — you definitely wouldn’t want to skip any of the advice Weber offers on things like grilling and resting steaks or chicken breasts. It would also be great to see some more advanced features like a temperature graph that maps out the entire cook. This type of info is handy when you’re fine-tuning your process over several attempts.

Weber says it’s working on voice-assistant integration. That means you’ll be able to ask Alexa or Siri to give you an update without having to reach for your phone. While it might sound unnecessary, it could be useful in situations where your hands are full or even dirty. If you’re prepping sides in the kitchen, it would be nice to just ask for the status of things instead of having to pause what you’re working on, wash your hands and reach for your phone.

Weber is admittedly a late entry into the pellet-grill game. It did its homework, however, and rather than simply put out a line of pellet grills with the Weber logo on them, it brought its wealth of grill knowledge to the table. It also listened to pellet-grill users, collecting info on what they did and didn’t like about using these machines.

“We developed from the ground up with a white sheet of paper a completely new approach to the pellet grill designs,” Scherzinger continued.

The first area Weber tackled on SmokeFire was the actual cooking process. In order to convince people to invest at least $999 on a grill, it has to be versatile enough to cook everything well. The company discovered that most existing pellet grills max out at around 400-450 degrees, despite claims of 500 or higher. This is fine for a lot of high-temp uses like roasting or even pizza, but for a true quick sear, you need a grill to get hotter. Weber devised a solution for SmokeFire that ensures temperatures of up to 600 degrees.

“You can get a steak that doesn’t look like it was baked in an oven, but one that looks like it was grilled on a Weber grill.” Scherzinger said. “We sought to make this grill the first pellet grill that can really be a grill.” In other words, instead of offering both low-and-slow barbeque-style cooking alongside a higher temperature range, Weber wanted true searing ability — whether you’re cooking burgers, steaks or something else.

Next was grill performance. Those Flavorizer Bars not only protect a grill’s heating element and enhance flavor, but they also help evenly distribute heat. Most pellet grills have a solid sheet of metal that protects the fire pot and directs grease to a collection container underneath or on the side. That large element also helps keep ash from flying up on your food. Weber chose to bring a battle-tested element of its gas grills to its pellet model, rather than include one large piece of steel. And by doing so, the company also made a much less sexy task — cleanup — a lot easier.

That piece of metal in most pellet grills has to be protected, otherwise it will rust quickly if you’re not careful. Grill makers offer aluminum liners to help with this, or you can simply wrap the entire thing in aluminum foil. Either way, it’s extra work, and extra cost. With the Flavorizer Bars, you don’t need a cover, and they’re much easier to remove and handle.

But that’s just one piece of the grill. In order to clean most pellet models, you have to completely remove everything from the inside. When you count the grates and other protective pieces, we’re talking six or more items. Then you have to break out the shop vac. Yes, most companies advise you to clean out the ash and dust that accumulates during the cook with a vacuum. It’s fine if you already have one, but if you don’t, that’s an additional purchase on top of a pricey grill. Either way, the the cleanup process is awful, and you need to do it after every third or fourth cook to keep your grill running smoothly and safely. And, most importantly, to keep ash out of your food. Trust me, I’m speaking from experience: It’s the worst thing about these grills.

Weber realized this wasn’t a great experience, so it did something about it.

“We developed a different design in our engine, and in our shields and filters, inside the grill box that prevents the ash from flying up and landing on top of the food,” Scherzinger noted. “All of the ash lands in the drawer.” That drawer is a slide-out compartment that’s easily accessible from the front of the grill. Here, both ash and grease collect for easy removal. Sure, you’ll want to take the SmokeFire’s internal components apart and give it a deep clean from time to time, but if what Weber claims is true, you won’t have to do it nearly as often. That’s a welcome change.

The company also opted to put the pellet hopper around back. This isn’t a novel decision — some other grill makers have done the same — but that location does provide its advantages. There’s less potential for an auger jam since the setup is now partially gravity-fed. The auger is a drill-like spiral that moves the pellets from the hopper to the fire pot. When the hopper is on the side of a grill, the auger path is longer, so there’s more space for something to go wrong.

Where most companies offer one or maybe two food probes, Weber has opted for four. This isn’t unique to SmokeFire, either, but the ability to monitor that many things simultaneously isn’t a common feature on these grills.

“We increased the number of probes to add a level of versatility,” Melanie Hill, Weber’s director of IoT, explained. “Let’s say you’re grilling for a large party and someone wants medium rare, someone wants rare and someone wants a well-done steak. You have the option to have up to four probes.”

I’ve reviewed Traeger’s Timberline and Ironwood connected grills that allow you to control and monitor the machine remotely. The connectivity offered via that company’s WiFire tech is extremely useful, especially during longer cooks like a brisket or pork shoulder. Trager’s app has a massive library of recipes and you can automatically set grill temperature based on the recipe you choose. The software does offer some guidance, but it’s not quite on the level of what Weber Connect will provide.

Weber Connect runs on JuneOS, the technology that powers the June smart oven. Essentially, the oven uses algorithms and other tech to help you produce perfectly cooked meals, whether that’s juicy chicken or a well-cooked steak. The smart oven has a meat probe that monitors internal temperature to ensure things turn out like they should. Weber is bringing this tech to the backyard, equipping SmokeFire grills and the Smart Grilling Hub with the ability to tap into the cooking knowledge of JuneOS.

For at-home grill masters, Weber Connect will provide you with step-by-step guidance on how to prep the grill, prep your meat, when to put it on, when to flip, how long to rest it and more. The system can even give you an estimated completion time based on the type and weight of meat or seafood you tell the app you’re cooking. Inside the Weber Connect app, the steps are queued up in order, so you know what’s next and how long you have until you need to move to the next step. Both the grills and the Hub will send real-time temperature readings to the app for up to four food probes. And in the case of the Grilling Hub, you can designate one of those for ambient grill temp.

Not every aspiring pitmaster will want this level of oversight. However, I can tell you that I’ve experienced first-hand how liberating it can be not to have to walk outside every hour or so to check the temperature, even if you don’t open the grill to visibly inspect things. It’s also a massive upgrade to be able to monitor things when you need to run to the store, or while you’re doing other things that aren’t within Bluetooth range of the grill. And with Weber Connect, the estimated completion times will take all of that convenience a step further. If I have an idea of when a 14-pound brisket will be done, I can better plan sides and the rest of the meal. I’m not just relying on a thermometer telling me when the meat hits target temperature. Trust me, that’s far from an exact science when it comes to timing.

This week at CES, I got to see the entire Weber Connect setup in use. The company’s pitmasters were smoking and grilling beef ribs, steaks, brisket and more on both Weber’s SmokeFire pellet grills and Weber gas models with the Smart Grilling Hub. Both options produced some stellar food, and the amount of smoke flavor from the pellet grills could’ve easily convinced me that the meats were cooked in a wood-fired pit. Both SmokeFire and the Hub work as advertised, and the staff were relying on Weber Connect to track when things needed attention or were ready to come off.

Back in November, grilling giant Weber joined the WiFi-connected pellet grill game when it announced its upcoming SmokeFire grills. A fancy pellet grill is a nice thing to have, and while they’re versatile, not everyone wants to pay several hundred dollars, or even over a thousand or more, to buy one. At CES, Weber is introducing another tool that will bring wireless connectivity to any grill. With the Weber Connect Smart Grilling Hub, you can use four food and ambient temperature probes with the grilling gear you already have.

Like the SmokeFire pellet models, the Grilling Hub works with the Weber Connect app: a step-by-step sous chef that will let you know how to prep the grill, when it’s time to flip a steak, how long to rest your food and more. It can even provide an estimate for how long it will take something to cook. The software component is powered by JuneOS, from the company behind the June smart oven. Additionally, the Grilling Hub packs in both Bluetooth and WiFi, so you can choose the connectivity that best suits your needs on a given day.

The Grilling Hub sends real-time temperature info to the Weber Connect app on either and Android or an iOS device. There’s also a display on the Hub itself that will show the temperature data for the selected probe. The app also houses a library of grilling info, and Weber says it will continue to add more over time. The company plans to continue to add new features to the software as well. Alexa integration is in the works for later this year.

This isn’t Weber’s first time offering temperature monitoring on your phone. The company has the iGrill line of devices that sends grilling info to your phone via Bluetooth. It allows you to pick the type of meat your cooking and your desired doneness, or you can choose to simply cooked to a specific temperature. Those devices are handy (I use the iGrill Mini often), but the companion app doesn’t provide anywhere near the detailed guidance that the Weber Connect app will offer. This new Hub is the logical evolution of the iGrill devices, and it gives aspiring pitmasters some of the tools of the SmokeFire grills without having to make a big investment.

The Weber Connect Smart Grilling Hub will be available in over 30 countries when it goes on sale “in early 2020.” When it does, you can expect to pay $130 to equip your favorite grill with WiFi smarts.