Camp Chef Woodwind 36 WIFI Pellet Grill Review

Unboxing and Assembly

When the package was delivered my initial thought was “Wow this is way heavier than I expected.”, This grill weighs an impressive 177 pounds!  Granted, it was delivered in multiple boxes, which allowed me to maneuver it without issue.

After unboxing the and I realized why it was so heavy. This thing is built like a tank!   All of the bare metal is coated with an anti-corrosion coating. Every part was packaged very tightly and well protected. The instructions were not great and could use an update as some parts didn’t line up with the directions as it should.  In my line of work, quality and concise procedures are a must and Camp Chef should revisit this area.

Assembly was manageable because all of the more technical pieces were already in place by the manufacturer. Basically, you are only adding things to the shell. The entire process took me around an hour. The only potential issue I see with assembly is the installation of the hopper lid and handle. You have to be very careful not to drop the screw down inside the hopper because it could potentially fall into the auger. I recommend placing a paper towel across the hopper grate as I did in the picture below. It will help prevent any screws from falling into the hopper and making them extremely difficult to retrieve. It is recommended to have two people for setup to help things go smoother like I said the grill has some weight to it and it will be an overall better experience.

Features

Let’s start to the left side of the grill and work our way over.

The Hopper holds 22lbs of pellets and comes with a viewing window that allows you to see how many pellets are left. There is a pellet hopper Clean Out that makes it very easy to swap out pellets to a different flavor. Bonus there is already a bottle opener installed.

WiFi

Despite the mixed reviews, I found the Wifi Control to be very effective. I wanted something easy to use, minimalistic and effective which is exactly what the Camp Chef provides. You can view and control the temperature of the grill as well as the four probes that come with it, including the ability to set the desired temperature for each probe. I have not experienced any of the connectivity issues that others have described. It looks like Camp Chef may have worked out the majority of the bugs that existed before my review.  Also once the grill is started you can operate the grill from the app anywhere as long as you have service to the app now I’m not encouraging you to leave the grill unattended.  However, I have had the wife help me smoke by her overseeing a butt or brisket while I’m watching and/or changing temps at work from the app its really amazing and one of my favorite features.

Smoke Control

Smoke Control is another feature of this grill that I really enjoy. You can control it from the digital control on the grill or by connecting to the app which can be changed at any point. This grill can roll the smoke!! In my opinion, this feature could be most useful when you only need to have a short cooking time but want to infuse a lot of smoke flavor. In my case, I smoked a spiral ham for approximately two hours to heat it up but cranked up the smoke and you would have thought I had smoked it for 8 hours. Another time, I used it I was making smoked queso. I only needed to melt the cheese and get a good consistency. I didn’t need it to be on the grill for more than an hour so I cranked up the smoke again and it was awesome. 

Temperature Probes

Back to the four Probes mentioned before, I found them to be very close in temperature to what my Thermoworks probe was getting. I also like that you are able to feed them through a hole in the side to keep them out of the way of the lid. Not only will this allow you to maintain the seal on your lid, but it will prolong the life of your probes by not forcing them to be pinched or pressed against a hot surface. 

Cooking Area

In regard to the main compartment, there are 1236 Square Inches of total grilling space. The top two shelves can be adjusted by about an inch to allow more or less height clearance as needed with 573 square inches.  The bottom main section is 663 square inches.

Slide-n-Grill

Another useful feature of the main compartment is the Slide-n-Grill. This allows you to be able to move the metal plate that covers the flame and helps distribute the heat more evenly. When you move the plate it allows the flame to be more direct and acts as more of a propane or charcoal grill style heat allowing you to get a higher temperature for those burgers and steaks.  The drip pan has slits cut in on the left side that allows the flames to come up.  However with that being said you have to be careful when doing so because the grease can drip to the fire pot if the drip pan isn’t cleaned properly I recommend placing heavy duty foil over the drip pan and cutting the slits out to make things easier.

Ash Clean Out

A feature that does not get enough credit is the Ash-Cleanout System that makes cleaning out the leftover ash from the pellets as easy as pulling a bone out of a perfectly smoked rack of ribs.  Which surprisingly a lot of other brands do not have as of the time of this review I’m sure that will change in time because it is a huge game-changer.  Now you still will need a small shop vac and clean under the drip pan after a few small cooks or after a long brisket because the fan will throw some ash.

Accessories

Now on to what can really set this grill apart, the side attachments. The Sidekick and Sear Box are incredible. Mine came with the Sidekick. This attachment puts out a whopping 28,000 BTUs. I think my wife might have been even more excited about this attachment than even I was. Now I’ll be able to do all of my deep-frying outside on this burner where I can avoid smoking up the house. This also comes with a hook that attaches to the back of the grill to hang your propane tank. A flat top griddle that has been seasoned and is ready to go is included