To see if it is worth all the hype surrounding it, we will take a look at the features they offer with the Woodwind grill, the quality, design, pricing, customer reviews, and comparisons to other similar smokers. On top of that, we will look at the sizing and spacing that the grill offers, to see if it is the right fit for you and your family.
What are Woodwind Grills and How Do They Work?
Woodwind grills are a specific design of a pellet grill made by Camp Chef.
This design lights instantly and easily, offers computerized temperature control, convection heating, Smart Smoke Technology, and a patented easy way to clean out the ash.
The Smart Smoke Technology allows you to easily set the temperature, put in the meat you want to cook, and walk away from the grill while trusting it to get the job done correctly. It’s incredibly easy to use and makes cooking much more convenient.
What Makes Woodwind Grills Unique?
Camp Chef has a patented ash clean out that makes cleaning up after your cooking session infinitely easier. If you are someone who grills and smokes frequently, you most likely spend a lot of time cleaning up afterwards. With this product, you are given the ability to simply pull a lever and clean out any ash that has remained after your grilling without taking apart the entire unit. This is a fantastic feature that is definitely not seen very often on pellet grills.
On top of that, they also have a clean out feature for the hopper as well. When your hopper is full of a specific type of pellets and you want to swap them out for a different strength or flavor, there is a small trap door you can open to empty it completely.
Another unique feature to this grill is the attached sear box. This is a cast iron work horse powered by propane, and it has incredible fire power. When up to the highest temperature it can be, the box will actually reach up to 900 degrees Fahrenheit. This is a wonderful feature that is not seen on other pellet grills at all. It almost allows you to have two grills in one.
With this feature, you are given the variety of having the wood pellet grill for smoky flavors, as well as an extremely hot and quick sear station all at once.
Other great features include the thermometer probe, the stainless kit, and the upper shelf.
The secondary shelf is great for cooking things like vegetables and hot dogs, and you are able to remove it if you are cooking a larger piece of meat. Making it removable offers a lot more versatility in what you can cook all at once.
The built-in thermometer probe allows you to check the temperature of all the meat on the grill by simply pressing a button. This is great if you don’t have an external thermometer to use, as this one is always attached. It allows for complete accuracy for your food’s temperature.
The stainless kit is also a fantastic, sleek addition to the grill. It matches the sear box well so everything fits together perfectly.
Pricing
There are a few different options for the Woodwind grills, so the prices vary as well.
This grill gives you 570 square inches of cooking space, as well as 1,584 square inches for the jerky racks. Being the cheaper option, it does not automatically come with the sear box, although it can be added on to your order if you desire.
Every other feature we mentioned previously is included with this first option: the easy ash cleanout, the electric auto-start ignition, Smart Smoke Technology, the 18-pound pellet hopper, and many more.
This can also be purchased from other retailers online, like Amazon, as well. However, it looks to be around the same price everywhere for the most part.
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The second option is a little more expensive and offers additional features as well. The sear box is added to this package, and instead of costing you extra, it only adds $200 to your cost.
Overall, you get all the same features with each grill, but the sear box automatically comes with the second option. However, if you go with the first option and later decide that you want that feature as well, you can always purchase it separately.
Public Perception (Other Woodwind Grill Reviews)
There were a lot of positive reviews for this product, this is definitely a well-loved design. We will be separating the negative and positive reviews in order to see exactly how the broad spectrum of customers felt about the product.
Positive
One aspect of these grills that was talked about frequently in reviews was the simple fact that they were able to get up to the temperatures they needed to. A lot of reviews mentioned purchasing grills from other companies where they couldn’t get the temperature past a certain number, whereas they had no issues with Woodwind grills. This is definitely important – having a grill that is consistently the correct temperature allows you to cook a more diverse selection of different meats and foods, and it confirms that your food is safe to eat.
Another quality that was praised when it came to the Woodwind grill was the smoky flavor it gave to food. Using pellets is, of course, a huge part of that – the pure hardwood pellets fueling the fire give the meat an authentic wood taste that you wouldn’t get from charcoal or gas.
The price was something that was mentioned positively as well. While it isn’t a cheap grill, it is much more affordable than purchasing a comparable product from a company like Traeger. If you are on a budget and looking to save a few dollars on your new grill, this is definitely a great product to consider. There were many reviews talking about how they couldn’t believe they got such a high-quality product for less than they would have paid for another company’s grill.
Having a grill that basically cleans itself, for the most part, was another upside to buying a Woodwind grill. Camp Chef’s patented technology cut the grill cleaning time into half for most people using the product. This allowed them to have more time to just focus on the food or other more important things than emptying the grill of ash.
Another aspect that came up in reviews frequently was the additional perk of having a separate sear box. While it does make the product a little more expensive, most reviewers who made the choice to include that in their purchase have been very happy with it. It allows them a wonderful mix of a hardwood, smoky taste and being able to sear their meat to the perfect degree every time. This is a very unique feature that you definitely don’t get with any pellet grills besides this one.
The reviews also praised the customer service a lot as well. If they were in need of assistance assembling a product, having something replaced, issuing a complaint, or any other problem needed to be handled, their customer service was able to do the job well. Having a good department to talk to their customers has an enormous say in how the business will be perceived, so this is a great look for the company.
Assembly was also said to be very simple and straightforward. It can be very frustrating to have a product come in the mail that is difficult or impossible to assemble – that is definitely not the case with the Woodwind grill. Reviews that mentioned the assembly had a lot of good things to say about how easy it was, and if they noticed anything missing or broken their customer service was able to fix it very quickly and efficiently.
The last positive aspect we noticed a lot of mentions of in the reviews was the warranty. Camp Chef offers a 3 year extended warranty on this product, which is a lot longer than its competitors. This will give you peace of mind if you are worried about something breaking or aren’t sure how long everything will last.
Negative
Now there were a few negative aspects to be mentioned by customers as well.
The one that came up the most frequently was a common error with the temperature probe. There were a decent amount of reviews that mentioned the thermometer came to them not working at all. When they called Camp Chef’s customer service department to have it resolved, they were told it was a common issue and that a new one would be sent out. It looks like the product shorts out fairly frequently. It is definitely not a deal breaker, but it is a good point to note if you are considering buying one.
While the customer service was generally praised overall for their politeness and efficiency, there were a few complaints about them as well. For some customers, they experienced a several day timeframe of waiting for a representative to get back to them about the issues they had with their product. They don’t have a customer service department that is open all the time, so sometimes it was a lengthier wait to be helped.
Another negative that was mentioned was that the grill rattled and was difficult to move around at times. Some reviews mentioned that they either had a really hard time moving the grill to different locations, or they did not want to because they knew it would be difficult or impossible. This is definitely something important to keep in mind if you are looking for something you can move around easily and take camping.
How it Compares
All in all, this is a pretty impressive set up. Compared to other models, you are getting a lot of high- quality, awesome features without paying that bigger price.
We also really like the extended three year warranty, the different pricing options, and the easy to clean ash technology. For what you pay for this product, it has so many wonderful features to take advantage of.
Our favorite aspect overall was definitely the sear box. It is definitely the perfect addition to an already fantastic grill, giving that extra high quality feature to make your meat taste even better.
What We Think
This is definitely both a product and a company we can recommend. The features, customer service, and fantastic products are most certainly worth both your time and money.
What are you most excited about when it comes to the Woodwind grills?