I have a 25-year-old Weber Kettle that is showing its age. I am considering a Camp Chef Woodwind 24 Wifi. I cook outside for the family, and their preference is for grilling to smoking. The wife especially likes old testament, "burnt offering chicken." I don't smoke much except for a couple of ribs and fish over a typical spring to fall. So, if I move to the Camp Chef Woodwind 24 Wifi will the unit get hot enough to produce a Weber Kettle grill result. My Weber can hit 550 and if pushed 650 degrees, depending on the outside temperature and wind conditions. I expect the Woodwind will not match those temperatures. If not, would adding GrillGrates improve my prospects matching Weber Kettle grilling?
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I’m not sure you can achieve this with a woodwind smoker on the main chamber. I have a previous year woodwind model, not the wifi one. They are not the same units, but from what I understand, the changes are in the electronic capabilities to link to you home network, plus a change in the diffuser plate design.
There is a sidekick accessory, which essentially is a gas grill, that sits directly attached to the smoker. The unit has a separate propane tank line to fuel it. While I have this sidekick accessory, I’ve never used it. Sorry I can’t comment on the gas grill sidekick performance, but that’s how I think you will be able to get somewhat of the more traditional grill features to work. Maybe the grill grates will both fit and work on the sidekick.
I don’t know if grill grates will help convert the main chamber to a regular grill setup. I’ll be following this to see if anyone has experience with this question, and can properly assist addressing it; however, I have some doubt about the firepot heat output performance meeting the requirements to get the grill grates hot enough. Hopefully someone has tried it and can chime in.
Ricardo -
GrillGrates will help, but the gas sear station will do a much better job, although the cook surface is smaller than the cook surface in the smoker.Comment
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Just purchased a Camp Chef Woodwind WiFi 36" model with a Sidekick and BBQ box to replace my Weber kettle that I used for smoking and grilling. My wife is not a fan of smoke and I wanted to have as much control of the smoke level as possible. I've only done a few cooks, but everything I have cooked has been praised by her.
I started by duplicating the grilled whole chicken (spatchcocked) that was a favorite on the Weber. I'd grill the chicken on the cool side and put it over the hot coals the last few minutes. On the Woodwind, I grilled the chicken at 350 degrees with the smoke level at 2. When it hit 165, I moved it to the BBQ box for a quick sear. The chicken was perfect.
I've not tried the direct flame setting on the Woodwind. I suspect it would work, but I wanted the Sidekick option so I could add the pizza box. In addition to the Weber kettle, I have a Weber gas grill and a wood-fired pizza oven. The pizza-oven takes from an hour to an hour and a half to come to 600 degrees. The little Sidekick oven is supposed to come to temp in 6 minutes. I'm waiting for the pizza box to arrive, and will report on that later.
BarryComment
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I’ve had a few pellet grills over the years and am a pellet fan for sure. I have a Woodwind 24 WiFi as well. However, I would guess if grilling is your strong primary focus you might be happier with a new Performer deluxe or Weber Summit or SnS Komado. I do occasionally ‘grill’ burgers and chops on the pellet grills and they turn out really good, especially burgers. However, they take considerably longer since it’s all indirect and recovery takes a while every time you open the lid. GrillGrates definitely help, but it’s still not the same as cooking over charcoal or gas. After it’s at temp, it still usually takes 30-45 minutes to cook burgers, longer if there’s a bunch because you lose more heat flipping and rearranging more food.
The SmokeFire is the exception to this, it’s a grilling machine. It also imparts a lot more smoke at grilling temps too.
Don’t take my comments the wrong way, I really like my Woodwind, it will be smoking a Mexican Chuck roast tomorrow. I’m just trying to highlight the drawbacks of grilling on one. Now that Masterbuilt gravity charcoal grill is also worth a look, it’s looking like the convenience of pellets with the heat and flavor of charcoal.Comment
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Personally, I would look at the Woodwind as a pellet smoker - not a grill. Grillgrates will help, but only so much - remember that the pellet burn pot is a fire about 3 inches in diameter! That is why Campchef offers it with a propane sear box or grill on the side. If you are primarily a griller, not a smoker, I think you would be better served with another kettle, or even a good gas grill.
I love my Weber Performer Deluxe, and with Grillgrates it cranks out awesome chicken on the entire cooking surface. Today I smoked a butt on it using the SnS. I also grill a lot on my Genesis with Grillgrates.
If you must go with pellets, and grill more than smoke, maybe hold out for Weber to make a few fixes to the new SmokeFire...Comment
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The Woodwind Slide and Grill functionality provides some ability to get direct heat on the center part of the lower grate. The Temp maxes out around 500 if you believe their controller. I have the Sidekick, so I have not tried this feature yet.Comment
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