This Do-It-All Grill is the Best One You Can Buy

Anyone who gets into grilling pretty seriously will eventually start to accumulate a bunch of grills. It usually starts out with a charcoal kettle grill in college and then sprouts into a propane gas grill before branching off into a smoker, a pellet grill... Before you know it, the backyard is filled with chunky cooking machines and your partner is none too pleased. But one way to calm a savage spouse and clean up that barbecue clutter is to consolidate with an all-in-one grill that can perform multiple functions. The only catch is finding one that actually works well in all of the major barbecue styles.

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In my long-term review of quite a few grills, I found that the mythical, best all-around grill is the Camp Chef Woodwind Pro with Sidekick Sear. The main unit is a great performing pellet grill that Camp Chef stuffed a small, wood-burning fire box into. Smartly, it's positioned over the fire box that burns the pellets—creating a pellet grill which can provide the copious amounts of smoke that a charcoal or wood smoker will pump out. To get a proper propane performer, use the Sidekick Sear—essentially a propane burner attaching to the side of the grill where a shelf would normally sit. It includes a small box with a flame diffuser and cast iron grate, and can bump temperatures to 700 degrees, making it the ideal add-on for searing and providing the relative ease of propane grilling.

Overall Impressions: Camp Chef Woodwind Pro and SideKick Sear

I've used a few Camp Chef propane and pellet grills over the years and was generally impressed with their build quality and ease of assembly. I was excited to try the Woodwind Pro for this review, specifically because of the smoke box, which is sorely needed in pellet grills to get a closer to charcoal/hardwood smoke—and because I liked the earlier Camp Chef pellet/propane combo models.

Setup was typical of many pellet grills and accomplished without a hitch. Getting the smoke box installed was also a cinch and allowed me a moment to study how it works. Positioned directly above the firebox, the chamber slides in and out independently and can hold a small amount of wood. Rotating the handle counterclockwise on the grill front opens the chamber to the fire and allows you to roughly control how your hardwood chunks burn. The handle positioning isn't always intuitive, so studying exactly how it works during assembly will help you get the hang of it for future smokes. 

The other features worked as expected, with the usual WiFi connection shenanigans that seem to plague most new products stuffed with wireless and Bluetooth tech. The app is intuitive and helpful, but also can suffer from the dreaded "network connectivity problems." 

Finally, the sear box does its job well, using a metal buffer beneath the grate to better scatter flames from a powerful burner. This single burner, rated to an impressive 30,000 BTUs, is what Camp Chef built their early reputation on. It works extremely well with the pizza oven and griddle accessory; some of the best (small) pizzas I've ever made outdoors were cooked on the add on. 

Key Features and Tech

The two main features that make the Camp Chef Woodwind Pro the best overall grill are its smoke box and propane-powered Sidekick. The smoke box turns this solid pellet grill into a legit smoker, while the Sidekick Sear option lets you seriously brown meat and veggies at high heat. 

The grill's ventilation and sealing system is an upgrade from the basic Camp Chef smoker, as it includes a heat diffuser inside the cooking chamber that improves heat circulation and smoking along with adjustable rear venting. A heat-resistant seal is also added to the rim of the opening for optimal smoke retention, a feature usually found only on dedicated smokers. 

Other welcome pieces of tech include the grill's WiFi system, which uses a color display dial to quickly move through the menu, and four ports to plug in thermometer probes. The app works with Apple and Android, and lets you remotely set timers, add notifications, label probes, and select meat types. You can even dial in your preferred smoke level on the menu for added smokiness.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Choose from multiple fuels to grill or smoke a variety of foods 
• Handy Sidekick option lets you add other cooking accessories, like a griddle or pizza oven—which works great
• Reliable build quality and solid, durable materials

Cons

• App connectivity can be iffy
• Start up and shutdown procedures are a bit antiquated
• Sear box grill grate prone to rust

Final Verdict

I've used the Camp Chef Woodwind Pro 24 (the smaller version) for over a year. For more room, you can step up to the 36, which adds around 400 more square inches of cooking surface. I test a lot of grills and smokers, but the Woodwind Pro is the grill I keep coming back to. Year-round, I grill or smoke 90 percent of my outdoor cooks on this grill. It's on duty at least a few times a week.

I was mostly a gas and charcoal (for smoking) guy for most of my grilling life, until I started checking out pellet grills. I instantly loved the ease of cooking on a pellet grill, especially for stuff like skin-on chicken and the hearty smoke flavor it gave everything. The notable downside was its inability to reach high heat and a flame to sear meats. Also, wood pellets can't quite give you enough smoke to match a dedicated charcoal- or wood-burning cooker.

The Woodwind Pro, with the addition of the Sidekick Sear (which adds an extra $300 to the base price of $1,199), solves this issue by letting you smoke, grill, and sear as well as most of the top grills in each category—all in one convenient package.

Specs

• Cooking area: 811 square inches (224 square inches for sear box)
  
• Size: 26 x 44.5 x 55 inches
• Fuel: Wood pellets/wood/propane gas
• Hopper capacity: 22 pounds
• BTUs: 33,000
• Warranty: 6 years on body/hopper body/lid/legs/bottom shelf/grates, 3 years on fan/auger motor/hot rod/controller/casters/wheels/thermometer/drip tray/heat deflector/burners, 1 year on gaskets/probes/other parts

Why You Should Trust Me

I have been an editor, outdoor writer, and gear reviewer at multiple publications for over 20 years. I'm the gear editor at Men's Journal and I've tested and reviewed everything from coolers and grills to e-bikes and flashlights. My first attempt at smoking was with a Weber Smokey Mountain that was a Christmas present. Of course, I had to try it right away, which ended up being on a deck in the middle of a snowstorm in Brooklyn—it didn't go well. Since then, I've graduated to smoking whole pigs and grilling on everything from rusty grates on beach campfires to a variety of smart pellet grills in my backyard.