Customer Ratings & Reviews

I’m one of those guys that really likes outdoor grilling – both cooking and eating. Sadly, I my lifestyle doesn’t afford me the time or resources to be as dedicated as some. I have one gas grill that was used to grill all meats and veggies desired and cover my simulated smoking efforts through jerry-rigging and skill. Well, all that has changed now with this new Ninja Woodfire ProConnect Grill & Smoker – I’m a double outdoor grill/smoker+ guy now! I’m really big on packaging. When I purchase anything of worth, and/or technology that I am depending on functional integrity, the packaging gives me confidence it has been safely transported. It also lets me know what the manufacturer thinks of their own product. The Woodfire ProConnect comes well packaged in a sturdy box with more than adequate foam and protection – very tight fit. Upon opening the box, the thing I loved most was that there is really no assembly required. Seriously, you could give the plate and innards a quick washup and be up and cooking in minutes. The next thing that stood out was that there were 2 bags of woodfire pellets – an all-purpose blend and a robust blend. That’s plenty to get anyone started with creating that off the grill flavor you are yearning for from an electric grill. Also in the box, you have everything needed to get started – drip pan, grill plate, rack, etc. You also have a thermometer spindle with 2 wired leads. This slides in under the control panel which has a place for you to plug them in for 2 separate temperature readings. Lift the grill hood and you will see a convection fan at the very top. The cooking surface is also a lot bigger than I thought. I can easily fit 2 slabs of ribs on the cooking surface – a welcome sight! Overall, it was an impressive showing out of the box. Now, how does it perform? Well, my wife had these ribs, you see. She wanted me to do my usual – a 2-3 hour simulated smoke, followed by about an hour or so on the grill. Amazingly, the Woodfire ProConnect shows up right when I needed to cook these up. I prepared them as normal and got the grill ready for action. For smoking, you have to put the pellets in the smoke box located on the right side of the hood. If I have one design complaint or request, it’s about this smoke box. I would have loved it to be larger – more on that in a moment. Once everything was ready, I selected smoke on the mode selector, set my temperature to 225 and my timer to 3 hours. When started, the control panel indicates that it’s igniting the pellets. One thing I like about the smoker function is there is no need for preheating. After ignition and a start up period, the control panel displays the temperature and the remaining time. Not sure if this needs to be said, but definitely avoid using this indoors – it will probably set off a smoke detector. That’s not to say the grill hood isn’t sealed enough, it definitely is. The areas designed for ventilation really put out smoke because it is very effective at generating and circulating smoke. I must say, I was very reluctant to open the hood after the grill got going. I normally baste my ribs with a mopping sauce every 20-30 minutes or so, but I didn’t do so during the first hour or more during this process. I think the thought of convection and the control you have over the environment had me feeling like I should just let it do its thing. I felt that after about an hour or so, there wasn’t much smoke left. For this reason, I feel the smoke box could be bigger. I was reluctant to refill the box because I felt the igniter lit the pellets in the box at the start of the cooking cycle – I need to investigate that more. Other than that, after my smoke period, I crank the heat up a bit for the last 30-45 minutes, and voila! And that’s not an exaggeration. The Woodfire ProConnect is the real deal! My ribs were perfectly cooked. There was a definite smoky flavor as well – outstanding job, and for what it’s worth, clean up was a breeze. I must say, this thing really isn’t hard to sell – yes, it’s that good. It’s easy to use, does an excellent job cooking your meal, is very well built, is feature-rich (double thermometer, 7-in-1, built-in WiFi with app integration), and is big enough for decent portions while having a small footprint. This is the proverbial no-brainer. One of the best cooking devices I’ve seen in quite some time.

The Ninja Woodfire Grill is an excellent addition to our home, and I think it will likely be a great addition to anyone else's. It is easy to use and the different functions of it make it very versatile. In our time with the grill so far, we've tried smoking, grilling, air frying and dehydrating. The Ninja makes each of these easy and having the app to help keep track of your cooks just makes things even easier. I think my favorite thing that we've tried so far on this grill was some St. Louis style ribs. We started by prepping the ribs and seasoning them. We then started smoking them on the grill, which took about an hour. Using the built-in thermostats to measure the temperature is helpful and getting a notification from the app that the ribs had come up to temperature. We pulled them from the smoker and then wrapped them in foil with some more sauce and then set the Ninja to grill, to let the ribs braise for about an hour as well. Finally, removing the foil and adding a little more sauce before putting them back on the grill to set. They turned out very nice. The Ninja made each step so easy to do and keep track of, and the ability to do it all in one place was convenient. I really like the built-in thermostats, especially having two of them so you can monitor two temps at once. Using the Ninja to air fry some chicken was very easy as well. The included air fryer tray is much bigger than any other air fryer we've used. The preheat time was fast and cooking the chicken went exactly as expected. We prepped the rest of the meal (a sauce and some veggies) as the chicken was cooking. It just makes things so very easy. We also tried making some beef jerky using the dehydrator option. While the jerky didn't quite come out as we would have liked, that was no fault of the Ninja. We need to experiment with how we marinate and season the meat a little more. We added the smoke to the jerky along with other seasoning and it tasted good but wasn't quite how we like our jerky. Speaking of which though, the smoking works very well on the Ninja. It's impressive how well everything works in such a small footprint. I do wish that it came with a stand (though you can buy one separately) and a longer power cable. The cable is pretty short, and if your outlets are lower, like ours, you won't be able to set it on anything without an extension. As someone who has never smoked anything before, I can't believe how easy the Ninja made things for me. I've never made beef jerky before either. Again, the Ninja made the process very simple too. The Ninja woodfire is a great addition for us and will be seeing plenty of use. It's ease of use and ability to tackle different cooking types make it well worth the small space it takes. Pros: Very easy to use, excels at all it attempts, smart features and app Cons: Short power cord, would be nice to have a stand included

I have looked at many smokers over the years and have known all along I want one, especially to try my hand at smoking salmon steaks. For all my interest in a smoker the Ninja Woodfire ProConnect as it turns out is my first. Feel that it has worked out that I saved the best for last. When the Grill & Smoker are unboxed first impression is it looks fantastic. Quality build is evident, the style of design and engineering speak volumes of Ninja’s commitment to delivering their customers with the best cooking and practical appliances in the market. It is apparent that the Ninja listens to the consumer, the latest Woodfire is I believe 30% larger than the previous model. Grill cookers spoke and Ninja listened and delivered an exceptionally spacious cooking area in the new Woodfire Premium XL Grill & Smoker! The Ninja Woodfire ProConnect Premium XL Outdoor 7-in-1 Grill & Smoker (that’s a long name) is the latest in the line of our Ninja kitchen cooking wonders that we enjoy in our kitchen at home. We have had the pleasure of cooking with Ninja home products for years with the Ninja FG551 Foodi Smart XL 6-in-1 Indoor Grill and Ninja FD401 Foodi 12-in-1 Deluxe XL 8 qt. Pressure Cooker & Air Fryer. I can tell you that each Ninja appliance on our kitchen counters has delivered excellence of flavor and ease of use remarkably well. Our new Woodfire grill provides the means to take that same experience of cooking outside to round out our repertoire. We love cooking and always welcome innovative means to lift our cooking talents to new heights of enjoyment. Ninja continually delivers on that note, and the newest addition to the Ninja Family of cookware is a Winner. Just asked my wife how she feels about our Ninja appliances including our new Woodfire ProConnect Premium XL, her simple answer “it’s the best.” That simply is true, that is why Ninja populates our kitchen counters and now is available outside on the deck. Where there is smoke there is fire, not necessarily as the Ninja Woodfire puts only a small amount of smoke. Primarily when you ignite the wood pellets you see decent puff, but for the most part it’s rather clean burning. Frustrated my wife a little as she wanted to take a picture of the smoke pouring out of the grill. Where the rubber meets the road, we have a well-known propane grill that runs about $1200 that we have used for years for countless meals. It is an excellent grill and has severed us quite well, but fact is we have not used in while and have been preparing steaks and burgers on our inside Ninja grill, along with sides of vegies, even have cooked ribs on the grill. That was then… And now we have made the leap to the new Woodfire and will not be looking back. The first meal for us had to be rack of ribs, smoked with Sweet Baby Ray Original sauce. Hands down, I had never matched the smoked ribs as well as they came out of our Ninja first try on my propane grill. Really. For most Grill Masters it would appear to be completely counterintuitive that superb smoked grilling would come from an electric cooker. It does. Amazing cooking system, that monitors and maintains proper temps all the while hitting the smoke level bang on. Hooked up with the well-designed Ninja ProConnect APP which checks all the boxes for “Control, Monitoring and Receiving Real-Time Notifications” all in the palm of your hand. Ninja ProConnect APP shines and provides a long list cooking charts, which are quite informative. Seems about all you are required to do is place your meal into the grill and let Woodfire grill do the rest. Notes: - Easy to operate – simple clear instructions - Two built-in thermostats that display temps in real-time - Built-in convection fan - great for even cooking - Ability to select your preferred level of doneness for beef and other meats - Air Fryer - throw on some fries and chicken wings together - Shrimp on the barbie cooks well - New York Strip Steaks - cooked to perfection with grill marks - Reliability - Smoker, Electric Grill, and Air Fryer - Griddle Grate non-stick - simple cleanup - “10 burgers - 40 hotdogs – 2 racks of ribs - 2-7lbs chickens - 10lbs brisket - 4lbs wings" The Woodfire Grill is a master of grilling/smoking with the performance of larger gas grills. An extraordinary electric grill, that seems to break the rules of grilling. Bottom-Line – my wife loves it. She is an excellent cook and knows her craft, giving the Ninja Woodcraft Grill a big thumbs up.

The Ninja Woodfire Pro Connect Premium XL is the latest version of their popular Woodfire Grill & Smoker with 30% more capacity than before. The grill promises the ability to grill, smoke, and air fry all-in-one with little input from the user and ap integration to seamless monitor and control the unit. This is all done via electricity and without all the maintenance of traditional gas or wood burning smokers. Does it live up to its promise? Actually, I think so! In The Box: - Grill & Smoker - 2x Thermometers - Cripster Basket - Pellets & Scoop (3x Use Per Blends) - Grease Tray w/ Liner - Quick Star Guide Setup: After getting everything installed within the unit and taking all of the plastic off, you can plug it in and start the setup via the app. Now this is not 100% necessary, but I would highly recommend it as you get a lot of additional control and can monitor your session in real time among other things. This unit is large so make sure to find a suitable spot and make sure to grab a heavy-duty extension cord because you’ll need it. Going through the app setup, it connects via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The network should be 2.4gHz capable. I tried connecting it to a 5 gHz network and it errored out. Tried with the dedicated 2.4 gHz and it also errored out. Then went back into the app and it was connected and working so I am not sure which it connected to, but everything works. Usage: So, after getting it set up, I started my first session with two 3lb Pork Butts. These fit inside the smoker without issue and plenty of room to spare. I chose to use the All-Purpose blend of pellets. We used one thermometer in each just to see how even the temperature was between them. Within the app we followed along the instructions for this type of smoke session and hit go and the machine turned on and started igniting and preheating. Within minutes we were smoking, and the meat started to cook. Now one would think if cooked too quickly that the meat wouldn’t be a nice texture but after roughly 3.5 hours of smoking the unit turned off as each piece of meat was up to recommended 205-degree internal temperature and told me to remove the meat from the grill. We chose to let the meat rest inside for about an hour before removing it and pulling it for pork sandwiches. The meat didn’t exactly fall apart but it wasn’t hard either. The outside had a great crust and had a noticeable smoky taste throughout. Overall, this session went very well, and cleanup was a breeze with rinsing the drip try, washing the grill plate, and emptying the couple leftover pellets just so it’s ready to go next time. Likes: - Ease (Cooking Modes) - App Integration - Build Quality - 2 Thermometers Dislikes: - SHORT Cord - No Included Cover Overall: I would highly recommend the Woodfire Grill & Smoker XL as a replacement or easy to get into smoking meat at home. This unit provides ample cooking space for a family or larger pieces of meat (or sides) and is easy to maintain/clean. With the built in Wi-Fi, monitoring is a breeze, and the features are great. I would highly recommend this grill to anyone in the market for such a device.

I had the pleasure of using the Ninja Woodfire ProConnect Premium XL Outdoor 7-in-1 Grill Smoker over the weekend. It was my first time EVER using a smoker. This grill truly impressed me on many levels. I made a 2 lbs tri-tip that was REALLY REALLY easy to make. I trimmed some of the fat and seasoned the tri-tip over night (dry rub). It was really good. Design and Build (4/5): The design is a modern and practical, with ample cooking space. The build quality is robust and looks like it’s built to withstand the sun, rain and snow, however think it will still buy a cover for it. The grill feels well-constructed and solid. However, I’m not sure if smoke was supposed to come out of the pellet feeder. (see picture) Ease of Use (5/5): Using this grill was a breeze, even for someone like me, who's not a professional chef. The setup was straightforward, and the app connectivity made it extremely convenient to monitor the cooking process remotely. The pre-set cooking programs for various dishes, including tri-tip, made it very simple. Cant wait to try something else. Maybe ribeye =) Cooking Performance (5/5): I cooked a tri-tip to perfection – it was juicy, tender, and had a delicious smoky flavor. The two built-in thermometers ensured I could keep track of the meat's internal temperature, preventing overcooking. I used my external thermometers to “test” the temperature and make sure the two built in was accurate. App Integration (4.7/5): The app connectivity was a handy feature. It allowed me to control the grill remotely, set timers, and access recipes. I couldn’t find the option or if it was an option to stop cooking when the meat reached a temperature. I hope they add this option soon. Overall (4.8/5): The Ninja Woodfire ProConnect Premium XL Outdoor Grill Smoker is a fantastic investment for outdoor cooking. It made my tri-tip experience enjoyable and hassle-free. Whether you're a seasoned griller or a novice, this grill is an excellent choice easy cooking. Definitely recommended to anymore looking for a new grilling experience.

This grill is a game changer. It has all the functions of an air-fryer, grill, and smoker. As an air-fryer, it does a great job and has a nice basket you can fit a lot of food in--nearly 3 times larger than my indoor unit. When grilling, the thermometers are revolutionary to the cooking process. Simply set the temp (or select the protein and doneness), and it does the rest--you can even add wood pellets to get a smoked flavor. I had my doubts about this because of poor experiences with other grills, but Ninja gets it right. I tossed a couple of 1-inch t-bone steaks on it and set it to medium rare. In a matter of minutes, they were perfect! The Woodfire PrConnect uses convection, like an air fryer, to get an even cook with no flair ups. It even had me pull them just a bit early to allow them to rest to the perfect finish.The next night, we cooked chicken and had the same flawless experience. There's a lot to love about this: I really like this device, it does an amazing job as a grill. The cooking surface is decent sized for a family of 4. Cleaning it is easy, so far. The temp probes are accurate and easy to use. Adding pellets for smoking is simple. The app makes it a breeze to manage your cook. It's FAST, like really fast. Now, here's why I didn't give it 5 stars. Form factor: It's a little small to be be a party grill. It's a table top unit, so it doesn't really fit into my outdoor set up. Ninja sells stands for them, which is probably a worthwhile investment. The cord is short: It's only a few feet long. You need a heavy duty extension cable to run this anywhere that you don't have an outlet immediately next to a table. Smoke pellet clean-up: After using pellets, it still had smoking pellets in the smokebox. I had to wait for them to burn out to clean the hopper. It'd be nice to have a way to do this and dispose of the pellets without waiting. App: I had some trouble adjusting the temp on the second probe once I started a cook cycle. Overall, I think this is the perfect device for a small space or someone who wants to grilled flavor without having a propane or charcoal grill. I could see this being a great grill to take to the campground or tailgate, when a full grill might be too cumbersome.

The Ninja Woodfire ProConnect Premium XL Outdoor Grill & Smoker is the latest rendition of Ninja’s outdoor grills. What makes this one different, is the inclusion of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, something I never realized I needed. When I first heard of this feature, I thought it was somewhat silly. But after my first experience with it, I think it is brilliant. How many times have you experienced flareups or just unpredictable behavior and cooking times with your outdoor grill? The Ninja Pro Connect app allows you to completely control the cooking temperature, time, preheating and shut off using either Bluetooth for close-range control or Wi-Fi (2.4-GHz band) for around the house range communication. In addition, you can designate using this device to grill, smoke (utilizing two varieties of cooking pellets), air crisp, roast, bake, broil and dehydrate. You can determine whether to cook via time or utilize the included thermometers (2) to monitor and determine when your feast is finished. When the deed is done, the handy little app notifies you that it’s time to eat. Another nice feature is that there is a large selection of cooking charts suggesting temperatures and times for a given quantity of foods such as poultry, beef, pork, seafood, bread/cheese, fruit, lamb/veal, and vegetables. To top it off, all of the cooking chart items only need to be clicked on the app on your phone to direct the powered-on grill to engage the proper temperature and time. In addition to the grill, there are a number of other items in the package including a crisper basket, a removable smoke box for wood pellets, a scoop for the pellets, a grease tray and liner, an onboard dual thermometer storage unit with thermometers, and two bags of sample woodfire pellets good for 3 cooking sessions each. Some optional items to consider are a foldable stand designed for the Ninja grill that puts the grill at just the right height and two different covers, one for the grill when it is used on a larger surface, and the other that is used by the grill and the Ninja stand. I think the stand is a bit overpriced compared to the grill, but the appropriate cover is a necessity if leaving the grill outside. In use, this grill and smoker is so far, predictable and easier to run, clean, and use than our current traditional grill. The removable grill in the Ninja is very easy to clean and the drain at the back of the grill for grease evacuation empties into the grease tray and disposable liner that are available in quantity from Ninja. Easy cleanup and ease of use with this grill makes outdoor cooking a joy. In fact, when I first started using the app, it was so novel and useful I couldn’t believe it. Our first several times cooking with this grill turned out great! Can’t wait for more experiences with some of the other features. I recommend this product!

Ninja's new Woodfire ProConnect XL Grill/Smoker is awesome. I like all my Ninja products, like my blender and cookware set, so I had very high expectations for this grill/smoker. Aesthetically, it looks real nice with the matte color, polished steel, digital display, and easy to read cooking modes. Despite it saying XL in the name its not a ridiculously oversized grill, just eyeballing it I'd say its about the same size as a 1.1 CuFt microwave. It only weighs about 40lbs so its not heavy to move or transport. It definitely looks better than my little Old Smokey pit. Controls are incredibly simple. You can cycle through all 7 cooking modes and get to cooking with the control panel on the face of the grill/smoker. Or you could do this through the Ninja ProConnect app which is a great tool for newbies like myself. The app has so many options and recipe choices for just about anything you wanna cook up, based on the type of meat or veg, cooking mode, or time you want to spend actually cooking. Once you're all set up to get cooking, you can keep track of the temperature, the time needed to cook, and even use the included meat thermometers to plug into the grill and check the internal temps of your food. For smoking there is a small side hatch for the wood pellets. The grill comes with a nice little bevy of items that will get you started in whatever you want to start cooking. It comes with a crisper basket, two meat thermometers, two sample packs of wood pellets (all purpose blend and robust blend) which gets you 3 uses each bag, and a scoop for the pellets. Now for my test run I used the grill function and grilled me up some chicken drumsticks I had marinated in a honey siracha seasoning. They came out perfect and I look forward to using it on weekends for burgers, steaks, and ribs. Also if you haven't got a table or stand for the grill to sit on or a covered grilling area you will probably have to buy the Ninja grill stand and outdoor grill cover like I did, since those arent included and as nice as my grill is I want to make sure it lasts for a long time. Overall I'm calling The Woodfire ProConnect XL Grill/Smoker another great product from Ninja.

After receiving the Ninja - Woodfire ProConnect I read the instructions, cleaned all the cooking surfaces, plugged it in and prepared to connect it to WIFI so I can use all the cooking options on my phone. That was the first problem. My backyard which is only 50 feet from my router and where the Ninja - Woodfire ProConnect was would not connect. I brought it inside to the kitchen which is only 20 feet from my router and still no connection. I literally had to move the grill about 5 feet from my router before it would connect. I know it wasn't the router because I have a TV and speakers in my backyard that receive the WIFI signal with no issue. Once connected it stayed connected after moving it to it's position on the back porch. Now it was time to try it out. I bought 2 big New York steaks, seasoned them , and let them rest to room temperature. I wanted to use the thermometer method so I chose the "beef" selection and the "med" setting. I also pushed the Ninja Woodfire Tech button to get that smoke flavor on my steaks. Within a minute the (included) pellets fired up and the grill started to preheat. When preheated I pushed the thermometer into the middle of 1 steak and put them on the grill and closed the lid. This is where problem 2 arose. Within a minute my phone and the grill beeped and said my food was done. It had to be operator error right? Well the thermometer was directly in the middle of the steak but the temperature reader on my phone and grill said 75 degrees. So I'm not so sure what happened there. I will say the temperature that the included thermometers were showing was the same as my digital thermometer. For the quality of the food... It was excellent. Nice smoky flavor, nice pinkish inside when cooked to 240 degrees and great grill marks. Also the last 5 minutes of the cook there was plenty of room to throw some sliced zucchini on the grill so everything would be done at the same time. I tried some chicken breast the following night and once again after 1 minute of cooking the app and grill told me the food needed to be flipped. Then 2 minutes was told the meat was done. I will keep trying to use the included thermometers in case it is operator error. I really do love the smoky flavoring that this Ninja - Woodfire ProConnect produces. It's not overwhelming so you can still taste the seasonings or marinades you use. I can't wait to try more proteins and vegetables on the grill as well as air frying and broiling. Cleanup is very easy. The removeable grill or fry basket clean up easy with soap and water and the grease trap is amazing with a disposable tray that you just throw out and replace with a new one when full. I really love this Ninja - Woodfire ProConnect and hope to fix the issue I have had with it.

I thought after the initial use, that this would go on the heap with the rest of my cooking equipment. Boy was I wrong. Using this in combination with the Ninja app has changed everything. I’ve cooked on it several times and everything has turned out perfect. You can either cook based on time, the supplied dual probes or the old fashioned way by sight. Clean up was also a breeze. Buying extra disposable foil grease pans makes it even easier. The Ninja nylon cleaning brush also greatly helps when washing the convoluted non stick cooking griddle. I purchased a rolling cart so I can cook under the patio or in the sun. Nice purchase.

I have a good deal of Ninja products so I know they are very good quality. I looked at the original grill a year or two ago but ended up waiting. When I saw this XL one on sale I ended up buying it and in the three months I have owned it I have used it more than the one I owned for four years. I smoked a brisket for 4th of July for 7 hours. The bark (which is the outer part that is looks like it is burned) was nice and crisp while the inside was so tender. I pulled the provided thermometer out of the meat and the juices just flowed out. It was a HUGE hit. I have grilled and wood fire grilled all kinds of meat and veggies as well as corn and smoked beef and chicken and everything I have cook is great! Cleaning is very easy as well. I HATED cleaning my gas grill but this is very simple, remove the plate and wash it in the sink. Inside is easy too. I do recommend that if you buy this purchase the grease tray liners as it makes that part of cleanup super simple. This, out of all the Ninja products I own, may be the best purchase i have ever made and I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who wants to try an electric grill.

I love my Ninja wood fire!! We use pretty much every function it offers. The only meat I have not enjoyed smoking is ribs they tend to come out tough. The only thing that frustrates me with it is the BT, WiFi has to be reconnected every time we use it now. When we first got it a little over a year ago we had no issues with it but it’s every time now. I do have protection on my wood fire so I do plan on returning it to get a new one that hopefully will work better with BT and WiFi.

I really love this little grill. I replaced a small gas grill with this and am very pleased. It gets very hot, about 450°F on the grate. But it cooks really fast when needed. It's like a little convection oven/grill that you can get some good wood smoke flavor with.

I love this versatile grill. It's by no means a set-and-forget; using it as a smoker is still a labor of love and I take full credit for my barbecue, but it's so much more reliable than a charcoal fire with smoking chunks in a kamado grill like I've been using for years. Any pork butt or large brisket needs to be started the night before so it can cook, rest and be ready for dinner. I've suffered the defeat of having to place an emergency order to the local bbq joint because I've got guests coming and I slept through my alarm and the fire went out and my pork dropped below 140º. This Ninja Woodfire grill uses electricity for the heat and pellets just for the smoky flavor, so it's more failsafe. I've done 3 cooks, had great results from each and here’s my notes if you feel like reading a long review: First, a brisket - I put a lot of faith in this thing because I received my Ninja on Dec 22nd, planned a brisket for Christmas Eve, and the only thing they had left in the grade I wanted was a huge 20lbs. This obviously wasn't going to fit in the Ninja XL, so I cut about 6" off the flat and wrapped and froze it for another dinner. The flat cooks too fast when you have to wait for the point to finish anyway. I bought the separate rack accessory, which is not necessary but I don't want my brisket making direct contact with the solid grill plate. There was enough clearance inside the Ninja XL to fit the massive brisket even elevated by the rack, and the deep drip pan and non-stick surface make cleaning very easy. I set it up the night before with a target temperature instead of time. I filled the pellet basket, programmed it to cook to 202ºF with one of the built-in probes in the thick part of the brisket, and hung around admiring the smoke until it popped the circuit breaker! I had to get an extension cord and move to another plug (non-LED outdoor lighting uses a lot of juice). Then the second problem - the BBQ Gods awakened me at 3am (5+ hours into the cook) and I checked the app and the grill was offline… I ran out there and the thing was completely powered down, but still warm and there was no sign of any power outage or tripped circuit. My stomach dropped!! I probed the meat and I was right at 141ºF after I'd seen it hit 160º before going to bed. I turned it back on and started a new cook urgently. It got hot again and the temperature started climbing nicely but I definitely did not sleep very much after that. I switched it to a timed cook and just monitored the temperature until it finished. I wrapped it and rested it for 2 hours and then refrigerated it to wait for dinner. It ended up being the best brisket I've done. Next, smash burgers - I also bought the griddle plate accessory and I wanted to try quick and easy smash burgers on buttery toasted buns. I did grill mode with pellets and woodfire enabled. I smashed the burgers and then closed the lid and let them have some smoke for few mins and then flipped them (don't use a metal spatula, it's non-stick), added cheese and closed the lid for more heat and smoke. They came out great and it was so easy to clear all the fat and butter away with the deep drip pan this thing has. I did two rounds of burgers and the griddle plate needed some time to reheat between rounds. Finally, I tried the pork butt again for New Year’s. I set it up late the night before as a 12 hour cook at 225º. I did wake up worried once or twice, but the grill never shut itself off like it did for my brisket. I'm speculating that if you do a temperature cook and the meat stalls (temperature doesn't budge for a while), the grill must be giving up and turning off. I'm not counting on that overnight again. The pulled pork came out perfect and delicious. Being able to keep the temperature stable for a long period of time is crucial. Cleaning this thing is easy. It's got a very good non-stick coating so I just use my grill rescue which is a wet sponge wrapped in some kind of durable heat-resistant fire-fighter material, Everything sizzles away and runs down the drain into the deep drip pan that I can just dump in the trash. When I'm not cooking, this thing can just be stashed on a shelf in the garage, it doesn't have to live outside and be exposed to the elements. I love this grill.

I was hesitant about purchasing this Ninja Woodfire ProConnect Premium XL Outdoor Grill and Smoker. Between the high price and poor experiences with electric grills in the past, I just wasn't sure. We live in an area that is prone to winds and in a high fire risk area, so cooking with charcoal or fire burning wood pellet grill was difficult and risky on some days. So I ended up purchasing this Ninja Outdoor Grill and I couldn't be happier. 3 out of the 5 times I used it so far, I couldn't have used a charcoal grill because of the wind. Wood pellets are safely contained and no open flames. The electric grill blows me away. It cooks the steaks and fish perfectly each time. Thanks to the dual thermometers and the app, its hard to mess things up. To top it off, It's easy to clean. I recommend this grill to everyone, but especially to those who live in a high fire risk area and want a safe way to grill outdoors.

Talk about no hassle grilling! Before I get to this lets start at the beginning. Unboxing the grill you will quickly find that it is a sturdy piece of equipment that has been well designed and planned. The bonus with the grill is it comes with small packages of pellets for when you want to use it as a smoker. A couple things to note, this was designed for outdoor usage so keep that in mind. You might be able to use it indoors as long as you're not using the smoker function. Also keep in mind you will need an electrical outlet. If an extension cord is needed the manual provides recommendations. Once you have the grill setup and plugged you will want to download the app to your mobile device. This will allow you to receive alerts from the grill and monitor progress. You can even setup your cooking mode and times from the app! My first attempt on the grill was smoked ribs. For this there was no preheating of the grill, simply put the ribs on (I did two slabs at once) close the lid, fill the pellet tray up, select smoker, set the time and temp then press start. After the first few minutes the smoke pellets were ignited and there was an amazing aroma coming from the grill. During the entire cooking cycle, I was able to monitor time an temp of the grill. At the end I received a notification that the cooking was complete. The results were very good! Cleanup was simple, remove the tray and put it in the dishwasher. I have yet to use a Ninja product that didn't meet or exceed expectations and this is no exception. Next up, I think I'm going to roast a chicken using the temperature probes!

I started off with this grill mainly with the intention of taking it camping but I just could not wait that long. I have been testing it out beforehand, and so far I have been blown away. This appears to be another great product from Ninja, they have thought of everything, with 7 cooking options, and you can use the smoke feature with any of them. The crisper basket works amazingly, especially for my absolute favorite, chicken wings, they come out crispy, smokey and juicy. I cooked the wings at about 380 in the crisper basket for 20 mins turning after 10 mins., this grill cooks unbelievably fast. I am not sure 100% sure but i think several of the recipes in the recipe book may have some of the cook times listed incorrectly. Be aware that this could be a problem and check recipes on line. If you follow the recipes you may be disappointed in the outcome, no fault of the grill. Some people have stated that the food did not taste smokey enough, i did not find that at all. We have a famous brand full size smoker and BBQ, so am not a newbie and it produces plenty of smokey flavour for the 1/2 cup of pellets that you use. I also find the digital thermometers very handy, the wifi connection was easy to setup and the app seems to work very well so far. I love everything about this grill except that I have not recieved the new stand that I ordered yet or everything would be perfect. This thing is a must have for tailgating by the way.

Good packaging for the NINJA WOODFIRE PRO XL Grill however the extras in the packaging rec’d damage. No noticeable damage to the outside of the packaging yet the air fry basket was bent in multiple places and one of the packages of pellets was broken open and half of the pellets were spread out in the box. The pellet package looked as if it was but with a knife. Set up appeared to be simple until the connection to the internet was lost, re-connecting was not easy. There is no place in the app that I could find to re-connect to the internet. I deleted the Woodfire Pro and started over, I had to complete this task twice before I was able to get connected to our network. Once connected to the internet we were set to cook. Washed all the appliance parts as directed and set up to try the Ninja Smoked Baby Back Ribs recipe per the accompanying recipe. The NINJA WOODFIRE PRO recipe ingredients appear to be enough to cover two racks of ribs however the recipe does not specify how many racks of ribs. I was smoking 1 rack and had excessive ingredients remaining after one good coating. I was a little apprehensive with the time given on the recipe for the ribs. The recipe called for 250 degrees and 2 hours of cooking time. I generally smoke ribs, on our large smoker, at 225 for 6 hours. When I fired up the NINJA WOODFIRE PRO, set it to the Smoker setting, it automatically came on at 250 degrees and 4 hours. I chose to leave the cooking time at 4 hours and monitor the cook. I pressed the START button and the NINJA WOODFIRE PRO started an ignition process to fire up the pellets, this took approximately 5 minutes and then the cook time began. You don’t need to press the Woodfire Flavor button when using the Smoker setting. There is no preheat time when using the Smoker function. At the 2 hours mark the ribs were at 165 degrees, the targeted temperature was supposed to be 203 degrees. The outside weather temperature was 66 degrees during the rib cooking time. This will generally add time to your cooking time, but I would not have thought it would add 1 hour. Just prior to the completion of the 2 hour cook I added additional pellets to the smoker. We like a lot of smoke flavor; we did use the NINJA WOODFIRE PELLETS ROBUST BLEND for this cook. Removed the ribs when the thinner end of the BABY BACK ribs was at 200 degrees and the fatter end was 190, ribs had pulled back nicely on the bone. The ribs were set out to rest for 10 minutes prior to cutting. Total cooking time was 3 hours. The COOK MODE settings on the Ninja Smoker app would not change the COOK MODE settings on the NINJA WOODFIRE PRO and vice versa, changing the COOK MODE settings on the NINJA WOODFIRE PRO does not change the setting that appears on the app. As a result, the ribs came out excellent, moist, tender, and flavorful. Cooking time was longer than suggested, however this will happen with most smokers/grills depending on the outside climate. Looking forward to using the NINJA WOODFIRE PRO for a lot of smoking. We fire up our large smoker for cooking many of our meals and it does use a great deal of pellets. Using the NINJA WOODFIRE PRO will cut way down on the pellet use with the same cook results.

I've used a vertical electric smoker for years. It was an earlier model from when Bluetooth first became an option. It constantly dropped connection, requiring complete shutdown and pairing again. Not great when you're trying to maintain temperature. I've been wanting to get a replacement, but I didn't want another piece of massive outdoor cooking equipment. The Ninja Woodfire ProConnect XL was exactly what I was looking for. The packaging was great. Everything arrived in perfect condition. Out of the box, the first thing that you notice is that it is well built and sturdy. I immediately downloaded the app, set it up and plugged it in to pair it to my phone. Setup was simple and worked the first time. For the first run, I smoked a 10 lb pork shoulder. I applied the rub the night before to give it 12 hours before putting it on. I placed the Woodfire on a fold-out table to give myself enough room to wrap the shoulder when it was time. I filled the pellet hopper with the robust blend pellets, placed the shoulder in it and used the app to set my parameters. (You can also use the controls on the front as well). I set the temperature to 225 degrees, and set it to alert me at 175 degrees, at which point I would wrap the shoulder. The smoker setting automatically sets the Woodfire setting for the pellets and ignites them. You do not have to preheat it on the smoker setting. Initially, it goes through the ignition setting. This takes a few minutes and starts the pellets. You'll notice it start to smoke rather quickly. Once the shoulder reached my initial target temperature of 175 degrees, the front screen read, "GET FOOD" and the app alerted me as well. I then removed the shoulder, wrapped it and placed it back in the Woodfire. I then set the target temperature to 203 degrees. The last hour I raised the smoker temperature to 250 degrees to speed it up a little. Overall, it was on for 11 hours. I did attempt to add more pellets after about three hours. I added them, pressed the Woodfire Flavor button and it never started smoking again. I pulled out the instructions and it said to add more pellets you need to hold the button for three seconds. I did this and again, nothing happened. I tried several more times and never got it to relight. Each time "IGN" (ignition) showed on the screen with the dashes to indicate that it was igniting. The app also showed ignition progress each time. I'm not sure if this is a fault with mine, or if I'm missing something. The smoking didn't last very long and I wish that I was able to get a second session of smoking in. I will say, after smoking roughly 15 shoulders over the years, this one was by far the best. The bone pulled out easily and clean. I couldn't pick it up off the butcher paper because it was falling apart. It came out perfectly. It comes with an air fry/crisper basket, two types of pellets (robust and all-purpose blends), a pellet scoop that holds the perfect amount for the hopper, a grease tray with one disposable liner and two temperature probes. The grease tray goes in the rear and works great. The two temperature probes have a storage case that slides in under the front. The cord is very short, you will need an extension cord unless you are within a couple of feet of an outlet. Cleanup was very easy. The grill grate is nonstick and cleans easily. Once cooled, you can just dump out the pellet hopper and rinse it off. The pictures show the shoulder before going on, ignition cycle, 3 hours into the cook, temperature screen, "GET FOOD" screen, final results and a screenshot of the app. I would absolutely recommend the Ninja Woodfire Proconnect Premium XL. It's well-built, compact, feature rich and versatile. The ability to grill, smoke, air crisp, roast, bake, broil and dehydrate can't be beat.

Versatility: The grill offers multiple cooking modes — grill, smoke, roast, bake, air-fry, dehydrate, broil. • Ease of use: It’s plug-in electric, so no gas tank or charcoal to fuss with. The controls are straightforward. • Smoking flavour: It uses a pellet tray/wood-pellet system (“Woodfire Technology”) to add smoke flavour. Reports say ribs and pulled pork cooked on it came out well.  • Good build and compact footprint: Reviewers say it’s “well-built,” “portable/lightweight” relative to big pellet smokers. • Cleaner and faster than a traditional smoker: Because it’s electric and engineered, you avoid some of the fuss of wood-only smoking.