Traeger Grills has introduced four new smart-home-friendly wood pellet barbecue grills featuring the company’s WiFire technology. WiFire connects the grill to your home’s Wi-Fi network, so you can manage your cook using Traeger’s smartphone app.
We first experienced WiFire in our review of Traeger’s Timberline 850 grill, which we found to be an ideal addition to a smart home. Once connected to your home Wi-Fi network, you can download a recipe for the food you’re grilling using the Traeger app and pretty much walk away from the grill. It will automatically maintain the ideal temperature, adding wood pellets from its hopper as needed, with a probe continuously monitoring the internal temperature of the food itself.
There are two models in Traeger’s Ironwood series: The Ironwood 650 ($1,199) and the Ironwood 885 ($1,399). The model numbers indicate the square inches of grilling space for each. Both models cost slightly less than the Timberline series, although they have three of the features that matter most: WiFire, Traeger’s D2 Direct Drive pellet auger, and the ability to maintain precise cooking temperatures ranging from 165 to 500 degrees Fahrenheit (in five-degree increments). What they don’t have is the stainless-steel shelf in front and the slide-out drippings tray (they have grease buckets instead).
Traeger Grills
Traeger is bringing its WiFire connectivity technology to its Pro line of pellet grills for the first time (the all-new Ironwood series is pictured at the top of this story).
Traeger is also bringing WiFire and D2 Direct Drive to its Pro series of pellet grills for the first time. The Traeger Pro 575 ($799) and Pro 780 ($999) offer 575 and 780 square inches of grilling area respectively. These models feature the same type of wheeled sawhorse legs as the Ironwood and Timberline series, but don’t have any shelves attached to them. The Pro series also doesn’t have the Super Smoke setting found on the Ironwood and Timberline models, and they have slightly smaller pellet hoppers: 18 pounds versus 20 pounds. The other major difference is that the Pro series have chimneys where the Ironwood and Timberline vent through the back of the grill.
Author: Michael Brown, Executive Editor
Michael is TechHive's lead editor, with 30+ years of experience covering the tech industry, focusing on the smart home, home audio, and home theater. He built his own smart home in 2007 and used it as a real-world test lab for product reviews. Following a relocation to the Pacific Northwest, he is now converting his new home, an 1890 Victorian bungalow, into a modern smart home.