Ninja
Ninja Woodfire Pro Connect XL
The Ninja Woodfire Pro Connect XL is a 7-in-1 electric outdoor grill, smoker, and air fryer that burns a small box of real wood pellets for flavor while cooking on electric heat. It's owner discussions's go-to answer for balconies and apartments where charcoal and gas are banned.
We may earn a commission. Price and availability on Amazon may differ.
Specifications
Features
Pros
- ✓It's the default owner discussions and owner discussions recommendation for apartments - electric operation makes it legal on most balconies where charcoal and propane are banned
- ✓The small pellet box burns real hickory or cherry pellets, producing legitimately smoky ribs, wings, and brisket for an electric device
- ✓Seven modes (grill, smoke, air fry, roast, bake, broil, dehydrate) genuinely replace several countertop appliances
- ✓Two built-in probe thermometers plus the ProConnect app let you cook two proteins to different targets with phone alerts
- ✓The 500°F grill plate puts real char and grill marks on burgers and steaks, unlike most electric grills
- ✓The XL's 180 sq in fits two full racks of ribs (cut), 10 burgers, or a 10 lb brisket - impressive for its size
- ✓At around $399 it's a complete outdoor cooking setup with no fuel tanks, chimneys, or ash to manage
- ✓It weighs 46 lbs and stores on a shelf, making it viable for RVs, tailgates (with power), and tiny patios
Cons
- ✗180 sq in is tiny compared to real grills - cooking for more than 4-5 people means batching
- ✗It needs a 120V outlet, so no off-grid cooking without a beefy power station
- ✗Smoke flavor is lighter than charcoal or a real pellet grill - purists in owner discussions call it 'smoke-adjacent' rather than true BBQ
- ✗The nonstick grill plate and crisper basket coatings wear over time and can't take metal tools
- ✗Connectivity is Bluetooth-based, so range is limited to roughly your home - no checking the cook from the store
- ✗The 1-year warranty is short, and SharkNinja support gets mixed reviews for out-of-warranty electronics
- ✗Rain and electricity don't mix - it needs cover or indoor storage, and the plastic housing isn't built to live outside
- ✗There's no real temperature band control in smoker mode - you pick presets and trust the algorithm rather than dialing exact temps
Owner Insightssummarized from owner discussions
The Woodfire Pro Connect XL is an electric outdoor cooker that burns a small box of pellets for flavor, and almost everybody who buys one is buying it because of where they live. Condos, apartments, HOA neighbourhoods, top-floor balconies and rooftop decks come up over and over; owners who had a Kamado Joe or an offset and moved somewhere that bans open flame end up here. On its own terms it works: a first-time smoker produced a nine-hour pulled pork with bark good enough that experienced cooks asked how, and ribs, chicken quarters, duck, tri tip and salmon all get reported as good. It preheats fast, needs no assembly, cleans up easily, and the app handles time, temperature, mode and probe alerts.
The smoke is where owners genuinely disagree, and the disagreement is worth understanding before buying. Some find the flavor strong to the point of being too much for thin cuts. Others get something they describe as acrid, closer to a house fire than barbecue, and one of those owners went through two brand-new units before deciding it was the design rather than his technique. What both camps agree on is the mechanism: the unit delivers a heavy burst of smoke for roughly half an hour per pellet load and then behaves like an electric oven, so any cook longer than that means reloading. Owners also report the second load misbehaving, with some deliberately running a quarter load and filling the rest of the box with foil. The smoke enters from the side of a small chamber rather than rising from below, which owners connect to the uneven cooking they see on larger cuts, and there is no smoke ring.
Buy it for the situation, not the barbecue. If you cannot legally run anything else, or you want a cooker you can carry to a campsite or up a flight of stairs, it does things no real smoker can, and owners who already have a Big Green Egg or a full-size pellet grill still find themselves reaching for it on weeknights. If you have a yard and no restrictions, the pushback from experienced cooks is worth hearing: for around half the money a 22-inch Weber kettle will produce better food, and owners who moved from this to a conventional pellet grill cite control as the reason. Check your power situation too — one buyer's unit tripped every breaker in the house and went back.
What owners like
- +It solves a problem nothing else does. Owners who moved into condos, apartments and HOA neighbourhoods where open flame is banned buy this because it is the only thing they are allowed to run, and the reports back are consistent: one condo owner calls it a game changer, another carries his up to a rooftop deck himself because an offset was never an option
- +The food is better than the format suggests. A first-time smoker's nine-hour pulled pork drew genuine surprise from experienced cooks over the bark it produced, and owners report good results with ribs, chicken quarters, duck, tri tip, salmon and burgers. One owner uses smoke on nearly everything and says it is the juiciest meat he has cooked
- +It is genuinely easy to live with. No assembly, light enough to carry in and out, fast to preheat, and easy to clean — one owner with a Lotus Grill says this is the only other grill he has owned that is as low-effort. The app sets time, temperature and mode, tracks the probes, and notifies you when it is up to temperature and when the cook is done
- +It earns its keep as a small-meal cooker even for people who already own real smokers. An owner with a Big Green Egg and a Traeger bought one at a discount for car camping and found it became the grill he uses most at home, and another with a full-size pellet smoker keeps it for weeknight cooking because firing up the big one is not worth it
- +It can cook things owners did not expect. There is a cold smoke setting intended for cheese, one owner smokes cream cheese on his, and the roast, bake and air fry modes get used often enough that some households run it instead of the oven
- +It turns up cheap. Owners report paying $300 and $320, and one caught it on a daily-deal site at $150, which changes the value argument considerably
Common complaints
- −Smoke output is the thing owners fight about, and the negative reports are not from people who gave it one try. One owner went through two brand-new units and got the same result from both, describing a harsh dirty-smoke taste closer to a house fire than barbecue, and concluded it is how the unit fires the pellets rather than user error. Another owner is blunter: the smoking function does not work for him and he kept his dedicated pellet grill for it
- −The smoke arrives as a burst, not a flow. Owners describe roughly 30 minutes of heavy smoke per pellet load, after which you are cooking in an electric oven unless you reload. On long cooks that means opening it up and refilling repeatedly, and owners say the second load does not behave like the first
- −Reloading pellets is fiddly in its own right. One owner found a second full load produced a superficial, overdone smoke taste and got better results by using a quarter load with foil filling the rest of the box; another had to shut the unit down and reload it entirely mid-cook, and would not run more than two cycles on a pork butt
- −Smoke enters from the side rather than from below, and the chamber is too small for it to circulate evenly. Owners connect that directly to uneven cooking; one running a pork butt had to wrap it and finish it in the oven
- −There is no smoke ring, which owners describe as a mental adjustment rather than a flavor problem, but it is a real difference if you care what the cut looks like
- −It draws serious power. One owner's unit tripped every breaker he plugged it into and went back for a refund, and owners who run theirs on a deck or balcony say a heavy outdoor extension cord is not optional
- −Heat recovery in grill mode disappoints some owners. One reports 15 minutes to preheat and then a temperature drop when the burgers go on, leaving him unable to mark both sides without cooking them through
Common Questions
Does it actually produce smoke flavor?
How long does one load of pellets last?
Can you really cook a brisket or a pork butt on it?
Is it safe on an apartment balcony?
Will it replace a real grill or smoker?
How well does the app work?
Compare the Ninja Woodfire Pro Connect XL
Related grills
More from Ninja →
The top of the Woodfire line: 180 sq in, 1,760 W, seven functions including air fry and dehydrate, and — the reason to pick it — two built-in meat thermometers rather than one, so a brisket and a pork butt can each be tracked to their own target. Bluetooth app control pushes alerts to a phone. It sits above the Pro Connect XL the catalog already lists, which has a single probe.
The entry point to Ninja's Woodfire line: a 1,760 W electric grill with a small pellet box that burns about half a cup of wood per cook, so it produces real smoke without propane, charcoal or a gas line. It grills, smokes, bakes and roasts. It has replaced the seven-function OG701 as the base model on Ninja's own store, dropping the air fryer, broil and dehydrate modes to hit a lower price.
Weber's full-size electric: 1,560 W on a standard 120 V outlet, 242 sq in of porcelain cast-iron grate, and a published max over 600°F — high enough to actually sear, which is what separates it from the low-watt electrics it competes with. A reservoir under the grate lets it add wood smoke, steam or boil, so it does more than one thing. This is Weber's answer for people who cannot use fire where they live.
The smaller Lumin: same 1,560 W element and same 600°F+ ceiling, but 180 sq in instead of 242 and 26 lbs instead of 36.5. It keeps the sear, smoke, steam and boil modes and ships with the steam and smoking reservoir. The trade is purely grate area and footprint — nothing is given up on heat.
Current Backyard
Current Model G2 Electric Grill
The top of the electric grill market: a full-size cart grill reaching 700°F on 120 V, with two independent heat zones, two included meat probes and sockets for four, and Wi-Fi control. 330 sq in of primary grate plus a 92 sq in warming rack. It replaces the original Model G alongside the cheaper Model G+, and it is the only electric that matches a gas grill's searing temperature.
Weber
Weber Spirit E-310
The Weber Spirit E-310 is a compact 3-burner propane gas grill and one of the best-selling backyard grills in America. The latest redesign adds Snap-Jet ignition and a more modern cart.