Char-Broil SmartChef Smoker 4+

If I could give this app 0 stars I would.

Tried to smoke some ribs for my dad for Father’s Day with this smoker. Downloaded the app and followed the instructions to connect it to WiFi. The smoker appeared connected but the app wouldn’t do anything and stayed on the Setup Appliance/Help page. The Dado button stayed lit (without blinking) so the smoker appeared to be working fine but the app was not.

I read the entire manual, rebooted the smoker, rebooted our router, deleted and reinstalled the app, refreshed the pages, watched instructional videos. No luck. So, I contacted customer service via chat since email takes 4 business days and when I called their support number it said they were closed. Luckily the chat support (which isn’t available on mobile, only desktop) is available 24/7. Talked to someone from their support team who informed me that they were having problems with the Dado network and there was nothing they could do. He also said that there is no way to use the smoker without the app.

What a waste of time! Do NOT buy this smoker. I consider myself someone who knows a fair amount about technology and typically do not have problems with things like this. This app and smoker (plus their website) were the most frustrating user experience I have ever dealt with. Char-Broil successfully ruined my Father’s Day plans for my dad. Thanks a lot.

This version of the app, which replaced Smoker 15, brought serious flaws that have made the smoker unreliable. The old version was limited and not very intuitive. This version is mostly the same limited, unintuitive design with the added bonus of making the smoker frequently fail to fully cook/smoke food as programmed.

Food frequently gets within 15-20 degrees of cooked when the smoker stops heating causing the food to cool before finished. Nothing corrects this problem: reprogramming, restarting, etc. when it’s done functioning properly it quits heating. What makes it more difficult to identify when it’s decided to randomly stop is the app continues showing cool temp and setting correctly - only food temp starts dropping.

The smoker functioned fine until the old app was replaced with this app. Now, I have a garbage app and useless smoker.

I have the WiFi smart smoker This smoker has been nothing but problems. Update issues, connection issues, won’t smoke in manual mode without app. This smoker actually detours me from smoking. Every time I use it, I am reminded of why I dislike this thing so much. I’m trying to smoke chicken today and the thing won’t even heat up. The app doesn’t tell me the temp inside because the probe is hooked up. Then once you think it is working. Then wonder why the numbers are not changing in the app. Well it’s frozen. The smoker is not hot and you just wasted 20 or 30 min. You restart the app and have to reset everything. Super annoying. Saving up to get a real smoker with apps that work