Char-Broil SmartChef Smoker
Live it up with the Char-Broil App. Now you can enjoy your family and friends while your Char-Broil grilling and smoking products are handled from your smartphone.
The Char-Broil app features Smart Chef technologies that let you pick the level of interaction you have with your connected device. Whether you're an expert pit master or a novice griller, the Char-Broil app has the tools you need to prepare a delicious meal. Now you can mix with your guests, play with your kids, or hang out with your friends without being tied to your grill. The Char-Broil app was designed to provide you with the tools that you need without cluttering your experience with tools you don't want.
Discover new recipes and expert tricks for a perfect cook every time. The Char-Broil app can guide your meal every step of the way, or step into the background and only notify you when your food is almost done. The Char-Broil app takes your preferences into account and puts you in control of your connected experience.
The Char-Broil app lets you connect to your Smart Chef Char-Broil products
- like the Simple Smoker and Digital Electric Smoker
- and cook meals using a set of on-board tools. You can choose between a step-by-step, guided cook that automatically sets up recipes and cooking cycles, or you can manually set the temps and timers to your own liking.
The Char-Broil Simple Smoker and Digital Electric Smoker are available now!
Live it up!
Category : Lifestyle
Reviews (28)
I work in IT and it was a 100% pain. First I was having problems with the DADO network. Found that turning the Bluetooth off on my phone helped decrease interference. Then, the smoker could not find my home network. I have a dual band (2.4 and 5ghz) wireless mesh system. So it kept saying offline. Finally, after a number of hours, I got out of bed to try again because it was bothering me. FINALLY got it working. Once it works, it's amazing. 100% make sure it's pointed at your router!
Difficult to connect; difficult to keep connected. Very frustrating. Have had to get in up in the middle of the night to see if the smoker was still on and working (it was not!) because it disconnected from my phone. I have been able to get it to work, but by sheer force of my stubborn will. The connection with the phone is unreliable, which is not a good thing when you´re cooking $$$ cuts of meat!! If I leave the back door open and the smoker right outside it (TRIP HAZARD), it will *sometimes* maintain a connection. When it does work, the meat comes out soooooo good. Thatś the only reason I haven´t given up on it. But seriously, a major fail on the manufacturer´s part to not put in hardware that would work at a distance from a router (because obviously you will run this on the outside of your house, to say the least.
I have an Android , Samsung Galaxy S9. I had no problems at all setting up the app and using the grill for the first time. I made sure the smoker was as close to router as possible and facing the direction of it. I agree the app could be a bit more user friendly, but I got it done. I had my blue-tooth on at first while trying to connect. I think that interfered with it. Once I turned that off, it worked fine. Once it was connected and working I used my blue-tooth and it didn't shut it down. First time use was a success!! Smoked country style pork ribs. Delicious flavor using mesquite wood chips.
June 2019. Well, it was difficult to link up initially. Called help desk, they squared me away. By about the 4th, 5th time, it became impossible to link up. I agree with others now.... it is terrible. Though others choose more colorful language to describe its POOR usuability. I'll just say it is really disappointing. July 20, 2020. Looks like they have fixed theses issues. I have used the smoker at least 5 times this summer and the software and device have performed flawlessly. Nice Job.
You have to disable bluetooth to update the firmware. When using the app its probably best to disable bluetooth. The Dado button should be flashing so you can connect. If it doesn't, hold the Dado button for 10 sec. If you need to reset the device hold the start button for 10 seconds. The most important thing is to have good wifi connection. Move the smoker closer to the router or in a different area that has good wifi connection. Problem solved. Smokeified Certified!!
The app constantly states that my smoker is offline. I can only use my smoker in one of the 3 preset modes since it won't connect. While it's cooking in the preset mode, the app sends notifications (smoker online, add food, etc) so I open the app and my smoker is still "offline" so I can't set time/temperature but if I tap cancel in the app, it turns off the heating element. So which is it? Can I control it through the app or not?!? Wish I would have spent less and bought a smoker with physical controls.
If you're reading this, set this smoker RIGHT IN FRONT of your router for initial set up, then you can move it outside (as long as it's not too far, or get a wifi extender if needed). Mine works perfectly once I figured out how to configure it. 4 stars because it's a headache, but once it's working, it's great!
Bought used. App is tricky. Had to disconnect main house wifi feed to try and reset. Eventually figured out how to do hard reset. Hold center of main power button up to 10 seconds. Tried connecting app multiple times. Very frustrating. Finally brought inside directly facing wireless router....it was only 15ft originally away just outside. Did hard reset. And for password settings I had to change connecting settings from auto to wap password setting. That all seemed to finally work...bahhh
Very frustrating. It only connects to 2.4ghz wifi and if using wifi extension nodes you may not be able to manually change to 2.4ghz from 5ghz. The bottom line is the app is great in theory, but use of the smoker should not be wholly dependant on it. One should be able to manually operate the smoker should the app fail to properly execute, no matter the reason.
This app is terrible. Even once you do finally get it connected to your network it half the time never shows connected in the app. Also constantly disconnects even though I have a wireless repeater right next to it. Basically have to use the preset buttons on the smoker to use it.
We Live In The Future! No doubt this app could be simpler and better set up, especially for such a large company. 2nd, i was extremely disapointed with the 6 or so meat only presets. But let's focus on the fact that i can control a smoker with my friggin' phone and the whole time it tells me the internal temp of my food and will automatically turn off! We live in the Future People, Rejoice with tasty smoked meat, cheese, and veggies! My Life is noticeably better because of this app!
terrible app. i upgraded the wifi and needed to change settings. i tried my phone, my wife's and and my son's and all wouldn't show that i was connected to the smoker wife (dado). i then had my daughter download it through her iPhone and it updated the wifi settings in just a few seconds, effortlessly. the Android version of this app is complete garbage.
Meh, the app doesn't begin to tap the potential of the smoker. The lowest cook temp that can be set is 125F and the next lowest is 175F - should be able to dial in 1degree increments from ambient to 525F. Like many appliances, the app doesn't show current smoker temperature, only set point. The smoker itself is great, a completely new device compared to typical cabinet smokers with bottom heat.
Absolutely useless unable to get it to connect to my wifi goes through the whole process and puts me back at the start appliance setup screen after attempting to scan for it.
it is a great concept and would be awesome if it would work I bought mine for $86 not believing that it was that cheap until I got it home and found out that it's just won't link up with the phone won't link up with the internet and when it does it doesn't work or when it does it just stops... now I know why it is only $80 now I am taking it back like I said great concept. char broil if you look at these comments at all I don't understand why you just did not make it Bluetooth Bluetooth is easy.
Absolute garbage. Server connection errors every time I want to smoke something. And three mystery setting, no way to control the temp or time without the crappy app that doesn't work half the time. I will never buy anything CharBroil again. Complete disappointment.
kinda frustrating, the smoker wasn't connecting using my Samsung note8. I was able to download the app on a Samsung S6 active and the smoker connect to my home network right away. The app on the note8 started working after that and the smoker works good. the app also did a firmware update.
Junk. I was able connect the smoker and app once. The firmware upgrade failed. Tried on my wife's phone. Get message from app that username and password do not match. Planning to repack the smoker and return to menards. Overall experience was bad.
The app and the smoker are garbage. The smoker doesn't stay connected for any amount of time. Why wasn't a readout put on the smoker instead of everything through an app you can never use because it won't stay connected to wifi. Waste of money. DO NOT BUY THIS SMOKER!!!
App works great 90% of the time. Sometimes has connection errors.....but could be a wifi issie and not the app. I do know my 3 year old smoker only works on 2g wifi and will not connect to 5g networks. But once up n running the app is reliable and easy to use.
I connected to DADO in wifi. When connecting in app it says not conected to DADO. Wifi says it is. Cannot get in to set up wifi. Something wrong with app. Will have to use it as an overpriced manual smoker using preset button on front. App is useless.
I bought a used smoker with smart chef and it wouldn't work properly and connect to my wifi. So I called support and they walked me through resetting the smoker to work on my wifi as the smoker can only store the information to connect to one wifi network. After that it worked flawlessly. It's very easy to use and has presets for the most popular meats to smoke and you can keep an eye on your food in the app from anywhere I'm really not sure why their smart chef stuff gets so much hate
App was horrible. Hardly stayed Connected to smoker, very limited options, not intuitive. Requires an account to connect to the internet and then still requires you to be on the same network to work.
Ruined thanksgiving. I have 183mbps internet and the app still says check your internet, it started out fine and then just completly stopped mongering my turkey around 10:30 and now the p.o.s wont even sync properly just says "smart chef had stopped working". Highly upset. Would give a 1 star but it didnt work before.
it is a little complicated to initially deploy. But it does work and works as intended. There is also a manual mode you can use if WiFi is unavailable. I love this smoker because I don't have the luxury of watching and maintaining temperatures with wood or charcoal all day.
Absolute garbage app. I am very computer savvy and the amount of trickery I had to perform to get this thing to work is insane. It still doesn't work as intended, but I can manage to make it limp through. Will be buying a different brand when the opportunity arises. Only reason I took a chance on this smoker is because my Lowe's had it marked down from $400 to $100. The reason why is obvious.
App/smoker works ok. Pain to get it connected. I'd really like the option to start the smoker at a certain temp without it connected to wifi. As it is I cant take it anywhere else to use it.
Read what others have to say. Exactly that. I have wireless cameras, repeaters, etc etc and can't seem to get this app to be stable. Used it twice and after the update it won't work at all, same connectivity issues as everyone else. If you choose one of the manual modes you might (as I do) receive notification that the chips are going and then a notification to press start and add food. You can see the temp and stage in the background of the "OFFLINE" screen.