Camp Chef vs Z Grills

The short version

Both are capable PID pellet grillsthat hold a steady low temperature for hands-off smoking — but they’re built for different owners. The Camp Chef Woodwind Pro 24 is the enthusiast’s grill: a patented ash-cleanout system, Camp Chef Connect WiFi, a Gen 2 PID controller, and a slide-and-grill door that sears over open flame. The Z Grills 700D is the value champion: 697 sq in and a 20 lb hopper for hundreds less, a steady PID fire, and none of the extras. This isn’t a good-versus-bad matchup — it’s a question of whether you’ll use (and pay for) the Camp Chef’s features, or would rather bank the money and run a simpler grill.

Ash cleanout

This is the Camp Chef’s signature and the clearest gap between the two. Every pellet grill leaves a firepot full of ash that has to come out, and on most grills — the Z Grills included — that means reaching in with a shop-vac or a brush between cooks. The Camp Chef Woodwind Pro 24 has a patented ash-cleanout cup: pull a lever and the ash drops into a cup you empty in seconds, no vacuum, no reaching into the firepot. It’s the best cleanup system in the category, and it’s the reason the Woodwind Pro 24 is the pick for someone who actually cooks often. Ash management is the quiet chore that decides how often you fire a pellet grill up; making it a five-second lever pull instead of a shop-vac session is a bigger day-to-day difference than the spec sheet suggests. The Z Grills cleans up the ordinary way — not hard, just not effortless.

WiFi and control

Both run PID controllers — the algorithm that reads the chamber many times a minute and trickles pellets in to hold a set temperature within a tight band — so raw temperature stability is a wash, and both smoke cleanly. The difference is connectivity. The Camp Chef pairs a Gen 2 PID controller with Camp Chef Connect WiFi, so you set and change temperatures and get alerts from your phone. The Z Grills 700D at this trim is dial-only — no app; you set the temperature on the front and let a probe thermometerwatch the meat. Neither approach cooks better than the other; the question is simply whether you want to run the cook from your phone. If phone control is a must-have, that alone points to the Camp Chef. If you’re happy with a dial and a probe, the Z Grills gives up nothing that changes the food.

Searing

The Camp Chef can sear; the Z Grills can’t. The Woodwind Pro 24’s Slide and Grill door opens direct flame under the grate for a real crust, letting one grill smoke low-and-slow and then finish a steak with high heat — the same problem the Pit Boss Flame Broiler solvesin a different mechanism. The Z Grills 700D tops out at 450°F, which roasts a steak but won’t build a hard, dark crust; it has no direct-flame hatch. If you want a single pellet grill that both smokes and sears, this is a decisive point for the Camp Chef. If you only ever smoke — or you own a separate grill for searing — it’s a feature you’d be paying for and not using.

Cooking area and hopper

The Camp Chef wins both. It gives you more grate — 811 sq in against the Z Grills’ 697 sq in, enough to cook for a bigger group — and it now carries the larger hopper too: 22 lbagainst the Z Grills’ 20 lb, so it also edges the 700D on unattended runtime, the thing hopper size actually measures. Neither hopper is the biggest at this price (that’s the 30 lb Pit Boss Navigator 850 in the under-$1,000 roundup), and both handle a normal all-day cook. Call the capacity round to the Camp Chef, but not by enough to decide a purchase on its own.

Price and value

This is where the Z Grills makes its whole case. It delivers the most cooking area per dollarin pellet — a steady PID fire and real capacity for hundreds less than a feature-loaded grill. The Camp Chef sits at the top of our pellet shortlist on price, above the mainstream Traegers, and you’re paying that premium for the ash cup, the WiFi, the searing door and the Smoke Box. So the value math is clean: if you’ll genuinely use those features, the Camp Chef earns its money; if you won’t, the Z Grills does the core job — holding a clean low temperature for hours — for markedly less. The Z Grills also runs a smaller support-and-parts network than the bigger brands, which is the other side of its low price; the Camp Chef sits closer to the mainstream on support.

Which should you buy?

Buy the Camp Chef Woodwind Pro 24if you cook often and want the grill to make it easy: the best ash cleanout in the category, WiFi control, a Slide and Grill door that sears, and a Smoke Box that burns wood chunks for real wood flavor — a features grill for the frequent, hands-on cook. Buy the Z Grills 700Dif value is the priority: you want the most steady-PID cooking area for the least money, you’re happy with a dial and a probe thermometer, and you don’t need an ash cup or a sear hatch. If the searing door is what’s pulling you toward the Camp Chef, compare it against the Pit Boss’s Flame Broiler in Pit Boss vs Camp Chef first. Either way, see the Z Grills ranked against the field in best pellet grills under $1,000.