Camp Chef Woodwind Pro 24 Review

What it is

The Woodwind Pro 24 is Camp Chef’s current 24-inch flagship and the model that succeeded the discontinued SmokePro SG 24. It carries 811 square inches of cooking area, a 22 lb hopper with a level window, a Gen 2 PID controller with Camp Chef Connect WiFi and a 160–500°F range, and three features that define it: a Smoke Box that burns wood chunks, chips or charcoal alongside the pellets, a Slide and Grilllever for direct-flame searing, and Camp Chef’s patented ash-cleanout cup. Camp Chef’s reputation is for practical engineering rather than flash, and this is the grill that shows it.

The Smoke Box: what the “Pro” buys

The single thing that separates the Pro from every other pellet grill on our shortlist is the Smoke Box. Pellet grills are routinely accused of producing thin smoke, and the accusation is fair: a small, efficient pellet fire burns clean, and clean fires make less of the flavor people actually want. The Smoke Box lets you load wood chunks, chips or lump charcoal into a separate compartment so the grill burns real wood alongside the pellets — on top of the PID-controlled fire rather than instead of it. You keep set-and-forget temperature control and add the smoke an offset smoker is bought for. It is also one more thing to load and clean out, which is the honest trade.

The ash cleanout: still its best everyday feature

Ash management is the chore that quietly decides how often you actually fire up a pellet grill, and Camp Chef still solves it better than anything else in the category. The patented ash-cleanout cuplets you pull a knob and dump the firepot ash into a removable cup in seconds — no shop-vac, no reaching into the barrel, no mess. On most pellet grills, ash cleanout is a periodic job you put off; here it is a five-second habit. For a frequent cook that convenience is worth real money, and it is the reason this is our cleanup pick in the best pellet grills roundup.

Controller, WiFi and searing

The Gen 2 PID controlleris among the more refined in the category, holding a tight low-and-slow line across a 160–500°F range, and WiFi is included rather than sold as a step-up trim, so you can monitor and adjust from your phone. Slide and Grilladdresses the pellet grill’s other standing weakness — searing — by pulling the internal heat diffuser back to expose food directly over the firepot, for direct-flame grilling up to 650°F. That is genuine sear heat, though it sits below the roughly 1,000°F the Pit Boss Flame Broilerreaches. So the Woodwind Pro both smokes low with a polished controller and sears hot, which is more than a plain 500°F pellet grill can do.

Where it falls short

Two honest points. First, price: this sits at the top of our pellet shortlist, above the mainstream Traegers, so it is not a value play — you are paying for the Smoke Box, the cleanup system, the searing and the refined controller. If maximum cooking area per dollar is the goal, a Z Grills gives you more grate for far less. Second, complexity: the Smoke Box is a second fuel system to fill, manage and empty, and if you were only ever going to set 225°F and walk away, you will have paid for a feature you never use. Neither is a flaw so much as a trade — this grill spends its budget on capability and convenience rather than on price.

Who should buy it

Buy the Camp Chef Woodwind Pro 24 if you cook often, want the steadiest controller and the ability to both sear and add real wood smoke, and you would pay a premium to never fight ash again. If you want a similar sear plus a bigger hopper for less money, weigh the Pit Boss Navigator 850; if you want the biggest ecosystem and app, look at a Traeger; and if maximum value is the goal, the Z Grillsundercuts it heavily. If your budget stops at a grand, this one is above it — start with the best pellet grills under $1,000 instead.