The Zelos-450 Pellet Grill has features missing in grills that triple its price

Grills you don’t need AI, but you may need an AI grill. When it debuted at CES early this year, the Brisk It Zelos-450 was advertised as “the first grill with generative AI.” This AI comes in the form of “Vera,” an in-app feature that “creates custom recipes based on your input” and then adjusts the grill temperature to cook them.

the Technical press With enthusiasm I reported on the device early this year. I was less optimistic, which is why it took me the better part of a year to finally free the grill from its decaying cardboard box — which I finally did last week. Artificial intelligence is Notorious in recipes (Unless you’re a fan of pizza glue), and who needs a recipe for a burger or steak? Since a grill can’t actually stop cooking and pull meat off the grates, what’s the real difference between a reliable AI voice telling you your food is done and a temperature alert from a probe? However, Zelos is a great buy, especially when it’s under $300 during the end-of-season sale. This Wi-Fi-enabled pellet grill has a great design and features you won’t find in grills twice its price or more.

I only used the Vera AI feature briefly, which I found to be unhelpful. When I asked him to give me a recipe for “coffee rubbed ribs with tequila sauce,” he simply added coffee to the standard rib rub recipe, then added tequila to the standard barbecue sauce, in equal proportion with ketchup. (I didn’t make this recipe, but it looks like it contains a lot of tequila.) When I used the photo-based personal recipe recommendation tool to give me a recipe with a photo of ground beef, dill pickles, mustard, and eggs, Vera informed me that “the content of the photo has nothing to do with cooking on a wood grill.” Duh. However, the grill doesn’t need AI to be a winner.

If I was looking to get a great Black Friday deal on a pellet smoker or small backyard grill, the Zelos-450 would be my choice. Here’s why:

It is well packed and easy to assemble. Take it from someone who tested six grills for WIRED — many of which are difficult-to-assemble beasts that come with more than 100 screws and confusing instructions. I lost an entire Saturday assembling the grill, which is a big part of the reason why this grill stayed in the box it came in for about eight months. The ease of assembly was a pleasant surprise. Each part of the Zelos was clearly labeled, and the instructions were clear. It went from box to burn in 90 minutes, and could have been done in less than an hour with a little more diligence.

It’s very elegant (for BBQ). Fast does not put second or Bedouin Out of work, but I challenge you to find a grill that looks this good at this price — especially a full-featured smart grill. It has a simple design with clean lines and some appropriate stainless steel embellishments. The pellet hopper, grease trap and wheels work as expected. There is only one control knob, which does everything you need it to do.

It has a powerful and effective application. Grill control apps tend to exist on a spectrum between frustratingly glitchy and completely unusable. The Brisk It app is very simple, completely intuitive, and has worked flawlessly on every occasion I’ve used it. To automatically light the grill, swipe a bar on the app to the right. You’re warned to only do this while standing next to the grill, but I decided to take a big risk for science and fire up the grill from my bed, as I would have done if I were waking up before dawn to smoke two racks of cigarettes. 3-2-1 ribs To be introduced at the start of the noon football game. You can adjust the grill’s temperature and connect a probe to get alerts when whatever you’re cooking reaches the desired internal temperature. When it’s time to turn off the grill, simply move the same bar to the left and wait 20 minutes for the fire to die down. These are features not found in more expensive grills — the MasterBuilt Gravity 1150 Series, which we call a budget pick, is actually almost four times the price and doesn’t have an automatic ignition. You can use any type of wood pellets in a 12-pound hopper.

There are some negatives:

This grill is on the small side. When it comes to two racks of ribs, that’s all the room you have. The marketing copy advertises room for 15 burgers, but I’ll comfortably cook six burgers, maybe eight, but never 10. You can prepare dinner for a family of four on this grill, but you won’t prepare a whole brisket for a party.