Char-Broil SmartChef Smoker

Pain in the butt. Smoker is awesome...app sucks. Constantly gets stuck in preheat...can not by-pass preheat and go straight to smoke. App constantly freezes. Never know how truly long your food has been at temp. Has already messed up one load of salmon and one brisket. App tries to get to fancy.

The app is only partly functional. I've been using using it for about 2 weeks. The set up was fine, and connectivity is not an issue for me. But there is no History of my past cooking or ability to add any favorites. Just finished cooking a trial 4 lb beef brisket. Good thing that I had an idea when it was supposed to finish as the app forgot to remind me that the cooking is done. The cooker automatically went into green start menu on the cooker and the app showed the initial ready to cook /add chips option. The dado button is light up on the cooker and the cooker was always online in the app. I contacted Charbroil and they told me to reinstall the app, which I did and still it is the same as before, no past history... I hope they are working on the next app update. Charbroil if you are listening, here are some suggestions : 1. Give us the option to see a live preview of the temperature of the cooker and the meat probe at all times in the main dashboard. 2. Give us the ability to add or import new recipes. 3. Give an option for live chat from the app. 4. Please give us the history of our past cooks and an easy way to add recipes to our favorites. 5. Streamline the app interface so that we get options to do guided cooks, probe based cooks and timer based cooks in the main menu. 6. Give us the option to bypass the chip burn option as well as pause and resume cooking.

This is the most difficult app I have ever seen. The Wi-Fi range is in feet, get too far away and you must reconfigure the whole thing. It requires constant attention or it will stop. What is wrong with buttons and temp readout on the cabinet? Smartchef makes it almost impossible to monitor temp and time. Very poor engineering.

App is pretty generic and lacks functions. Was a major pita to setup. Selecting your food in app, it's lacking choices, and left using manual mode. App needs to be reworked badly

The smoker itself is fine except for the APP sucks! It is extremely difficult to get it to connect, even when the signal is strong. The wi-fi and APP issues make it almost impossible to use exceot for the pre-set modes.

Worked great first time second time can't get to work . No good way to do manual cook without presets if you can't get WiFi Workin. Basically a paper weight. On Thanksgiving of all times to stop working. What a POS.

Have used several times. Takes a little getting used to, but works great! Last used with 16 lbs. Of Boston butt. AWSOME! 12 hours of almost effortless cooking.

This is the worse app i have ever seen I can't even sync the dam thing with all the potential to having it I was totally let down and I will never buy another one ever nor will I ever let a family or friend get it. Plus they have not even tried to fix this problem what a waste.

This app is garbage. It constantly fails to even login even though I am using the right username and password it just keeps giving login attempt failed which is different then wrong password since it will tell you it's the wrong password

Why haven't any issues with this app been addressed? I have yet to be able to use the app with the smoker.. This is a selling point for this smoker.

Absolutly the worst app. It's unreliable when you need it and signing in to your account is a nightmare. I will not by another product that involves this company

It's clear this app was written without much thought, attention to security or any sort of programming capability. It has direct connect wifi but you can't use that to connect to the smoker. You have to buy a router with wifi and set it up so the smoker can connect to the router and then you can connect to it. I mean idiots might connect this to the internet but I don't want another virus infested iot device on my network. But then since it automatically connects and disconnects the wireless for you (not that it has to because it gives you the option to connect to the smoker yourself) the router must be the only wireless network you have saved and it must be broadcasting. Then it scans. I just went to all the effort to set up the router why can't I just specify the ip address. And then of course it doesn't work, it requires internet. Does it really? No. In the ens it seems like this product was developed solely to display single color pixelations of animals, as if the other 99% of food products are unacceptable for smoking. Had to return it.

Never could get this paired up and when I was finally able to talk with customer support,the thing stopped working.

Why cant i do anything in the middle of a cook? I cant raise or lower the temp. I cant add a chip burn. Listen, if you must make it so that there are no controls on the cooker itself, at least give me the ability to control it through the app! I want to cook around 225 for the majority of my cooks and be able to jump it to 250 if it needs to hurry i guess ill just stay up all night with this prime rib while my family goes and gets taco bell for dinner right on thanks????

cooked 2 meals, Boston butt and then chicken drum sticks and thighs both turned out great love this thing i will stert some new recipes on my own now and post them.

Doesn't work. Can't even pair to my smoker. Says I'm not connected to it when I am

I received this smoker for Christmas, and, as others had stated, it had problems getting connected to WIFI and staying connected. I spent many hours trying to get this set up. Long story short, it is working now, and it is a GREAT smoker--although this is my first smoker, so I have nothing to compare it to. For those of you who are having trouble, I will tell you what seemed to help me. o First of all be sure that you are close enough to your router, or an extender. (within about 10 feet) o Also, be sure that you are on a 2.4 Gz network while setting this up--it will not connect to a 5 GZ network. o Be sure that you turn off Bluetooth when you are installing AND USING the app. I think this was the key for me. Apparently, during one of the Firmware "updates" for the phone, things changed. You didn't used to have to do this, but now you do. o If you have an I-phone you also need to turn off Wi-fi assist or assistant for first time set up o On Samsung galaxy phones you will need to turn off Smart Switch or network switch for first time setup.

Honestly, the app is not bad at all, in my experience, as long as you have a consistent Wi-Fi connection to your smoker. If you have that, and a good data connection to your phone, you should be golden!

App is garbage. If you loose Internet connection there no way to get it back without starting over on cooking. That means 1 hour of chip burn all over again.

This app and the electric smoker are like a Crock-Pot for smoking. Just stab the food set temps and your phone calls you when it's done.

The never lets you get started! Most frustrating thing ever!

Worst f*!g thing ever. Received this smoker as a gift. What a nightmare! So much for K.I.S.S.

WiFi does not connect. Useless as a standalone smoker!!!!

App doesn't not up date with new items... tried cooking a ham and there was no info for it so I didn't kn ow how long to cook it. Love the unit but HATE THE APP

App doesn't work, will be getting my money back on this device

Super easy to set up, firmware update went smoothly. No complaints.

Why do i have to log in with yet another password to use it? I wouldn't have bought it if i knew that. Fix it so i can just turn it on and use it please.

Not enought info. Need to show actual temperature. Also indication if the smoker is on. Also what is the point of wifi control if you still have to press the start button.

There needs to be more of a variety of foods or the ability to add them for next time such as chicken thighs,Brest, hamburgers,etc.

Doesn't work very well

Nice App but it should be easier to change settings like change the temps with out having to restart a cook cycle.

Dont ever buy this product unless you need something for target practice

The taste of our brisket are so delish

Eazy to use you can't be on 5g wifi for people having trouble getting started

The app sucks!!!

Will not update

Works great after initial firmware update. Cooks great.

Easy to use after pairing like the simplicity of this

Works well

I have been trying for a year to get this app to work with my smoker. Even with this firmware fix, it won't let me finish configuring the Wi-Fi. The smoker itself is great, but we spent the extra money to be able to have this technology. What a waste.