Woodflame grill, highly recommended - Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals)

Woodflame grill, highly recommended Jason 07 Jul 2006

33 comments Latest by Teresa Currey

woodflame grill

I’m always on the lookout for simple products that solve real problems real well. I recently found one in the Woodflame grill.

Grilling is a great way to prepare food. Gas grilling is fast, but some say it lacks flavor. Plus you have to get a gas tank filled up from time to time. Charcoal grilling offers the best flavor, but it’s slow to get started. Sometimes it takes 20-30 minutes+ just to get the fire going. And it uses a lot of resources to produce the fire.

The Woodflame is the best of both words. And the best of other worlds too.

It uses hardwood so you get the flavor of hardwood grilling.
It barely uses any wood — just a couple of small cubes for a full meal.
You can even use branches/twigs from trees as fuel.
It heats fast thanks to its novel battery-powered fan-injected combustion chamber. Full heat in about 2 minutes.
It’s small and portable, yet it can cook a lot of food at once.
You can add liquid to a special chamber to further flavor and steam food.
You can put it on any surface — even right on top of a wood table.
It cools down completely in about 15 minutes.
It’s solid and well designed inside and out.

I’ve been using it for a few weeks now and I can’t find any flaws. It’s really well engineered and thought out. There’s really a lot to love about this grill. Watch the video to really understand how it works. Well done.

33 comments so far (Jump to latest)

Mark 07 Jul 06

A couple of questions, since you’ve actually used it —

How does the flame spread throughout the grill and beyond the center cannister? It’s not apparent in the video or images they provide

The steaks they cook on that video look pretty substantial, but the grill doesnt seem that big — What are the dimensions, and have you cooked a meal for more than yourself on it? If so, how much were you able to pile on the grill?

JF 07 Jul 06

There are flame deflectors below the grill surface that spread the flame.

I don’t have the exact dimensions handy (you can probably find them on their site somewhere), but you can definitely cook for 4 or more at once (of course it depends on what you’re cooking). It’s definitely not marketed as a replacement for your massive Viking grill that can cook like 12 chickens at once, but for most people I’d bet it’s sufficient most of the time.

Phil 07 Jul 06

Have you tried wood pellet grills? These are also pretty neat, and a little more common so you can get different wood pellets from different trees to give varying flavours:

http://www.traegergrills.com/how_it_works.htm

Noah Winecoff 07 Jul 06

No joke…you cannot beat or fake that wood grilled taste. This looks like a great product. Thanks for the referral!

You can use pellets in the Woodflame too. It takes just about any kind of wood fuel that you can fit in the chamber.

Doeke Zanstra 07 Jul 06

It looks great. It reminds me of a can-stove (in make magazine or something). But I watched the video, and it seams a bit noisy…

Kevin 07 Jul 06

Any hints on where to purchase one of these?

Ryan Christensen 07 Jul 06

I’m running into the same problem as Kevin — great looking product, but no purchase information on their site!

Anonymous Coward 07 Jul 06

There’s a yellow link in the lower left corner that says “where to buy.”

Tony 07 Jul 06

This is a nice-looking grill. Given your history of recommending what some might call “premium” products, I was affraid to look at the price on this grill. But, the one site I saw a price on had it at a reasonable-sounding $250.

cj 07 Jul 06

Mark— Grill surface is 207 sq. inches. Just a bit smaller than a Weber charcoal grill.

Cool, thanks CJ.

That nautic kit they offer is pretty cool. More useful, however, would be the backyard kit — for those of us who dont have patio furniture, or anything really practical to set it on.

Eric 07 Jul 06

I have a Weber grill, I use all natural charcoal and a chimney starter. I get my burgers on the grill in about 10 minutes. It is messy though and not portable, this sounds like a great product. Thanks for the link.

brad 07 Jul 06

There are wood-burning camping stoves like this too; I bought a Sierra stove for backpacking about 10 years ago and it performs like a champ. Bringing extra batteries (it runs on one AA battery to power the fan) takes up less space and weight than bringing fuel cans, and the stove can even burn damp wood without a problem.

Thanks for posting this, Jason — I’ve been using a very small Weber grill that uses those little Coleman-style propane cans, and it always feels like a waste to me…you can’t cook much more than one or two meals per can of propane and it’s a drag having to bring all the empty cans to the recycling center every few weeks in summer.

Here’s a link to the Zip Stove that I mentioned above. It really does work for backpacking…I’ve used it on lots of trips.

On the Woodflame grill, do you know how long those batteries last? It uses four D cell batteries…will it take rechargeables?

Sam Barnum 07 Jul 06

Brad, you need to get an adaptor kit for the little Weber, and hook it up to a full-size (or half-size) refillable propane tank. I went through a few of those little canisters then upgraded.

Chris Woods 07 Jul 06

JF,

I think I remember you posting about the Big Green Egg a long time ago. Is this better?

Bert C 07 Jul 06

Jason, how easily does this grill clean up - especially after all the juices flow out of the meat? I’ve found this to be the biggest hassle in BBQing. I’d be impressed if their design made cleaning easier.

Cale 07 Jul 06

Unfortunately you trade refilling gas with replacing batteries. If they could work in a little solar panel to run the fan… that would be perfect.

Dougals 07 Jul 06

@Cale: particularly if it could get it’s solar goodness from the light given off by the flame, and recharge it’s “starter batteries”. Would probably make cleaning harder though.

Douglas

Wayne 07 Jul 06

It’s nice to know where 37s gets some of it inspiration from for it’s post.

Just the other day Mike Davidson posted a very similar article.

http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2006/07/sizing-up-a-grill

Eddie 09 Jul 06

This grill is mentioned in the Aug issue of Men’s Journal as a good “wood burning” grill.

Digger 10 Jul 06

Great! Now where is news of Sunrise?

brad 10 Jul 06

If you have an outdoor wall outlet, you don’t have to use batteries; you can plug the thing right in.

RonaldB 10 Jul 06

I saw something similar on TV a while ago: I was meant as an alternative to a regular open fire. It basically was a self contained wood burning stove (not a grill) with an cleverly designed ventilation system that ensured complete, smokeless combustion.

The air flow was provided by a fan, which was powered by a peltier element, heated by the fire itself (and cooled on the cold side by the air drawn in).

So, a complete system, without the need for batteries, smokeless and highly efficient, powered by burning wood alone.

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Patrick 10 Jul 06

Probably sounds ghetto but when I grill for myself or +1, I light up the chimney starter, throw a grate over it, and grill right on the grate. This thing seems like a chimney starter attached to a larger grill with a fan - perfect!

Phil 12 Jul 06

In response to those looking for a US supplier of Woodflame grills, www.SnappDragon.com carries the full line of Woodflame grills and accessories as well as a variety of hardwood chunks for fuel.

Lucienne Boucher 13 Jul 06

Where can a Woodflame barbecue be purchased in Manitoba?

Teresa Currey 13 Sep 06

Hi all ~ my parents are selling their Woodflame Multi FX wood burning grill. They used to RV quite a bit but have settled down to spend more time with their grandbaby (my son). They have only used the grill once! It has the carrying case, manual, all parts, and wood chips. It is in super-excellent condition. I suggested eBaying it but wanted to put this info on your forum first since it sounds like you all know what a great product it is. If you are interested, you can contact me at [email protected] and I can put you in touch with my parents. They are selling it for $175 plus shipping.

Teresa