Weber announced it is adding new smart grills to its Genesis and Spirit lines of gas grills. The new smart grills feature the Weber Connect technology, which is powered by the June OS, and will provide precision and guided cooking to backyard barbecuers.
The new line of Weber smart grills feature WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, temperature probes and a built-in LED display. Using either the accompanying mobile app or the LED display, grillers can monitor the temperature of the grill as well as the doneness of what’s being grilled. The app will also alert grillers when it’s time to flip and serve their food.
What the grill won’t do, however, is automate your grilling. So, unlike a June oven, which automatically changes the type of heat (bake, broil, etc.) and temperature to cook your food, the Weber smart grill requires manual temperature controls. This is a bit of a bummer, but probably understandable given that the grill would have to regulate the flow of gas rather than electric current to adjust temperatures.
Today’s announcement comes a little less than a month after Weber acquired smart oven maker, June. June’s technology was used in the SmokeFire wood pellet grill back in 2019, and and two developed the Connect Hub, a small device that added smart cooking features to conventional grills.
Innovation in the outdoor grill space has certainly, errr, heated up over the past few years. Traeger has its own line of connected smart pellet smokers, German brand, Otto has a line of connected and modular grill components, and Spark launched its line of precision charcoal grills.
The new smart grills from Weber are all listed as “Coming Soon” on the company’s website. Prices range anywhere from $799 to $1,299.
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