Summary
It’s tempting to re-evaluate your outdoor cooking setup when grilling season rolls around each year. I thought I would fall in love with theCurrent Model G Dual Zone Grillwith its convenient electric power. In the end, it performed okay, but I wasn’t blown away like I was expecting to be.
What’s the Current Model G and How Does It Work?
The Current Model G Dual Zone Grill is all-electric, meaning it only needs a 110V wall outlet for power. This is what initially attracted me to it. Using electricity should be much simpler than keeping wood pellets around, monitoring propane, or cleaning up charcoal.
The Model G comes unassembled but with a few hand tools, the process only took me about an hour from start to finish. Since the product needed to be assembled outside, having digital-only instructions was a little annoying, moving between my small phone screen and constantly unlocking it to get back to where I was.
As the name suggests, two zones are present and can be heated independently, either directly from the unit or by using the Wi-Fi connected mobile app. Controlling each side independently was neat, though I didn’t end up needing to take advantage of that capability in practice as often as I would have thought.
I did like the dual temperature probes which could connect on either side and be seen in the app—that was a nice touch.
The Current app (available foriPhoneandAndroid) worked fine but could use a lot of polish. The biggest hindrance it posed on iPhone was needing to log in each time I used it. Thankfully, it didn’t force me to re-pair the grill through Bluetooth each time. That would have been a dealbreaker.
I didn’t mind the app’s minimal approach, but often the sparseness didn’t result in easier-to-find controls, just limited ones. The app lacked substance too, with few recipes and discovery items. Still, I liked being able to control the dual zones with my phone, either locally or remotely.
I’m Not Trading In My Pellet Smoker Just Yet
I cooked the basics on the grill. Burgers and steaks were covered right away. I also tried bacon right on the grates, which worked surprisingly well. The food I cooked didn’t lack flavor and tasted fine, but using electricity to grill felt more sterile and, whether in actuality or perception, the meals often felt lackluster.
I’m not overly in love with the cooking or grilling process, but even I can sometimes feel a connection to the food I’m making. Maybe I needed a longer adjustment period, but I never felt that here.
The grill can reach temperatures of 700F, but even setting it in the 400F to 500F range took longer to reach than I would have liked. The company advertises “as little as 10 minutes” but my experience was closer to 15 minutes, or longer for the higher temps.
While the unit is small enough for an apartment balcony or a condo patio, I thought its 422-inch cooking area was sufficient for a family meal. It might not be ideal for a big party, but I don’t think this is one of its weak points.
I tried the Model G’s Smartclean feature, half expecting some kind of magic experience, but was left more confused than anything. Even now, I’m not quite sure what it was supposed to do because the grill top looked the same after, as it did before.
Before receiving the grill, I was warned that it should use its own outlet with no other major appliances on the circuit. After blowing a fuse I can verify it was a worthy warning. In my instance, this happened when someone plugged in a space heater in a different room while the grill was pre-heating on the patio. So, in turn, this is my warning to you.
Blowing the fuse did cause me to be a little gun-shy about getting back on the horse, but the Model G worked fine in subsequent uses.
Although the grill was easy to assemble, I did notice a few things that concerned me about its long-term durability. At least one plastic clip holding the side panel in place had become detached and wouldn’t stay clipped after about a month. The overall ricketiness of the frame while rolling it on my (relatively flush) backyard pavers gave me pause. The add-on side panels provided a nice storage area, but they didn’t keep wind-blown dirt and drops off rain from getting inside.
Is the Current Model G Dual Zone Grill Worth Spending Money On?
If you’re set on electric grilling, for whatever reason, then don’t let me talk you out of theCurrent Model G Dual Zone Grill. I used it; it worked as advertised. I had no problem with the essentials, like its 12-foot cord length or it holding its temperature. But if you’re trying to decide between this $899 grill and a gas or wood pellet grill, I would advise you to go with one of the latter.
The cooked food tasted fine, good even, but nothing about using this grill elicited excitement about cooking a meal. My default outdoor cooking choice has been to throw nearly everything into a wood pellet smoker. This electric grill wasn’t able to change that.
Current Model G Dual Zone Grill
This grill has a max temperature of 700F for ultimate searing performance. It is ready to cook in as little as 10 minutes and has Wi-Fi connectivity for remote control over its dual zones.
