Here’s How Smart Technology Can Up Your Grilling Game

Smart Grills

A smart grill features Wi-Fi technology that connects to your mobile device to provide step-by-step grilling assistance. No matter what you’re cooking, you can set the smart grill to send you alerts on when to check, when to flip, and when your feast is ready to serve. One person wants their steak medium rare? No problem. Just set the desired “doneness” and wait for the notification. You can also receive digital, real-time food temperature and readiness countdowns on your phone. In addition to ensuring you never over-cook or under-cook food, a smart grill gives you time and peace-of-mind to attend to various hosting tasks such as:

Tidy the yard up to look its best Hang decorations or arrange lighting, music and other party fare
Do non-grill meal prep such as sides and salads
Meet and greet guests as they arrive
Refresh drinks and distribute hors d’oeuvres
Circulate freely and engage in conversations

Wi-Fi Smokers

Wood-fired cooking is also a lot easier with smart technology. As with a smart grill, you just set the control to the temperature you want and let the smart smoker do the rest. The Wi-Fi connection allows you to monitor cooking, adjust grill temperatures, and set timers & alerts right from your mobile device. Given the long smoke times of many foods this is especially helpful. It frees you up to do yard work, event prep, or work on backyard projects without having to continuously check your smoker. Some smart smokers also let you access a huge database of recipes to try out different meals and grill pellet flavours.

Wireless Meat Thermometers

Instead of monitoring your entire grill, a wireless meat probe allows you to measure the temperature of a specific piece of meat while it's cooking. This is a great advantage if you’ve got multiple types of meat and veggies all grilling at the same time. No need to wait around to keep an eye on things either – the smart thermometer connects with an app on your phone to let you know when the desired temperature is reached.

Bluetooth Fire Pits

Ideal for camping or small gatherings, these smart portable grills feature a rechargeable battery and air jet fans that deliver oxygen to the fire for a uniform temperature and reduced smoke. Bluetooth technology lets you control the flame intensity and fan speed with your phone to help ensure a perfectly cooked meal. Again, the time it frees up is a real benefit. In this case you can get your food cooking while setting up camp, preparing side dishes, or starting a campfire.

Thermoelectric Generator Stoves

These unique stoves also feature an onboard battery, but here it’s charged by thermoelectric combustion technology. A thermoelectric generator stove burns twigs, sticks or biofuel pellets for cooking, and also converts this energy for use by the battery. It literally turns fire into electricity. There’s no wireless connection, but the stove includes USB ports to charge devices like phones, laptops and USB flashlights. This is a huge benefit for camping as you won’t have to rely on batteries, car chargers, or sunlight for solar powered equipment.

Other Smart Backyard Entertaining Technologies

Smart Lighting

In addition to indoor use, smart lighting is also an easy way to enhance your outdoor events. String lights and lanterns can be activated from your mobile device when the sun goes down, or dimmed and brightened to set the proper mood. You can also turn on garden lights to showcase trellis or fountains, and pathway markers for safe walking around your property.

Bluetooth Speakers

What’s a backyard party without music? Instead of turning up the volume inside, consider a portable Bluetooth speaker for outdoor use. You can sync it to your smart phone or tablet and stream music from almost anywhere on your property. Added bonus: if it rains you don’t have a whole sound system to tear down, you just bring the wireless speaker inside.

Outdoor Smart Plugs

Outdoor smart plugs allow you to control your outdoor devices with your smartphone from anywhere. Weather resistant for protection against the elements, smart outlets also allow you to schedule on/off settings for various outdoor features, such as landscape lighting and sprinklers.