My Honest Z Grills Review: Is It Worth The Hype?
Are you curious what smoker Midwest Foodie uses? Spoiler alert, it’s the Z Grills-700D3 Wood Pellet Smoker! Here’s my honest Z Grills Review!
Smokers used to be reserved for those hardcore barbecue fanatics – but not anymore! These days, there are tons of wood pellet grills on the market that are meant for home cooks like you and me! The hardest part is figuring out which one will fit your needs best without breaking the bank.
You want something that is easy to assemble and simple to use that adds great flavor to your food and doesn’t take hours to clean. If you’re new to smoking (like I was) I highly recommend checking out the collection that Z Grills has to offer! Their products have features that are competitive with other brands in the wood pellet grill space, but their prices are significantly lower.
The Z Grills-700D3 Wood Pellet Smoker has been the perfect addition to our backyard patio set up and I can’t wait to break down all the specs so you can decide if it’s the right grill for you, too!
Full disclosure – Z Grills gifted me this wood pellet grill. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Table of Contents
show
What is a Z Grill
- The Z Grill is a high-quality wood pellet fueled 8-in-1 grill that utilizes hardwood pellets and advanced technology to burn cleaner, maintain a steady temperature, and infuse everything you grill with a wood-smoked flavor. With this grill you can smoke, grill, sear, roast, braise, bake, barbecue, and char-grill.
- The Z Grill is heavy-duty and meant to last, but more than that, Z Grills is determined to make wood pellet grills user-friendly and affordable! They’ve been in the game for nearly 30 years, so they really know what they’re doing.
- All their grills are also backed by a 3-year warranty so you can have peace of mind when it comes to investing in this outdoor kitchen equipment.
Assembly
- The Z Grill 700D3 comes partially flat-packed, with the cooking chamber and hopper components already fully assembled which was really nice.
- Z Grills provides detailed written assembly instructions and a video that walks you through the entire process.
- It doesn’t require any major or unusual tools, so the whole thing comes together pretty easily (in about an hour).
- We did find it helpful to have 2 people when putting it together. I do think it’s possible to do it by yourself, but it’s always easier with someone else!
- The grill cart is on wheels too which makes it super easy to move around.
How it Works
- The Z Grill circulates the heat with a forced-convection system. Once the pellets are loaded into the hopper, they are moved by an auger to the fire and ignited.
- The temperature controls allow the user to set a temp that is maintained as the heat is circulated throughout the cooking chamber. The temperature range spans 180-350 degrees. It also has a smoke setting that usually cooks around 175 degrees and a high setting that cooks up to 450 degrees.
- The smoke setting is a great way to infuse a ton of smoke flavor into your food right away. I also like to preheat the grill on the smoke setting.
- There are two cooking grates. One smaller upper grate for keeping foods warm and one larger rack on the bottom for direct grilling/cooking.
What to Cook
- Honestly, everything! You will be shocked by all the foods that you can smoke on this wood pellet grill! It’s perfect for burgers, chicken, steaks, veggies, and more.
- Some of our family’s favorite recipes that we’ve made on the smoker include:
Size
- As one of the larger models, the Z Grill 700D3 is about 51” high, 48” long, and 22” wide. The hopper capacity is 20 lbs. of wood pellets.
- Between the warming rack and the bottom rack, which includes 697 square inches of cooking space, the 700D3 boasts that it can cook 29 burgers, 6 racks of ribs, or 5 whole chickens at one time.
- However, Z Grills makes a variety of grills that vary in size so there is bound to be one that fits your space and needs. And because they don’t need to reserve space for a propane tank, there is extra storage below!
Temperature Control
- Z Grills is proud of the set-and-leave ability of their grills with PID temperature control.
- The Z Grill 700D3 has this feature, so you can choose a temp and know that the grill’s convection heat distribution will maintain that set temperature throughout cooking.
- This precise temperature control is a huge advantage over standard grills and with the easy-to-read display, you can tell what temp the grill is cooking at with just a glance.
Ease of Use
- The Z Grill 700D3 is a fairly straightforward grill/smoker that is super easy to use, even for a newbie. Simply pour the pellets into the hopper, set the temperature, and add whatever you’d like to cook!
- As someone who is relatively new to grilling and smoking, I’ll admit I was intimidated. However, I was pleasantly surprised at just how easy it is to use this wood pellet grill.
Storage and Prep Space
- As I mentioned earlier in this Z Grills review, the Z Grill 700D3 has cabinet space in the base of the grill where the propane tank of a traditional grill would normally be. This is a great spot to store your disposable aluminum pans, extra wood pellets, grill brush, and other cooking tools.
- For this particular grill model, there is no prep space or counter-type area. However, other Z Grills models do have this option and you can also purchase a front shelf accessory to put on your 700D3.
- Personally, I do most of my prepping inside so I’m not too worried about there not being a ton of prep space included on the grill. I do use the pellet hopper lid as kind of a side shelf to hold any utensils or spices that I might need quickly which is nice.
Price
- If you’re comparing pellet grills, you’ll find that Z Grills are considerably less expensive than their competitors. You’ve probably heard of a Traeger grill and might even be considering getting one but I’d recommend doing a little comparison research before you shell out the big bucks. Z Grills offer many of the same features as Traeger grills – like PID controller and WiFi – but at a considerably lower price point.
- Compared to the average, higher quality propane grill on the market, the Z Grill 700D3, as well as the other Z Grill options, are fairly similar in price, and in many cases actually less expensive. For the quality and versatility of the Z Grill, it is definitely worth the few extra dollars you might spend.
Cleaning
- As far as cleaning, there is nothing special needed for the Z Grill. I like to use this simple grill brush before and after each smoking session. If things get a little extra dirty, I’ll just use hot, soapy water and a cloth to wipe down the grill grates.
- They do recommend wrapping some of the components – like the grease tray and grease bucket – in tin foil to help with the clean-up process.
- A small shop vac will be super helpful in cleaning out the grill as well. This 3-minute video is really helpful in learning how to clean your grill.
- It’s also super easy to remove unused pellets from the grill. There is a small latched door in the back that you can open and the pellets come right out.
Accessories
- The Z Grill 700D3 comes with a rain cover, but you can also purchase other accessories separately.
- On their site, you’ll find everything from gloves to griddles to grill mats! They’ve literally got almost every grilling accessory you can think of!
Good for Beginners?
- Though a pellet grill may seem foreign to a lot of home cooks, using one is pretty straightforward, and the Z Grills team (and website) are always available with information.
- On their site, you can find how-to videos, manuals, and FAQs.
- In terms of overall use, the Z Grill is easy to set up and use, and even takes a bit of the pressure off with its temperature features that can help make sure your food is cooked perfectly without any guessing.
- The temperature probes also make it easy to know when your meat is cooked through. I love that it displays the temp of the grill itself and then the temp of each of your meat probes, all in one easy-to-read panel.
Different Models
- Some of the other models available are the Z Grills L6002B which is smaller but still has the smoker feature, the slightly larger Multitasker 11002B with Wi-Fi, and the Smoke Engine 550B2.
- They all come with the same company support and guarantees, it’s just a matter of what best suits your cooking needs and outdoor space.
Conclusion
- It’s fair to say, I’m pretty much obsessed with my Z Grill. Between the ease of use, beautiful design, and all the delicious meals you can make on the Z Grill, it’s easy to see why!
- Honestly, the highlight of my weekend, other than finding new places to hike, is always trying a new recipe on the grill! I can’t wait to see what other delicious dinners this summer brings!
Worked fine for appx a year then control problems. No customer support via e mail or phone. Never again!!!!’
That is so disappointing to hear, Robert! There’s nothing worse than bad customer support!!
I bought a z-grill A200 (tabletop model) almost a year ago and have had excellent results with it. I used to use a wood smoker previously. Had a recent issue with it while we were away (bought it to use in our motor home), control panel had malfunctioned, called customer support and they shipped a replacement one right away.
Well pleased with both the unit And support.
I am so glad to hear that, Peter! Customer service is such a huge part of investing in a product!!
ok, smoker… would recommend Traeger especially for Customer Experience. I had paint bubbles shrugged off by Z Grills customer service, leaking grease from poor seam welds, and the temperature can fluctuate 20 plus degrees from selected temp and external temp probes. Customer service pushed my concerns with so many “try this” or “see if it continues, when you….” finally the warranty ran out and that was the last excuse they needed.
Worst buying experience. Bought grill directly from Zgrills in June. Expected it to be shipped to receive before July 4th holiday. Received confirmation of the order and saw my credit card charged. . Never received confirmation of shipping. Tried vainly to contact a person in Customer support. Finally received email response from ZGrills after the 4th that the grill was on back order. I decided to cancel order based on the difficulty in getting ANY response or any customer service because if this is how they treat a problem before shipping the product then their after shipping response would not be much better. It took me over 8 WEEKS to receive a refund from ZGrills on my credit card. BTW Very happy with my Pit Boss grill.
They’ve been in the business for 6 years, not 30. The were a Kickstarter funding site in 2017
They launched their first pellet oven pizza in 2012 so they’ve been around for more than a decade.
My first pellet smoker was a z grill 700 absolutely loved it never had a single problem it was a very dependable smoker.
I am so glad to hear that! We have been loving ours so far 🙂
I love the convenience of pellet smokers and I get the smoke ring and the char but little to no smoke flavor. But for those that don’t want a deep Smoky flavor in their meat they could always sprinkle liquid smoke on their meat.
I fired up my vertical pellet smoker I’ve owned for a half a year now and I smoked two racks of ribs for 5 hours with whispy blue smoke hoping I would get more smoke flavor but at the end if the ribs were associated with this pellet smoker you would never know that they were smoked and I was smoking them at 130°. And I know blue smoke in a wood fire happens when the temperature reaches 650° up to 750° f and you don’t want to be throwing cold wood into your fire box because that lowers your temperature and can get you out of that sweet spot that creates blue smoke. If you put your wood on top of your firebox the heat from your fire will hate that wood up and when it’s time to add wood your split would you add will be up to temperature and won’t be laying there in your fire like an ice cube theoretically so within about 30 seconds your new wood is on fire creating blue smoke already and bypassing the white smoke stage of a fire trying to get up to temperature. I love my pellet grill because of the simplicity because you can’t even fall asleep and wake up and the fire hasn’t gone out. I fell asleep for 5 hours and woke up and the ribs were savable. No one’s here to complain about the food so I just sat down and eat and had a good time but I need not to fall asleep but there was no big event for me. I found a way to save the ribs and everybody was happy.
Pellet grills are liking that deep Smoky flavor that everyone associates with smoked barbecue meat from the smoker. I measured the moisture content of my pellets with a hygrometer and it read 41% moisture and the manufacturer tries to keep their moisture content anywhere from 10 to 15% moisture and yes my pellets are shiny on the outside and they do snap when you break them in half with your fingers. I store my pellets in tupperware to keep the outside moisture from getting at them. So what is lost in the transition from wood to pellets??? The best part of the smoke flavor is gone. But if you like that little bit of a smoke flavor well then it’s a lot easier just sprinkling a little liquid smoke on your meat. I don’t see me buying another pellet smoker because the brand name will not create that smoke flavor that is lost going from wood to pellets.
I have been using offset smokers for the last 35 years and get wonderful blue smoke that is full of flavor but where has the flavor gone when burning pellets.
Someone educate me on this last piece of the puzzle.
I see pellets smoking gurus on YouTube saying what wonderful smoke flavor they’re getting on their barbecue but I’m sorry I can’t smell or taste their barbecue looking at the phone watching a video. Are these barbecue gurus on YouTube getting their pellets direct from the manufacturer so they’re not sitting in a warehouse anywhere deteriorating that’s the only thing I can come up with. A charcoal blend but pit boss was the only pellet I ever tried that gave blue smoke and when I got around to it that was the 41% moisture content of the pellets I was using that created blue smoke. That bag of charcoal blend smoking pellets was the last one on the shelf last year at the end of the barbecuing season and I decided to snatch it up and try it out not telling how long it sit in the warehouse from the manufacturer then when Walmart bought it they started in their warehouse and here I am coming along picking up the last one of the season and it’s still created blue smoke but where is that flavor. Wrote many articles about this and no one wants to answer.
I know some people want to see white billowing smoke coming out of their smoke stack and that seems to make them happy.. I’m just trying to barbecue right.
That was just too much.
You are overthinking this.
How are you measuring humidity levels ?
40 % is hardly possible. The pellets would be falling apart.
You are going to love them!