Zelos-450 Pellet Grill: Premium Features at a Fraction of the Cost
▼ Summary
– The Brisk It Zelos-450 is marketed as the first grill with generative AI, featuring “Vera” to create recipes and set temperatures via an app.
– The author found the AI feature unhelpful, as it produced flawed recipes and failed to recognize cooking-related images.
– Despite the AI shortcomings, the grill is praised for its design, features, and value, especially when priced under $300.
– It is easy to assemble with clear instructions and stylish, minimalist design, making it user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing.
– The grill has a powerful app for remote control and automatic ignition, but its small size limits cooking capacity for larger meals.
Finding a high-quality pellet grill that balances advanced features with an affordable price tag can feel like a quest for a mythical beast. The Zelos-450 pellet grill entered the market with a bold claim: it’s the first grill featuring generative AI. This intelligence comes from “Vera,” an in-app tool designed to generate custom recipes from your prompts and automatically configure the grill’s temperature for them.
Initial tech press coverage was enthusiastic, but a degree of skepticism is understandable. After all, who truly needs an AI to dictate how to cook a burger or a steak? The grill cannot physically intervene to remove your food, so the practical difference between an AI notification and a standard probe temperature alert seems minimal. However, after extensive testing, the Zelos-450 proves to be a remarkably solid purchase, particularly when its price dips below $300. This Wi-Fi-enabled pellet grill boasts a thoughtful design and a suite of features typically reserved for models costing twice as much or more.
The much-hyped Vera AI feature proved less than revolutionary. Requesting a recipe for “coffee rubbed ribs with tequila sauce” resulted in a standard rib rub with coffee added and a basic barbecue sauce with an equal amount of tequila and ketchup, a combination that seemed questionable. Another test, using a photo of ground meat and condiments, prompted Vera to declare the image “unrelated to cooking on a wood pellet grill.” Fortunately, the grill’s value isn’t dependent on its artificial intelligence.
For anyone hunting a Black Friday deal on a compact pellet smoker, the Zelos-450 stands out as a top contender for several compelling reasons.
Assembly is straightforward and frustration-free. Having tested numerous grills, it’s clear that many are nightmares to put together, often involving hundreds of screws and baffling instructions. The Zelos-450 was a welcome exception. Every component was clearly labeled, and the instructions were logical and easy to follow. The entire process, from unboxing to completing the initial break-in burn, took about ninety minutes, a task that could easily be finished in under an hour with focused effort.
Its aesthetic appeal is notable for a grill in this price range. While it won’t threaten luxury outdoor kitchen brands, it’s challenging to find another full-featured smart grill that looks this polished. It sports a minimalist design with clean lines and tasteful stainless steel accents. All the functional components, the pellet hopper, grease trap, and wheels, operate exactly as they should. A single, intuitive control knob handles all necessary functions.
The accompanying Brisk It app is powerful and exceptionally user-friendly. Grill control apps often range from buggy to completely unusable, but this one is a model of simplicity and reliability. Igniting the grill is as easy as sliding a bar on the app to the right. While the instructions advise doing this while standing beside the unit, a test from the comfort of bed was successful, demonstrating its potential for pre-dawn cooking sessions. The app allows for precise temperature control and lets you program a meat probe to alert you when your food reaches the perfect internal temperature. Shutting down the grill is just as simple: slide the same bar to the left and wait twenty minutes for the fire to extinguish itself. These are premium features often missing from far more expensive competitors; the MasterBuilt Gravity Series 1150, for instance, costs nearly four times as much yet lacks automatic ignition. The 12-pound hopper is compatible with any brand of wood pellets.
A few limitations are worth noting.
The cooking surface is relatively compact. The example of two racks of ribs illustrates its capacity well, that’s about the maximum you can fit. Marketing may suggest room for fifteen burgers, but a realistic count is six to eight. It’s perfectly capable of preparing a meal for a family of four, but you won’t be smoking a full packer brisket for a large gathering.
(Source: Wired)
