CERAMIC egg-shaped grills are popular options for both high-temperature searing and low-and-slow smoking. Due to their design and materials, they’re incredibly efficient, and they allow you to use both charcoal and wood chunks to get the job done.

Last week, Kamado Joe took things a step further with the Pellet Joe. As the name suggests, this new model runs on wood pellets — just like the Wi-Fi connected grills from Traeger, Weber and others. And where Kamado Joe’s traditional ceramic options needed a separate device to offer connectivity, the Pellet Joe has all of that built in.

First and foremost, the Pellet Joe has all the bones of a Kamado Joe ceramic grill. You still get the heat retention and overall efficiency that the design offers. The company says you can expect searing temperatures up to 315 degrees Celsius with additional cooking “zones” for smoking and roasting. Any adjustments can be made via the physical knob on the grill itself or inside the Kamado Joe app.

Kamado Joe also says this grill uses less fuel than a typical pellet grill because of the ceramic construction. Kamado Joe also says this grill has agitators inside the hopper that “significantly” reduce pellet jams — a common source of frustration for owners of these types of grills.

Inside, the Pellet Joe has a 45-cm cooking surface, which is the same size as the Kamado Joe Classic III. Due to the shape, there isn’t as much room to install multiple levels of grates. You can buy shelf-type accessories that give you some stacking ability, but overall these egg-shaped grills won’t allow you to craft a feast in one go. The goal is efficiency over quantity. The Pellet Joe also comes with trademark Kamado Joe design touches like an Air Lift hinge, stainless steel latch, aluminum side shelves, smoke tower and more. Plus, the Pellet Joe will work with other Kamado Joe accessories built for the company’s Classic line of ceramic cookers.

Most importantly, the Pellet Joe’s Wi-Fi connectivity will allow you to control and monitor the grill from afar. Thanks to an app that was created in partnership with cooking tech company Desora, you can employ two food probes and one pit or ambient temp probe to keep tabs on your progress.

Kamado Joe has teamed up with Desora before: the duo created the iKamand module that brings connectivity and remote control to Kamado Joe charcoal-fired ceramic grills. Desora also developed the idea for the SloRoller parabolic insert during an engineering class at Harvard.(SD-Agencies)