Testing smart grills has led to a philosophical argument about what constitutes a “grill”: Do all grills have to have actual fire (or just heat, like infrared)? Are all grills also assumed to be smokers? Ultimately, it was one grill in particular that brought these questions to light for me. The current Model G Dual Zone Smart Grill is absolutely not a grill. While it’s meant for the outdoors, requires outdoor-sized space, and will leave grill marks on your food, this electric grill is just that: a grill. Simply put, it’s like taking a giant George Foreman grill out onto the patio.

While I appreciated the connectivity and size of the grilling area, I wasn’t a fan of the flimsy physical construction. While the grill got quite hot and was very effective at cooking food, it took longer to cook than a gas grill and about the same time as a charcoal grill. And cleaning it was a chore, despite a self-cleaning feature. Ultimately, it just wasn’t worth the $999.99 price tag to stand on the patio for the same effect on food as standing over the stove, so even if you can’t use gas, charcoal, or a real fire on your patio, I’d probably opt for a different electric grill.

If it’s been a while since you bought a grill or barbecue, the first thing you should know is that all grills come in many parts and can take hours to assemble. The Current took me two hours to build and required an app for instructions, which isn’t as helpful as a printed manual when you’re standing outside in the sun squinting to see details from the video on your phone. Still, the instructions were clear and the parts were well labeled. However, some of the grill’s components were inexplicably fragile, while others, like the grilling tools (tongs, spatula) were over-engineered to be sturdier than any grilling tool I’d ever used and came with replaceable rubber grips.

The metal of the grill is held together by screws in most places, but also by metal clips, which proved to be useless. In particular, the side panels that formed the cabinet under the grill refused to stay in place. As soon as you clipped a panel in, the slightest breeze would cause it to slide off. A lot of attention was paid to creating a sturdy, two-sided food storage area in the cabinet, which I really liked. However, the entire grill is exceptionally light and even fully assembled, it didn’t feel solid. In fact, just rolling the grill from where I had mounted it caused enough vibration that the grill had lost all of its panels by the time it was in its new location.