GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker review: True barbecued flavor in your kitchen
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The GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker creates the coveted, true barbecued flavor that until now you could only get from cooking outdoors. It’s a great option for home cooks who don’t want to stoke and stand over a charcoal smoker in dark, cold or wet conditions, or better yet, don’t have a yard, patio or terrace. With its electronic controls, included temperature probe and Wi-Fi connection for remote monitoring, it’s also super convenient to use. Best of all? There’s no charcoal to light, vents to manipulate or guessing when your food is done.
However, this new electric appliance, which caught our eye as the best home product we saw at CES 2024, also happens to be large and heavy, so it’s unlikely to be pressed into action on a daily or even weekly basis. Plus, it comes at a steep price. To help you decide if the Smart Indoor Smoker is right for your home, we put it to the test in our own kitchen. Here are our thoughts on its pros and cons.
GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker
This electric appliance makes it possible to barbecue low and slow indoors without the hassle of an outdoor cooker. If you crave the flavor of mesquite-smoked brisket or applewood-infused salmon but don’t want to leave the comfort of your kitchen, it’s worth investing in — and clearing countertop space for — the GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker.
$999 at Best Buy
$999 at The Home Depot
What we liked about it
Delicious smoky flavor
You might be wondering how a countertop electric appliance mimics the true flavor of barbecue. And it’s a fair question. The Smart Indoor Smoker starts with regular old wood pellets. These are placed in a hopper and automatically fed into a heating compartment where they’re ignited and produce smoke, which is then released into the cooking chamber. Then a heating element maintains a steady low temperature and a technology GE calls Active Smoke Filtration works like a car’s catalytic converter to transform the smoke into warm air, which exits from the bottom of the smoker.
The amazing thing about this appliance is that everything we cooked came out with the kind of real smoky flavor you typically get from an outdoor smoker or a barbecue restaurant specializing in smoked meats. Seriously, everything. Over the course of two weeks, we cooked chicken wings, a whole chicken, a rack of baby back ribs, a rack of lamb, a pork butt, salmon filets, brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes.
Just like with a traditional smoker, the longer the cooking time, the richer and deeper the flavor. After under an hour in the GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker, brussels sprouts and wings came out with a discernible but mild woody flavor. Lamb, chicken, salmon and sweet potatoes, each of which cooked between one and a half and two hours, had a distinctive but not overwhelmingly smoky taste.
But it was the ribs and pork butt, which cooked for about five hours, that really showed what the smoker can do. They came out with a crusty cap and incredible deep smoky flavor that makes barbecued meats so beloved. In our tests, we tried an assortment of pellets (one bag of pellets is included with the unit, but any brand can be used) and found that the intensity of the flavor varied according to the type, with oak pellets creating the strongest, woodiest taste.
Three racks are provided so you can cook three racks of ribs, wings or any food that isn’t too bulky. The smoker’s big enough to hold a large pork butt, but GE recommends cutting larger items into several smaller pieces.
After cooking, the smoker automatically goes into a Keep Warm mode that the manufacturer says will keep food at a safe temperature for up to 24 hours. We didn’t test this claim, but we can only imagine that even if food remained safe to eat, it would be quite dried out. You can turn off this setting if you prefer not to use it.
Convenient setup
Before first use, the hopper needs to be filled with wood pellets, and the auger — which rotates the pellets — has to be primed by simply pressing a setting. After that, a small waste bin needs to be filled with water. If you forget to make sure there are pellets in the hopper and to add water to the bin, the control panel prompts you before you press start. Once you select your settings, it takes about 17 minutes for the unit to preheat.
Intuitive and easy-to-use electronic controls
All the settings are displayed on an electronic screen at the top of the control panel. There’s a dial to scroll through the settings and a number of buttons to select them. And while, yes, it’s helpful to read the manual, you’ll get the hang of programming fairly quickly by scrolling through the options. You don’t need any experience or even a recipe to begin cooking. You can select from programs for brisket, pork butt, wings, chicken and salmon that include the recommended smoker temperature, smoke level, cooking time and, if you choose to use the probe (more on that below), the food doneness temperature. Experienced barbecuers have the option of adjusting the presets or choosing the Customize setting, which allows you to program your own preferences.
In addition to the smoking settings, you can easily perform other functions by pressing a button, including emptying the hopper if you want to change the variety of pellets.
The screen displays the program during smoking and tracks the cooking progress by showing you how much time is left or what temperature the food is at, making the whole thing fairly simple. It also offers helpful prompts, such as a reminder to refill the water bin when it’s low. When you’re cooking by temperature, the display alerts you if the probe isn’t fully connected.
By pressing a button on the cooker, you can turn on an interior light to check on your food without opening the door.
Temperature probe
A temperature probe that plugs into the smoker cavity is included for cooking food to a specific temperature. When you use it, the oven automatically turns off when food is cooked to the set temperature; you don’t have to use visual cues or annoying fork pricks to determine when food is done.
However, if you’re cooking more than one item or a large chicken or roast, you need to take the temperature of each item or several parts of the item before taking the food out of the oven. That’s because, like most ovens, the cooker doesn’t heat perfectly evenly, running hotter on the upper rack and in the back. We inserted the probe in the front lower piece of meat, preferring to err on the side of slightly overcooking rather than undercooking some pieces.
Along with the probe, you get a small magnetic holder to keep it on the side of the cooker.
No smoke in the kitchen
For any home cook, especially one who lives in a smaller apartment, smoke is always a bummer. But we found absolutely no smoke clouding up the kitchen when we used this appliance. As expected, smoke does accumulate inside the smoker, and we love that there’s a setting to clear the smoke before you open the door. But in truth, even when we opened the door without using the setting, we never found smoke billowing out or bothering us, and it quickly dissipated once the door was closed.
Easy cleanup (relative to outdoor smoking)
Anyone who has used an outdoor smoker knows that the cleanup is never as fun as the cooking, so it was with great relief that we found the Smart Indoor Smoker to be much easier to clean.
After cooking, the water bin is filled with used pellets and smoky water, so it needs to be emptied and cleaned. Thankfully, it’s small and easy to rinse out. There’s also a removable, enameled drip pan on the bottom of the smoker. After scrubbing off stuck-on drippings from chicken wings, we learned that the best practice is to line the pan with aluminum foil.
As for smoke residue, it’s extremely easy to wipe it off the window if you remember to do it while the smoker is still warm; otherwise, you’ll need to use a cleaning product. The stainless steel racks and the side supports don’t get excessively dirty, and they clean up quickly in the sink, though you do have the option of placing them in the dishwasher. The walls of the unit can simply be wiped off, and thankfully, there’s none of the baked-on crud that you get in an oven or appliance that cooks with higher heat.
Thorough user manual
GE provides clear and complete instructions for using the smoker. Whenever we had a question, we found the answer in the owner’s manual. With the smoker, you also get a booklet with a cooking chart and recipes from a Louisville barbecue chef. All the recipes were appealing and easy to follow. Most called for smoked paprika, which we replaced with sweet paprika, as we didn’t want anything to affect the smokiness produced by the appliance. We did find that there were some discrepancies between the temperatures given in the recipes, the chart and the settings on the smoker, which could be a little confusing.
Remote control
Once the smoker is connected to Wi-Fi, you can select settings, track smoking progress and turn on the light with your phone. However, to begin cooking, you need to press start on the appliance itself. The best feature of the app is that it alerts you if you forget to close the door, when cooking is almost done and when it’s completed. We only wish the sound notification were louder because if your phone isn’t near you, you may miss the ding. You can also control the smoker using Alexa or Google Assistant.
What we didn’t like about it
Smoky aroma
We’re listing this under dislikes because we were surprised by the pungent, smoky smell that wafted through our apartment while the unit was on, and we guess that some folks may not be thrilled that it lingers for a day or two afterward. Personally, it didn’t bother us, and we found it somewhat appealing, similar to how a fireplace gives a pleasant smoky smell to a room.
Takes up a lot of space
The GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker is not small. In fact, it’s about the size of two toaster ovens sitting atop each other and can just about fit under a cabinet that’s installed at a standard height, though GE recommends having 4 inches of clearance on all sides. It’s also heavy at 45 pounds. This means it eats up a big chunk of valuable countertop space and you won’t want to be moving it in and out of a closet regularly. We doubt that many people will want to smoke even as often as once a week, so that’s something to seriously consider if you have a smaller kitchen.
It’s expensive
While the suggested retail price is $999, the smoker is widely available for about $700. That puts it in the same category as an inexpensive gas or electric range. It’s a lot of money for a product that performs a single function and that’s not likely to be used often.
Bottom line
Any serious barbecuer will appreciate the convenience of preparing it in the GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker, particularly if they live in an area with either frigid temperatures a good part of the year or no access to outdoor space. To spend this much money, sit with days of a smoky aroma and set aside so much space in your kitchen, you’ll need to be extra passionate about the true taste of barbecue. But if classics like brisket, ribs and pulled pork are a critical part of your life, there’s also nothing else like it on the market today.
Note: The prices above reflect the retailers' listed price at the time of publication.
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