# Camp Chef Woodwind -- Having Wifi Issues



## midcont (Aug 12, 2020)

Have had the unit a few weeks and could use some feedback on the wifi.

I'm thinking the antenna is very weak on it.  I am seeing the network but no bars on the grill, where my phone/ipad/laptop and a wifi coverage test all show 2-3 bars.
I can grab the network and do a reset, but then the unit loses the internet signal and I'm back to square one.

I don't have a wifi pw.  When the unit asks for it, I put in a single spacebar and that seems to accept.

This is the second hopper/auger/control unit.  The first one was replaced when the auger stopped working which I've come to figure out is because the motor is poorly secured in its housing.
Wifi reception was equally bad on both of them.

Is there something I'm missing?  Camp Chef customer support is very slow because of Covid and they have not offered me a solution.


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## bill1 (Aug 12, 2020)

Wifi antennas like to have free space around them, with wood, stucco, or brick counting largely as "free space" from an RF standpoint while sheet metal, drip pans, aluminum siding does not.  You're not sandwiching your cooker's wifi antenna between the metal of the cooker and the metal of a wall or other surroundings (storage shed??) are you?  
If no one else gives you a ready reply, you might want to post a picture of your setup and it may generate more response.


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## midcont (Aug 12, 2020)

Several floor to ceiling windows/doors and the unit is 5' from one of them.


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## robrpb (Aug 12, 2020)

What make and model router do you have? How far is the unit from the router?

When logging in and you are asked for a pw I would just hit next since you don't have a pw on the router.

How come you don't have a pw on your router? I would encourage you to add one.


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## bill1 (Aug 12, 2020)

midcont said:


> Several floor to ceiling windows/doors and the unit is 5' from one of them.


doesn't sound like a problem then. 
robrpb's questions about router distance sounds like a good one.  If you have no problem with other networked devices it wouldn't appear you have too much metal near the router.  And what version of IEEE 802.11 standard is used on both the router and the cooker?  11b&g were pretty basic and low power and range.  I'd say you want at least 802.11n
Also if most of your neighborhood is taking advantage of free wifi (since you don't have a password) that could be affecting your connectivity too.


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## midcont (Aug 13, 2020)

I'll check the version but once you are 20' past my house you can't get the signal, so nobody is stealing it.
But the fact that it see's the network, albeit with no bars, whereas every other device sees the network fine would be pointing to a poor antenna, no?


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## robrpb (Aug 13, 2020)

What happened when you tried to connect without putting a space in for the pw?

How far is the unit from the router?


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## Steff3 (Aug 13, 2020)

Can't speak to camp chef products but with my Inkbird wifi unit, it would only connect to 2.4ghz band even tho it would see my network. My router is dual band, 2.4 & 5.0. I had to go into my router and name both bands differently then log into my wifi with my phone to the specific 2.4 band. Once I did, the Inkbird connected up right away .  Maybe nothing to do with your set up, just throwing it out there.


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## dubob (Aug 13, 2020)

According to Camp Chef (talked with them on the phone last week), the WIFI antenna is completely surrounded by metal inside the hopper walls.  My TV is further away from my router than my Woodwind is and gets 2 to 3 times greater signal strength than my grill gets.  It really should have an external antenna on the outside of the hopper box.  I'm having similar problems with my WIFI upgrade to my Woodwind, plus, the Camp Chef App keeps stopping on my new T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy A21 phone.  Waiting to talk to a Camp Chef IT engineer on that one.  I'm very disappointed in the support on this issue thus far and have told them about it.  I've been dealing with this for over a week now and can't get a call back from them with 4 voice mails left this week alone.  I'm about ready to put the old controller back in and ask for a refund.


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## midcont (Aug 14, 2020)

robrpb said:


> What happened when you tried to connect without putting a space in for the pw?
> 
> How far is the unit from the router?



It won't let you proceed to connect without putting in something.
It's about 20' from the router (5' from the window) and the house has a mesh network anyway so there is continuous coverage at any corner (and outside).
I ran a heatmapper wifi survey which is a program you run on your laptop and walk a grid while it maps wifi strength.  This is how I confirmed range 20' from the back of my house (15' beyond the smoker).
I also tried taking an iphone and making it a hotspot and putting it on top of the smoker and still it would not keep the connection.

I did get instructions via email from Camp Chef yesterday to try to help, but I'm skeptical because the unit was new, I'm on my second one, and I've basically tried this on my own short of deleting the app and waiting:

Go to settings on grill controller and Reset the controller and then..

1- Turn controller off on grill
2- If possible, go to the device list in the app and swipe the listed grill to the left to delete it
3- Close the app (make sure it isn't just running in the background, that it's actually closed)
4- Delete the app
5- Go to Bluetooth settings and forget the grill entirely
6- Turn the phone off and back on
7- Re download the app and login
8- Turn the controller on
9- Wait two full minutes
10- Start the app and try again


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## midcont (Aug 14, 2020)

dubob said:


> According to Camp Chef (talked with them on the phone last week), the WIFI antenna is completely surrounded by metal inside the hopper walls.  My TV is further away from my router than my Woodwind is and gets 2 to 3 times greater signal strength than my grill gets.  It really should have an external antenna on the outside of the hopper box.  I'm having similar problems with my WIFI upgrade to my Woodwind, plus, the Camp Chef App keeps stopping on my new T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy A21 phone.  Waiting to talk to a Camp Chef IT engineer on that one.  I'm very disappointed in the support on this issue thus far and have told them about it.  I've been dealing with this for over a week now and can't get a call back from them with 4 voice mails left this week alone.  I'm about ready to put the old controller back in and ask for a refund.



Please update us when you talk to them again.  Maybe ask them about what Steff mentioned: 
Can't speak to camp chef products but with my Inkbird wifi unit, it would only connect to 2.4ghz band even tho it would see my network. My router is dual band, 2.4 & 5.0. I had to go into my router and name both bands differently then log into my wifi with my phone to the specific 2.4 band. Once I did, the Inkbird connected up right away . Maybe nothing to do with your set up, just throwing it out there.


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## robrpb (Aug 14, 2020)

midcont said:


> ...5- Go to Bluetooth settings and forget the grill entirely...



Are you trying to connect via bluetooth to your network?


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## midcont (Aug 14, 2020)

robrpb said:


> Are you trying to connect via bluetooth to your network?



You connect over bluetooth to control the unit and from there put it onto the wifi network.


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## robrpb (Aug 14, 2020)

I wonder if your problem is with bluethooth. Bluetooth has a very short range? Just curious, what bluetooth version is the unit?

Just to be clear, what device are you trying to connect the unit to via bluetooth?


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## midcont (Aug 14, 2020)

Iphone Xs.
Bluetooth connects fine and I can monitor/change temps and set timers from bluetooth.
But you need wifi if you want to monitor if you leave the house or are out of range of bluetooth.

One feature I wish it had was an alarm when the internal temps gets to the desired setting.  Right now it's only like a note you can add to reference every time you look.


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## dubob (Aug 15, 2020)

I finally got a call back yesterday afternoon from Customer Service supervisor.  She has been out of town for a few days and didn’t get my voice mail until yesterday when she came in at 1:00 PM.  The IT guy is out of the office until Monday, so can’t talk to him until then.

I tried the Camp Chef App on my wife’s phone and it doesn’t work there either.  I went to the T-Mobile store and they fiddled with it for about 20 minutes and couldn’t get it to work.  Their best guess is that there is a glitch in the app.  Looking at the app reviews on Play Store shows it as very poor with at least half the ratings being one star.








The company told me yesterday they would give me a full refund if that was what I wanted.  I’ll talk to the IT guy Monday before deciding for sure but will more than likely just get the refund.


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## K9BIGDOG (Aug 17, 2020)

Lots of folks having trouble with Camp Chefs WIFI, myself included.  They did have an issue with iPhones and bluetooth causing problems but a recent update to the app has supposedly helped. But I am also of the opinion that their WIFI antenna is either very poor or the WIFI circuitry is very underpowered.  I have their Gen 2 upgrade controller so I know there is no antenna hiding inside the hopper walls. I have very strong WIFI and every other device picks up my WIFI signal very strong except for the grill.


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## midcont (Aug 17, 2020)

dubob said:


> According to Camp Chef (talked with them on the phone last week), the WIFI antenna is completely surrounded by metal inside the hopper walls.  My TV is further away from my router than my Woodwind is and gets 2 to 3 times greater signal strength than my grill gets.  It really should have an external antenna on the outside of the hopper box.  I'm having similar problems with my WIFI upgrade to my Woodwind, plus, the Camp Chef App keeps stopping on my new T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy A21 phone.  Waiting to talk to a Camp Chef IT engineer on that one.  I'm very disappointed in the support on this issue thus far and have told them about it.  I've been dealing with this for over a week now and can't get a call back from them with 4 voice mails left this week alone.  I'm about ready to put the old controller back in and ask for a refund.



My  access points are compatible with 802.11n b/g standards.
So I tried again over the weekend following the instructions their customer service sent me with the same result.
I also tried using the old hopper/auger/control unit which is now inside the house in a box.
With it 10' from the access point I could see two bars of reception. Went through all the same steps, get to the point where the instructions ask you to power the unit off and power it back on.  Did that and then it fails at the end.
Connecting a device to the internet should not be this difficult.
It's really a shame because the unit cooks great and has great features, but it's missing one of the main attractions.


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## dubob (Aug 18, 2020)

After talking with my phone company and Camp Chef about the problems with the phone app and seeing the extremely poor reviews of the phone app on Google Play Store, I decided to bag it and send the upgrade controller back to Camp Chef for a refund.


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## robrpb (Aug 18, 2020)

To me it sounds like Camp Chef dropped the ball and and their R & D team didn't properly test it or they knew there were problems and they didn't want to correct the problem for whatever reason. Unfortunately things like this are happening more and more with companies today.


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## midcont (Aug 18, 2020)

Does anybody have the woodwind wifi and the wifi works?  please chime in.


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## dubob (Aug 18, 2020)

robrpb said:


> To me it sounds like Camp Chef dropped the ball and and their R & D team didn't properly test it or they knew there were problems and they didn't want to correct the problem for whatever reason. Unfortunately things like this are happening more and more with companies today.


Unfortunately (because I really like the grill) I have to agree with you.


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## robrpb (Aug 18, 2020)

dubob
, I am not criticizing the grill itself, just the new controller. I have read good things about the grill and have looked at them myself (still looking for one). Sometimes companies try to rush products to market before testing has been fully completed. And some companies will release products with known problems (I'm thinking of software companies) and have the consumer help them find the bugs.


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## 1MoreFord (Aug 22, 2020)

I just bought a new PG24SG with the new WIFI controller.  Like others my phone showed good signal by the grill but at first I couldn't connect the grill to WIFI so I bought a cheap WIFI extender.  I worked for a while trying to get it to work to no avail.  The documentation was terrible as was the tech support.  I got a replacement for the extender.  I even bought another brand of WIFI extender.  Just before the newest extender arrived I got the first one working.  A combination of the poor documentation, support, and ole timer's on my part were the problems with the first extender.

I now have WIFI working.  It's not 100% but it's very useable.  It will drop from time to time but has always re-acquired.

I have a Netgear 3700 WIFI Router, SuperBoost WIFI Extender, and iphone working together.  The other extender I bought is a tp-link N300 but I have yet to try it.  I expected the possibility of needing an extender before ever putting the grill together so I'm not at all disappointed beyond buying an extender with poor documentation and support.  That's why I'm going to keep the second brand of extender even though I have the first one working.


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## bill1 (Aug 22, 2020)

1MoreFord said:


> ...I now have WIFI working.  It's not 100% but it's very useable...SuperBoost WIFI Extender...other extender I bought is a tp-link N300...


Thanks 1moreFord, a small $20-25 wifi extender, plugged into the nearest outlet by your cooker, seems like the least painful way to deal with a cooker's poor antenna design.  Hope you'll be available to share the hints that helped you get the SuperBoost working.


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## 1MoreFord (Aug 22, 2020)

Gladly bill1

As I said the SuperBoost Extender documentation is terrible.  To start with it's on a small sheet of paper with print so small I had to use a magnifying glass.

I started at step 1 and could never get past step 3 of 9.  No tech support number or site address in the documentation but I found a number thanks to Google.  Called the number and the first person didn't want to help since I bought it thru Amazon and didn't have the order number in front of me.  Told me to call Amazon.  Y'all get the idea with this extender.

After talking to others I realized the steps weren't all sequential.  There were different methods involved and they didn't break them down that way.  One support tech told me to try WPS pairing but failed to mention that on the netgear modem I had to press and Hold the WPS button until the light came on.  Using the WPS pairing method and holding the WPS button was the solution that I discovered by going into the modem configuration and getting the WPS light to come on there.

The tp-link extender is about the same price but the documentation is much better and on a much larger sheet of paper with good sized print.  The different methods are noted as methods - not part of sequential steps.  They also offer a tech help site link and videos.  Since I have the SuperBoost running I haven't explored the tp-link yet but I'm going to keep it for a spare.


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## LarrySmoker (Aug 27, 2020)

midcont said:


> Have had the unit a few weeks and could use some feedback on the wifi.
> 
> I'm thinking the antenna is very weak on it.  I am seeing the network but no bars on the grill, where my phone/ipad/laptop and a wifi coverage test all show 2-3 bars.
> I can grab the network and do a reset, but then the unit loses the internet signal and I'm back to square one.
> ...


I bought a CC WW 24 about 6 weeks ago and I have had the same BT and wifi issues that you describe. I tried everything I knew to make it work...including downloading and installing all of their firmware updates. I am now on ver 1.3.2 for wifi, but still with very limited wifi function. The wifi signal is about -50 dB at the controller as measured by my inSSIDer app on a laptop, but the smoker controller shows -68 (Fair) for its reception. I have a new wifi access point from TP-Link coming in a few days that I planned to install in the attic/soffit  just above the smoker. However, from reading your posts, it sounds like that will not help. The issue is in the controller itself. That is bad news!


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## midcont (Sep 19, 2020)

A miracle happened last night. 
Was setting up for an overnight brisket And figured Id try to connect Wi-Fi again. 
Well, went through all the same issues as normal but this time after connecting failed I found something (for me).
After the first Failure I was able to hit backspace and remove the space bar that I needed for password to proceed. The password was now blank. I could move forward and I got connected To Wi-Fi and it held all night.  I could check and control the temp from bed and on the dog walk this am.  
Next step is to get campchef to install a temp alarm in the next update. Then it can wake me up if necessary


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## GrtQtrGrillMan (Apr 13, 2021)

Late to the conversation but incase anyone is still reading this forum, I purchased a Traeger Silverton 620 two days ago and had a crazy time getting the wifi to work.  On the phone with the multiple techs, the last of which suggested that the initial set up had to be very close to my wifi router.  I dragged the grill in the house, in our kitchen and it did connect and upgrade with no issue.  I put it out on the patio where it will go and it still connects to the wifi.  I will have to keep an eye on it.  But...then I go to set the brake on the casters and NONE of them work.  Called back and am getting new casters that will hopefully lock.  Very disappointed and off to a very rocky start with Traeger.  I am very surprised but it sounds like the Camp Chef wifi may be using the same technology...


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