Ninja Woodfire Electric 7-in-1

Is the Ninja Woodfire Electric 7-in-1 worth buying?

The Ninja Woodfire Electric 7-in-1 is worth buying at £259.99 if you want real wood smoke but have no intention of lighting charcoal, and if the table you cook on sits within reach of a socket. It covers ground a kettle or a barrel cannot: a balcony, a courtyard, a campsite pitch with an electric hook-up. You get seven cooking modes in one 12 kg box, from low and slow smoking to air frying and dehydrating.

Buy it for the smoke, not for the size. It loads 8 burgers, 16 sausages or two racks of ribs at once and plugs into a wall, which means no ash to sweep and no firelighters. If you feed a family off one grate and want it done by teatime, this machine finishes the job with a probe-free simplicity that charcoal cannot match.

Skip it if you cook for a crowd, want the smell of a charcoal chimney, or have nowhere to run a cable. At £259.99 it costs £203 more than the cheapest full smoker on the ranking, and that gap buys a lot of charcoal grate. The machine itself is superb at what it does; it is simply a smaller, cleaner job than a barrel cook.

How much space does the Ninja Woodfire Electric 7-in-1 take up?

The Ninja Woodfire Electric 7-in-1 stands on a 46 x 46 cm footprint, which is 2,116 cm² of table or patio, and it rises 34 cm above that. Divide the footprint by the 8 burgers it fits and each burger needs 264 cm² of surface, against 291 cm² a burger for the larger Ninja Woodfire Pro XL at 51 x 57 cm. The smaller machine is the tidier one to live with.

Because the capacity is counted in food rather than in cooking area, there is no cm² figure to set beside the charcoal models on this ranking, and that changes how you shop. A 12 kg body that fits 8 burgers is a different proposition from a 5,160 cm² barrel, and the two are not rivals for the same meal. Judge this one on what comes off it in an hour, not on the width of its grate.

The compact form is what the pellet box buys you. The integrated smoke box burns wood pellets rather than briquettes, so the fire is contained inside the housing instead of sitting under an open grate, and the whole unit stays small enough for a balcony table.

What comes in the box with the Ninja Woodfire Electric 7-in-1?

The Ninja Woodfire Electric 7-in-1 arrives with a pellet starter pack in two blends, an All-Purpose and a Robust, plus a pellet scoop, a crisper basket and a recipe guide, along with the user manual. The body is stainless steel outside with a stated wood-lined interior, and a plug for a standard wall socket. Nothing else is needed to cook the first meal, because the pellets to fill the smoke box come with it.

Living with it is a matter of two habits. The first is pellets: once the starter pack runs down you buy your own, and the smoke box needs topping up partway through a long smoke, so a spare bag near the table saves a trip indoors. The second is the cable, which decides where the unit can stand rather than where you would like it.

At 12 kg and 46 x 46 x 34 cm it lifts off a table and stores on a shelf, which is the advantage over the 33 kg CosmoGrill and the 26.9 kg Masterbuilt. A cover is not part of the package, and the machine is water resistant to IPX4, so a fitted cover is a sensible extra rather than a requirement.

Where does the Ninja Woodfire Electric 7-in-1 fall short?

The cable is the first limitation. Every cook needs a socket, which rules out a spot at the bottom of a long garden, a beach and most campsites without power. Charcoal travels anywhere, and this unit does not.

The second is cost, both at the till and after it. £259.99 is around four and a half times the £56.99 SUNLIFER 3-in-1, and pellets are a running expense that charcoal users do not share. The pellet starter pack gets you started and no further, so budget for a bag with the machine.

The third is scale. Eight burgers is a family dinner, not a street party, and anyone cooking for 20 will run two loads where the £94.75 SUNLIFER Large Coal Barrel does it in one. The guarantee is also worth a moment: register the machine with Ninja and it runs two years, otherwise the standard one year stands. The crisper basket and the smoke box both want a wash after a greasy cook, which is the trade for having no ash to deal with.

Ninja Woodfire Electric 7-in-1 vs SUNLIFER and the Pro XL

Against the SUNLIFER 3-in-1 Barbecue Smoker at £56.99, the Ninja asks £203 more and gives up 2,923 cm² of charcoal grate to do it. The SUNLIFER, rated 4.4 by 819 owners, needs lighting, vents and a dry place to live, and it produces the smoke flavour no electric unit quite matches. The Ninja wins on convenience and on the balcony; the SUNLIFER wins on money and on grate, and it is the better buy for a garden with space and a cook who enjoys the fire.

Against the Ninja Woodfire Pro XL at £400, the step up costs £140 and buys 30% more cooking capacity, 10 burgers instead of 8, two whole 3 kg chickens, and a digital probe that reads the meat as it cooks. The Trade-off is a 25 kg body and a bigger footprint. Choose the Pro XL if you regularly have eight or more at the table, and the 7-in-1 if four to six is your usual number.

For a buyer who wants smoke on a small terrace and no ash at the end of it, the 7-in-1 is the pick of the two Ninjas at £140 less. For anyone with a lawn, a shed and a free afternoon, the charcoal options on this ranking put more grill on the table for far less money.