Current Model G Dual Zone Grill Reviewed and Rated

If you expect Current electric grills to produce barbecue with the same “outdoor flavor” as your gas or charcoal grill, you may be disappointed. That distinctive flavor starts with combustion gasses from live fire. Charcoal and wood burners add additional solid particulates. Electric grills cook by heating up air and a metal cook surface with an electric element. They lack the additional flavors imparted by gas, charcoal, and wood.

That said, many electric grill owners love them. We understand they have been popular in Europe for some time, partly due to Europe’s more powerful 240V electric system which enables their electric grills to achieve higher temps. Here in the USA, our 110V power grid is weak compared to 240V. That’s why many of our large electric appliances, like refrigerators and kitchen ranges, can’t plug into our standard 110V wall outlets and require 240V outlet installations. That’s also why most electric grills in the USA historically had limited high-temperature cooking performance.

Some axe grinding types dislike electric grills in principle. Whatever their personal views might be, electric grills aren’t going away and could likely grow in popularity as preference for electric power continues to grow. Here’s a Current rep rubbing it in at their 2024 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

“700 degrees!” you exclaim, “That doesn’t sound like limited high-temperature performance to me.” Right you are! 700°F is steak searing temp. Current gets hotter than many other electric grills, but there’s more to grilling on electricity than just temperature range specs. Keep reading.

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Construction and cosmetics

Many electric grills are small portables. Current’s G Dual Zone Grill is full size on a cart; 49″W x 45″H x 24″D, weighing 132 pounds, made predominantly of coated steel. It has two 1,750W heating elements for the 2 zones and a 12-foot heavy-duty power cord. The Current grill should be plugged into a dedicated circuit to avoid popping breakers. Two fold-down side shelves are included and the cart comes in a couple of different configurations. Current also offers a matching griddle, the Current Model G.

Our initial impression upon seeing the first product photos was that Current looked overpriced. That changed after our first face-to-face encounter with Current in Las Vegas. The photos didn’t do it justice and our view of the quality suddenly bumped up a couple of notches. Now, after assembly and testing, we feel Current’s lightweight build, bordering on flimsy, is substantially offset by its innovative, appealing functions and cosmetics. It quickly picked up a few awards of note right out of the gate including a Red Dot Design Award.

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Under the hood

The double wall hood helps retain heat. The hood provides about eight inches of headroom from the cooking surface when it is closed.

Current comes from Char-Broil and some similarities are evident, particularly Char-Broil’s unique Amplifier cooking grates. Current uses a version of Amplifier grates that is a stamped, aluminum plate functioning at once as a cooking surface on its raised peaks and radiant plate in its perforated valleys.

The plates cover two electric heating elements; one for each of the two zones.

Click here for more info on the essential technique of 2-zone cooking.

Current has a self-cleaning function that cranks the elements up HIGH, then automatically shuts down after the gunk is burned up. This is a nice feature, though Amplifier grates require some special, additional cleaning after every use. Grease and gunk can’t just drip down and burn up on hot coals or heat tents with Amplifier, so that burned-up stuff has to be scraped off.

Because most grill brushes can’t reach down into those perforated channels Char-Broil typically includes a custom-shaped scraper that allows you to easily scrape off the burnt nastiness.

Inexplicably, Current doesn’t include this scraper. They claim it will be included going forward.

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Control panel and app

A single control knob sets the cooking temp for both zones and is used to set Current’s various functions.

The zones can be set independently to different temps, locked together at the same setting, or with one on and one off. Current may also be controlled and monitored from your smartphone via their app.

The app manages to be rudimentary but also slightly confusing at the same time. This is possibly because of the dual-zone settings.

Current also has two meat probe inputs on each side of the control panel and all four probes are included.

The temperature range is 200°F to 700°F. That’s mighty good, but it takes a while to heat up to 700°F and if you lose temp, it takes a while to recover.

Burger test

Our first cooking test was an All-American favorite – BURGERS. Navigating our way through Current’s rudimentary app, we found a basic burger patty recipe: Set both zones for 435°F and flip every 3 minutes until done.

Even at the moderate temp of 435°F, Current produced solid sear marks from conductive heat where the meat contacted the hot metal grates. Gas and charcoal grills are capable of producing a more even sear over the entire meat surface with a combo of conductive heat from the grates and radiant heat from the live fire below. Current is limited to conductive sear only which is typical of electric grills and many gas grills with low-powered burners.

Click here to learn about conductive heat.

Click here to learn about searing.

The flavor is also different. It is more like what you’d get when cooking burgers in a skillet on your kitchen range top. So why would you choose Current over a charcoal or high-temp gasser? The answer could be restrictions set forth by a Homeowners Association and the like, or simply a personal preference of the buyer. In any case, the popularity of electric grills is growing.

Still, we missed that delicious brown crust created by an even, overall sear. So how about trying a griddle? After all, Current is offered in a griddle version and griddles do a great job of searing. Since we often like our salmon on a griddle, that was next in line.

Salmon

Griddling prevents fish filets from sticking to grates and gives them a tasty finish. As previously mentioned, Current takes a little longer to heat up than gas grills, and heating up our griddle added to the wait time. But the wait was worth it. 

Our salmon had that tasty brown finish we love. 

Fajitas

Staying with the griddle, we made fajitas with flank steak. We started with both zones at 550°F. After waiting for the griddle to heat up, we dumped on a pile of marinated, chopped veggies. All those cold veggies cooled down our griddle so we cranked the temp up.

But we were a little late. Not wanting soggy, overcooked veggies, we pulled them off before getting any fajita char and made way for the meat. We cranked both zones all the way to MAX, then waited around five minutes before slapping our marinated flank steaks on the griddle.

There wasn’t a whole lotta searin’ goin’ on. When our searless steaks hit around 130°F internal temp we pulled them off. Current’s Model G Griddle likely works much better as the griddle cook surface rests directly over the electric elements, but adding a heavy griddle on top of our grill cook surface appeared to be more mass than the Current Grill liked. It worked well on a few salmon filets, but a pile of cold veggies followed by a couple of hunks of cold steak appeared to be too much and Current couldn’t recover the griddle heat. Keep this in mind if you go griddling on this grill; a few thin cuts, some shrimp, bacon, and eggs should do fine. Fajitas and Philly Cheese Steak may present a challenge.

Time to check out the 2 zones.

Chicken and Brussels Sprouts

We searched the Current app for recipes that require 2 zone setups and settled on Chicken Teriyaki and Brussels Sprouts.

Marinated chicken thighs on the moderate left zone and Brussels sprouts on the hot right zone.

The sprouts sizzled nicely and were done in no time. When the thighs reached 165°F internal temp, we flipped them over to the hot zone to finish.

The sprouts came out great.

The chicken was tender, juicy, and delicious, but we still weren’t accustomed to those electric sear marks.

Reverse Sear Steak, the ultimate 2-zone test

To wrap up our tests, we tried Current’s Reverse Sear method which is slightly different from ours. You start a thick steak on a low heat zone and gently bring up the internal temp to around 110° then flip it onto a hot sear zone to finish. This leaves the interior pink and juicy while creating a delicious brown crust on the exterior.  Click here to learn all about the Reverse Sear method. Current’s method calls for the indirect zone to be switched off and the hot zone set to 500°F.

Here we go low and slow on Zone 1.

Then HOT HOT HOT on Zone 2.

As expected, we didn’t get a beautiful, even, overall sear, but we were accustomed to those familiar, crisscrossed sear marks, and the results were darn near perfect!

No gray, overdone interior, or chewy red and raw center, just bumper-to-bumper pink deliciousness.

Packaging and assembly

Current’s parts arrive in some of the most attractive packaging we’ve encountered. However, there is no assembly manual. Instead, an app called BILT provides assembly instructions. BILT is self-described as “…. a modern training and enablement solution that presents complex assembly and installation instructions in an interactive 3D mobile app for users to access anytime, anywhere. We do the heavy lifting for you, expertly converting your instructions into a 3D interactive experience that gives users efficient, detailed, and visual guidance through every step of an installation, assembly, programming, maintenance, or repair process.”

BILT is another new trend that’s catching on. More and more grills and smokers we receive replace printed assembly manuals with their own BILT app, so we’re growing accustomed to the new norm. It’s a sign of the times that elicits moans and groans from the mature population and “What are you old geezers whining about?” from youngsters.

A couple of parts were mislabeled. Current was aware of the error and states it will be corrected.

Conclusion

We haven’t reviewed many electric grills thus far. That will no doubt change as electricity continues to replace fossil fuels. Electric grills produce different flavor and finish than live fire models. Some owners report enhancing electric flavor with the various smoke boxes and tubes made for adding smoke to gas grills and augmenting smoke in pellet smokers. We’re already seeing hybrid models that combine electric heat with pellet smoke (shhhhhh, don’t tell the landlord) and you can bet Current and Char-Broil are exploring.

Live fire cooking will likely not disappear, but may thin out in our backyards, just as gas cans and internal combustion engines are thinning out in our garages, driveways, and sheds. For those who cannot have live fire due to restrictions, and for those who choose not to have live fire for whatever reason, Current has a lot to like.

We award Current’s Model G Dual Zone Grill our AmazingRibs.com Best Value Gold Medal.

Warranty

Current has a Limited 10-year warranty with product registration.

We thank Current for providing a Model G Dual Zone Grill for our tests.