With the Napoleon Prestige 500 Connected gas grill, you get solid build quality, modern technology, a few creature comforts, and excellent performance.
In the US, the Canadian grill manufacturer Napoleon might not be the first name that comes to mind for grill shoppers, but the brand has a solid presence at US retailers and online outlets. And in Canada (as well other regions worldwide), Napoleon is a household name, recognized for its extensive catalog of premium outdoor cooking gear that spans a wide range of styles and price points.
Out of Napoleon’s six current gas grill models, the Prestige line occupies the top two. Prestige Connected ranks second only to the top-tier Prestige PRO Connected series in pecking order. Napoleon’s new Connected models offer built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a first for Napoleon. Prestige Connected grills are available in two sizes, 500 (4 main burners) and 665 (5 main burners). You can also choose between a matte black or stainless steel finish and propane or natural gas models. I tested the 500 stainless steel, propane version.
The Napoleon Prestige 500 Connected footprint
The Napoleon Prestige 500 Connected measures a spacious 65.5″ wide x 26″ deep x 51″ high, and tips the scales at 210 pounds. Its exterior is constructed primarily from 304-grade stainless steel, with heavy-duty cast aluminum on the sides of the hood. Much of the internal build also features stainless steel, including the hefty cast stainless steel cooking grates. It’s a shine-fest!
Under the hood
Napoleon’s signature wavy grill grate design makes an immediate impression. These grates aren’t just easy on the eyes. They’re also functional and made with heavy-duty 8.5 mm stainless steel rods. Built to last, they carry an impressive lifetime warranty. The 8.5 inch x 28.5 inch stainless steel warming rack is removable and can also be flipped up and out of the way when not needed—a thoughtful touch. The Owner’s Manual recommends removing this rack entirely when operating the rotisserie burner.
Another standout feature is Napoleon’s staggered “Sear Plates” (a.k.a. heat tent) system:
- Lower plates protect the burners and vaporize drippings,
- Higher plates help evenly distribute heat under the cooking surface.
Burners
The Prestige 500 Connected comes equipped with four main 12,000 BTU stainless steel tube burners, an 18,000 BTU rotisserie backburner, and a 14 inch x 9 inch 14,000 BTU “Sizzle Zone” infrared sear burner built into the left side shelf.
Napoleon states their IR Sizzle Zone can reach 1,800°F! We’ll see.
The Sizzle Zone sear burner comes with a heavy-duty 8.5 mm thick stainless steel wavy grate to match the main cooking chamber grates. Napoleon’s reversible Sizzle Zone design lets you raise or lower the sear grate a full inch, from a height of 1.5 inches over the burner for optimal searing, to 2.5 inches for use as a pot or pan burner. That lets you use this zone as a side burner for pots and pans to keep the smells outside when making homemade BBQ sauce or other non-grilled items.
Regarding the rear rotisserie burner, most brands use ceramic infrared (IR) for these backburners. Instead, Napoleon pairs a tube burner with a radiant screen to direct and focus heat toward the rotating food, achieving a similar effect.
Cleanup
A slide-out drip pan beneath the main burners funnels grease into a central removable tray, and a separate tiny drip tray attaches underneath the side sear burner to catch drippings there. It is easily installed and removed with a pinch of the two attachment arms.
Controlling the burners
Battery-free, piezo-electric “JETFIRE” ignitors fire-up each of the 4 main burners with a single-click spark as you turn the knob to the HIGH position and the gas starts to flow. There is no need to press a separate igniter button for the main burners. In our tests this worked flawlessly, repeatedly igniting the burners with ease. For the rear rotisserie and side sear burner, an separate electronic ignition button is located on the lower-left of the burner knobs.
Each “SafetyGlow” LED control knob lights up red when the burner is ON and blue when OFF. The blue lights can be turned on or off with a button to the lower-right of the main burner control knobs and will time out after about 20 minutes to save battery life. As a safety feature the red lights are always on when burners are lit. Both the rotisserie and IR sear burner ignition and control knob lights are powered by 6 D-Batteries (included) in a battery pack stored inside the cart. The battery pack also powers the control system, LED screen and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth connectivity.
Temperature testing the Napoleon Prestige 500 Connected
As always, I recommend using accurate digital thermometers to verify grill and meat temperatures. For this review, I used a ThermoWorks Smoke X4 digital thermometer utilizing 2 probes to test the accuracy of Napoleon’s built-in hood and meat probe thermometers. I clipped my ThermoWorks Probe 1 next to Napoleon’s on-board grate temp probe at the back of the cooking surface. Thermoworks Probe 2 was clipped at grate-level in the dead center of the cooking surface.
I skipped testing the sear burner. No sense melting my probes with 1,800°F infrared heat. I saved that evaluation for a more delicious experiment – steak!
Napoleon’s on-board thermometer probe compared to its lid dial thermometer ranged anywhere from 2 degrees to 12 degrees apart from each other. Impressive!
The greater variance came from our digital probes in the cooking chamber. Our Probe 1 clipped near Napoleon’s on-board probe often showed a difference of 30 to 40°F from the on-board, with our probe reading higher. When I compared Napoleon’s on-board probe to our Probe 2, placed in the center of the cooking chamber, I realized the temps were much closer, ranging from 2 to 10 degrees, with a maximum variance at times of up to 20 degrees.
This makes sense, since many manufacturers will tune their on-board temperature probes to reflect an average temp across the cooking surface, and rarely do their probes reflect an exact temp where the probe is, since we’re not cooking only where that probe is. That said, I feel the variances between Napoleon’s on-board digital probe and ours, and their lid dial thermometer, are all still within acceptable ranges from each other for the purposes of cooking on and monitoring your gas grill.
Bread and chicken tests
Time to test the consistency of cook temps across the entire cooking surface. Our bread test (a classic for checking heat distribution) showed a significant hot spot in the back, compared to a very obvious cool spot in the front, with all burners set to LOW.
But Napoleon’s Prestige 500 ain’t no toaster oven, so how will it do with meat? The grilled chicken wing test confirmed the same hot spots. With all mains on MEDIUM and all pieces flipped at the same time, the real world cook tests shows that if the grate is full, you’ll need to plan on rotating foods front to back, maybe more than once.
Testing the 1,800°F sear power of the Napoleon Prestige 500 Connected
When a grill claims “super-sear” power, we always put it to the test with reverse-seared steaks, our favorite way to cook thick cuts.
I started the steaks on the main grates with the left and right burners on LOW and the middle burners OFF, holding a grill temp of around 250°F. That’s slightly warmer than ideal but still perfect for a slow, pre-sear cook. Using a digital probe, I let the steaks reach about 110°F internal temperature before moving them to the infrared burner.
With many gas grills, to reverse sear you’d have to remove the meat and wait while the burners heat up to searing temps. Not so with the Napoleon Prestige 500 Connected’s Sizzle Zone. You can maintain both a low indirect zone in the main chamber and a completely separate scorching sear zone at the same time.
With that ceramic sear burner fired up, the steaks crisped up beautifully with a deep brown crunchy crust, juicy pink interior, and all-around drool-worthy results.
Rotisserie test
The Napoleon Prestige 500 Connected includes the motor, spit, and necessary hardware for rotisserie roasting. The spit accommodates up to 3 chickens at once and 15 pounds total weight. I selected two roughly 5-pound chickens for this test. The Owner’s Manual provided helpful directions that were straightforward and specific. I placed a drip pan with veggies and the gizzards beneath the meat to catch excess drippings as recommended. Depending on the size of your chicken(s) and the height of your drip pan, you may need to remove the cooking grates and set the pan down on the burner sear plates, a.k.a. heat tents.
Once set up and spinning, the grill performed well. The User Manual states that a single 3-pound chicken will take about 90 minutes to cook with the rear rotisserie burner on HIGH. Since I cooked two 5-pound chickens, I couldn’t realistically expect the same timing.
It took closer to 2 hours, and when I noticed the birds weren’t browning as expected midway through the cook, I lit two main burners set to MEDIUM-LOW to add extra heat. It was also a chilly, windy evening, so the grill needed an extra boost of heat. It’s good to know that this option exists when needed. If you use the rotisserie along with the main burners like this, be sure to watch your drip pan to prevent it from drying out and burning!
The chickens came out slap-yo-mamma good and ridiculously juicy!
The “Connected” difference
On the front of the right side shelf, an LED screen displays the current grill temperature of your Napoleon Prestige 500 Connected. Meat temps from your probes display in the upper left. Napoleon supplies thre meat probes with the grill, and the Connected system accommodates up to two additional wireless probes. The display also shows the approximate fuel level left in your 20-pound propane tank as well as the battery level. You can switch between Fahrenheit or Celsius, adjust display brightness level, and monitor cooking duration with the Connected timer. The system beeps to indicate power-up or power-down, and when set times or temperatures are reached.
Prestige Connected grills feature the modern tech conveniences of WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. Napoleon’s app allows you to monitor everything from your smartphone when away from the grill.
The free smartphone app, available on both iPhone and Android, allows you to see all of these values on your smartphone or connected device without needing to be right at the grill. Note: you cannot set or adjust any burners from the app, as all burner adjustments must be made the old fashioned way with the control knobs. But you can monitor the temperatures and adjust timer and alarm values from the app. You can also receive audible alerts as timer or temperature values are reached. And the app gives you access to tips and recipes to assist your cooking plans. If none of these “Connected” perks are of importance to you, they can be left powered off and the grill will still function 100% without them. But you’ll only have yourself to blame if the tank runs out mid-cook or your turkey turns to cardboard.
Water-resistant cover
Napoleon offers an optional water-resistant cover which works well to keep your Prestige dry. The cover features a large embroidered Napoleon logo on the front. A 3-inch ventilation strip aims to reduce moisture build up underneath. Two metal hanging loops are also built into the top of the cover for storage while the grill is in use, or as handy grips to take it off. There are adjustable straps on both sides to cinch it up and help it stay in place during windy days.
Assembly guide frustrations
Now for some minor downsides.
All of the items in the main shipping box were packed well, protected adequately, and in clearly labeled smaller boxes, which is a plus. However, small fasteners were required to start assembling the very first pieces, and the bag of various screws and bolts (yes, bag – singular – more on that in a bit) was buried down several layers, inside of the grill’s main body, inside of yet another box. This necessitates removing nearly every single box and item from the shipment before you can even begin assembly. In prior grill builds, the items you need first are often toward the top so you can start assembling as you dig down.
Oddly, once the box containing the hardware bag is accessible, you discover that all of the screws, bolts, clips, etc. are stored in a single bag, all jumbled together. I’ve assembled a lot of cookers over the years and never had this head-scratching issue before. It wasn’t too big a feat to separate the four or five sizes and styles of fasteners and clips into individual piles, but it was just one more thing to add time and irritation to the assembly process.
The pictorial-only manual didn’t help much either. Its lack of text in the majority of the steps made identifying parts and installation instructions confusing and time-consuming. I found myself repeatedly having to stare at the hieroglyphics in the assembly guide with the concentration of an Egyptian scholar locating a buried treasure. To make matters worse, some unique parts have little or no contextual clues as to their size, so I found myself grabbing a tiny clip-thing, because it looked like the picture, when a much larger doohickey was actually what was needed. It got frustrating and made me feel like this was the first time I’d ever assembled a grill. With patience, a quick re-visit to the first pages of the assembly guide to help identify the parts, and an adult beverage or two, I managed. I can’t help but think that adding a line or two of text to each step isn’t too much to ask for, and it would sure save a lot of time for us backyard Joes.
The picture manual is at least colored to help identify parts to focus on at each step. In a couple places where a magnetic part is used, the manual simply has 3 bold outward lines, apparently indicating the universal symbol for “this is a magnet here”.
Actually a couple steps, few and far between, do have a line of text. One of those lines: “Ensure wires are not pinched during installation”. How helpful. I suppose Napoleon believes we do not need to know what all the red Xes mean, or which strange clip is which, but we do need a reminder not to destroy the wires. Go figure.
In total, assembly took about 2 hours 45 minutes, and I feel like half of that time was wasted staring at the manual trying to make sense of the pictures. The good news is once the interpretations were figured out and the mysteries of each step were solved, the assembly was quite smooth. Holes lined up well, all the required parts were there, including a few extra bolts and clips, and Napoleon even included a wrench. You will still need a couple screwdrivers, but the assembly manual states this at the beginning. I found using my own socket and ratchet handle in place of the included wrench to be more convenient, and a medium-large Philips head screwdriver will work on many of the bolts too.
Napoleon Prestige 500 Connected Conclusion
I spent many months cooking on this grill before writing this review to ensure a meaningful report. The grill and infrared side burner are excellent – worthy of our Gold Medal.
As far as assembly, this grill was far easier to put together than the Napoleon Phantom we reviewed previously, indicating Napoleon listened and improved. I only hope that going forward they can organize and label parts better and give more attention to the assembly manual to help clarify some steps.
That said, dealers and owners alike continue to give the Prestige 500 Connected glowing reviews, and its performance in my tests easily competes with other premium brands.
The verdict?
Despite some inconsistent heat zones and minor-to-not-so-minor assembly instruction woes, this grill’s overall build quality, creature comforts, and performance are excellent. Its Connected features also work seamlessly to enhance the already great grilling experience. I give the Napoleon Prestige 500 Connected our Gold Medal rating.
Warranty
| Component | Warranty Period |
|---|---|
| Hood | Lifetime |
| Stainless Steel Lid | Lifetime |
| Porcelain Enamel Lid | Lifetime |
| Aluminum Castings | Lifetime |
| Stainless Steel Cooking Grids | Lifetime |
| Stainless Steel Tube Burners | Lifetime |
| Stainless Steel Sear Plates | 15 Years |
| Porcelain Enamel Cast Iron Grids | 15 Years |
| Stainless Steel Infrared Rotisserie | 15 Years |
| Infrared Bottom/Side Burner | 15 Years |
| All Other Parts | 15 Years |
We thank Napoleon for providing a Prestige 500 Connected for this review.
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