Can I use my Ninja Woodfire Grill indoors?

NOTE: The intention of this article is not to indict any particular process nor to tell anyone what to do. What you do in your home is your business and your concern alone. Nothing starts a "fire" (see what I did there?) in a Ninja Woodfire-based social media group quite as quickly or ferociously as asking, "If I'm not using smoke, can I use the Ninja Woodfire indoors?" And it gets asked a LOT. I'd say a conservative estimate would be about 3-4 times a week in any of the popular Facebook groups.

As is the case with most things in cooking, opinions on this vary wildly. One school of thought (usually citing the word OUTDOOR in the product name) holds that, regardless of mode, the Woodfire tends to produce smoke and smells that are too strong or simply undesirable indoors. Not to mention, Ninja explicitly states in the product documentation that the Woodfire is for outdoor use only... The opposing camp puts forth the idea that if you're not using smoke, the unit is fundamentally no different than a George Foreman grill or one of the Ninja (or various other brands) indoor grill products. And that, as one particular group member recently said, "The warning is for stupid people who cannot think for themselves and would start wanting compensation for damaging their kitchen." – I.R. I suppose both opinions are reasonable. But one is somewhat more reasonable than the other... Here's why. The Ninja indoor products have housings and fine screens in place to shield the top heating element from splatter or any significant contact with combustible material. They also, being designed for indoor use, have more thorough food containment and varying types of filtration to provide, as their documentation claims, a "virtually smoke-free" experience.

Notice the different mesh screens covering the top heating elements in Ninja's INDOOR cooking products.

The Woodfire products, however, (as they are designed and presented as specifically for outdoor use) have none of these protections. While there is a flat metal guard over the fan, the top heating element is still semi-exposed. The exhaust is at the top rear of the unit and has no filtering, so any smoke (or fire) created could escape directly into your indoor space.

The Woodfire top element is only (partially) shielded from directly below. It's completely unprotected from the sides

With all of this said, two facts remain: 1. Many people do, for uses other than smoke, use their Woodfire products indoors, on an ongoing basis, successfully and without incident or what they consider unfavorable outcomes. 2. Though statistically very few (only two that I can recall), there HAVE been recorded incidents of Woodfire grills causing fires. So as they say, "You do You!"

I will close with the following... Some people assert that using an outdoor product indoors could lead to an insurance company denying a damage claim. But my wife, who's been an insurance consultant for the better part of 20 years, has told me that that's mostly untrue, and that, as she puts it, "stupidity is a covered cause of loss." Happy cooking! - W