Gotham Steel Smokeless Grill Review: Is It Really Smokeless?

A fan under the grates pulls smoke downward instead of letting it drift up into your face. That is the whole idea behind the Gotham Steel Smokeless Grill, and it is a real mechanism.

There is a catch that has nothing to do with smoke. Gotham Steel does not sell this grill any more.

The short version: The smokeless claim half holds. The downdraft fan and drip tray cut smoke a lot with lean food and barely at all with bacon. The Gotham Steel grill is still sold on Amazon, so it is not gone. But its maker’s own site no longer lists it, so if you want a grill with a clearer future, pick the Ninja Sizzle indoor grill and griddle. It hits 500F, swaps between grill and griddle plates, and Ninja still sells it at $149.99. The buying rule for any indoor grill: match the grill to the fat content of what you cook, because fat is what makes smoke, not the grill.

Is the Gotham Steel Smokeless Grill Still Sold?

Not on its own website. The Gotham Steel site now sells cookware sets, skillets, saute pans, pasta pots, stock pots, bakeware and crisper trays. There is no electric grill category. The grill is still listed on Amazon, and stock there can change, so check the listing before you decide.

Search its store for “smokeless grill” and you get four results: a stovetop double grill plate at $49.99, a sandwich maker, a crisper tray set and a frying pan. The electric grill is not in the maker’s catalogue now.

That matters for two reasons. Replacement grill plates and drip pans can get scarce once a maker stops promoting a line, and a scratched plate is the part that usually fails first. Warranty support also thins out.

You can still buy the grill on Amazon. If you want to see what owners say, the Amazon customer reviews page is worth ten minutes. Just know the maker’s own site no longer lists it, so support may be thinner.

Our Picks at a Glance

• Best overall replacement: Ninja Sizzle Indoor Grill and GriddleJump to review ↓
• Best budget pick: Hamilton Beach Electric Indoor Searing GrillJump to review ↓
• Best for grill marks plus air frying: Ninja Foodi Smart XL Indoor Grill and Air FryerJump to review ↓

How the Three Current Grills Compare

	Ninja Sizzle GR101	Hamilton Beach 25360	Ninja Foodi DG551
Smoke control	Perforated mesh lid	Closed lid, large drip tray	Cyclonic hot air, closed hood
Max heat	500F	450F	500F grate and air
Power	1,450 W	Not published	1,760 W
Cook surface	14 x 9 in plates	118 sq in	Grate plus 4-quart basket
Also does	Griddle plate included	Searing only	Air fry, roast, bake, broil, dehydrate
Maker’s price	$149.99	$84.99	$199.99

None of these is truly smokeless either. They handle smoke differently, and that is the honest way to compare them. Cooking outdoors is still the clean answer, and our guide to small grills for balconies and patios covers that route.

1. Ninja Sizzle Indoor Grill and Griddle: Best Overall Replacement

This is the closest thing to a direct replacement, and it is the one Ninja is actively selling at $149.99. Two plates come in the box. One is ribbed for grill marks and one is flat for eggs, pancakes and smash burgers.

Smoke is handled by a perforated mesh lid rather than a downdraft fan. The mesh traps splatter and slows the plume, then lets steam escape so food does not stew. It is a different approach from Gotham Steel’s, and it leans on containment instead of airflow.

Heat is the real upgrade. 500F is well above what most nonstick indoor grills reach, and Ninja specifies even heat edge to edge. Hot edges matter, because uneven plates are the usual reason indoor grill marks look patchy.

Plates have high walls and grease channels, so drippings run off instead of pooling under the food. That helps with smoke for the same reason a drip tray does. Wash the plates with a soft sponge the way you would clean an electric griddle, and skip metal tools.

Who should buy it: Anyone replacing a smokeless grill who also wants a flat top. It is the best all-round indoor grill of the three for a small kitchen, especially if you cook for two to four people.

2. Hamilton Beach Electric Indoor Searing Grill: Best Budget Pick

Hamilton Beach lists this one at $84.99, and it is the cheapest current grill here by a wide margin. It takes the opposite approach to smoke: keep the lid closed and let the hood hold vapour in rather than moving it around.

That closed lid does something a downdraft fan cannot. It reflects heat back onto the top of the food, so a steak cooks from both sides and a thicker cut finishes without drying out. Grill marks come from the plate below.

The temperature dial runs from 200F to 450F, which is a real range rather than four vague steps. Low settings are useful for sausages and chicken thighs, where high heat burns the outside before the middle is safe. Check the centre with a thermometer instead of guessing, and clean the meat thermometer between checks.

Cleanup is the quiet strength. The grill plate, the lid and the extra-large drip tray all come off and go in the dishwasher, and the nonstick coating is PFAS-free. At 6.81 inches tall it is the only one of the three that stores easily on a shelf.

Who should buy it: Cooks who want indoor steaks and chops for under $100 and have nowhere to keep a tall appliance. Pair it with a good metal spatula set for the flat foods and heat-resistant gloves for lifting the hot plate out.

3. Ninja Foodi Smart XL Indoor Grill and Air Fryer: Best for Grill Marks Plus Air Frying

Ninja lists this at $199.99, down from $299.99. It is the most capable machine here and the largest, at 18.74 inches long and 14.45 inches tall.

The mechanism is worth understanding. A 500F grate does the searing from below while a fan drives 500F air down over the top. Ninja calls that cyclonic grilling, and the practical effect is that food browns on both sides without being flipped constantly.

That same fan and element run the air fry mode. So this replaces a countertop grill and a dedicated air fryer at once, which is the argument for its price. It also roasts, bakes, broils and dehydrates.

The built-in thermometer is the feature people keep. You pick the protein and the doneness, and the grill stops when the centre hits temperature. That removes the guesswork that ruins most indoor steaks. The basket cleans up much like an air fryer basket, and the parts are dishwasher safe.

Who should buy it: Anyone happy to give up real counter space for one machine that grills and air fries. If you already own an air fryer, the Sizzle is the better value.

How a Smokeless Grill Actually Works

Smoke from grilling is mostly burning fat. Drippings hit hot metal, break down and turn into visible particles within seconds.

A smokeless grill attacks that in two places. First, a fan in the base pulls air down through slots in the cooking grate. The airflow carries rising vapour downward instead of letting it drift up past your face.

Second, a drip tray sits under the grate and collects grease before it can bake onto hot metal. Keeping that fat cool is half the job. Many owners add a little water to the tray for exactly that reason. It is a common technique for grills of this type, not a printed instruction in the Gotham Steel manual.

Put together, a fan and a tray do cut smoke compared with a bare grill plate over an element. That part of the marketing is fair.

Where the Word Smokeless Falls Apart

A fan cannot stop fat from smoking the instant it lands on a 400F surface. It can only move the smoke somewhere else, faster than it would rise on its own.

Lean food barely tests the system. Chicken breast, shrimp, fish and vegetables release very little fat, so the grill runs close to its name. That is where the claim holds.

Fatty food breaks it. Bacon, sausages and 80/20 burgers all release grease onto a hot plate, and some of that smokes before the fan can move it. Expect a haze and, in a small kitchen with no hood, a smoke alarm that eventually notices.

The honest framing is smoke-reduced, not smokeless. Any indoor grill that browns food has to get the surface hot enough to burn fat, and burning fat makes smoke. Venting outside is the only way around the physics, which is why balcony grilling rules and setting up a small patio for grilling are worth reading first.

What the Gotham Steel Grill Got Right

Credit where it is due. The downdraft design was the right idea, and it was cheap enough that a lot of apartment cooks got their first indoor grill because of it.

The grate was the good part. A ceramic nonstick surface over a ribbed plate released food with almost no oil, and the Amazon listing describes it as metal-utensil safe. The manual puts the grill plate and drip pan in the dishwasher-safe column.

Power was respectable too. The manual for the 1618 model lists 1,500 watts and 120.75 square inches of cooking area. That is more surface than the Hamilton Beach grill and the same order of power as the Ninja Sizzle.

It also stored flat, which is more than you can say for the Ninja Foodi grill. In a kitchen where every appliance competes for a cupboard, that counted. Small kitchen gadgets worth buying when you cook for one covers the same trade between capability and storage.

The Ceramic Nonstick Coating Question

Ceramic nonstick is a thin, glass-like layer applied over metal. It is slick when new and it does not need oil to release food, which is why so many indoor grills use it.

It also wears out. The layer is thin, and both heat cycling and scratching thin it further. Loss of slickness over months of use is the most common complaint in owner reviews of ceramic nonstick surfaces. That applies to a grill grate just as much as to a pan.

Three habits slow it down. Use wood or silicone tools rather than metal, even on a plate marked metal-safe. Keep the dial below maximum for everyday cooking. Let the plate cool before washing, because cold water on a hot coating causes micro-cracks.

Our explainer on what nonstick cookware is covers the chemistry in plain words. If safety is what bothers you, is ceramic-titanium cookware safe goes through what these coatings contain.

Four Dial Settings Are Not a Thermostat

The Gotham Steel grill used a removable probe dial with Warm, Low, Medium, High and OFF. There was no numbered readout, so you cooked by feel.

A dial like that switches the element on and off rather than holding a set temperature. Surface heat rises and falls between cycles, and that swing gets wider once you load the plate with cold food.

Two things follow. Food near the edges cooks slower than food in the middle, and a full plate drops the surface temperature fast. Cooking in two batches beats crowding one.

Compare that with the Hamilton Beach dial, which runs 200F to 450F in a continuous range. The Ninja Foodi goes further and measures the food itself with a probe. Numbered control is the biggest upgrade in indoor grills since the Gotham Steel launched. A panini press or a griddle pan is another route to steadier heat.

Cleanup: What Goes in Water and What Never Does

Split any electric grill into two halves. The removable half is the grill plate and the drip tray, and both go in the dishwasher on the Gotham Steel grill.

The other half is the base, and it never touches water. It holds the element, the fan motor and the wiring, so it gets a damp cloth on the outside only. The temperature probe is in the same category.

Skip abrasives entirely. The manual warns against steel wool and harsh scouring pads, because scratching the coating shortens its life faster than heat alone does. Warm soapy water and a soft sponge are enough if you wash it before grease hardens.

Let the plate cool first. The same rule applies to hard-anodized cookware and to any ceramic pan: thermal shock does more damage than dirt.

What Owners Report Over Time

Owner reviews of this grill fall into a clear pattern, and it matches the mechanism. Easy cleanup and fast heating get praised while the grill is new. Coating wear and sticking come up once a grill has some age on it.

Smoke feedback splits by menu. People grilling chicken and vegetables report very little smoke. People cooking bacon and fattier cuts report plenty, fan or no fan.

That split is the most useful thing in those reviews. It tells you the grill is not broken when it smokes with bacon. It is doing what physics allows.

None of that is a reason to avoid indoor grilling. It is a reason to buy for the food you actually cook, and to keep a window open.

What to Look For in an Indoor Grill

Feature	Why it matters	What to look for
Temperature control	Steady heat means even cooking	A numbered range, not four labels
Max heat	Browning needs real heat	450F at minimum, 500F is better
Removable plate	Cleanup and replacement	Dishwasher safe, sold as a spare part
Drip tray size	Grease that sits on metal smokes	Large, removable, easy to empty
Height	Cabinet clearance and storage	Measure before you buy
Still in production	Parts and warranty	Listed on the maker’s own site

That last row is the one people skip. A retailer listing can stay live for years after a product stops being made, which is exactly what happened here.

Making an Indoor Grill Work in a Small Kitchen

Run the extractor fan before you turn the grill on, not after the smoke appears. Airflow that is already moving carries vapour out instead of letting it settle into fabric.

Pat food dry and trim heavy fat caps. Surface moisture steams instead of browning, and trimmed fat is smoke you never make. Lean cuts indoors and fatty cuts outdoors is a sensible split.

Storage is the other half of the problem. Countertop organization ideas for a small kitchen helps keep a grill from becoming permanent counter furniture. Storing pots and pans in a small kitchen covers the cupboard side, and vertical storage ideas for small kitchens is the next step when the cupboards are full.

Power draw is modest. A 1,450-watt to 1,760-watt grill pulls less than most full-size ovens running for the same stretch. Our guide to reducing kitchen energy use in a small apartment covers where that sits, and compact Energy Star appliances for small kitchens covers the bigger items.

If You Actually Want Smoke Flavour

Some people buy an indoor grill hoping for barbecue flavour. That is the opposite goal, and no smokeless grill delivers it. Smoke flavour comes from wood smoke touching food, which is exactly what these machines remove.

If flavour is the point, go the other way. A smoker box on a gas grill is the cheapest entry, and our smoker box roundup covers which ones hold up. Using an electric smoker and using a Masterbuilt electric smoker both cover the set-and-forget route.

Bigger outdoor options are a different budget. Propane smokers and offset smokers for beginners are the two paths worth comparing. For plain grilling, gas and charcoal combos and gas grills under $500 cover most needs. Infrared grills get closest to indoor searing heat.

Renting with a balcony? Portable grills for apartment living and small-space grilling accessories you actually need are the practical pair.

Mistakes People Make With Indoor Grills

• Expecting zero smoke from fatty meat. The fan moves smoke. It cannot stop fat from burning on hot metal.
• Leaving the drip tray dry. Grease sitting on hot metal smokes. A little water keeps it cooler.
• Using metal tools on a coated plate. Scratches shorten a coating’s life faster than heat does.
• Submerging the base. Only the plate and tray are washable. The base holds the fan and the element.
• Overloading the plate. Cold food drops the surface temperature, and the food steams instead of searing.
• Buying on price alone. Check the maker’s site first, because spare plates vanish once a line ends.
• Grilling with no ventilation. Open a window and start the extractor fan before the first piece of food goes on.

Which One Should You Buy?

The Gotham Steel Smokeless Grill did roughly what it claimed, and its maker no longer lists it on its own site. It is still on Amazon, so the choice is yours: buy it there if the price is right, or pick one of the alternatives below.

Buy the Ninja Sizzle if you want one current machine that grills and griddles. Buy the Hamilton Beach searing grill if the budget is under $100 or the cupboard is short. Buy the Ninja Foodi grill only if you want it to replace an air fryer too.

Whichever you pick, buy for the food you cook most. Lean proteins and vegetables suit any of the three. Bacon and fatty burgers belong outside, and small grills for balconies and patios is the right next read for that.

Related Guides

• Best Small Grills for Balconies and Patios
• Balcony Grilling Safety Tips and Rules
• How to Set Up a Small Patio for Grilling
• Small-Space Grilling Accessories You Actually Need
• Is Ceramic-Titanium Cookware Safe?
• What Is Nonstick Cookware?
• Best Portable Grills for Apartment Living
• Best Meat Thermometer for Smoking

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Gotham Steel Smokeless Grill actually smokeless?

Not completely. It cuts smoke a lot with lean foods like chicken breast, shrimp or vegetables, because the fan pulls rising vapour down and away. Fatty meats are different. Bacon, sausages and higher-fat burgers still smoke once grease drips and heats up, even with the fan running.

Does Gotham Steel still sell the Smokeless Grill?

Not on gothamsteel.com. The site now sells cookware, bakeware, crisper trays, a sandwich maker and a stovetop double grill plate, with no electric grill category at all. The grill is still sold on Amazon, so you can buy it there, but the maker's own store no longer promotes it.

How does a smokeless grill actually work?

A fan in the base pulls air down through slots in the cooking grate. That downdraft drags smoke and steam away from the food instead of letting it rise into the room. A drip tray underneath catches grease before it sits on hot metal long enough to smoke on its own.

Does the ceramic nonstick coating on the Gotham Steel grill wear out?

Yes, over time. Loss of slickness is the most common complaint in owner reviews of ceramic nonstick surfaces generally. The coating performs best when new and needs more oil after months of regular use. Metal tools and very high heat both speed that up, so wooden or silicone tools help.

What is the best smokeless indoor grill you can buy now?

The Ninja Sizzle indoor grill and griddle is the closest current replacement. Ninja lists it at $149.99 with 14-inch by 9-inch interchangeable grill and griddle plates, 1,450 watts and heat to 500F. A perforated mesh lid cuts smoke and splatter, and that lid is removable and dishwasher safe.

Can you put an indoor electric grill in the dishwasher?

Only the removable parts. On the Gotham Steel grill, the grill plate and drip pan are dishwasher safe while the base and the temperature probe are not. The base holds the heating element, the fan and the wiring, so it gets wiped with a damp cloth and never submerged.