Testing Trisa’s raclette grill with extraction: 1–0 to the smell
3.2.2026
Translation: Natalie McKay
Support: Davide Arizzoli
Cutter: Nico Bernasconi
Video: Piero Istrice
Raclette without the smell? The Pure Melt from Trisa aims to achieve the impossible. As I discovered during my test, it’s missed the mark. The fan is too weak, the filter has too many holes.
In Switzerland, advertising has hammered into our heads that raclette should smell, with slogans like «Chli stinke muess es («It has to stink a bit», linked page in German)». We still fight back: if we’re having fondue or raclette, we ventilate the room, simmer cinnamon sticks and cloves in a pot of water on the hob, put out bowls of coffee grounds, vinegar or baking soda. Ultimately, all this is of little or no use.
The Pure Melt raclette grill from Trisa aims to tackle the problem at its root. The appliance boasts an extractor device for odours. The smelly air is passed through an activated carbon filter and should, in theory, be odour-free when it comes out of the appliance.
In terms of technology, Trisa has come up with a clever design. The base of the Pure Melt contains a fan, which the extractor unit sits on top of. The extraction openings can be operated using sliders and control dials, depending on whether you want to extract the air above the melting cheese, or the grease and frying smells from the two grill plates.
This takes up space. With a width of 27 centimetres, the Pure Melt is massive. If it’s positioned in the middle of a standard dining table with a width of 90 centimetres, it doesn’t leave much space for eating. At just over 30 centimetres per person, the dinner plate just fits in there.
You might also be familiar with the problem of raclette grills that are too big, which is exactly why our family opted for a slimline model. The Style 8 from Trisa shows that even a two-level grill doesn’t have to be much deeper than 20 centimetres. Or you can go for a single-level one.
Back to the Pure Melt. It feeds eight people, since it has space for this many pans, including a shelf on the lower level. The pans are on the small side, with internal dimensions around seven by seven centimetres, providing just about enough space for pre-cut raclette slices from the supermarket. For grilling, there are two plates with grooves and a non-stick coating. Each one measures 42 by eleven centimetres and can only be used on one side. Electric heating coils conduct heat from below to the grill plates, and radiate heat from above onto the cheese in the pans.
The Pure Melt has an output of 1,500 watts. It works best if you actually set the control dial to maximum so the cheese melts quickly. In my first test, I didn’t turn up the heat enough, which only made the slice of raclette sweat. But if I heat it to the highest level, the grill plate also reaches the maximum temperature, and I measure up to 250 degrees. This often results in overcooked vegetables or meat. I would’ve liked to see separate controls here, but this is something very few raclette and tabletop grills actually offer, such as this one:
Less grease, less odour
The cheese is melting, the food is frying – so far the Pure Melt has the basic requirements covered. But how does it perform when extracting grease and odours? I test this with two different measuring devices: my nose and a device for air analysis. I also use swarm intelligence, i.e. the noses of the people on an entire floor at the Galaxus offices.
My nose still detects the smell of cheese in my living room after dinner at home. But it’s not as strong as when we use our conventional raclette grill, as my wife and my daughter, who are both very sensitive to odours, confirm.
For an objective result, I look at the data recorded by the air measuring device. I’m particularly interested in VOCs in the air. These are volatile organic compounds which are produced, for example, when cooking, baking and frying. Normally, the value at home fluctuates around 100 ppb (parts per billion). When cheese is melting and onions are frying, it goes up – to between 300 and 400 ppb. That’s not an insignificant amount, but it’s much less than if I cook something in a frying pan, for example. Then I even reach 1,000 ppb.
With tiny particles up to 2.5 micrometres in size, commonly known as fine dust, the difference between the frying pan and the Trisa raclette grill is less noticeable. The effect of the extractor unit can’t actually be measured. This is probably due to the fact that, although grease droplets are tiny, they’re still too heavy to be sucked in by the weak fan. My test in the office made this failure clear: even at the highest suction level, the appliance was completely splattered in grease after a few slices of bacon on the grill plate. Nothing was sucked in.
At best, the Pure Melt captures a hint of fine cheese vapours and guides them to its coarse-pored filters. The filters in the extractor fan over your hob are much denser and therefore more effective.
Fan starts up
The fan has two levels. Level 1 does nothing. At level 2, I can confirm the Trisa appliance slightly reduces the note of cheese in the living room air. But, at the higher level, the fan no longer just produces a quiet whisper, it sounds more like a hairdryer. I measure a value of 58 decibels from half a metre away, just below the limit of 60 decibels, which is defined as «annoying».
Cleaning and spare parts
After dinner, I let the Pure Melt cool down before cleaning it. The grill plates are quick to clean thanks to their non-stick coating. I coated them with a little oil to prevent food sticking and leaving residue behind – an extra step that was worth it. The pans and spatulas are also easy to clean by rinsing them in hot water, but Trisa says they can’t be put in the dishwasher.
And how do you clean the extractor unit? I start by taking it apart. The grease filter sits directly above the fan. I clean this by rinsing it in water, and dry it thoroughly. The grease filter is the only part that can be put in the dishwasher.
There’s even splashes of grease on the flaps in the extractor unit itself. I can get rid of some of them by rinsing by hand, but it helps to clean the hard-to-reach areas with a narrow bottle brush. Then, I dry that part with a cloth, but I also leave it to air for a few hours before putting it back in the box. All in all, thorough cleaning takes me almost half an hour more than a grill without an extractor unit.
According to Trisa, I don’t need to worry about the activated carbon filters. They can remain in the appliance for a whole season, but I should replace them at the start of a new season. Trisa can’t tell how often the Pure Melt is in use, there’s no operating hours counter in the appliance. If you use the raclette grill frequently, you may need more than one set of filters per season. At least 15 francs for a pair is a fair price.
In a nutshell
It still stinks
Trisa’s Pure Melt isn’t the first raclette grill with an odour filter to be launched on the market. German manufacturer Severin beat them to it more than a year ago with the Sevento. Is the latecomer at least better? No. When the fan’s running at the highest level, it’s annoyingly loud. The cheese smells a little less, but as soon as grease starts splattering because I’m using the grill surface, I don’t notice any difference between the Trisa raclette grill with extraction and its traditional competitors without this feature. The smell of cheese and bacon still lingers in my living room for a long time. There’s no denying the Pure Melt is a good raclette grill. But I’m really disappointed by its supposed standout feature. The comparatively high price isn’t justified. Instead, I recommend an air purifier to combat odours and pollutants in your living room.
Pro
- Good non-stick coating on grill plates and pans
- Affordable replacement filters
- Separate closing and opening of the extraction openings on both levels
- Regulation of the heating temperature to any value
Contra
- The extractor unit, pans and grill plates aren’t dishwasher-safe
- Falls short as soon as food makes it greasy
- Odours are barely filtered
- Quite loud at the highest level
Martin Jungfer
Head of Content
Martin.Jungfer@digitecgalaxus.chJournalist since 1997. Stopovers in Franconia (or the Franken region), Lake Constance, Obwalden, Nidwalden and Zurich. Father since 2014. Expert in editorial organisation and motivation. Focus on sustainability, home office tools, beautiful things for the home, creative toys and sports equipment.
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