The grill was fairly easy to put together, and I was able to do it by myself contrary to the indication on the instructions.
Once we stoked and started it, it proved to be a great buyit was relatively easy to keep a low, constant temperature around 225 degrees, occasionally adding more fuel and wood to the side firebox. It does need to be watched and checked often, but is worth the effort. It retains the smoke well, even though a good amount escapes around the joints, and produced a truly enviable smoke ring on the meat.
The cast iron grates are easy to clean and really make this model superior to anything I've seen in the price range. One caveat is they MUST be cleaned and seasoned properly to ensure they won't rust, but that being said they're amazing. (One good cleaning tip I got from my grandfather, who's an old hat at smoking and grilling, is to place them in a self-cleaning oven on the clean cycle when they get really cruddy, and they come out perfect with the seasoning intact).
I have only one complaint-the first time my husband and I tried to move the grill, both of the included plastic wheels cracked around the axle, making it impossible to use them to roll the grill! I looked back over the instructions, but as I suspected, I had installed the wheels correctly. The grill was not rolled over rough terrain, just down our driveway to the backyard.
We LOVE the grill itself, but need to be able to move it to different locations around the house (backyard for parties, driveway for our use). I contacted Char-Griller about this and they were very helpful, offering to send replacements. However, I think we're going to get a set of sturdier wheels from somewhere else, not relishing the idea of replacing THOSE wheels again.
Overall, this is a great buy, and as an avid griller and smoker I'd recommend it as a great first foray into smoking.
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I've never used a smoker before, and I've never attempted to smoke anything on the grill. But I do love grilling, and I felt that my foray into the world of taking forever to make food was long overdue. Rather than buy a separate smoker for this purpose, I opted to go with the Char-Griller Side Fire Box for my Super Pro 2121 grill. I wanted a charcoal smoker anyway, and this is great because you can utilize the significant real estate of the main grill to smoke a ton of stuff at once, if you want.Plus it has the added benefit of turning your already nice-looking grill into Super Awesome Envy-Inspiring FrankenGrill From Which Propane Grill Owners Cower In Fear and Respect.
I might be overstating things a little. But it does look pretty cool.
The installation was a bit of a pain, since the perforated portions of the grill and fire box are not particularly well perforated. Rather than just popping them out, I found myself drilling some holes to weaken the connection before hammering them out. Then I had to drill out most of the screw holes myself, since they weren't cooperating either. Once that was all done though, the rest of the installation was a breeze, and the fire box has a good, solid connection to the grill.
Its performance is excellent. It easily keeps a good, constant temperature in the main grill and results in beautiful, even cooking of both large and small items.
The fire box can also be used as a small, table top grill. But you have to pick one. Once converted to a side fire box, it can no longer be used as a portable grill. I'm not sure why. It seems that with a little bit of engineering it would be easy to make a removable side fire box that converts into a portable grill. If it attached to the main grill via rails instead of bolts and the side opening was a hinged door instead of permanently punched out....
But alas, this is not the case. And as a portable grill, it would be quite heavy anyway. Maybe it's better to go to Lowe's and pick up one of those tailgater grills on wheels for $39.
If you have a grill that accepts this side fire box, get it. It's incredible.
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I bought this fire box in conjunction with the char griller and assembled the grill first. The fire box has a nice tray that slides in and out that collects the ash and coals, pull it out the side and dump it, very easy. It also fits two cast iron grates (included) on top to use as a direct grill for small jobs.One note, when mounting it to the main grill body, be prepared with good drill and 5/16" bit, the instructions say that the panel can be knocked out, but you'll be drilling it and then hammering it out. The instructions say this MAY be necessary, but it IS required.
There are some spacers that go in the bottom area to support the box but mine seem to be a but too long as the firebox sits at a crooked angle to the grill, I'll remove them and file em down a 1/4" or so since it looks funny.
Honest reviews on Char-Griller 2424 Side Fire Box, Fits 2121, 2123, 2137
My husband and I purchased this company's Outlaw BBQ pit, along with their table top/side fire box (which is supposedly convertible). We wanted to use it as a side fire box, but we received no instructions or manuals on how to do this. You have to go online to their website to find the correct owner manual on how to install the side fire box correctly. But by that time, my husband had already diagnosed the problem and assembled the thing. The problem was that the spacer tubes that were provided were literally twice as long as they should have been (someone in engineering messed up).After trying to call their customer service (which is closed on the weekends BTW), my husband went to our hardware store to find the proper parts. With the assistance of our hardware guy, they came up with something that worked perfectly.
We, then, emailed customer service with pictures to report the spacer tubes error. The only response that we received was that they would send us new spacer tubes. By this time of course, we had already solved the problem and had absolutely no need for new spacer tubes, as we already purchased our own properly sized spacers.
Actually, customer service told us that we "did not follow proper protocol according to the manual" (which BTW, was not properly provided). They refused to do anything for us! We are highly disappointed with their customer service.
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