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I've done plenty of research and seen many grills before picking the 'Char-Griller Pro 3001'. I think if you really want a solid grill that lasts forever, get a Weber. For me paying $700+ for a similar Weber isn't an option. You also should beware of the inexpensive stainless steel grills (anything under $400). Their not stainless, the metal is thin & flimsy and they start showing signs of rust in a matter of months. I even saw some demos with rust stains?? This shouldn't be a problem with the finish on the Char-Griller. Plus I noticed it ranked well in Consumer Reports. I picked mine up at Menards for $149.00 (on 06/26/09).
At times it was challenging to put together. The pictures and directions could've been more descriptive on which way things face when you put them together (ie: the legs). Plus the location of parts within the box. I had to find parts that I needed early in the installation that were wrapped up with things late in the installation?! Once you get it together it's pretty solid. It starts easily and heats up fast. For me in less than 5-10 min. on high the temperature gage was at 650 degrees (on a windy 70 degree day in Chicago). The grates are porcelain coated cast iron. That's a feature you want to look for in a grill. You'll see those on higher priced models. The grates have a side for 'Searing' and a side for 'Grilling'. They cleanup easily and give GREAT grill marks. Now mind you my last grill was a 12 year old 'Char-Broil' that was shot and I've only used this one twice. But from what I can tell (so far) unless you want to pay a ton for something better this is a great grill for the price.
Update: 07-27-09
It's still a great grill for the price. I have one thing I never liked and if you're coming from an older grill like me you should be aware of this. Older gas grills (5 or 10 years) had the burners right along the bottom of the grill base with a metal shield over the top. You then had 5 inches or so between the shield and the grilling grates. This would give you space for 'Lava Rock', 'Ceramic Brickets' and some wood chips if you choose. The rocks or bricks would catch grease and reduce flare ups. To keep the grill clean you change the rock out once a season or so. NONE OF THE NEW GRILLS (including the Char-Griller) are setup like this. They ALL have the burners and shields right below the grilling grates. And you have no room for anything below the burners. So you need to be sure to keep the bottom of the grill CLEAN and CLEAR of debris (drip trays too). As I stated before this grill heats fast and puts out a good flame. Well after cooking about 10 times or so I had some debris and an oily film on the bottom from cooking & basting things. Yep you guessed it, FIRE, FIRE! Luckily I caught it after just a couple minutes of cooking and shut it down and put everything out. I cleaned out the bottom turned it back on and it was fine. So be safe and keep it clean!
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After lots of research settled on this grill and at under $200, nothing compares. After three months of use, looks and works like new. The cast iron construction leads to even heat, the burners work well, there are trays on both sides (one is a side burner with a flat cover), and it does a great job of grilling.The drip TRAY is easy to reach (as opposed to a hole that a can hangs under) and the barrel construction also lends to the even heat of the grill.
The smoker attachment is a nice idea for those who want the flexibility and convenience of a gas grill with the option for smoke/charcoal; although I have not used it I think I will be purchasing the attachment before next Thanksgiving (nothing like a smoked turkey on the grill).
Cons: Assembly is a little bit of work and is best accomplished with two people. It is not something you want to do in a hurry and while not easy, it wasn't an overwhelming challenge either. In other words, yes, you have to do a little bit of thinking and it really helped to have another person to verify understanding and help to hold pieces. If you feel you are mechanically challenged, could be frustrating, but don't be scared away. Assembly time for two people who don't do much if any mechanical work, was about 90 leisurely minutes.
With so many nice-looking but cheaply made grills with cheap parts out there, the Char-Griller stands out with it's simple efficient design and comparatively heavy parts.
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If you are looking for a good gas grill and you are on a budget, then the $170 for this is probably a good buy. Frankly I don't see the need for $500, $800, $2000 grills that are mostly name buying or grill envy inducing. You buy a grill to cook food not to be backyard bling. If you one of those huge backyard million dollar mansion types, then your not reaidng this anyway and move on to you Weber's and such. For us down to earth people this will suffice.I've read alot of reviews saying that the directions are utterly useless and hard to understand. I don't know if Char-griller re-wrote the directions or what but I didn't find them difficult to follow. Maybe if you are the type that only looks at the pictures to assemble things, you might have a little prblems, are they are all in grey scale and not color, but even the picies are marked with stickers saying things like, "this side faces inside" or "this is the long wired burner tube". Sometime you might even feel alittle insulted that they tell you the burned tube has a longer wire attached because its some 4 inches longer and VERY obvious. But the directions have words besides pictures and they are quite clear on what to do and what pieces you need. Plus the screws/bolts/washers are very nicely packaged with sizes printed on both sides of the pack.
I'm not mechanically inclined by anymeans, but save your wallet some heartache and put it together yourself. all you need is one phillips head screw driver (maybe a pliers for when you attach the warming grate). But other than that its simple to assemble, eventhough it took just over two hours doing it by myself. But even the directions tell you that you need two people. Well you don't. The hardest part is getting the cart legs to stay put when your attaching the all and connecting them.
There was only one piece that I had to bend slightly to make it fit and that was the front panel. There was alittle too much bend in the top of the piece but once I bent it down about 10 degrees it fit perfectly. As for the rest of the grill, everything lined up perfectly and went together without any naughty words needing to be uttered.
This grill heats up very quickly, but then again I've never had a gas grill before so maybe everyone does, but I can get the temp to 600+ in around 5 minutes.
The one thing that I noticed is that there seems to be quite a bit of manufacturing oil residue. And it is real sticky when you putting the top and bottom grill barrels on. The directions say to run it for 15 minutes with the ild closed to get rid of it, but there is still quite a bit left. Maybe I just got an oil happy factory cutter, but I won't speculate on that.
The surface area is quite large for the over all size of the grill. Most grills seem to be wide and shallow where as this is quite deep and could be an optical illusion, but nice size for my family of four.
I'll update with more comments when I get a few meals put on this.
Over all I am very happy with the grill and my decision to assemble it myself.
The three piece grate system seems to stay in place well enough and should present a problem. They are also porcelain coated cast iron and should hold the heat nicely and be easy enough to clean. Another cleaning feature I like is the easy to reach drip pan. some people have written that it doesn't drain well, but I can't comment on that yet, but will in an update post later. The nice sized pull out pan seems large enough to not have to worry about it overflowing except in the large of cookouts doing multiple full loads.
I was very suprised at the weight of this grill for the cost. This looks and feels like a heavy charcoal grill (probably since Char-griller is more known for that type of grill). I liked it better than the shiny, "polish me every weekend" looking cookers out there and it lends itself to being rather manly in appearance as apposed to a lot of the fairy foo-foo stuff out there. The box weighed around 90 pounds and assembled with the tank on it it still sits around the same weight, so I don't think anyone short of tornado ally dwellers need worry about it blowing over, even with a cover on it.
I would have liked to be able to have those lava rocks or similar things in the bottom of the grill to help against flare ups from the food juices but there doesn't seem to be alot of room to put stuff like that in there as the heat shields are within a few inches of the grates. I remember a friends older grill have lots of room and the burners/heat shields were under all the lava rocks and it looked nice and it helped with flare-ups quite a bit, but it seems all the grills are made like this now. Hmm. I wonder why.
One thing I'd like to see changed is the thin side tray. Not so much because it feels flimsy, because it feels solid enough to hold stuff, but when you move the grill, I'd like to see something alittle more robust to grab hold of to move this 90+ pounds around with.
In closing, if you want a gas grill, don't have alot of money, want a masculine look, buy this. remember its the quality of the cook that makes a good meal and not spending alot of money on asthestics.
Anyway, I'm off to the store to buy some grilling food so I can update this later.
Honest reviews on Char-Griller 3001 Grillin' Pro 40,800-BTU Gas Grill
I have grilled on gas grills for close to 40 years and decided not to rebuild the Brinkman I had owned for about 10 years again. I was never all that happy with it anyway. I looked at lots of Grills and read all the reviews I could find.My price limit was $200, due to the effect of the economy on my business in the last few years. I found my Char Griller 3001 at Lowes, and brought it home fully assembled, so cannot speak to assembly problems. What finally tipped me toward the Brinkman was that it was one of the few LP grills I found that could hit upwards of 600°F in less than 10 minutes under nearly any conditions. It actually hit 650° in under 5 min. at an ambient temperature of 80° for me. The fact that this is a LP grill with no open back like almost all the others, and the very heavily constructed barrel shape with two stacks on the top, keeps the heat in the grill, where you want it.
The first thing I used the grill for, after seasoning it according to instructions, was to smoke 10 lbs of chicken leg quarters. I put a smoker box with wood chips and chunks above the left burner, and dropped a Bush's bean can over the stack on the left, to hold the smoke in better. Once the wood began smoking, I turned the left burner from high to medium. The middle burner was off during the whole cook and the right burner I kept on low. This arrangement kept the temperature around 425°. I experienced one small flare up near the back of the right burner, but there was enough room, using the grates and shelf, to move the chicken away from the flare up temporarily, and it went out quickly, once I put the lid back down. Due to only having one stack open, the flare up was more of a "smoker" than a big flame, and the quality of the chicken didn't suffer at all, like the burned pieces of chicken that I often got on other grills, where a flare up turns into huge flames instead of mostly smoke. The chicken took about 50 minutes, turning and moving the pieces as needed. It was easily as good as chicken done on my "low and slow" charcoal and wood smoker.
My next project was grilling 10 lbs of rib tips. I again used both outside burners on low to medium.... no smoker box or wood chips, but only one stack open. The rib tips spent most of their time over the middle of the grill or on the top shelf, putting each piece over a burner for long enough to get a nice sear on both sides. I maintained a temperature of 450° throughout the cook, until the rib tips were all done to an internal temperature of 189°. Once again, some minor flare ups, due tho the greasiness of some of the pieces, but they were more smoky than anything, creating no big scramble to keep the meat from burning up.
The tips turned out tender and juicy, but putting them in my smoker for three hours or more and bringing them up to the same temperature more slowly tenderizes the meat even more. Still, great results for a gas grill, when time is limited.
I ordered a 3055 grill cover from Amazon, as Lowes doesn't carry them. In the first week before the cover came, it rained three days, but there were no problems with the electronic ignition and no rust starting that I could find. As others have noted, there is a brace that keeps you from accessing the valve on the LP tank easily. I'd rather have it be functional than pretty, so I removed the little clip that holds the gas line to the left front leg of the grill, and set the tank under the left shelf on a 4" high concrete block. Other than that engineering oversight, I think this is the best grill I've ever owned.
Added 9/20/11
This grill still really rocks! I've done everything from Chicken to Spare ribs and country style ribs. Great sear, and amazingly juicy results. Short cooking time compared to any other grills I've had. The minor flare ups burn out so quickly due to the high temperature of the heat shields, that they contribute more to the flavor than burn the meat.
Make sure to clean the grill by running all burners full blast until it heats up to 600°F then turn down so it stays around 600 for a total of about 8 minutes. Once the grill cools, remember to empty the drip pan before the grease hardens. Do Not leave the grill unattended while cleaning, as if the temp goes beyond 650° before everything's all "burnt off", it will ignite..... I mean the whole thing! I did that once and had to leave it burn itself out after turning the burners off. Burned off a bit of the paint on one end right where the lid meets the base of the grill. Hi Temp black paint fixed that. Now I keep a second bean can handy, so in case it ever happens again, I can drop a can on both stacks, killing the burners and the air flow at the same time. You couldn't do that on a typical gas grill with a wide open back!
This is an edit after owning this grill for at least 10 months now.(June 6, 2012)
Every now and then you need to remove the heat reflectors, and take a big scraper or food turning blade to the inside of the bottom and scrape everything you can into the drip pan. It's rather difficult, but if you don't, the whole thing will catch fire while heating it up to 600 degrees(or more.... it gets there quickly!) to clean the grates and heat reflectors.
If I'm doing something like a whole chicken, or a brisket, I can drop cans over both stacks and turn the heat down as low as it will go. It still holds the temp at about 400 degrees, which makes it possible to do a whole brisket in just a few hours when I don't have the time to tend my charcoal and wood smoker all day long. I've never before had a grill that would maintain high temps so easily and while consuming such small amounts of gas. Once I mastered it, the meat is juicer and better tasting than ever before because it seals the goodness right in!
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