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List Price: $299.00
Sale Price: $149.99
Today's Bonus: 50% Off
This is an entry-level smoker. To make it work you will need to do the web research and build a baffle, add thermometers at grill level (or preferably get a digital dual thermometer), build a charcoal basket out of expanded steel and extend the chimney. For me these were all fun projects and I can get it to maintain 200-250 degrees and have turned out great ribs and pork shoulders. Be forewarned that it will start to rust the moment you buy it and non tinkerers may not enjoy all the fuss.
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*** Update -9/10/2012 -The grill has all but given up the ghost. It is completely rusting to pieces despite being protected from the elements when not in use. The tray which holds the coals melted under the heat of repeated uses and bowed in the middle so that it can no longer be adjusted. There is a hole that has rusted through the bottom of the smoker box. This is all within less than a year of use (I probably cooked on it about 20 times since purchasing it). Words can not begin to explain how disappointed i am in this purchase; I will never buy a char-broil product again -not even one of their gas grilles -after my positively awful experience with this grille ***
Before I moved halfway across the country, I had a basic Weber charcoal grill which I absolutely loved and did a wonderful job of cooking my food. I had that grille for over 8 years and when I moved, I gave it to a friend and the grill still looked pretty new despite heavy use; no rust, nice paint, etc.
Since I moved into a much bigger house and planned on entertaining, I wanted a new grill that had much more real-estate to cook food for more people at once. I also in the last couple of years had gotten into slow cooking with indirect heat and this grill seemed like an ideal solution. Here is a recount of my experience with it so far:
Unpacking and Setup:
The box was so heavy that my wife couldn't even move it into the garage. Fortunately, it wasn't raining outside and the weight seemed rather reassuring to me. I like heavy stuff for cooking because it usually means good things for even heat distribution and retention. It took me about an hour to setup the grill with some hand tools and a power drill. The instructions are very tricky and you have to pay attention to the types of bolts being called for in each step. Some of the descriptions are very similar and you can accidentally use the wrong bolt and then have to take half the stuff apart in order to get the right bolts in the right place. Overall, the setup wasn't too tricky although I tend to be on the "handy" side of the curve when it comes to projects. It would definitely be faster with a second person helping out; particularly with the lid.
Initial Impressions:
I was surprised to see that there is absolutely no insulation anywhere on this grille. For it's size, this didn't bode well particularly considering that the smoke box is offset so much. I had trouble imagining how you could effectively cook meat on the right side of the grille with indirect heat in the smoker... turns out I was right... but more on that later. The lack of insulation around the seams of the assembly left big gaps all around the side of the grille. The wheels were flimsy and didn't feel very sturdy when rolling the rather heavy grill over gravel and uneven surfaces.
Cooking:
The first time I fired up the grille, I cooked three 5lb pork butts on indirect heat for about 6 hours. I used applewood chunks in the smoker box along with lump charcoal which I was periodically refreshing to keep the heat up. The chimney on this thing is relatively useless as the entire grill leaks heat/smoke like a sieve. Smoke was pouring out from under the lid, the back seam, and even the place where the smoker bolts to the main grill assembly. This made it very hard to keep a good temperature in the grill; if I opened up the air intake more, it would get too hot but if I tried to choke out the fire a little and take down the temperature, it would either drop too low or suck in air through all the gaps in the sides. The heat was also very uneven and at times I measured a 100 degree gradient from the left side of the grille to the right. After two hours on the grille, the left-most butt was cooking too fast and the right one was still largely raw. In the end, I was able to salvage it by putting more coals in the main grill area and keeping a close eye on the heat. The thermometer built into the grill is functionally useless.
The Aftermath:
As many other reviews have noted, after just my first use all the paint bubbled and peeled off the bottom half of the smoker box and a few weeks later, there is already noticeable rust. The grate in the smoker also deformed significantly from the heat. After subsequent uses with direct heat, the grate that holds the charcoal has also deformed in the main grille. The adjustable tray that lets you raise and lower the charcoal in the main grill assembly is a nice idea but poorly implemented. It allows a large number of coals to fall off the sides and under the tray and also doesn't provide for good air flow. I was able to get much higher cooking temperatures on my simple Weber grill. As an example, I used to stir fry food on my weber in a hammered steel wok because I could get much higher temps than my stove and didn't have to worry about the smoke. I was not able to do so on this grill because the temperature was too low and all my food came out soggy because of the lack of heat.
Final Verdict:
Some people might look at this grill and think it looks like a great value because of its low price, cheap (or free) shipping, and relatively large cooking area. It is not a value; there is no bargain to be had here. You are getting exactly what you paid for, a bargain basement grill for a bargain basement price. Either get a smaller Weber style grill for about the same price or alternately, spend more money and get something that will perform better and hold up to the elements longer.
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....if you make a few modifications to it! This thing is well made, but pretty much sucks right out of the box as a smoker unless you only cook on the far right hand side.
But here's a modification I did to mine: Take the main cooking chamber ash pan, remove the drop in grate and flip the pan upside down to function as a baffle. Put two screws just above the fire pit inlet into the cooking chamber to hold the left side of the baffle at or just above the inlet hole, and let the right side of the baffle rest on the bottom of the pit so it slopes down toward the right. Drill holes in the baffle with a 3/8" or 1/2" drill bit from the middle and to the right with the hole spacing getting less (i.e. more holes) as you move farther toward the right. My spacing is a row of 4 holes at about 2" spacing on the far right and a row of four holes at a spacing of about 4" (to the next row) toward the middle, and no holes left of the midpoint (though you could put a few if you want, just limit them). This mod by itself will serve to send the heat from the firebox toward the right very nicely.
I also take the small size disposable aluminum pan and cut in half and rest a half in the gap between baffle and front as well as between baffle and back of grill on the far left side closest to the fire pit. Fill each half with water which helps to even out the firebox heat, but it also is good to have moisture in your smoker anyway.
The last thing I did was take an empty beer can and cut the top and bottom off and insert into the smoke stack from the bottom leaving as much protruding down as you can and clear the top swing rack. If you take the swing rack off, you can extend the stack down really far which would be a good thing, but I like having the swing rack, so mine only protrudes down about an inch. This serves to keep the smoke (which likes to rise up as we all know) in the cooking chamber for a bit longer (since it has to build from the top down before it gets out, as opposed to rising to the top of the lid and immediately escaping if no protrusion).
The above modification costs about $1 (cost of a beer and a disposable aluminum pan) and your time (mostly for drilling). But my temps between left and right vary by no more than 10-20 degrees most of the time and quite often, the right side can be hotter than the left, indicating good movement of the heat from the firebox. I've had the firebox at over 700 deg (that's the other thing i added a magnetized wood stove thermometer, but not required), while the cooking chamber is sitting at a nice 250 deg all across the grilling surface (also added two temp gauges to the smoking chamber, one on the right, one on the left to get actual temps, not just warm, ideal, and hot like the factory gauge).
Anyway, for those of us that don't want to spend thousands on a high quality smoker, this mod works great! Only thing left is a lot of patients while cooking and a few practice runs to refine your skills. I did two 11 lb briskets last week and they came out phenominal! Literally could have given the pro's on pitmasters a run for their money. I share the above, because I think anyone should be able to bbq outstanding meat on a cheap bbq grill without dropping big bucks! Good luck!
Honest reviews on Char-Broil Offset Smoker American Gourmet Deluxe Charcoal Grill
Easy to put together and worked like a charm. Smoked (w/mesquite) a couple of steaks, chicken breasts, three trout and 4 potatoes for one hour in the ideal range. All turned out very good. I didn't like the sticky stuff on the inside. Hard to clean off. I used several pieces of XXX steel wool with dish soap and warm water to get it out before use.
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I loved this grill/smoker while it lasted which was about a year. When not in use we kept it covered even though living in the south there is no chance of snow. It was easy to put together and the meats I smoked on it came out fine but a year is not a long enough time for a grill that costs this much to last. I have smaller grills that are left outside not covered up and they have lasted more than five years with no signs of rust. The small chamber is not able to be used anymore as the bottom rusted completely away, the larger top grill is still somewhat useable but it too is showing signs of rust through. I think the metal on this particular smoker was somehow very inferior and when we go looking for another smoker we will look at different companies products, seems this companies are just too inferior.
