After 7 years of faithful service, my second Char-griller has worn out. Some people call them junk to begin with or called a COS (Cheap Offset Smoker) and that they aren’t worth buying, but I disagree. 7 years of HEAVY use is more than I could ever ask for any grill/smoker combo. By heavy use I mean either grilling or smoking something on it 3+ times a week for 7 years. Add into this that the smoker is outside during those 7 years (part of the time under a deck but still exposed to rain/snow/sun). I use my grill/smoker in all weather conditions. If it’s pouring down rain and I want to grill some chicken, I just move the grill under our deck and cook there (plenty of overhead space so don’t worry about me burning the place down). I have smoked or grilled in sleet, freezing rain and snow. Every time it had been on my trusty Char-Griller.  But as the title of the post says, all good things must come to an end.  In fact it ended for the most part last year.  I used my smoker 2 times last year and decided to call it quits on my char-griller because the fire box was no longer deemed safe by ME to use anymore. The main charcoal grate had also started coming apart and pin rust holes were seen in the main cooking area. It lasted long enough and it was time to retire it. Unfortunately like many in this country, last year (or longer) money has been an issue around here. Bill needed to be paid, repairs needed to be done and I just didn’t have the spare $$ to buy a new char-griller.

This year I was determined to get a new grill/smoker. I NEEDED one badly. Grilling is a great way to eat healthy and there’s only so many ways to bake/broil chicken/fish/beef/pork before running out of ideas or the ones left are really not healthy options (even though they’re probably the best tasting options other than grilling/smoking). Again this year after making sure bills were paid, repairs done and other important things purchased, I had a limited budget to work with. I was hoping to be able to swing yet another Char-griller as I have loved the previous 2 and always get 7 years or longer out of them. This year, I got a Char-Broil offset smoker American Gourmet Deluxe. Price was $158.00 and after purchase I quickly got it home and started to assemble it. I did read some reviews for it on WalMart.com (told you I had a tight budget) and had a good laugh at the ones that gave bad reviews because the paint pealed. well duh, it happens to ALL grill/smoker/COS unless you buy a custom made pro smoker like a Lang or similar. There’s a reason they sell high temp black spray paint in the same area.

The Char-Broil has more cooling area than the Char-Griller but it’s not as wide/deep. There’s more than enough room to lay 3 spatchcocked chickens side by side and not worry about crowding them. There’s a warming rack that can be easily removed which is a must when doing beer can chickens. It has porcelain coated steel grates for the cooking surface as opposed to the cast iron that the Char-Griller had BUT, it was $50 cheaper. So yes there are some trade offs for not getting a Char-Griller. But in the end I think I’ll be happy with it and if it lasts me 4-7 years I’ll probably think about buying another when this one gets worn out.  I know I’ll be doing some mods to the main smoking chamber to help make it perform better. One I have already done is plugging the holes that are there for a rotisserie. My Char-Griller had them, but they still had the sheet metal in them waiting to be knocked out for use. I don’t have a rotisserie so never knocked them out. The Char-Broil took care of knocking them out and that left me with a need to plug the holes. Simple enough though, a piece of aluminum foil wadded up and crammed in the hole works fine for now.  Another mod that I’ll do is a simple mod to lower the chimney inside the cooking area. A sleeve of sheet metal slipped inside the chimney base will do exactly that. Of course the warming rack will have to come out first, which isn’t a huge problem for me.

During assembly when it came time to attach the chimney it was a simple matter of bolting the base plate to the inside of the main chamber lid then attaching the chimney on the outside. In reality the designed press fit of chimney to base was poorly though out. The part that was poorly thought out was, the chimney fit WAY to loosely. Opening the lid would allows it to slide off. Again a simple fix. I folded some aluminum foil into a band that I wrapped around the portion of the base plate that the chimney was to be pressed onto. this provided the thickness needed and it took some effort to get the chimney in place. tight fit with a  good seal all around. Oh yeah, it doesn’t fall off when the lid is opened either. After assembly I followed the steps on the first page of the instruction manual for seasoning the grill. This is an important step and sadly it’s often over looked by first time buyers of a offset smoker/grill. The seasoning process helps cure the paint to the metal making it less likely that huge pieces will flake off. Note I didn’t say prevent it from happening, I said less likely for LARGE piece to flake off. It also treats the inside metal by allowing oil to fill the pores in the metal. This helps prevent rust from building on the inside. There will be rust eventually on the outside, but seasoning helps make it slower to appear inside and out. Seasoning can also make cleaning messes up a LOT easier. After seasoning and letting it cool overnight I wiped out the inside and lined the lower part of the main chamber with aluminum foil. This will make cleaning the grill easier down the road. When it gets real nasty from fat drippings and ashes just remove the foil and replace it. Removing the ashes is important as they are acidic when wet and will cause rust.

One thing I will REALLY miss from my Char-Griller is the slide out tray from the side firebox. That made cleaning a snap. Since the Char-Broil doesn’t have a slide out I’ll have to rely on scooping the ashes out. Since I have seasoned the firebox as well the main cooking area, once I get the ashes cleaned out I’ll line it with foil too.  This should help down the road with not only clean up but in helping to prevent rust from forming. After using a smoker if you wipe everything down with an oil soaked rag or even spray it with a non-stick cooking spray after cleaning it up will go a long way in rust prevention and making sure clean up is as easy as possible.

Now that I have my new grill/smoker I should be posting more frequently in here. You can also check out my other blog on brewing beer at home. What goes better with BBQ than beer?! Check out Mystic Brewing to learn how to do it yourself.

Smoke On!!

Pit Master