Char-Griller® Portable Charcoal Grill and Side Fire Box Attachment for Texas-Style Offset Smoking Methods with 250 Cooking Square Inches in Black, Model E82424

I really like this new Char Griller 5050 grill. I got mine at Lowes, and then added the smoker attachment from Amazon. The product is well made and assembly was simple, especially if you have a 17 year old grandson to help you put it together. All parts were included and the final fit and finish is first rate. My previous grill was a Propane Brinkmann 4445 with all the bells and whistles that lasted about 10 years. Most of the bells and whistles had broken within the first few years and I refurbished it several times over the years. But parts weren't cheap and even the mild climate of Southern California eventually finished it. The old Brinkmann had been modified to work on Natural Gas, by changing the burner jets to larger holes. The new Char Griller is setup for propane and no advertised conversion kit to allow Natural Gas, so I purchased a Propane tank. On my first few gas side grill meals, I noticed the gas grill get hot FAST. Within a few minutes with all three burners on high it can jump up over 550 degrees and keep going much higher. Even reducing all burners to lowest setting its is pushing 400+ so watch you settings and use just one or two burners if you want to cook at about 300.As I was putting the unit together, I noticed the burner gas jets, seemed to be larger holes than the old Brinkmann Propane jets, and almost the same size at the Natural Gas jets. So I decided to try my Char Griller with its Propane jets, with my hoses and connections that I had used on the old Brinkmann. To my surprise and great pleasure, the Char Griller worked just fine on Natural Gas. The gas grill side will max out at about 550 degree with all burners on high and is much more reasonable to cook at lower temps too. It's plenty hot for everything I need to cook. So my Propane tank is still there if I ever want to burn the paint off the unit. Switching between NG and Propane takes about 1 minute. The side burner also works great on NG and I use it to light my charcoal chimney without using lighter fluid.I do have some suggestions and simple modifications that you may want to consider for your grill. Both gas and charcoal side include a nice chrome warmer grill that is attached to the base and lid so it lowers over the main grill area. A very nice and useful feature. But when you install it, don't add the last nut to the mounting screw. Just leave these 4 nuts off. This allow you to easily remove and clean the warmer grill without fooling around with nuts. The grill is springy enough to simple squeeze it over the mounting bolts. It is still very sturdy and won't fall off. Also when you are smoking, you may want to use the warmer grill instead of the lower grill, to get the meat up higher into the lid area, closer to the thermometer. And smoking does get that warmer grill dirty, so easy removal for cleaning is nice.The best modification that I have is the addition of a working table area to the front of the grill. I purchased a 4 foot by 11 inches by 1 inch stair step board, stained and shellac it, then mounted it to the grill's main front cross beam. I used a simple hook and eye bolt scheme to make it act as a hinge, so the table drops down when the grill cover is in place. It's a great place to put your beer while grilling.Next I salvaged the rotisserie brackets from my old grill, and mounted them to the charcoal side. The motor bracket just fits between the two grill sides. The gas side remains open when the rotisserie is in use. Also it is possible to rotisserie smoke if you want to try that. I cut out the rotisserie slots in the lid then made some movable covers for the slots, that are used when the rotisserie is not in use.When grilling, I often want to grill with the lid partially open so I can see flare ups. A rock, or old beer can would work, but since it's a nice new grill, I made a little wood brace that looks a little nicer. It keeps the lid open about 3 inches and doesn't fall off when you open and close the lid.There are other mods posted by Char Grill customers, but these are my mods made to the 5050. It turned out to be a very nice setup worth doing on a well made foundation provided by the Char Griller company.

I live in a small apartment that won't allow me to have a huge grill on my patio. This fits the bill for grilling for my son and myself.Big enough to grill for 4 people at a time. I love that I can do everything my big grill used to do, but way more efficiently. It takes 20 charcoal briquettes to create one layer of evenly disbursed fire on each side of the grill (so 40 for the entire bbq).I can take one side of the grill out and just burn 20 coal pieces if I'm cooking for just two people. It's nice doing it that way because you can slide the grill back and forth if you want to take the food off direct heat or if you needed to add more coal. It also has the slide-out tray if you want to add coal that way, but I don't like messing with that when the grill is red hot.The barrel shape does a great job of circulating the heat and smoke. Easy to get the fire started.The grate holder is really short and could easily result in you burning your hand if you attempt to take the grills on and off while the fire is going. Highly recommend using a BBQ oven mitt while messing with that.It's a little too bulky for this to be my travel BBQ. I have a Subaru Forester and this would take up half of my back storage area if the seats were up. The barrel shape doesn't make it easy to pack either. If you had a big truck with tons of room, that's a different story. It's iron as well, so it's heavy even though it's small.However, it's a wonderful grill for apartments, or if you want to put the grill away or off to the side after using it. Looks really cool. Works really well. Fairly priced for the build and easy to put together.

I was a bit skeptical to buy this especially regarding the paint peel issue. I read a lot about prep and conditioning so I thought I would give it a try. Assembled in about 20 minutes and instructions were accurate. I spent extra time "seasoning" the inside and especially the outside with vegetable oil and let it sit for a day. I wiped on more oil on the exterior the next day before firing it up and held my breath. Cooked great and had no issues at all with any paint peeling. It kept its temperature and seared steaks to perfection. I really like that I can add more coals with the pull out drawer when the first batch of coals starts to fade for longer cooking sessions. I did realize I should have set the coals on the left side since the vent on the right side situates the coals at vent level (vent lever gets hot and small coals and coal dust can spill out the vent). Since I like to cook with indirect heat I will do that next time. I really like the size of this grill and it is about 10 sq inches bigger than my Weber Jumbo Joe. I got tired of always having to put the lid somewhere so having a hinged lid barrel design is really convenient. The coal management and ash disposal are a real bonus. Also I like this particular version with the black handle...I prefer the material feel over the wooden version and it is very robust and sticks out for a convenient grab. I am very very happy with this grill and moved on the Jumbo Joe in favor of this portable Char-griller unit.