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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 69 customer reviews )
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111 of 111 found the following review helpful:
 Char-Griller Patio Pro May 31, 2008
By Customer
I love to BBQ and I have had my 22 ½" Weber Charcoal grill for the last 5 years. The issue was for day to day grilling when I did not have any guest over, the Weber was just a waste of charcoal and time for light cooking.
I wanted something way smaller for my deck for only 1-2 people. Requirement had to be charcoal (of course). I searched around the market for a while and found that Weber and several other manufactures had mini charcoal grills. The issue was that most of them were low to the ground. They were all selling for $20-$30 depending on the brand. I then discovered the Char-Griller Patio Pro. After seeing the build material (cast iron) and the sturdiness of the support frame in which the cooking box sat on top of, I knew this was the product that would meet my expectations.
Delivery:
I ordered the product from Amazon and received it within ~ 4 days. The correct package arrived on time and undamaged, so the ordering experience was perfect. I arrived from work around 7 pm and saw the package at my doorstep and I was excited to grill that night. However, I had read the review of other customers who ordered this grill and I knew assembly was going to be a nightmare. Sure enough, assembling the grill was absolute HELL!! Needless to say, I was not able to grill the day the product arrived.
Assembly:
The grill will arrive with all the pieces for it within the actual grill box. Everything is sticky as it has been coated with oil from the factory, so make sure you assemble your grill in the proper location. The grill has numerous screws and mini pieces which are not clearly identified at all in the instruction manual. The instruction manual is absolutely worthless as its measurements for the pieces are inaccurate and in my particular case, I had less pieces that what the manual said I needed, yet I still assembled the grill without running out of pieces. I will spare you the agonizing details of my assembly experience and summarize it as: Assembling the grill is going to be the ONLY bad experience in owning this product.
USAGE:
With that said, the actual functionality of this grill is EXCELLENT. It is PERFECT for its intended cause...cooking for 1-2 hungry men, or 1-4 average people. The grate is made out of cast iron and requires to be initially coated in vegetable oil over 300 degree fire for 2 hrs (according to the manual). I recommend doing what I did to get the grill ready for use...in order to burn off all the factory oils and "crap," I just filled it to the rim with charcoal and left it to burn...when I came back, all the oil's, crap, and "new stink" disappeared and the cast iron grates were seasoned and ready for use.
The first time I grilled was excellent. The air ventilation system allows for even heat distribution so you can control your fire. Another excellent feature of this product is the cast iron grates...they get so hot and leave an awesome grill mark on your meat...something I could never get with the grate on my Weber.
In addition, the little tray on the side is a HUGE convenience factor when cooking. You can actually put pretty heavy things on it without worrying it will break. During assembly, when I felt the wood material that was used for the tray, I was extremely concerned because I thought when the grill would get hot, they would burn away. So far, this has not been the case, however, time will tell how long they last. But at the present moment, they are perfect. Not shown in Amazon's picture for this product is three little hooks that you have to manually screw into your tray, which will allow you to hang your cooking tools...another cool convenience factor.
Cleaning:
Cleaning is pretty easy too as the charcoal tray box easily slides out and you just dump the ashes into a trash bag.
Overall quality is excellent and I am pleased that the grill does not wobble. In my opinion, aside from the assembly experience, you will not find a better mini charcoal grill with all the features that this grill has [...].
33 of 34 found the following review helpful:
Not the first review of this Aug 03, 2006
By David Lawrence Reckinger
"davebuoy"
This is the bomb. The instructions for assembly are poor but well worth the effort. Once you see the quality of it you'll understand. Cast iron grates that need to be seasoned will last a lifetime and beyond.
28 of 29 found the following review helpful:
Great small grill Dec 13, 2007
By Matthew D. Walker
"Visit my website for some laughs."
Great small grill- if you don't have a lot of room, this is the grill for you. The iron grates are great (pun intended) for even heat distribution. It is too small to use charcoal baskets, but if you scrape the coals to both ends you can do some indirect grilling. It's just big enough for a 5-6 pound beer can chicken. The assembly instructions are terrible, but as a guy that's half the fun. Be sure to properly season it before use- coat all surfaces with vegetable oil and fire up enough coals to burn for a few hours. It'll burn off all the excess grease, paint, etc. used in manufacturing.
26 of 28 found the following review helpful:
 You'd better be an "Assembly Pro" Aug 01, 2007
By M. Lee
The grill itself performs well, once you figure out how to put it together (and I'm a retired architect). The manual is in chinglish, and there are MANY loose parts.... some incorrectly identified. Assembly required half a day. One of the wheel hubs came broken, so one wheel is now held on with a large rubber band. Since it was made in China, I despair of getting a replacement, and I'm certainly not going to take it apart and send it back at this point! (the wheel is one of the last things to go on.)
15 of 15 found the following review helpful:
 great product for the money Aug 05, 2007
By AC
We wanted a small charcoil (not gas) grill and after exensive research we got Char-Griller Patio Pro Model. Arrived quickly and was relatively easy to put together (although the instructions were not extremely helpful).
It only takes a handfull of briquets and about 30 min to have it ready for cooking. I only wish you could adjust the height of the grates (that's why I'd gave it 4.5 stars instead of 5) but is not a big deal. Incredibly easy to clean. We use it now at least 1-2 times a week and have a great meal for 4-6 in no time.
See all 69 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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