Does anybody have the new char-broiler, and how do you like it? My concerns are if it heats the grates entirely/evenly,and how fast. And, does it impart the flavor claimed on the Cookshack site? Please give me the good and the bad!
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I have the 24" and have been using it for about a month now everyday in my restaurant. While it does impart a nice flavor- it is a hungry, fickle beast! I use it on medium mostly, with one side turned down to low for about half the day's service. It runs about 8-9 hours a day. In that time it burns about 50 pounds of pellets. It ignites poorly, over drops pellets just for fun, and has a very uneven heat distribution.
The construction is top notch like all my Cookshack products. But the design just has to be questioned.
The main problem with it is uneven heat distribution, due to the fact all the heat comes from a fire pot just like the ones in an FEC. So you get a very round cooking area. Directly above the heat shields is not hot enough to get a good sear on meat. While the grates are heavy and capable of holding a lot of heat they just don't on medium.
The second problem is it eats so many pellets, if it was on high I wouldn't be surprised if it uses 70 pounds of pellets in the same 8-9 hours of use. The hopper is not nearly large enough, nor is it designed as well as the FEC. It feeds directly down the middle of each of the two chutes, so there could be about 6-8 pounds of pellets and the auger will be empty because they stack up on the sides. It needs a bigger hopper. We have to keep a few bags on the line for the inevitable burn out. When you restart it after it has been running it WILL overload the fire pot. This will cause a large fire in the drop chute for the fire pot.At the end of each night I have a "cake about 5-6 times the size of my FEC300 after 12 hours. If it over drops pellets on the initial ignition of the day, which it will eventually, it causes a HUGE amount of smoke to come from the grill while it's smoldering.
And the augers. They seem to just run with no reference point some times. You can have it on low, but the thing still drops the crap out of some pellets.
Well I guess that's it. Not a very good review and I'm probably forgetting something. I'm getting my Aztec out of storage next week. Burn some nice local hickory......
The construction is top notch like all my Cookshack products. But the design just has to be questioned.
The main problem with it is uneven heat distribution, due to the fact all the heat comes from a fire pot just like the ones in an FEC. So you get a very round cooking area. Directly above the heat shields is not hot enough to get a good sear on meat. While the grates are heavy and capable of holding a lot of heat they just don't on medium.
The second problem is it eats so many pellets, if it was on high I wouldn't be surprised if it uses 70 pounds of pellets in the same 8-9 hours of use. The hopper is not nearly large enough, nor is it designed as well as the FEC. It feeds directly down the middle of each of the two chutes, so there could be about 6-8 pounds of pellets and the auger will be empty because they stack up on the sides. It needs a bigger hopper. We have to keep a few bags on the line for the inevitable burn out. When you restart it after it has been running it WILL overload the fire pot. This will cause a large fire in the drop chute for the fire pot.At the end of each night I have a "cake about 5-6 times the size of my FEC300 after 12 hours. If it over drops pellets on the initial ignition of the day, which it will eventually, it causes a HUGE amount of smoke to come from the grill while it's smoldering.
And the augers. They seem to just run with no reference point some times. You can have it on low, but the thing still drops the crap out of some pellets.
Well I guess that's it. Not a very good review and I'm probably forgetting something. I'm getting my Aztec out of storage next week. Burn some nice local hickory......
quote:Originally posted by Two J's:
... When you restart it after it has been running it WILL overload the fire pot.
If it goes out and you start it on high, that could happen because you're smothering the fire.
Start it on low, make sure it's got a fire then turn the heat up.
"If it goes out and you start it on high, that could happen because you're smothering the fire.
Start it on low, make sure it's got a fire then turn the heat up"
Your right, at first it was user error. After talking with Tony at length about the unit, I am operating it per his instructions. It still over loads sometimes. One of the problems is the low setting is too low, normally. In fact Stewart told me that it may be possible to get my control board reprogrammed to drop more pellets while operating on low so it doesn't go out.
It still doesn't negate the fact that it uses a ridiculous amount of pellets and has an unevenly heated cooking surface.
Just my $.02.
Start it on low, make sure it's got a fire then turn the heat up"
Your right, at first it was user error. After talking with Tony at length about the unit, I am operating it per his instructions. It still over loads sometimes. One of the problems is the low setting is too low, normally. In fact Stewart told me that it may be possible to get my control board reprogrammed to drop more pellets while operating on low so it doesn't go out.
It still doesn't negate the fact that it uses a ridiculous amount of pellets and has an unevenly heated cooking surface.
Just my $.02.
I have had one for about 2 years and use it when we do cooks for large parties outside. I have a cover for mine. It does use pellets but Two J's sounds like he has the better view on this. At the longest time I have ran mine is probably at 3 hours at a time. I was always told that it was designed to cook at 3 temps across the grates. If your facing the grill grates the closest part of the grill will be 275 to 300 (all temps are at high), middle section would be 340 to 400, and farthest away upwards of 500. This is from just memory and I may be off some.
Flavor is as good as you would get from wood fired cooking.
Flavor is as good as you would get from wood fired cooking.
hey just wanted to chime in in this issue. I have the 24 inch as well and have been using it now for about a month. Check out what i posted in the charbroiler section of the forum and read. I do agree it uses alot of pellets it seems. I don't know how much exactly but i will do a test soon on it to see. I run mine using high on one side and low on the other. Tony say's this will keep the temp more even.