Customer Reviews

Char Broil 463261106 Designer Series Stainless Steel Grill with 13,000 BTU Sideburner

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This was purchased as a gift for my son, who specifically requested this model. He has been using the grill about a month.

He assembled in a couple of hours without complaint. In a former life, he assembled grills at a large store to prepare them for sale.

The grill does not come equipped with the propane tank. The price of a propane tank is about $30. It also runs on natural gas from your home supply, but we have not used that feature.

He is very happy with the grill, as he gets consistent cooking results. It is a dual fuel grill, so be prepared if you switch between the propane and natural gas supply. Expect propane to give you a hotter fire.

The grill does not come equipped with the cover. The cover is a good investment to protect the grill from the weather. If you keep your grill in the garage between uses, maybe you don't need the cover.

It can be a good idea to be ready to spend more than the $399 listed in Amazon, to get the tank and the cover. The $399 price is very competitive, and they deliver for free (it is a big, heavy box).

This is a great grill. For one month of operation, there are no complaints.

Stainless discolored in few weeks and the ignitor failed after 30 days and Char-broil would not replace the ignitor part. Char-broil warranty bogus and there customer service dept is unreasonanble! A terrible product and even worse warranty. Do not buy! You will be very sorrry!

I saw some have had bad experiences with their grill after I purchased mine but I have had no problems, it has functioned as it should and cooks well. The only think I don't like is that it is difficult to clean the inside where the juices drop (not the little drip pan). There should be a large removeable section to make cleaning this easier. Over all we really like this grill. Just make sure you are not close to any walls when using it since it does get very hot and could scortch or melt the adjacent wall.

I purchased this grill for my parents' anniversary, primarily because of the conversion kit to use natural gas (by the way, you can purchase the kit at Lowes for considerably less than through Char Broil.) While assembling the grill, I felt that the plastic control knobs seemed rather "cheap" compared to what I paid for the grill. Sure enough, the fourth time we used the grill, the knobs melted around the valves. I will point out, that we've never used the grill more than a half hour at a time, and the temperature has never gone much above 450 degrees. I emailed Char Broil, and they replaced the knobs at absolutely no charge (even paid for shipping.) At this point, I thought things were going well!

Skip ahead just a couple months. Same thing happened again with the knobs. I opened a support ticket on Char Broil's website (which is how they want you to report problems) and a rep responded that it was due to "flashback" and instantly closed the ticket. This was a new grill, so the flashback excuse was pretty thin, but the actual problem is that the valves are brass and go into the cooking chamber, and the knobs are the world's cheapest plastic. I had to open another ticket, explaining that that was not the issue, and that my previous ticket should not have been closed unless I had confirmed the issue.

This time the representative was going to send me some new knobs, since the grill was still under warranty (it has a 1-year warranty, and we had it just a couple months.) However, when he called to obtain payment for shipping the knobs, I was taken aback. Like I mentioned before, the first time, shipping was covered. Apparently, Char Broil will only fully cover the replacement and shipping for parts that fail in the first 30 days (so you don't return it.) Shipping for a new set of cheap plastic knobs, which would likely melt again, was going to be just shy of $9.00. I told the rep that if I had to pay anything, I'd just as soon get something good, and that was the end of it. For $9.00, I could buy a decent set of pliers to turn the valves.

I feel this is a serious flaw in the "design" of the grill. When the valves get hot enough to melt the knobs, they are also hot enough to burn fingers. If you go to Lowes or Home Depot, look at the grills and do what I call the "tap test" where you tap the knobs of the grills. Models like Jenn Aire, Kenmore, etc. all feel solid (either stainless steel, or heavy plastic. And the plastic ones use something like Bakelite around the valve to protect the plastic.) Even Char Broil's CHEAPER grills have sturdier knobs! This infuriates me even more!

The grill itself does a pretty good job, and is pretty solid. The natural gas conversion, while possible to do without the kit if you know what you need (adapter hose, and remove some plugs in order to allow more fuel though) is a nice thing to have. However, I just can't get past having paid $400 for a grill that uses such inferior plastic parts!

As mentioned in another review, the stainless can discolor. This hasn't been too bad, but I find the excuse Char Broil puts on their website humorous. "The perception that many people have is that stainless steel will not rust. Unfortunately, that is not the case in certain conditions." Of course, that is just marketing. My brother is an engineer (something Char Broil should consider getting) and works with REAL stainless steel. The problem is that they are using lower grade stainless. In fact, a magnet will not attach to true stainless steel, but it has no problem sticking to the grill...

In summary, I probably should have looked at a different brand. I though Char Broil was a decent brand in the field of "typical use" grills, but their poor choice of materials and unhelpful customer support prove otherwise. I cannot recommend Char Broil to anyone.

For the money this grill uses a pretty good chunk of heavy stainless steel and includes a sideburner to boot. Assembly is very easy, however, i did take the time to read them. The only thing that is up in the air is how Charbroil will handle warranty, but as it stands right now I probably won't need it, cause I plan to take care of it.

This grill is very good. Very well built, easy to put it together, and cooks very quickly. Beware of shipping. Eagle shipping is horrible. I would suggest buying this grill somewhere else.