Customer Reviews

Char-Griller 2137 Outlaw 1038 Square Inch Charcoal Grill / Smoker

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Unless you want a several hundred pound heavy duty smoker/griller, or a fixed unit, this is the one. I have seen and used dozens of grills and smokers, and at this price, this unit, (with what I consider the mandatory side fire box) beats them all hands down. Where to start? Approaching the unit, the top half lifts up, revealing the entire cooking grid. There's also the slow cook, warming grid that folds back into the top lid when lifted up. It is also easily removable when cooking larger items, say beer can chicken? Then there's my favorite, the original non-stick surface, a cast iron cooking grid-no cheap steel grate. This rocks! I can even put fish on this thing and the fish comes right up, NO STICKING! (Hey! Don't move your food) Cleaning is wicked easy- consists of burning off anything left when you're done, then brushing with a brass brush and wiping down with a crisco covered paper towel-it's SO easy. Already fair offset cooking because it's so big, the side fire box turns this into an honest-to-goodness smoker that will have your neighbours drooling with envy when you throw those four racks of ribs on it for 3-4 hours and have smoke infusing them and the rest of the neighbourhood. The side and front racks give you a ready place to put plates and tools, the inlet and outlet airflows are adjustable, and the temperature probe in the lid shows actual temperature, not just low/med/high. I cannot say enough good things about this grill.

Cons are the usual charcoal caveats, the side next to the side-fire box is hotter and when cooking larger feasts items need to be moved around so all items are equally cooked - gives you a chance to show off for your guests! The side fire box is a little small for regular logs, so I end up trimming logs when using them. The construction is admittedly light but more than acceptable given the price.


Overall, this is an excellent grill that cooks big or small, long or short, cleans easily, and of course has that awesome charcoal flavor. I've had this grill for 3 years and you'll never get anything better for the price. It's a no-brainer. HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

The unit arrived undamaged...It was well packaged. The price was right and Amazon shipped for FREE!

Assembly was easy and the instruction booklet clearly described the procedure.

The grill is well made and well designed. I am seasoning the grill right now with the first fire...2 chimneys of briquets for a steady 300 degree F burn with vent wide open...That's just right.

We are looking forward to grilling a big load of ribs tomorrow...Yeah!

Buy This grill if you want a bit more room...Hot side/cold side.

This great grill is well thought-out in all its details, and comes at a very reasonable price. I don't understand why anyone buys a Weber. This model is the extra-large; the "Super Pro" model will be plenty for most people.

The Char-Griller is built of heavy steel (not flimsy sheet), and the cooking grates are true cast iron grates (not light wire). The cooking surface is large and easily accessible, and the charcoal grate is adjustable up-and-down, solid, and easily removable. The grates come in several sections, which are easily removed, hot or cold, with the handy cast-iron handle. The warming shelf can be useful, and when it's in the way, it's easy to remove. Air flow is easy to control. Char-Griller's rotisserie attachment lets you roast very large beef roasts, pork loins, or chickens (I did a whole baby lamb!). The shelves, front and side, are handy, as is the built-in thermometer. The storage grate below is large and useful.

There are a few minor things that could be improved. The hooks that hold the charcoal grate are a bit small and fiddly. The side air damper is made of too-light metal, and its control tab broke off. The legs seem a little lightweight compared to the body of the grill. The rotisserie spit runs at the level of the cooking grate, so you can't use them together (a couple of grates will fit, but the charcoal will be too close for the rotisserie if it is the right distance for grilling).

But these are minor. Overall, this is a great charcoal grill, very reasonably priced.

I bought this for my husband's birthday and he has been extremely happy with it. Has lots of room to grill. Could handle a party well. Easy to set up and use. Flavors the food much better than propane ever could. Love it!

This grill is the best grill I have ever used. It gets hot fast and burns hotter than any other grill I have ever used. Cooking on this grill is amazing! Its extra large surface cooks enough to feed twenty all at once, or it can be used for two as well. It is a snap to keep clean, and the multi use smoker attachment is a parfect compliment. I will never use another grill again. This is a must own!

THE GOOD:
This is a great griller!! My wife and I bought it before we moved to the Philippines and brought it with us. No one here had ever seen anything like it. We've used the unit almost every weekend since we got here and I like it more and more each time we use it. We bought the grill with the side fire box which makes it great for large parties as well as small. For smaller barbecues the side fire box also doubles as a grill.

This barbecue is extremely well made. The instructions are short, concise, and clearly written. Follow them to the letter -- especially the part about NOT tightening up all the nuts and bolts until after the unit has been completely put together.

I've used Weber charcoal grills most of my life. Weber is a great grill but in my opinion the "Outlaw" beats the Weber hands down.

THE BAD

There are two support spacers that go from the side fire box to a horizontal support bar on the legs. The two spacers provided were 1" long. They needed to be 1/2" long. Not a big deal -- a hacksaw and a vise fixed the problem -- but if you don't have those available you're kind of stuck. Due to the weight of the side fire box those two supports are absolutely required.

Char~griller claims to have a rotisserie for the "Outlaw". I've sent the company two emails (4-17 & 4-22) requesting ordering information. To date (4-29) they haven't answered either one. I've contacted two other seller's of this grill and both said there is no rotisserie available from Char~griller for the "Outlaw". This doesn't make sense as the unit is drilled and punched to accept a rotisserie. Since Char~griller hasn't bothered to answer my inquiries, however, I have to conclude a rotisserie isn't available as they claimed.

THE UGLY
I bought the optional storage cover for the "Outlaw". Save your money... it's a piece of junk. The fit is terrible at best. After two weeks and one rain storm one of the seams started to come apart.

I was looking for a large grill for large gatherings, read the reviews on Amazon's site, and bought this model. Assembly took about 2 hours, but everything was there. (Although I did need longer bolts for the legs.) I followed all the steps for curing the grill and oiling the grate and exterior, and after two cookouts am thoroughly pleased. It's a heavy, functional grill, a big mother of a cooker that's ideal for big outings. I recommend it.

This the best grill ever to have to cook about 3 or 4 slab of ribs. It really take two people to part it together, but I did it by myself. ;-) The drums of the grill makes the package very heavy, you would need a dolly. If you do order this product, be sure to look it over before parting it together. I had the grill return because, one of the drum at the corner was a little deattach. I wasn't taking any chances.

The instructions to this grill were so poorly done it tells you to use bolts that they don't even give you or list in what's included. The nameplate was riveted on upside down which looks really stupid and I had to pound the grill back into shape after it was finally assembled because it was poorly handled and bent up so the grates wouldn't stay on the grill. Overall I would not buy this online if I could do it over. Once I finally got done with assembly and repair it is a great grill and I like it a lot

I would say pretty much what you read in the other reviews here is accurate. I ordered the Outlaw recently through Amazon, it arrived quickly and I've been happily grilling since.

The grill did arrive in a heavy box that I'm sure left many shippers along the way cursing. It was waiting on my doorstep, but the box had completely burst open do to the weight and difficulty handling. Happily, everything seemed to be intact, although the warming rack was, as found in other reviews, badly bent out of shape. So it's a little disappointing to have a brand new grill with an ugly bent-up warming rack.

As is mentioned in other reviews, the assembly instructions are less than desirable. I would suggest reading them through once or twice while opening and laying out all the parts and checking them over as you read. I would also suggest comparing the instructions you get with your grill with the manual available online on their website. I would go even further and say maybe look over the manuals of their other models. All this because some details of the instructions I received did not match my model and you can probably avoid some confusion if you read first and look over your parts. That being said, assembly was fairly easy and I was able to put it together myself in less than two hours. (And, yes, help would be handy and make things quicker.) Just be aware things may not match what is shown in the instructions. But, you could probably put the grill together with no instructions if you went about it slowly and carefully. I didn't tighten the bolts until told to do so as instructed, except that I chose to tighten them around where the bottom shelf attaches to the legs before I attached the body of the grill because I figured I wouldn't want to turn over the whole thing again once I got to the point of tightening bolts. This didn't seem to be a problem.

I seasoned the grill as directed and it has been working great. Although the grill might seem large when grilling for two people like I mostly do, I find the generous space is great for moving things to a cooler spot and indirect cooking. Of course, I now have plenty of room for those big party cooking jobs!

The little racks that you use to raise or lower the charcoal height could be improved upon, but work well enough. The grill itself heats up very well, holds the heat, and is easy enough to add charcoal to. I'm very happy with the how the cooking grates perform and they clean up easily.

I'm not real crazy about emptying the ashes. The grate the coals sit on is welded to the ash catcher and the whole thing must be lifted out to dump the ashes. With models as large as the Outlaw, that is a rather bulky and awkward job. But, ash clean up is always a downside of charcoal grilling.

Overall, I'm very, very happy and if the grill holds up over time I'm sure I will continue to be so for a long time!