Have this grill, works pretty well, but the side box lid is pretty crappy. For smoking I did seal up the lids and add grate level temp gauges.
Edited: I also had to buy a clamp for the side box lid to seal properly, and extended the exhaust tube to go across the inside of the grill to combat pretty large temp differences while smoking.
Debating…
So it’ll let you pull out the charcoal in a “drawer” to add more and you can let it burn off & glow before sliding the drawer back in?
Wood chip drawer? or just add to the firebox if you want wood smoke along with the charcoal?
If that’s the case, you can just start with coals and keep up with wood (if the drawer thing works like it looks to)…
But the firebox paint comes off from the heat, is that the case?
(Sorry for so many ??s)
Keep on smokin’ on!
Mine is different in that it has a cooking grill in the side box, this shows it burning wood on this one…
You can use the drawer as an ash tray if you put your coals on top. Not so much for refilling while its in use. I use the main grill area for heat, and the side box for smoke.
It’s small enough if your trying to use it as your main heat chamber your probably gonna burn the paint off.
As for the paint coming off that is going to be an issue on most painted grills. But you should be able to get a can of high heat spray paint for like 5-7 bucks from lowes/home depot/etc for when it starts to peel. May not color match perfectly but it will help keep it from rusting through.
This looks like a versatile grill/smoker. I already have a pellet grill with a similar setup but I guess with this you can load charcoal under the cooking grate?
I had one of these for about a decade and finally junked it. Some insights:
Pluses:
It’s a cheap way to smoke meat.
Cast iron grates aren’t bad.
Decent size. Can fit quite a bit of meat on here at once.
Minuses:
Thin steel.
Very leaky, making it hard to control temperature. I added gaskets to mine and that helped a lot.
As constructed, very different temp zones when offset smoking. Adding a baffle helps a lot to even things out.
Wheels are trash and eat themselves quickly.
For the price, it’s a decent way to enter the world of smoking meat, but also a way to be easily frustrated unless you modify it accordingly.
My advice, get a Weber Bullet instead.