New Toy: My Char-Broil Red
Monday July 28, 2008
Thanks to the fine people at Char-Broil and my friend CB I now have a Char-Broil Red 3-Burner grill to play with as much as I want. My unit was shipped overland freight across the country. This probably accounts for the somewhat rattled appearance of the grill. It went together easily enough. I assembled the grill in about 40 minutes, but then had to go back and try to find where the dozen bolts and washers I found in the bottom of the box belonged. After that I let the unit heat up. The hood mounted thermometer only read about 450 degrees F, but the cooking surface reaches over 600 degrees F after 20 minutes. I found the heat output high and intense. Being 100% infrared standing in front of this grill will get you red faced pretty quickly. While I look forward to trying this unit out (and getting back to you with more information in a couple of weeks) I think I will limit my time standing right in front of this grill.
If any of you have a Char-Broil Red I would love to hear from you. Hit the comment link below and leave us your experiences with this grill. The one issue I am most interested in is the deterioration of the porcelain coating on the U-emitter (trough) that is so directly heated by gas burners. If the the coatings on this flake off and expose the bare metal to the elements that metal will rust and probably quickly. I have contended that this is the Achilles heel of this grill and there have been reports on the net about exactly this.
Photo © 2008 Regarding BBQ Inc, licensed to About.com, Inc.
Comments
The breakdown of the porcelain is indeed an issue. Char-Broil replaced my IR troughs under warranty after only 90 days due to severe corrosion. The question seems to be how long it will take the underlying metal to corrode through …
I Just got my Char~Broil Red, and I like it, guess what I only had to give 200.00 dollars for mine, cause it had a scratch and Dent on it,, it retails for 599.00 dollars everywhere else tho, so far I’ve cooked Salmon and Brauts and Steaks on it,, seems to work fine tho,, and I had mine Custom Pinstriped and Airbrushed on the Doors and the sides and the Back, by a professional Pinstripe artist, looks mighty Fine too !!!!