Charcoal continues to be a strong alternative to Gas. There will probably be about 6 million charcoal grills sold this year, one of the best yet. However there has been a surge of low quality charcoal grills of late and the average price of charcoal grills has dropped to around $45. Now the most recognized charcoal grill is the Weber kettle, the lowest priced Weber sells around $80. The best advice I can give you is to not buy a low price unit because they rust and fall apart. I’m not necessarily saying you should buy a Weber, but they do last a long time.
This year Kingsford has decided to make the most of their brand name recognition and has made a deal with Masterbuilt to produce a line of high priced, high quality charcoal grills under the Kingsford name. These units, which should be hitting the market by early summer sell for a couple hundred dollars but have the one great feature that the Weber doesn’t, an adjustable cooking grate. The adjustable cooking grate means you can drop down to sear or rise up to cook a little slower. These units will probably not sell great, but they will certainly get a lot of promotion from Kingsford who is one of the biggest advertisers in the industry.
One the top end of the charcoal market this year is Cal-Flame’s charcoal insert. There are not a lot of options out there for people who want a high end custom outdoor kitchen and a charcoal grill. Cal-Flame, a division of Cal-Spa now has such a unit. The completely stainless steel charcoal grill insert even features an adjustable cooking grate so you can get the most out of your charcoal. While this unit won’t be cheap there are not a lot of alternatives for a charcoal grill that you can drop into a custom enclosure.
On the Kamado front there isn’t a lot new. However I have heard grumblings from distributors of problems with Big Green Egg. I was told that there has been problems with packaging that leaves units cracked and damaged by the time it gets to the retailers. This has many of these specialty retailers looking to Primo and Grill Dome to replace Big Green Egg on the showroom floor. We’ll just have to see how serious this problem is.
Smoker
There isn’t a lot new on the smoker front. The steel tariffs forced some manufacturers to shift outside the United States and others to raise prices, but this typically only applies to higher end units. Smokers like those from Char-Broil were always made in Asia so much of the lower end smokers haven’t seen a lot of change. There is however a continued shift away from charcoal on these units. More electric and gas units are showing up as manufacturers take the opinion that tending the fire is too much of an inconvenience. The belief in the industry that smokers might become the next big thing has faded and less attention is being given to smokers by major manufacturers. Small smoker makers can probably breathe a sigh of relief.
