Cuisinart Charcoal Grill, Portable Tabletop Design, Locking Lid, 14"

This grill is small ,would cook 4 medium size burgers or 10 hot dogs easily. It was very easy to assemble and very easy to transport which is a plus if you are camping. The quality was sturdy enough for a small light grill. I really like that there are grates at the bottom and top of grill to help adjust temperature . There are clips along the lid so when you are finished using you don’t have to worry about blowing coals I really like that feature. Clean up was a breeze because of compact size. If you have a large crew, this isn’t the grill for you, but for two or three people it’s quite nice. I am very happy with this purchase.

I like this portable charcoal grill for what it is. It is small and light. Easy to carry to a campsite. The build feels durable. It handled hot coals without bending or warping. It fits a good amount of food for its size. I could cook several hot dogs and burgers at once. It also worked for making s’mores over the coals. Because it is tiny, it either sits on the ground or on a low camping concrete table. Do not expect it to replace a full backyard grill at home. For camping and outdoor trips it works well. At home I would not use it much. Simple, sturdy, and good for the outdoors. The quality of the grill is good.

I've read some negative reviews of this little grill that do not give it the justice it deserves! For one, it's a $20 grill! I mean, seriously, what can one expect when they purchase an item about as cheap as possible? If you want something that comes without its challenges, I suggest you spend a little more to get what it is you "actually" want. However, if you're like me and you have even the slightest bit of common sense to make some minor tweaks to the design and looking for an inexpensive alternative that will give you good results, look no further! For getting a good heat, you, first, need to let the coals come up to a proper temp (hint: chimneys are excellent tools for this! Chimneys>lighter fluid all day/every day!) Don't just toss some charcoal in your grill and squirt lighter fluid all over it! Unless, of course, you just really like the taste of lighter fluid! Then, by all means, have at it! Once the coals are at a good temp inside the chimney and you're ready to cook, THEN add them to your grill and put your cooking grate in place to get it warmed up. You want to use the lid, intermittently, while keeping the coals at your desired level. If all you do is light the coals and throw on the lid, even with the lower and upper vents completely open, you WILL quench your fire, prematurely! So learn how to use the lid when you're cooking on a grill like this! I'm even considering adding a second bottom vent to add some more ventilation...but I have no issues with using it as-is. I broke the grill in to burn off any factory oils a day before I intended to use it to cook. And the day I used it to cook, our burgers came out, perfectly, just as they do on my other tiny grill, my Smoky Joe! I've perfected burgers on grills this size. Anybody and everybody who has had one of my burgers tells me it's the best they've ever had. Granted, it's taken 32 years of practice, but I'm very proud of my grilling abilities! I added this small grill to my collection (I have several, to be honest) for an upcoming camping trip with another couple so I would have enough cooking space between it and my other tiny charcoal grill for the four of us. And now that I've used it with great success, I'm very confident in taking it and not having to worry whether it will do the job or not. For the purchase price, I'm extremely happy with how this little grill performs! And given proper technique, you, too, can be confident in purchasing this grill! Here's a little tip to solve the issue of the grate falling due to the small lip it's given to hold it in place. Drill three holes, 120° apart, and add a short screw and nut in their place (as seen in the attached pics). You'll never have to worry about it staying in place! Good luck in your grilling adventures! I hope you and everybody you feed are very happy with what you cook! I know I am! 😎

Assembly was relatively quick, about 30 minutes total. Currently warming up for my second use with zero issues. I had seen others note all kinds of concerns about the cook grate being too small and possibly flipping over/ dumping food into the charcoal. I have zero issues - perhaps either they tweaked the design or people get different levels of tolerance stack up, but mine fits fine with zero issues dumping food. I did see other complaints about people running out of heat mid cook - I think this is 100% use error. If you really needed to, you could probably fit 1/5 of a full size bag of charcoal between the coal grate and cook grate (not that youd want it packed that close to the food), but regardless it still holds a lot of coals. The openings also seal up very well, so if you close the intake and exhaust completely when you're done, the unused coals will go out for reuse next time. There are no leaks thatll continue to burn the coals to dust. As a result, I see no reason to try and skimp on only putting a handful of coals in the bottom. Fill it up and theres plenty of cook time for the tiny cooktop surface. We use it for a family of 3 with zero issues. No doubt it's a cheap unit and feels fragile, but this thing costs what 2 good bags of charcoal cost, so it's hard to complain too much given it's one of the cheapest units on the market. As long as it works, you cant expect much more.

This little grill was sooo easy to assemble! I have to admit that I have the, "I am woman, hear me roar," attitude & think I don't need instructions, so I didn't pay attention to putting the ash tray on the legs BEFORE attaching the legs, so had to remove legs & do over bc it won't go through bottom pegs. USER ERROR. After that, it assembled, step by step, so easily, VOILÀ, IT'S AWESOME! I can't wait to make some shish kabobs tomorrow. My 3 major wah wah wahhh was: I ordered it to be here on my day off then got update of delivery that it was gonna be the next day (which I had to work,) so now I have wait to use it cause I worked late & had to assemble at night & have to wait till tomorrow to use, & lastly, charcoal prices, after hurricane 🌀 Helene, are fricken OUTRAGEOUS! A store brand bag of instant charcoal, 5 lb bag is $13! Since when? I own an amazing Traeger smoker, but it didn't do any good after a hurricane, bc it's electric, so with no power, internet, cable or mobile, I was left without use of cooking grill food! Every store was sold out of charcoal, disposable ready to use grills, or even these little grills. I couldn't get online to order one so as soon as I got internet, I ordered this, stat. The mountains here don't ever get floods, mudslides or hurricanes as the one we just went through, EVER, but now I'm more prepared. How I longed for a good BBQ when we lost everything that gave us an ability to cook outdoors. (Thank GOD for a gas stove though!) Being this is portable is even more of a plus bc the locks on the lid help for transporting anywhere! If you live anywhere where natural disasters happen, I highly recommend it. Even if it doesn't last forever, it sure will help when your food is spoiling & you don't want to lose precious, pricey food.

Okay, I decided to get my feet wet in charcoal grilling. I really want to get a huge barrel grill, but all my friends keep hammering me about gas grilling being better. The problem is I LOVE the taste of food on a charcoal grill, and simply don't like gas grilling anywhere near as much. All that said, one of the most common complaints about any charcoal grilling is that its a lot more work. A point I would have to concede having done both gas and charcoal grilling at other people's houses. So I have never really been tasked with the setup, prep, and cleanup. So I figured before I go into a huge barrel grill for the beginning of the 2020 season, why not buy a little cheap unit like this one to see if its for me. I know the taste of the food is, but buying this when I saw it on sale for the low price of $21.99 seemed like a great idea. The grill was pretty easy to assemble, took me all of about 10 minutes from start to finish. Now I want to address some of the complaints I read in other reviews, some of which almost made me pass on this grill. The first complaint I read on Amazon was that the instructions weren't good and that this made the grill hard to assemble. I can tell you that I am not particularly handy and I had no trouble at all. Everything was illustrated clearly, screws and other hardware all appropriately labeled, and I thought everything was quite straightforward. However, I can see how someone not experienced at products like this that come disassembled might get a little flustered. The illustrations can seem a little confusing at first. But if you take a step, slow down, and visualize what you are seeing on the page, it will all become clear. The second complaint I read on Amazon was that the grill is flimsy and fragile. While I can see where people are coming from, as this is not a high end grill, I think that when you pay 1/3 the price for this grill you would for, say a Weber the same size, then I honestly believe reviews should be done grading on a curve. But that's me. I paid just over $20.00 for this. Am I really going to ding it because it isn't a $50.00 or $100.00 grill, when I didn't pay for that higher quality? The third complaint I read on Amazon is that the grill never got hot enough and the food did not cook. To be fair, I experienced the same problem my first time cooking on it. Rather than waste the burger, a couple of hot dogs, and veggies, I simply gave up on that cook, brought the semi-cooked food into the house, and finished it on the stove. On a side note, I still had that AWESOME charcoal flavor, so the grill did cook it. A little. I realized as I brought the food in that the problem is NOT the grill. It was the fact that I didn't use enough charcoal. I made the mistake of only mostly covering the bottom grate to see how much charcoal to use, then transferred the unlit coals to a Weber chimney my Dad gave me. But when the coals turned white, and I poured them in, they had lost some of their volume, so they no longer really covered the bottom grate. Aha! There was my problem. By the way, using standard sized, Kingsford Briquettes for that first quasi-failed cooking attempt, I knew I was going to write this review, so I actually counted them. So that first cooking I only used 18 briquettes. As I said, it turns out, the problem was that wasn't enough. So today I almost doubled it. I think I used 32 briquettes. In the end, that was fine. Using my thick, 3/4 pound burger as my acid test, it took the standard 3-4 minutes per side before the burger was a nice medium rare and seared perfectly on the outside. Hot dogs and veggies were likewise great. So the lesson to me, and ANYONE else having this problem is to MAKE SURE you use at least 30 briquettes. Maybe 36 would be even better. The final complaint I read turns out to be not only valid, but a real black mark on this grill. Not sure what Cuisinart was thinking, but the reviewers who complained that the top grill where the food sits on is too unstable are 100% right! See, the problem is twofold here: First, that top grate/grill really needs to be another 1/8" in diameter to fit the circumference of the bottom of the grill more snugly. But even worse, the lip that goes around the bottom, that the grill sits on, is very small. So if you just look this thing too hard you're going to end up with your food all dumped out on the coals, and ready for the garbage. This is a TERRIBLE design flaw of this grill. Honestly, its so bad, I took off two stars for it. After assembling it and seeing this absurd nightmare, which I will admit I was pre-warned about, having read several reviews on Amazon, I was all set to just disassemble it, re-pack the thing back into the box, and ship it back off to Amazon. But then I had an idea. See the pictures I posted so you know what I'm talking about. I am not particularly handy, but since I really like the design, weight, and even the aesthetics of the grill, and I love the price, I took a chance and came up with an idea to try and fix it. Beware that if you try the solution I came up with, you're all-in with the grill since you will void not only your warranty from Cuisinart, but also Amazon's return policy. Anyway, what I did was I went to the hardware store and bought a little plastic pack of nut and bolt sets. The bolts have a Phillips head. I took out my drill and drilled four holes, all at 90 degrees to one another. I then I then put the screw from outside-to-inside, and tightened a nut on each one. The nut being on the inside of the grill and the screw head on the outside. The intent was to have the four bolts act like shims for the grill to rest on to hopefully make it a lot more stable while cooking. Again, see my pictures. Its very easy, and if you go this route, use 4 nut/bolt sets, all each at 90 degrees to one another. This fixed the problem beautifully. I enacted this before my first use on it, and I can tell you that before I did it, I could see that the slightest accidental, lateral pressure would flip the grate over, and dump my food all over the white coals. Now, I have to say that it is incredibly stable. On a side note, it seems really silly to me that I had to come up with this idea to make the grill serviceable for my use. When I had seen how unstable the top grill was, I knew that cooking on it would be a nightmare. But I can tell you that after a few dinners on this, I have never even come close to up-ending it. Whereas, before I did this, the grate was falling into the grill with the slightest pressure when I was sort of "rehearsing" using it with no coals, no food, and only kind of pantomiming cooking with the spatula. lol Kind of like playing air-guitar, only with the new grill. When I did, the damned grate kept tipping over. Anyway, problem solved, but it is absolutely indefensible that I had to be the one to solve this problem. Still, if this review or my pics help anyone else, then I am a very happy guy!

I read the reviews and was skeptical at first but boy am I glad I made the purchase! It came in a box that exposed the product so my trailer park buddies were already very interested before I even got home. I told them that it was small and mighty and a bear to assemble to save a little face. I invited them over for a couple adult beverages to let them enjoy the show. They all brought their wives and kids too. I could have had this thing assembled in no longer than 5 minutes but I brought out the Loctite, a drill and a few extra screws. I went WAY overboard to make this thing hurricane proof just to show off. Added permanent Loctite to every nut and bold and even drilled through the bottom bowl three times. Yes...I told them this is how real men assemble grills and they were all in awe. I should patent this part but I'll just share it with my Amazon friends. I placed three 1/4 inch stainless steel bolts (one inch long) inside the grill. I placed these directly under the top grill plate and you can nearly stand on the grill plate now! Grill plate has no wobble and no chance of any food sliding into the hot coals. I prolonged the assembly for the crowd as long as I could and by the end, everybody wanted to know how much it costs because they wanted to pick one up for their family (early Christmas gift). When all was said and done, half the trailer park already ordered their own and we are already talking about a trailer park grill off competition during the holidays. I've cooked on it once and several other singlewide neighbors came out and wanted to know all about it. They loved the smell of my seasoned squirrel and vowed to get a grill of their own. I was once just "one of the guys" at my trailer park. Now due to this reinforced cooking piece of art, I am now "The Man". Everybody says hi to me now and they always talk about what they are gonna cook on their awesome little red grill next. We all named our grills too. They are like part of the family. I named mine "Beaver Cleaver". Amazon friends...put in a couple hours overtime and save up for this grill. You will love it and I promise you won't regret it. It not only makes great food but it will also make you great friends. Cheers!

I really do like this little grill, but you should consider the pros, cons, and easy solutions to some issues before buying it. Con- Flimsy metal. Yes, the metal on this grill is thin, but for the price you couldn't possibly believe you'd be getting anything better. The fact that the metal is thin doesn't stop the grill from working though. Pro- You can't beat how lightweight and portable it is. Con- Weak, wobbly legs. True, but they are not as bad as some reviews made them out to be. Some reviews have also stated that the grill is knocked over easily. Solution- Don't kick the grill over Bigfoot. Look, this is a grill, it gets HOT and you shouldn't have to be told to be careful around it. A few rocks or bricks around the legs will stabilize it better if you feel it's that wobbly, but also use common sense. Walk wide of the grill when moving around it and don't throw a football at it. Con- The grate is a smidge too small for the lip it sits on and your food can end up dumped into the hot coals. This is definitely the worst feature of this grill, and if you aren't willing to do something about it then stop now and look for another one. However... Solution- If you are willing to pick up a power tool and do a little modification then you can make the grate solid. I used my drill with it's worst drill bit that was not even made for sheet metal and still managed to drill three holes for some little screws with nuts to secure them. You can see where I placed the screws in the pictures. The modification took me ten minutes to do, but if you have the proper drill bit then I'm sure the time could be cut in half. Why did I drill three holes instead of four like other reviewers? Three was more than enough to make the grate rock solid, and I was able to hide the shiny silver screws better with the shiny silver latches instead of placing them where they'd be more conspicuous. Other cons mentioned by reviewers: 1.The grill is too small, can barely cook for more than one person. Personally I don't think so. It's a baby grill but I still cooked burgers for four on it with no issue. If you want to cook for larger parties, then yes, a larger grill is required. 2. It's impossible to keep the coals lit. Sorry, but that one is down to user error and not the grill's fault. If you know what you're doing the grill works perfectly. Basically the grill gets three stars from me because I like it. I'll keep it to use as my portable grill even after I get a bigger and better one for the backyard. One star was taken off because it really could have better legs, and one was taken off because I had to modify it to fix a bad flaw. The price and ease of the modification makes the buy worth it though.

Amazing product..used couples of time ..very useful..highly recommended.

Práctico para unafalmilia pequeña

It’s good. If you put the lid on even with vents opened, it kills the heat. I found it better to leave lid off and cook half a chicken. This is my first charcoal grill. I used lump wood. I filled up a chimney halfway and lit it for 30 min. Chicken turned out good. For its price I can’t complain.

Tamaño justo para asar carne o hamburguesas

molto pratico e resistente. ottima la chiusura a fine utilizzo, buon rapporto qualità/ prezzo