So this grill costs over $1800 if you pay full price and it would be folly to ignore that fact in deciding what level of frustrating a few minor things should be. I think at this price, small business or not, higher expectations are fairly warranted.
I wanted to love this grill so much that getting rid of my PKs would be a no brainer, but I do like this grill but I am holding on to my PKs for now.
The grill has a lot to like about it for sure. Its stainless steel build is unique and I like the idea of the pro grate system in the Chud Grill. The grates don’t always slide easily and I had to bend the frame with a wrench to make it work at all. The grill doesn’t require very much charcoal to get hot and once it’s at temp, it holds temp very well. I like the height of the grill and cooking on a rectangular cooking area is something that I just prefer and enjoy over the kettle and smaller PK designs. Air flow from just the side vents is good enough that the front door is almost always unnecessary to have open during a cook. In conjunction with the Chud shovel, coal ash is a breeze to remove compared to the PK and though not necessarily that much easier than the kettle, you don’t have to remove the ash as often because there’s plenty of real estate below the charcoal grate in it’s intended position that it would take a lot of ash to be in the way. I have not had a bad meal off of the Chud Grill though I’ve not really put it through its paces on a larger piece of meat in a low and slow cook. I think the setup of the PK and this grill is the best one for a dual purpose grill like these. Intake and exhaust vents on both sides opposite each other make for great direct and low and slow charcoal grills.
Some things I don’t care for necessarily are maybe minor in the great scheme of things, but again, $1800 grill…
Assembly is made about as dummy proof as can be with clear markings on the baggies and items needed. (This is actually a good thing), but we did hit a hiccup assembling the grill to the legs. There are 8 threaded holes where neither me nor two union trades people could easily get bolts into. Three of the bolts broke in half inside the threads and we had to loosen some things to finally get only 4 of the 8 bolts in. I don’t plan to move the grill around too much so I’m hopeful that 4 bolts will hold it together well enough, but it was infuriating at the time that they did not easily fit the threads. There were also a couple of bolts missing from the door hinges (these were already installed upon delivery) and there were no hitch pins included to keep the front door pins in place. The staff sent the missing hinge bolts and I just used old key chain loops on the pins.
As for the grill, I think the exhaust vents are too close to center and I find I have to rotate items from the far side of the heat source on indirect cooks because it’s so much cooler over there. I would prefer the vents be as far to either side as possible or even on the side lid. Those exhaust vent tabs as well as the intake tabs get extremely hot and touching them requires a tool or gloves if you’re not quick enough to do it bare handed. That seems like a bad design to me when other pits have fixed this issue. There is also no way to snuff out a fire to reuse much coal compared to other grills, I presume because the holes for the rotisserie keep air flowing long after a cook is completed. This is frustrating to me as all my other pits allow me to reuse coals, even my giant Lone Star Grillz charcoal grill. These same holes make storing the grill uncovered a bad idea as well. Though the grill body is stainless, the innards are not and neither is the pro grill grate or expandable metal grate. Water got inside my grill somehow even though I had it covered with a cheap Amazon cover Nick recommended. There was a lot of rain for sure. I also have had an intermittent issue with the lid not closing all of the way, presumably due to metal expanding or whatever the excuse is. It is correctable by opening the lid all the way and sliding it over when it happens, but man. $1800 grill. My charcoal grate is also warped and the front leg sits about an inch off of the grill floor. I’m not running 900 degree cooks or whatever Bradley said his grill was able to handle in his videos, so I’m not sure what the issue is. My hope is that it all settles down after a few more cooks and when the summer heat is upon us.
Again, I like this grill well enough, but I’d probably not buy it again in its present configuration for sure. At the cost, for me it’s probably closer to a 3.5 star grill, but I didn’t have the heart to give a Chuds product a three star rating. I know they work hard and are generally easy to work with and I quite like my Chud press and love my Chudbox as well as all of the rubs I’ve tried.
