Chargriller question

[hdsmoke]

I recently bought a Chargriller and put it together last week. Plan to do a few of the mods; stack extension, thermos...but my question is on the SFB. When i slide the ash tray in there is about a quarter inch gap pretty much all around it. Does this need sealed up? Can i use furnace cement for this? Thanks

 

[olewarthog]

Yes you need to close off those gaps to able to effectively regulate temps with the side vent.

First make sure the drawer is going in under the guides inside the SFB not over them. If you still have gaps with the drawer inserted correctly, try bending the face of the drawer to make it seat more flush. Smaller gaps can be plugged by folding HD foil around the edge of the drawer face.

 

[dropastone]

Hello fellow CharGriller.

Is there any way you can post a picture of your problem. As olewarthog said make sure your drawer is inserted properly. If not you will get those gaps.

 

[hdsmoke]

The drawer was in under the rails correctly because i played with it for a while making sure it was in right. One side (i think the left side ) of the drawer is worse than the other. Maybe i can bend it some to get a better fit. I'll try to get pics tonight if i cant get it to a point i would call acceptable. I dont have it here in front of me now, but i almost am thinking that it seemed like the drawer part was not attached to the outter panel straight, like it was torqued around a little. We'll see what i can come up with tonight.

I am also planning to season it today after work. I read the seasoning process on bbq bible, but any other hints for this?

 

[dropastone]

This is straight out of the manual that you got with your CharGriller. If you follow these steps you can't go wrong.

I hope you can get your problem solved. If not you should contact a CharGriller Support Agent.

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[trashcan]

Don't bother emailing chargriller. Call them.

 

[husker-q]

Mine does same thing - I just plug the gap with some foil.

 

[hdsmoke]

ok, thanks guys. i bent the drawer edges and actually got it to fit pretty decent. So, i think with some foil itl be good to go.

Seasoning now well under way. gonna let her die down and call it good. started about 4:30, inside looks nice.

Now, one more newb question. I see all the mods for the charcoal basket, Lowes charcoal shaker basket, and some people just using the stock charcoal grate on top of the cooking grates. I think i am either going to go the expanded mesh or basket route. How much does your basket need to hold? I see some people say they are using a chimney full of unlit and then a chimney full of lit for the minion method. This seems like a lot of charcoal to fit in a basket to me! Am i missing something here...?

 

[chicagochris]

Hey there, I am relatively new to the CG, myself, and have had a lot of success with the shaker basket. I have no problem getting one chimney of unlit coals & a few chunks of wood and about half a chimney of lit coals in there at all. I was skeptical myself, as it really doesn't look to be all that big of a basket, but it works just fine. I tried a full chimney of lit to begin once, but I had some trouble keeping my temps down. For me half a chimney of lit coals did the trick, but this really seems to be one of those things that varies quite a bit from person to person.

 

[hdsmoke]

Thanks Chris. Im going to give her a trial run tonight and see what happens. Havent decided what im going to throw on yet.

 

[coyote-1]

I returned my first SFB because the fit of the door and drawer were both bad. Got the display unit instead, which is fitted VERY well.

As you've found, it's possible to correct for these minor issues. Nonetheless, it's unfortunate to see CG's quality control slipping this way.

 

[olewarthog]

If your basket is elevated high enough (& it should be) so that the bottom of the basket is about the level of the top of the side vent, you most likely will find a full chimney of lit is too much like some others have said. I have the shaker basket & I only use about a half chimney of lit to start. I can get temps to 225-250 with no problem.

 

[jirodriguez]

Yeah I had the same issue with my slide out ash tray not fitting correctly. My problem was the cut out on the ash tray did not match the door/cut out of the fire box. I actually had to take a grinder and remove about 1/16" of metal from the top edge of the ash tray door/cut out, now it fits quite nicely.

I have been using the grilling wok from lowes and it seems to work well. I start with 1 chimney of unlit lump in the basket and then add 1 chimney of lit. It is a little bit tight on the fit sometimes, but as long as you dump the lit basket gently and use the lip of the chimney to push it back as you dump it does all fit.

I also saved some $$ and just flipped over the charcaol pan in the main chamber and hung it as high as I could for my baffle/tuning plate. I have been fairly happy with the results. I might get a 20°-25° differance from one side to the other, but I use it to my advanage. Put things like butts, shoulders, & ribs on the cooler side, and stuff like chicken, ABT's, and sausage on the hotter side. Upper rack is always reserved for Dutch's beans!

Best of luck and let us know how it all goes!

 

[helljack6]

I had all the same problems with my chargriller, and finally sold it so I could build now 7 UDS. Not that i'm hijacking your thread, but I found even after doing all the mods listed here and on various other websites, I found that my chargriller while worked as a great grill, performed less than adequately as a smoker regardless of what I did. FWIW the chargriller performs, depending on how much "therapy" you need. Me personally, I DON'T want have to keep tending the smoker nor was I pleased with the fact that it ate so much fuel regardless of what I did.

 

[coyote-1]

I've found the CGSP to only be a fuel hog in cold windy situations. A single basket of lump plus a few splits of cherry & maple got me through 4.5 hours on saturday, with a consistent 225 temperature throughout.

 

[hdsmoke]

Well, i ate my first results last night...i just went with stuff i couldnt screw up. Peppers, onion, sausage, and corn. i filled my charcoal basket completely full and then added about half a chimney of lit, and closed the damper to about half right off the bat. Checked it in 15 minutes and it was sitting right around 220 at the center of the grate while my stock hood thermo was at about 175. added a few oak chunks and opened the damper till i had tbs and then shut it to about 1/8 open and it still held temp right around 230. I put the food on, and then i had to run into town for about an hour (i was nervous as heck about leaving it!) as i promised a friend i would help them out. When i (finally) got back temp was still the same, while the coals were all lit int he basket. This was about an hour and a half after i lit the fire. So, i threw on a couple more sticks of oak and opened the damper. I wanted to see if i could get the temp to 250, and it went up to just about there, but my sfb started smoking and i thought i would burn the paint so i choked it back down and took my food off. I just let the charcoal burn to see what kind of burn time i would get. about 9:30 i lifted the basket out, still lots of coal. But grate temp had declined to about 200 by then, but that was 3.5 hrs after lit with no more fuel put on but a few oak sticks at abour 6:30.

Crappy cellphone mini Qview:

Just a wisp of tbs


Everything turned out great for an easy first time meal:

 

[dropastone]

Good job HD glad to hear everything turned out for you in the end.