Royal Gourmet CC1830S BBQ Charcoal Grill and Offset Smoker | 823 Square Inch cooking surface, Outdoor for Camping | Black

I bought this as a gift for my s.o. I was scared this product would be small but it’s the perfect size for our small patio. It was easy to assemble and looks great. IMO it’s not flimsy at all. We have been using it pretty often and it functions really well. It’s great for the price. Cooking time was fast and the capacity is pretty good I would say for a family of four at least. My partner loves it. I would suggest getting a cover for it for protection against weather.

We finally had a chance to assemble this new grill and test it out. It took us a while to find the right opportunity which is why this review is delayed. Our unit arrived undamaged and all the parts we needed were there. Assembly was straightforward and took about 1.5 hours. It takes two people at some important steps like installing the bottom tub and lid. Also, getting the initial assembly of the legs going makes you wish you were an octopus. One big improvement would be to put pins or screws into the joints where the leg sections slide together - not for future stability but just to hold those parts in place to install the brackets and bottom rack. We were very happy with the final appearance once it was assembled. The number of accessories is generous and very helpful. We love the adjustable height of the charcoal tray in the main section and the extra grates for the top of the side section could be very useful. As second oversight we found was that the ash tray in the side section does not fit back out through the cover or the door. So to remove the ashes you need to manually scoop them out or push them out the door on the side. Having that tray removable without spilling the ashes would be a bonus. As a direct grill it's wonderful. As an offset smoker, it's adequate. During smoking, it's a little hard to keep the right amount of charcoal and wood going to maintain the temperature without overshooting or rapid drops. The main lid leaks a lot of heat out the edges. We used the high temperature caulk all around the main parts during assembly and that helped a lot compared with some other peoples experiences in reducing the leaks. We ran it with the side door open most of the time and had to keep stirring the wood and charcoal to keep it hot enough. But, overall this is a very nice product and certainly acceptable for the price. Congratulations to the designers who have made a really nice affordable entry level grill/smoker product!

Took some time to build, but cooks great, easy to move, and so far has held up pretty nicely. I feel it's on the smaller side, but should be fine for smaller families.

It's not Traeger, but I don't BBQ much, and didn't need a lot. Still, I will say comments that call the metal really thin do exaggerate a bit. It's reasonably sturdy, assembles decently, although the modern avoidance of written instruction in favor of only graphics isn't my favorite. It should have been insanely easy to add just a few lines which would have sped up the process a bit. Also, although I assembled it by myself at a less than limber age, having youth or a second set of hands would make that process really easy. I have fired it up for three sessions - including a very hot one - just to burn off anything unwanted in the first cook, and at no time experienced any substantial chemical smells, no has any coating shown the slightest inclination to flake off or even alter color. This grill has a little wobble, but I could easily and safely move it (NOT while hot coals were in it, of course) and work with large amounts and multiple batches of product covering all of the upper and base racks as we grilled for a church event. Prior to an across state move, I had used a propane grill for years, and this was the first time to charcoal grill in probably 25 years...but the results were entirely satisfying. At this price point, this is a nice grill.

The grill is awesome. Definitely a good investment.

Looks like Tractor Supply kind of quality, so I should be able to use it for several years before it rusts out. I ain't fired it up yet (been too dry and windy) but I see no reason it shouldn't cook just fine. UPDATE: I finally got to fire it up and cook with it. Getting it up to temp was easy enough, finding the sweetspot for the damper and vent to hold a certain temp (I like to smoke at 225) was easy enough. There is a design flaw in the smoke stack that will allow a breeze to blow into it. It's canted to the rear and can catch that breeze. SO I'll simply cut it flat to fix that problem. BTW my first meal was smoked catfish and cowboy beans. It took a little while to figure out the hot spots and "cold spots" in the cooker but it worked out well. Next will be my Armadillo eggs!

Quick edit: I did report the problem to Amazon and they were good enough to accept the return and refund with a small re-stocking fee. I'm really good with this and it's one of the reasons I continue to use Amazon regularly! ... So I absolutely loved this smoker. I used it exactly 3 times! It has passed the return policy and now I'm stuck with the Royal piece of Garbage. NOT COOL. The first picture is my Royal Gourmet. I was all happy to sit in the backyard today and smoke some ribs while playing my guitar and sipping some malted beverage. Man was I in for a surprise! The first time I cooked some hot dogs in the side smoker. Worked great as a test cook. The second time I cooked some ribs, and worked great. I was actually pretty impressed with the results. Smoker worked great, seemed like a really great deal! I was proud of my cheap inexpensive smoker. Told everyone I knew all about it! The third time the top fell off towards the end of the cook and took half the food with it. Looks like the thin metal sides weren't able to hold the bolts that held the top in place. Pretty sure I followed the assembly instructions properly. Regardless, this should have never happened. What a complete disappointment. I honestly wasn't expecting much for the price. I bought it to see if I enjoyed smoking meats. I figured I'd get a cheaper one hoping to get at least a summer out of it before upgrading or giving up the hobby. I certainly wasn't expecting it to fall apart on it's third use. I'll contact Amazon and see if there is something I can do. Past return policy and I don't have the box or anything any more. I'd spend a few dollars more and get a better offset smoker. This was a real disappointment and not worth the money in my opinion. Seemed like a bargain for the price but sometimes you get exactly what you pay for. This is not a good product IMHO. For the record this was stored in my garage out of the elements. There was really no reason for this to happen! Total disappointment!

Before making this purchase I read several reviews and the bad ones kind of spooked me but I decided to give it a try because I really wanted to be able to grill and smoke, and this is all the money I could spend right now. So who was right, the positive reviews or the negative ones? Kind of both. I ordered the grill on a Friday and it arrived on a Tuesday. Assembled it Wednesday night. Assembly was very simple. First thing I noticed was that the people complaining about how thin the steel is were right, but you get what you pay for. The instructions call for the grill to be seasoned with a small fire. Another reviewer recommended to do this more than once. So between Thursday and Saturday night I built four small fires in the grill. By the time the fourth one had almost burned out I could still smell the chemical smell but it was greatly reduced. Note that the instructions say never to get the temp above 400 degrees F. They also say you can put six pounds of charcoal in the main grill body. If you use that much charcoal you will have a 700-800 degree fire. You'll have to really play a balancing game of getting a fire big enough to cook without burning all the paint off. With the grill seasoned it was time to try cooking on it. I used just enough charcoal to cover 90% of the grill grate with one layer of coals. Temp jumped quickly to about 550, so I shut all the dampers. Cooked chicken and squash. Pleased with the way the grill performed. However, the next day when I cleaned the ashes out I noticed lots of paint had peeled off the pan that holds the grill grate. Now either it will rust or I'll need to repaint it with a high temperature paint. YOu get what you pay for. Today I attempted using the unit as a smoker. The instructions say you can put four pounds of charcoal in the fire box, but I was scared to use that much. I probably started with 2.5-3 pounds. Put a water pan on the charcoal grate in the main grill. Got the temp up to about 200 and put ribs on. Checked about 30 minutes later temperature was 250 but the fire was dying so i stoked it. Bottom line I continued this process of adding to the fire so that the thermometer read 225-300 for about three hours. When I checked the ribs, however, they were not actually cooking. I mean they were hot to the touch, but not hot enough to render any fat out. Not sure yet how to solve this problem. I'm guessing either the thermometer is off or the product just loses too much heat due to gaps in tolerances and thin material. Overall, I think the grill is worth what it costs. I expect it to be functional for grilling and hope to figure out the smoking function. But you get what you pay for so if you can afford a higher quality cooker you should probably get one. Update. After 8 months of use there is not much paint in the main cook chamber or the fire box chamber. The carcoal pan and grate in the cook chamber are warped, rusted, and cracked. However, I am still able to use the grill very effectively--just not sure how much longer that will last. I've also learned that it does function fairly well as a smoker if the ambient conditions are nice and you monitor the fire very carefully. The instructions say not to use real wood in the fire box. However, I have found that if you keep a good bed of coals you can use very small splits of oak or pecan and it works well. 22 month update. Had to replace the ash pan. The fire box (on the side for the smoking function) has rusted through in two places and is no longer safely functional. The grill part still works fine and we use it almost every week. The cooking grates have held up very well. I guess my recommendation has not changed--get this if it is all you can afford.