Char-Griller 980 Gravity-Fed Charcoal Smoker
As promised in another thread, here's my post and initial thoughts about the Char-Griller 980 Gravity-Fed Charcoal Smoker.
First off, I have to give credit to the post here and to Tom Horsman on YouTube for helping with my decision.
I started barbecuing with a Weber Performer and a Smokenator classic. I upgraded in 2018 to a Weber Smoky Mountain and have been very satisfied with most aspects of it. Between NCS and wanting more real estate in a cooker, I set out to find a new one.
I decided on the Char-Griller and placed my order from Lowe's (I'm in Florida, we don't have a Menard's here). I ordered it unassembled, since I like to put my own things together, and that turned out to be a fiasco. They brought it assembled twice and between that and being out of town for a week, it took a little while to get an unassembled one here. In retrospect, I probably would just have taken the assembled one and double checked the exterior bolts after arrival, since there's not a whole lot of interior assembly needed. My unassembled one took a while to put together, I goofed a few times, and it has a few dents and scratches (but I made it work).
I went ahead and installed the fan extender (as a precaution) from LSS Mods as well as the add-on cooking rack he offers (which is a game changer indeed). I also added gasket to the firebox and lid - I will need to add a little more to the body in the lid area, and use some high temp caulk for some gaps around the firebox. None of it is overly necessarily but it will certainly help.
After doing the recommended burn-in from the manual and checking the hot zones with some canned biscuits, I did the inaugural cook this past weekend with an 8 lb pork butt. I used the integrated temp controller and the included meat probe, but also used my Thermoworks Signals to monitor the smoker temp and meat temp.
At 7:45am I put the pork butt on. The meat temp probe was pretty close to Thermoworks throughout the day. During the first part of the day, I had to set the smoker temp 25° higher than what I wanted it to be. This seemed to level off as the day went on (maybe because of the heat wave, maybe it calibrated, maybe I just wasn't paying attention). I was very impressed with the smoker's ability to maintain temp and for the first time I didn't have to spritz my pork every hour (I did after a few hours, and I also had a water pan in the smoker)
Towards the end of the day, I also threw on a chicken and some baked beans and with the second shelf, everything fit real nicely. Definitely still some learning to do with it (I need to add more wood chunks to get more smoke, and there's definitely some hot spots towards the fire box) but I am beyond happy with the cooker so far.
I always forget to take final product pics - things move too quickly around dinner time - but I did get pics of the shredded pork. Didn't get any chicken pics along the way.
Finally, I will also add that I decided to move away from Kingsford and try the B&B charcoal. I am blown away by the difference and will be using that moving forward for all smoking needs.
Pics below:
Assembled cooker
with the lid open
Biscuit test
Time for the first cook - nice and peaceful at 7:45am (but also hot as heck)
The charcoal -- the LSS Mods fan extender is slightly visible here
The seasonings
Just put her on - here we go! LSS Mods' grate extender is seen nicely here
About 2 hours in - hadn't even looked at it at this point
3.5 hours in - started spritzing it here
4 hours in
6 hours in, just prior to wrapping
Pork took about 10 hours in total, I pulled, lightly sauced and put it back on the far side of the smoker to keep warm until supper. Here it is at serving time
First off, I have to give credit to the post here and to Tom Horsman on YouTube for helping with my decision.
I started barbecuing with a Weber Performer and a Smokenator classic. I upgraded in 2018 to a Weber Smoky Mountain and have been very satisfied with most aspects of it. Between NCS and wanting more real estate in a cooker, I set out to find a new one.
I decided on the Char-Griller and placed my order from Lowe's (I'm in Florida, we don't have a Menard's here). I ordered it unassembled, since I like to put my own things together, and that turned out to be a fiasco. They brought it assembled twice and between that and being out of town for a week, it took a little while to get an unassembled one here. In retrospect, I probably would just have taken the assembled one and double checked the exterior bolts after arrival, since there's not a whole lot of interior assembly needed. My unassembled one took a while to put together, I goofed a few times, and it has a few dents and scratches (but I made it work).
I went ahead and installed the fan extender (as a precaution) from LSS Mods as well as the add-on cooking rack he offers (which is a game changer indeed). I also added gasket to the firebox and lid - I will need to add a little more to the body in the lid area, and use some high temp caulk for some gaps around the firebox. None of it is overly necessarily but it will certainly help.
After doing the recommended burn-in from the manual and checking the hot zones with some canned biscuits, I did the inaugural cook this past weekend with an 8 lb pork butt. I used the integrated temp controller and the included meat probe, but also used my Thermoworks Signals to monitor the smoker temp and meat temp.
At 7:45am I put the pork butt on. The meat temp probe was pretty close to Thermoworks throughout the day. During the first part of the day, I had to set the smoker temp 25° higher than what I wanted it to be. This seemed to level off as the day went on (maybe because of the heat wave, maybe it calibrated, maybe I just wasn't paying attention). I was very impressed with the smoker's ability to maintain temp and for the first time I didn't have to spritz my pork every hour (I did after a few hours, and I also had a water pan in the smoker)
Towards the end of the day, I also threw on a chicken and some baked beans and with the second shelf, everything fit real nicely. Definitely still some learning to do with it (I need to add more wood chunks to get more smoke, and there's definitely some hot spots towards the fire box) but I am beyond happy with the cooker so far.
I always forget to take final product pics - things move too quickly around dinner time - but I did get pics of the shredded pork. Didn't get any chicken pics along the way.
Finally, I will also add that I decided to move away from Kingsford and try the B&B charcoal. I am blown away by the difference and will be using that moving forward for all smoking needs.
Pics below:
Assembled cooker
with the lid open
Biscuit test
Time for the first cook - nice and peaceful at 7:45am (but also hot as heck)
The charcoal -- the LSS Mods fan extender is slightly visible here
The seasonings
Just put her on - here we go! LSS Mods' grate extender is seen nicely here
About 2 hours in - hadn't even looked at it at this point
3.5 hours in - started spritzing it here
4 hours in
6 hours in, just prior to wrapping
Pork took about 10 hours in total, I pulled, lightly sauced and put it back on the far side of the smoker to keep warm until supper. Here it is at serving time
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