New M1 first impressions

[Tuckmonster]

New M1 arrived a few days ago. This thing is impressive right off the bat. Everything about it screams quality. I had seen plenty of people saying it was solid, "built like a tank" etc. But you have to touch this thing to really appreciate how well built it is. It is heavy, solid, thick metal all around. The firebox pullout must weight 25 pounds, the lid requires some muscle to lift, The door to the firebox is thick and solid, same with the ash pan. I just can't say enough about the solidity and the build quality.

It came packed on a solid pallet, no way this thing was shifting or moving at all. Fully padded, tied down, nothing was going to put a blemish on this machine in transit. Getting it off the pallet was a little rough and working it into my backyard required laying down some wood tracks. if I have a criticism it's that the wheels could be beefier. It was difficult to roll this grill the 30 feet back to my patio. Once there it moved ok but required some muscle to get going.

Assembly was easy, very simple. 6 screws to remove for the shelves on each side and then just screw in the crank for the charcoal grate and the thermometer. All the pieces were tied down inside the cook chamber with zip ties. The accessories were as solid and will built as the rest of the grill.

I followed M Grills instructions to season the grill from their YouTube videos. Lit a chimney of lump charcoal then dumped it into the firebox. Added some more charcoal and let it burn down for about 2 hours. Hit a peak grate temp of 365 with the charcoal burning in the lower firebox but that was just me being curious, not a real world cooking situation.

Anyway, I like what I see so far. I'll post more once I get to actually cook on the grill.