All makes me wonder about the patents in play and if others will work to come out with their version of this cooker. Isn't this how the pellet industry started? Someone like RecTec, Yoder or Camp Chef.
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Sneak Peek: UPDATED Review - Masterbuilt Gravity Series 560 Grill + Smoker!
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Club Member
- Nov 2017
- 5133
- Virginia
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Grilla Silverbac
Grilla Primate
Weber Kettle
Camp Chef Escape
Old Hickory Knives
More Cast Iron than I care to admit
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I wish manufactures would built stuff the right way and charge the right price instead of cheaping out on things the normal customer might not notice just to appease the beancounters. (My apologies to all the beancounters out there.)
Sooner or later, whether you want to believe it or not, all customers are going to find the shortcuts. You may get them the first time but do you think you’ll get a consideration when they go to replace your product?
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Administrator
- May 2014
- 19033
- Clare, Michigan area
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Follow me on Instagram, huskeesbarbecue
Smokers / Grills- Yoder loaded Wichita offset smoker
- PBC
- Grilla Silverbac pellet grill
- Slow 'N Sear Deluxe Kamado (SnSK)
- Masterbuilt Gravity 560
- Masterbuilt Digital Charcoal Cabinet
- Weber 22" Original Kettle Premium (copper)
- Weber 26" Original Kettle Premium (light blue)
- Weber Jumbo Joe Gold (18.5")
- Weber Smokey Joe Silver (14.5")
- Brinkmann cabinet charcoal smoker (repurposed)
Thermometers- SnS 500 4-probe wireless
- (3) Maverick XR-50 4-probe Wireless Thermometers
- A few straggler Maverick ET-732s
- Maverick ET-735 Bluetooth (in box)
- Smoke X4 by ThermoWorks
- Thermapen MkII, orange & purple
- ThermoPop, yellow, plus a few more in a drawer for gifts
- ThermoWorks ChefAlarm (wife's)
- Morpilot 6-probe wireless
- ThermoWorks Infrared IRK2
- ThermoWorks fridge & freezer therms as well
Accessories- Instant Pot 6qt
- Anova Bluetooth SV
- Kitchen Aide mixer & meat grinder attachment
- Kindling Cracker King (XL)
- a couple BBQ Dragons
- Weber full & half chimneys, Char-Broil Half Time chimney
- Weber grill topper
- Slow 'N Sear Original, XL, and SnS Charcoal Basket (for Jumbo Joe)
- Drip 'N Griddle Pans, 22' Easy Spin Grate, and Elevated Cooking grate, by SnSGrills
- Pittsburgh Digital Moisture Meter
Beverages- Favorite summer beers: Leinenkugels Summer & Grapefruit Shandy, Hamm's, Michelob Ultra Pure Gold
- Fav other beers: Zombie Dust (an IPA by 3 Floyd's Brewing), Austin Bros IPA, DAB, Sam Adams regular, Third Shift amber or Coors Batch 19, Stella Artois
- Fav cheap beers: Pabst, High Life, Hamm's & Stroh's
- Most favorite beer: The one in your fridge
- Wine: Red- big, bold, tannic & peppery- Petite Sirah, Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauv, Sangiovese, Syrah, etc
- Whiskey: Buffalo Trace, E.H. Taylor, Blanton's, Old Forester 1870, Elijah Craig Toasted, Basil Hayden's. Neat please.
- Scotch: Current favorite- The Arran (anything by them), Glenmorangie 12yr Lasanta, sherry cask finished. The Balvenie Double Wood, also like Oban 18yr, and The Glenlivet Nadurra (Oloroso sherry cask finished) among others. Neat please.
About me
Real name: Aaron
Location: Farwell, Michigan- near Clare. (dead center of lower peninsula)
Occupation:- Healthcare- Licensed & Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) at MyMichigan Health, a University of Michigan Health System.
Attractive pricing for the average consumer needs to be well balanced with parts that won't fail prematurely. Even though the fixes are easy and quick, they shouldn't be part of the experience.
- Likes 6
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Personally a lot of these grills and smokers look very interesting until I think about the electric, switches and the what not that can fail. I think for me, kinda like charcoal and gas. My stuff stays outdoors all the time. I don’t mind electric accessories, but I don’t want my grill or smoker out of service for something I may or may not have a work around at any given time.
- Likes 1
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I’ve kept my fireboard and fans outside under cover And hooked up to my grill for about two years with zero issues.
- 2 likes
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Very good points. I was the "I don't need a thermostat and fan and circuit board cooking my food only to have it all fail and leave me hanging" type for many years, was content to use my stickburner and kettles which aren't subject to such things. But, when electronics are working well they make it a complete pleasure to use this cooker.
- 1 like
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On most of my rigs if the control system fails, I can pull out the fan and set the vents and keep cooking.
Not so easy with pellets or this cooker, but the control and ability to remotely monitor and set temperatures is hard to let go once you get accustomed to it, especially for long cooks.
- 1 like
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This thing does cook awesome. If they had just used thicker wire (seems like about 20 gauge or smaller) and more robust electric components (Safety switches that live near the firebox) it would definitely be in the recommended category.
- Likes 1
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Part of me thinks this unit is the sacrificial lamb. I think there were a few attempts at gravity fed charcoal grills but this one seems like the first one that kinda broke some ground so to speak. Not too often the first one knocks it out of the park. There will be lots to learn for MB and others in terms of price points, quality and such and I have no doubts that future iterations will be pretty awesome. Looking forward to hearing about your experiences going forward.
- 2 likes
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Club Member
- Mar 2020
- 4359
- Near Chicago, IL
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Current Portfolio:
Joule
PK300
Meathead’s Large Big Green Egg Loaded (see below)
Old (sold) Loves:
PBC
Weber 22" Premium
Masterbuilt Gravity 560
Akorn Kamado
Thermometers:
Thermopro wired
Thermoworks POP
Combustion Inc
Preferred Charcoal:
Masterbuilt Lump
Favorite Rubs:
Homemade (mainly MMD/Just Like Katz rub)
Other Accessories:
Big Green Egg Slow & Sear
Tandoori Skewers System for BGE
Split ceramic plates BGE
Smoking plate BGE
Mercer brisket slicing knife
Rapala brisket trimming knife
SS BBQ trays
NoCry Cut Resistant Gloves
LEM # 8 Meat Grinder
Lodge 5-Quart Dutch Oven + Skillet
Meat Claws
Grill Rescue Brush
Meat Fridge for dry aging
Favorite Whiskey/Beer:
Anything Peaty or anything from New Holland brewery
Polarbear777 Thank you for all of the education and work you have shared on this smoker. Truly Appreciated!
Comment
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Administrator
- May 2014
- 19033
- Clare, Michigan area
-
Follow me on Instagram, huskeesbarbecue
Smokers / Grills- Yoder loaded Wichita offset smoker
- PBC
- Grilla Silverbac pellet grill
- Slow 'N Sear Deluxe Kamado (SnSK)
- Masterbuilt Gravity 560
- Masterbuilt Digital Charcoal Cabinet
- Weber 22" Original Kettle Premium (copper)
- Weber 26" Original Kettle Premium (light blue)
- Weber Jumbo Joe Gold (18.5")
- Weber Smokey Joe Silver (14.5")
- Brinkmann cabinet charcoal smoker (repurposed)
Thermometers- SnS 500 4-probe wireless
- (3) Maverick XR-50 4-probe Wireless Thermometers
- A few straggler Maverick ET-732s
- Maverick ET-735 Bluetooth (in box)
- Smoke X4 by ThermoWorks
- Thermapen MkII, orange & purple
- ThermoPop, yellow, plus a few more in a drawer for gifts
- ThermoWorks ChefAlarm (wife's)
- Morpilot 6-probe wireless
- ThermoWorks Infrared IRK2
- ThermoWorks fridge & freezer therms as well
Accessories- Instant Pot 6qt
- Anova Bluetooth SV
- Kitchen Aide mixer & meat grinder attachment
- Kindling Cracker King (XL)
- a couple BBQ Dragons
- Weber full & half chimneys, Char-Broil Half Time chimney
- Weber grill topper
- Slow 'N Sear Original, XL, and SnS Charcoal Basket (for Jumbo Joe)
- Drip 'N Griddle Pans, 22' Easy Spin Grate, and Elevated Cooking grate, by SnSGrills
- Pittsburgh Digital Moisture Meter
Beverages- Favorite summer beers: Leinenkugels Summer & Grapefruit Shandy, Hamm's, Michelob Ultra Pure Gold
- Fav other beers: Zombie Dust (an IPA by 3 Floyd's Brewing), Austin Bros IPA, DAB, Sam Adams regular, Third Shift amber or Coors Batch 19, Stella Artois
- Fav cheap beers: Pabst, High Life, Hamm's & Stroh's
- Most favorite beer: The one in your fridge
- Wine: Red- big, bold, tannic & peppery- Petite Sirah, Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauv, Sangiovese, Syrah, etc
- Whiskey: Buffalo Trace, E.H. Taylor, Blanton's, Old Forester 1870, Elijah Craig Toasted, Basil Hayden's. Neat please.
- Scotch: Current favorite- The Arran (anything by them), Glenmorangie 12yr Lasanta, sherry cask finished. The Balvenie Double Wood, also like Oban 18yr, and The Glenlivet Nadurra (Oloroso sherry cask finished) among others. Neat please.
About me
Real name: Aaron
Location: Farwell, Michigan- near Clare. (dead center of lower peninsula)
Occupation:- Healthcare- Licensed & Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) at MyMichigan Health, a University of Michigan Health System.
Our updated review of this cooker is finally live.
Max and I worked hard to address the quality issues many of our readers experienced, that I eventually faced as well. We contacted Masterbuilt many times, had some disappointments, some beneficial interactions, and he and I spoke at length many times before deliberating on how to adjust the review.
The main review, here, has been updated as of today 7/20/2020. We dropped our Platinum rating to Silver.
Faults notwithstanding, we still feel this is a groundbreaking cooker. The quality issues, while alarming and shouldn't be part of the experience only a few months in (much quicker for others), aren't impossible to get around. We hope Masterbuilt chooses to use some higher quality components for future versions. But, the fact remains it's a $500 cooker, not a $2100 cooker, so we feel we're being as fair and transparent as possible in our re-deliberation and re-reviewing.
- Likes 4
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Silver is about right. They still haven’t shipped replacement switches to me but I don’t really need them. If you have some expertise it’s not that hard to keep it running and when running is a joy to cook with. They could have at least used better switches and wire greater than 20 gauge.
I’ve run it through dozens of long and short cooks now and the firebox brick seems to be holding up ok, even though it looks awful in there.
Comment
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Club Member
- Mar 2020
- 4359
- Near Chicago, IL
-
Current Portfolio:
Joule
PK300
Meathead’s Large Big Green Egg Loaded (see below)
Old (sold) Loves:
PBC
Weber 22" Premium
Masterbuilt Gravity 560
Akorn Kamado
Thermometers:
Thermopro wired
Thermoworks POP
Combustion Inc
Preferred Charcoal:
Masterbuilt Lump
Favorite Rubs:
Homemade (mainly MMD/Just Like Katz rub)
Other Accessories:
Big Green Egg Slow & Sear
Tandoori Skewers System for BGE
Split ceramic plates BGE
Smoking plate BGE
Mercer brisket slicing knife
Rapala brisket trimming knife
SS BBQ trays
NoCry Cut Resistant Gloves
LEM # 8 Meat Grinder
Lodge 5-Quart Dutch Oven + Skillet
Meat Claws
Grill Rescue Brush
Meat Fridge for dry aging
Favorite Whiskey/Beer:
Anything Peaty or anything from New Holland brewery
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thanks for the update. I can't see spending the money on something, though, that breaks like this, regardless of price point. They obviously designed this to the $499 price point vs just saying "OK, we'll use better wire and switches etc" and increasing it to $599 or even $749.
I and I think others would seriously consider it at that price. Decent pellet grills start there, after all
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I've said many times in conversations with my colleagues that they'd have been better off, in my personal opinion, making this a $600 or $700 cooker and used better parts. I am with you there. But, still, if you can change a fuse then you can bypass the switches if they go bad ("not that I officially endorse bypassing safety switches").
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NEVER EVER buy the first run of a model. Stick with companies that have a proven track record. There are exception of course but in general, you get what you pay for.
I would never again consider a Masterbuilt product.
- Likes 1
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From my experience as a design engineer, if you see a weakness in one area, there's a high likelihood of weaknesses elsewhere. The product is a window into the thinking and methodology of the company, its priorities, and its values.Last edited by BBQPhil; August 1, 2020, 03:36 PM.
- 1 like
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Club Member
- Feb 2019
- 1556
- Salado, Tx
-
Summerset TRL44 gas grill and side sear
Weber Performer
Weber 70th Anniversary kettle, Hot Rod Yellow
Camp Chef Somerset IV 4 burner propane stove
Camp Chef FTG600
OT QOMOTOP 23-inch Gas Griddle
Pit Boss Ultimate 4 burner griddle
Oklahoma Joe's HD orange Bronco
Oklahoma Joe's Bronco Pro
Oklahoma Joe's Judge
Oklahoma Joe's Rambler
Golden's Cast Iron Grill
Ooni Koda 16
Halo Versa 16
Everdure rotisserie grill
Titan Santa Maria grill
Coyote Pellet grill
Hasty Bake Roughneck smoker
LSG 48" Texas Edition offset
A couple of oft repeated situations are reinforced here. One is the disappointments that emerge when a product prioritizes being built down to a price instead of up to a standard. The second is how this adjustment to the rating and the thorough explanation of the whys underscores the integrity of the product reviews on this site. Particularly noteworthy considering the undue poop storm over the Smokefire dance earlier.
- Likes 2
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