Masterbuilt® Gravity Series® 1050 Digital Charcoal Grill and Smoker with Digital Control, App Connectivity and 1,050 Cooking Square Inches in Black, Model MB20041220

I've been cooking with a Weber religiously for about 2 years now. The weber master touch kettle style is what introduced me to charcoal grilling. I cooked on it nearly every weekend for the 2 years I had it, rain or shine or snow it didn't matter. The flavor charcoal provides is incomparable. Looking back, fanning the flames with cardboard...buying a manual blower and wrecking it soon after and then upgrading to a DeWalt leaf blower. My neighbors would often wonder why I was using a leaf blower when it was snowing and cold outside. Little did they know...charcoal isn't an easy method of grilling. Smoking on that little Weber was an adventure everytime. While the weber boasted the ability to smoke and provide indirect heat as well as direct heat it just wasn't truly up to par with someone like me who was grilling every week despite the weather. I ended up warping that little weber because of the heavy usage. I sure did get my mileage out of it.But this review isn't about the weber, it's about this wonderful, amazing piece of technology that allows you to cheat! I had often heard that pellet grilling was like charcoal grilling but cheating. This charcoal grill is like grilling with charcoal but cheating with charcoal. It's so easy it's disgusting. I went a long time, many grills doing all this effort while this grill does everything EFFORTLESSLY. Key phrase is EFFORTLESSLY. Fire and forget isn't a more applicable term! I admit the assembly process is grueling. I admit I hate starting the flame in this grill compared to my weber but that is and was a SMALL price to pay. I just smoked a 16 lb brisket to absolute perfection over 22 hours. I did none of the work. The grill did everything.I was a little hesitant to allow the grill to work over the course of one night but when I woke up the next morning the thing still had fire and still had, albeit, a small amount of charcoal left...to think this charcoal grill went 8 hours without maintenance...it truly is disgusting for those of you charcoal purists who have worked painstakingly to maintain your heat, your supply and the placement of your flames. This grill is just profound. It's so hard to describe how amazing it truly is unless you've slaved, smoking with something like a weber.Smoking is such a fine art that requires such specific detail to temperature and truly only works well when done indirectly. This grill is such a marvel of engineering it not only burns indirectly but the manifold allows for SEARING. My god. It's unbelievable.If you're on the fence with the price tag but are a charcoal purist like me who is just tired of not getting that perfect smoke...this is a no brainer. If it lasts only a year, if it only lasts 6 months....I'd buy it again. I love this thing!Edit: been a year now and have grilled more on this in the first few months than I did in 2 years with my Weber in terms of hourly usage easy. The longest I ever used this grill was 26 HOURS. That was a good brisket.I've smoked a turkey for Thanksgiving and made 6 briskets on this thing. I've cooked pork butt and pulled it. I've made brisket and pulled that! I've made newyorks, t-bones, tomahawks, salmon, whole tilapia...this grill is beyond words.However! I've had some failures. It's sad but nothing lasts forever. My fan had failed but this is after 100's of hours if not 1,000. Also my proximity switch for the lid melted so I shorted the wires together and kept grilling.Still the best charcoal griller out there!Edit 09/2023 Wow have had this grill for 3 years and have easily spent more than 1k hours cooking on it. Definitely the best charcoal grill I could have asked for! When I talk to other grillmasters most use pellets but pellets does not infuse the taste of charcoal. Literally just made a 20 lb brisket over 24 hours on 9/16/23 and is easily my best. Fire and forget once you get this thing lit. Keep it fed and you don't have a thing to worry about. Used this thing nearly every weekend for the last three years and it keeps going! Only thing I have had to replace is the fan which I'm on my third and have a replacement just in case! Turkeys, Briskets, Pork Shoulders....plenty of space for accompaniments like corn, potatoes or anything you can imagine. I can't talk this grill up enough! If you struggle it's a skill issue and not the grill!

First let's get a couple critical things out of the way: The most important thing is to know is that from time to time you need to adjust and tighten up the U bolts on the clasps. As I learned with my first one (the 800) it is almost always those clamps not being tight enough to get the sensor buttons to fully press down, in order for the fan to run. There are 3: Hopper, coal door, and grill door. When you get all 3 to positively press down on the safety switches, almost all your problems go away. It's rarely actually the fan that is the issue. Wipe away grease on the door lid switch every time you use it.I started smoking on Weber Kettles 30 years ago (still love them) and have tried them all: Pit Boss (pellet smoker, what a joke) Kamado dragon ("red" egg, always fought the vent for just the right temp, not worth the hassle,) Traegar (yawn, so/so smoking, everything just tastes like the pellets, can't get good bark) and Char Broil offset smoker (not bad but rusted out way too early.) Honorable mention: The Oklahoma Joe Tahoma was so terribly bad that I took it back to Lowe's after just one grill. That thing is a fire hazard as you cannot snuff out the coals! I even called them and they verified you just have to let them burn out. Scary. Propane grills are only good for condo rentals, in my experience.I had the Masterbuilt 800 but it was destroyed in a tornado. So with my insurance check and a little more inflated dollars, I upgraded to the 1050.The 850 and 1050 have addressed the design flaw of the 800 which was the giant vent slit in the back. Now it's just a steady gap along the back of the lid which is much smaller and higher than the old design vent. Very happy to see this get re-engineered.When you are done, you are done. You turn the power off and slide the coalbox intake & output doors back into place, and 45 minutes later you it is typically cool enough to cover it back up. Note: Keep an eye on the weather. If you think it's gonna rain less than 1 hour after you're done with it, you may need to cook indoors or smoke another day. Just don't leave it exposed to the rain.There's no gimmick to this: Its coal, wood, or both. Period. (Don't try pellets. They're too tiny and will fall right through the grate.) To start it, a good blowtorch (I prefer the Harbor Freight "gun" style) to the bottom of the coals for 90 seconds, you will be up to temp in 7-10 minutes with the fan blowing. Yes it's that fast. You get real smoke at a perfect temp and no taste of pelletized compressed cellulose garbage in your meats.I've smoked everything on these: Turkey, chicken, pork shoulder, brisket, tuna, salmon, ribs, peppers, tenderloins. If you're after low and slow, which this excels at, these bark up far better than pelletized smokers. I'll never touch a pellet smoker again.I've cold smoked steaks, filets, and chucks. Magnificent.Grilling is so ridiculously easy and predictable, it blows every grill away. I've never had a better grilling experience than these Masterbuilts.One last thing I love about these: The shelves are directly attached to the grill but do not get blazing hot! Warm after a while, but no risk of burning your hands or stomach, unlike that scary Oklahoma Joe's one I took back!