CharBroil disappointment :(

[GrillinBWCA]

We have a CharBroil grill we bought about three years ago.  It's this model:  Grill.  We want to love this thing.  It looks great, has a nice sear burner and side burner, lots of space for the grilled veggies and sides we like, but there is no way we can figure to get anything close to even heating from it.  We were so excited when we got it, and now it's just a big lump of disappointment sitting on our deck.  It's such an aggravation we've barely used it, and that makes it even more annoying because we love to grill.

The carryover tubes that feed the propane to all the burners have narrow openings along the entire front of each one, and consequently, the propane inside them ignites, shoots out the front of the tubes, and becomes, in effect, an extra set burners at the back of the grill.  Therefore, the front of the burners are pretty cold, while the rear part is too hot.  It's very frustrating trying to cook any decent amount of stuff on this grill because the heat is so ridiculously uneven.  Not only that, but since the carryover tubes are not protected by the flavor bars, any grease that hits them flares up and makes the back of the grill even hotter.   I ordered a new set of carryover tubes for this grill, hoping the problem had been corrected, but they are exactly the same as the old ones.  I can't figure out what the engineers were thinking when they designed this mess.

I never could get any satisfaction from CharBroil, and now the grill is too old to to return and too new to just throw away.  I'm ready to wrap the carryover tubes in foil (leaving the ends open of course) to close up the fronts of them and see if that helps any.  My question to all of you is whether or not you are aware of any kind of hazard this might create.  I can't think why it wouldn't work to make the tubes solid so no more orange flames can leak out the front, but I'm no expert when it comes to propane.  There has to be some way to make this grill usable.  We've hardly used it since we got it because it does such a bad job.  From reading reviews I can see we aren't the only ones to have this problem, but I haven't been able to find a solution, so it appears I'm on my own to try to correct it as best I can.

TIA for any suggestions.     

[teesquare]

Hang in there - maybe muebe ( one of our members here that works for a gas company) will have some ideas. As well - there may be others here with experience using this particular grill.

[Las Vegan Cajun]

Unfortunately Charbroil's weren't built to last forever like Weber's.  The old saying is buy a Charbroil and expect to replace it evey few years, by a Weber and it will be the last grill you'll ever have to buy. 

[GrillinBWCA]

This grill hasn't been right from jump.     It seems to me the carryover tubes are designed wrong.  I don't see why there's a gap along the side of each of them.  We should have returned it the minute we figured out it didn't work right, but it's huge and heavy and we didn't have a good way to get it back to the store once it was assembled.  Besides, it took us a while to realize what the problem was because it's hard to see the flames with the sun is bright.

[teesquare]

The one item I can tell you that GrillGrates will improve ANY grill and even out the temperatures. I am concerned about the flames coming from an area that I am not sure you should see them coming from....

[TentHunteR]

Boy, I hate to say it, but sometimes it's best to just cut your losses.

You apparently really love to grill, so if it's that bad, maybe you should sell it, and get into a grill that works the way you want. Then you can enjoy cooking outdoors once again.

[GrillinBWCA]

I think I'm going to try wrapping the tubes in foil before anything else.  I can't think of any way I'd be endangering my safety by trying it.  It seems to me the tubes should be enclosed, not open like they are.  As long as I don't obstruct either end, it should be safe to try the foil and see if it helps any.  I'll report back after I'm done.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[GrillinBWCA]

Well, I found out closing off the opening on the front of the tubes didn't work.  But it was worth doing because now I understand the mechanics of the carryover tubes.  They have to have flame because that's what lights all the burners except the first one.  So now I know that.

What I did was make little foil tents that wrap around the top of the tubes but don't close off the openings.  That allows the flame to travel across to light all the secondary burners, but deflects the flames from the tubes so hopefully the heat from them will be distributed better since I can't avoid having those extra flames.

I'm going to cook some chicken later and see how it goes.  I'm not expecting much improvement, but the heat does feel a little more evenly distributed when I put my hand over various areas.  But I'm the first to admit it could just be wishful thinking.

I wonder how other brands of grills handle the designs of their carryover tubes.  It seems like the only way to avoid this problem would be to have separate igniters for each burner.

[GrillinBWCA]

I cooked chicken breasts and some potato slabs on the grill tonight.  It seems to be an improvement to have the foil diffusers in there.  Now I have to figure out something a little more permanent.

We're thinking about moving out of state in 3-5 years and don't want to buy another big grill instead of the one we have, not to mention we don't want to spend the money when we haven't had this CharBroil that long.  We'd rather try to get by with this one till it's time to move, then get rid of it and replace it on the other end.

I'm wondering if I could cut up an old cookie sheet to make some diffusers/baffles out of.  Maybe all I'd need is some flat plates to lay on top of the flavor bars above the carryover tubes.  It would be sort of like a flame tamer under a cooking pot on a hot stove.

At least it feels like I'm making a little progress improving this grill.  Thanks, everyone, for reading and responding.  It helped me think things through a bit.

As a bonus while I was out messing with the grill,  I got to see a whole litter of little baby chipmunks, all shiny and new.  They must have a nest somewhere out by our deck.  So cute!

[teesquare]

Perhaps a piece of light gee sheet metal - cut to fit over the areas in question will help distribute the heat even better? Just DO NOT use galvanized metal. I gives off some noxious fumes when heated.

[Saber 4]

Since you don't want to get another big grill before you plan on moving you might just check Craig's List for a deal on an SRG.

[GrillinBWCA]

No CL here in the back of beyond, but it's a good thought.

We did order a new regulator for our little Weber Go Anywhere gas grill, and we have a couple Cobb cookers (charcoal).  We're not completely without toys to play with.     I guess that's why it's taken me so long to get around to trying to fix the dang thing.

[hikerman]

Grillin, glad to hear that you are safely making progress! I understand completely about letting your grill sit after the lack of help from CB. That leaves a bad taste in our mouths, and who wants a return visit with that bad taste. At some point we say, you know it's time to attend to that! Continued progress to you both!

[GrillinBWCA]

I tried putting a tent of foil over the entire length of the carryover tubes in hopes of diverting some of the heat, but all that happened there was I had large orange flames coming out both ends, to that's a bust.

I'm a a loss what else to try.  I just can't understand the design of this grill.  It seems pretty clear it was designed and then the prototypes were never tested before it went into production.

We're rethinking buying a grill.  My husband is all for it but he's in a spendy mood lately.  I'm not because I know we need a new roof on the house, a new driveway, new van battery, AC and brake work on the van, new truck tires, you get the idea.  A grill is way down the list of priorities and there are more important things right now, like the rest of this year's vacations. 

I sure hope the new regulator we ordered for our little Weber Go-Anywhere grill corrects the issues we've been having with that thing.

I'm switching from fixing mode to modifying mode, I think.  I like the way our CharBroil looks and there's nothing wrong with the sear burner or the side burner.  Maybe I could partially gut the thing or otherwise modify it to use as a covered outdoor kitchen somehow.  I'll have to think about it some more.  It still ticks me off it performs so poorly.

[muebe]

I am late to the show but I see you found out what the step over rail is for. Do me a favor and remove the grates and flame tamers then take a picture of the burner system for me then post it in this thread. I am not familiar with how the burners interact on this grill. There might be a solution by modification.

One option would be to add an additional electrode wire for the piezo ignition system that would light both sides so you can seal up the step over rail.

But again I need to see the setup.