Char-Broil's Big Easy-Good effort from Char-Broil but it's got some big flaws.

I had been lusting after this grill for a year after hearing about how wonderful it was from one of my friends who has basically the same grill. I had to wait a year to get one because I lived in an apartment, and fire code prohibited having a grill (a stupid rule if you ask me!) but I obeyed despite my views.

Wally World, Tar-gay or Home Despot?
I shopped around in many places; Target, Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Lowe's. They all sell Char-Broil grills but each store sells models that are slightly different from one another. I found that Home Depot had the grill I was really looking for: Char-Broil's Big Easy with Rotisserie and cast iron grates, $300.

Finally...
I purchased this grill, made sure I got my free tank of propane (which was the deal at the time) and trucked everything home so I could have a BBQ that night. Finally, I can cook over an open flame!

Some assembly required...
I opened the box and began to assemble the grill. Much to my amazement, I found an empty propane tank in the bottom of the box! Now I've got two tanks, pretty much for free, and they're both the 'new style' of tank so I don't have to pay any ridiculous replacement/upgrade fee the next time I go to get propane. And I have a SPARE! Yippee!

Disheveled Organization...
The parts for the grill came in plastic bags within plastic bags. There was no rhyme or reason to the packaging. I needed different parts from different bags in order to assemble similar parts. Fairly disorganized. Also, the directions aren't very clear. For example, they show an isometric view of the grill and tell you to assemble a component on the rear of the grill, which you can't see from the view.

Stupid Rotisserie!
My biggest problem with assembly was attaching the rotisserie burner. The grill has an 'auxiliary' burner which attaches to the rear of the grill, on the inside. This is used to cook the meat while it's spinning on the rotisserie. The burner is controlled via a dial on the front of the grill which diverts the gas flow from the three normal burners to this auxiliary burner.

The problem is, this auxiliary burner is so cheaply manufactured that the brackets that hold it in place bent severely when I tried to install it. The holes drilled in these brackets did not line up with the holes drilled in the grill either. I had to modify the grill in order to attach this burner. Frustrating for sure, and I consider myself fairly technically proficient, so someone who isn't able to make modifications like I did is going to be hung out to dry.

Wrong parts...grrr
So, now that the grill has been assembled, I open up the packages that are obviously the grates. They turned out to be ceramic-coated grates, not cast iron. There are three grates, although only two fit on the grill at one time. There are your normal grates, with two sides: One side has thin ribs, the other side has thicker ribs. There are two of these grates which fit side-by-side on the grill. The third grate is a metal plate, which can be used as a griddle. It has two sides as well.

Anyway, I was not happy to find the incorrect item in the box. At this point, though, I had a bunch of people over and I didn't have time to take it all apart again, box it up, take it back to Home Depot and exchange for another one. People needed food, and I had to cook the food. So, I started the grill up.

Cookin with GAS!
Starting this grill is very very easy. Turn on the gas tank, then turn the selector switch from OFF to MAIN (the other option is auxiliary, for the rotisserie). Turn on the left-most burner (of the three burners, and three subsequent control knobs) and hit the electric ignition button. In my best Tom Hanks voice, "Fire! I...have made FIRE! Looook...at what I have created!" The grill is lit, and depending on how much food you need to cook, you can turn on the other two burners or not.

Hot, Hot, HOT!
This grill heats up pretty fast, especially if you've got all three burners going at full blast. The temperature gauge, mounted on the top-half of the clamshell hood quickly jumps up to "HIGH".

The Saga of Cleaning Up.
Now, after I've cooked a meal on it, while the grill is still warm, I brush off the gristle and the leftovers. Not even thinking about it, the leftovers just fall right into the bottom of the grill...right onto the cheesy metal covers on the burners. After a few meals cooked on the grill, I notice a thick layer of *crap* covering the inside of the grill. Nasty. It takes a hammer and chisel to get off, and the charred mess catches on fire with regularity.

I haven't attempted to disassemble and clean the innards but I will soon. I'm thinking about making some modifications to the grill - mainly adding a rack above the burners that will hold some lava rocks or flavored briquettes. This will help cut down on the amount of *crap* that falls to the bottom of the grill. I also believe this rack will help with the second major problem that I've discovered with this grill: HOT SPOTS.

Hot Spot Spot!
There are some very prominent hot spots on this grill. You need to constantly move your food around otherwise it will get burned. If you're cooking a lot of food, this becomes very difficult, jockeying for position around the grill. This also leads to increased cook times because the hood will always be up because you're moving food constantly. This is very frustrating.

The straw that broke the camel's back.
One more gripe with this grill, my final one: There is a second rack that hangs from the top hood of the grill. It isn't attached, it just hangs there dangling from two bolts that protrude into the grill hood. I've found if you open the grill hood fast, this second rack falls out. If it's got food on it, that's pretty bad. A poor design, for sure. I've removed this rack due to it's propensity for falling off.

Final Sentiments
All in all, the grill cooks food, and that's what I bought it for. To be honest, if I had known about these problems I would have bought something different, probably a Weber. I'll make it clear, I'm not recommending this product. The problems and difficulties far outweigh the grill's ability to cook food.