Char-Broil Santa Fe - 491 Charcoal Grill

I'll try to start with the positives. . . hmmm. I'm having trouble. I'll go straight to the negative. I knew we were in trouble when we were putting the thing together. There we so many things that did not go together properly and just didn't line up correctly. It took many "adjustments" in order to get the thing together. We used the grill several times trying to work out all the kinks, but eventually we gave up and just took it back to the store.
Major problem one: the charcoal tray was very cheap and flimsy. It was always crooked and leaning. We used additional washers and such which helped for a while but not after a few uses.
Major problem two: the front loading area is way too small. You would have to open it and try to throw the coals toward the area you wanted them. Most of the time, the coals ended up falling off the tray and landing into the ash tray.
Major problem three: The ash tray is way too big. It was always crooked and made the front of the grill look cheap and falling apart. It was so big it was very difficult to empty without making a huge mess.
Major problem four: The grill doesn't maintain it's heat. I've never seen a grill require so much charcoal. It would have been cheaper for us to eat at a restaurant than to buy enough charcoal to heat this grill. I absolutely could not believe how much charcoal we went though.
These are the basic things that were wrong with the grill. Overall it is just really cheaply made and not worth any money at all. Even the heat vent covers that open and close began falling off.
I have to say I did like the outside thermometer. At least I would have a warning that I needed to stand there adding coals every few minutes. I also did like the idea of having the shelves on the sides, but one of them was not very sturdy.
We learned all of these things about the grill in only 2 weeks worth of using it. We took it back and bought a Weber for a few dollars more. Wow, what a difference!