November 30, 2021

Product review: Masterbuilt Gravity Series 560 – OMG, a charcoal grill!

The Gravity Smoker from the American grill manufacturer Masterbuilt looks unusual. What is particularly striking is the charcoal container mounted vertically and to the side of the cooking chamber and the combustion chamber underneath. This is where the gravity takes place, the force of gravity that guides the charcoal or briquettes downwards to the embers. FIRE&FOOD wanted to know whether the combustion and the resulting heat can be controlled as easily and conveniently over hours as stated.

Assembly
The smoker arrived neatly packaged. Including packaging, it weighed around 75 kilograms. Despite the weight, one man was able to assemble the device in around 2 hours and get it ready for use. However, a second man was needed to help with setting it up. The assembly instructions are easy to understand, but we still watched the well-made assembly videos beforehand.

Operation
Filling the coal chute, which can hold around 7.5 kilograms of briquettes, is convenient. We used a standard lighter to light the fire. The digital temperature control, which can be controlled via Bluetooth and WIFI, is clear and almost self-explanatory. The control and a temperature reduction in the cooking chamber switch on a fan, which regulates the embers in the combustion chamber and keeps the cooking chamber at the desired temperature. This worked very well in our test. After around 7 minutes, a temperature of around 105 °C was reached, after 13 minutes the temperature was already around 370 °C.
In principle, these functions are familiar from pellet grills, except that the Gravity offers a much wider temperature range.

Conclusion:
If you value easy-to-regulate temperature control and are a convinced charcoal griller, the Gravity is an option. An attractive design, good workmanship and intuitive operation are convincing. The Gravity 560 will soon be available in Europe for 799 euros. More: ww w.masterbuilt.com