Char-Griller
Char-Griller Gravity Fed 980
The Char-Griller Gravity Fed 980 is a WiFi-controlled gravity charcoal grill and smoker with a 16 lb hopper, fan-driven 200-700°F range, and 980 sq in of space. It's the budget rival to Masterbuilt's Gravity Series with a triple-insulated body.
Specifications
Features
Pros
- ✓Real charcoal flavor with pellet-grill convenience - the fan and controller hold your set temp automatically while gravity feeds the fire
- ✓The 200-700°F range out-sears any pellet grill and reaches temp in about 20 minutes from lighting one fire starter
- ✓980 sq in total (680 primary) is enormous for the price - multiple briskets and rib racks fit at once
- ✓The triple-insulated lid and body hold temps steadier in wind and cold than the thin-walled Masterbuilt 800
- ✓A 16 lb hopper of briquettes runs 8+ hours unattended - genuine overnight-cook capability on charcoal
- ✓At ~$600 it undercuts the Masterbuilt 1050 while owner threads frequently rate its body construction higher
- ✓WiFi/Bluetooth app control with included probes covers remote monitoring and temp changes from the couch
- ✓Porcelain-coated cast iron grates put real sear marks on steaks and clean up easily
Cons
- ✗Like all gravity smokers, the fan, controller, and temp sensors are electronic failure points, and the 1-year warranty is short
- ✗The Char-Griller app is the weakest link per owners - laggy connections and occasional dropped sessions mid-cook
- ✗The hopper and ash areas need diligent cleaning; grease and moisture buildup can jam the charcoal feed or corrode the switches
- ✗It needs a powered outlet for the fan, so it's not a true off-grid charcoal cooker
- ✗The powder-coated steel will rust at hinge points and the firebox without a cover and touch-up paint
- ✗At 200 lbs with a wide 65-inch footprint it's a beast to position and not remotely portable
- ✗Smoke flavor runs lighter than an offset unless you layer wood chunks into the hopper
- ✗QC is hit-or-miss - misaligned doors and leaky gaskets show up in owner threads, usually fixed with lava lock tape
Owner Insightssummarized from owner discussions
The Gravity 980 is the cheaper of the two mainstream gravity-fed charcoal cookers, and owners buy it for exactly one reason: charcoal fire, pellet-grill workload. You fill a hopper, light one starter, set a number and the fan does the fire management. The people who use it hardest are unambiguous that the food is good - brisket, ribs, pork belly, dry-aged roasts - and several say the smoke flavor is better than anything a pellet grill gave them at any setting. The recurring phrase in the long-term threads is some version of "fantastic machine when it wants to work," which is a fair summary of the whole ownership experience.
What breaks is the electronics, not the cooking. The ERF fan code is the one every owner learns; it often traces to a loose connection and clears on a power cycle, but one owner fitted a new fan and it returned in seconds. The controller frequently disagrees with the grate: setting 280°F and finding 350°F is common enough that the standard fix in the community is to abandon the stock controller and drive the fan with a third-party unit instead, which owners say transforms temperature stability. Gaskets are the other maintenance item - the hopper lid seal deteriorates and leaks, and resealing with gasket tape is a rite of passage. The app situation is worse than laggy: it is gone from the stores entirely, and owners keep the thing connected by sideloading an old package or running a script someone wrote by sniffing the controller's traffic. On fuel, briquettes beat lump, because small lump pieces work their way down and jam the fan.
It suits someone who wants overnight charcoal cooking on a budget and is not bothered by owning a slightly fussy appliance. Cross-shoppers compare it directly with the Masterbuilt Gravity XT, and the honest split is that the XT is the better-built, better-warranted, much more expensive machine while the 980 is the one that turns up at half price; owners who have handled both call the Char-Griller's metal flimsy, and Masterbuilt owners say much the same about the older Masterbuilts. Owners who want reliability over convenience keep pointing newcomers at a Weber Smokey Mountain with a fan controller instead, for less money and nothing to brick. Buy the 980 on clearance, expect to reseal it and possibly replace the controller, and it is a lot of cooker. Buy it at full list and owners think you have overpaid.
What owners like
- +Owners who cook on it a lot describe real charcoal flavor at any temperature, not just at low smoke settings, and post 16-hour briskets, overnight short ribs and pork belly burnt ends off it routinely
- +It ramps from a 225°F smoke to sear heat in five to ten minutes, which is why several owners use it as their only cooker instead of keeping a gas grill for quick weeknight cooking
- +A packed hopper genuinely covers an overnight cook - owners report 14 to 16 hour brisket sessions without refueling, which is the whole reason they left cheap offsets and electric cabinets behind
- +Lighting is one fire starter dropped into the hopper slot, so there is no chimney, no waiting and no dumping hot coals - owners coming from an electric smoker find the transition easy
- +Clearance pricing is where it makes sense: owners paid around $600 new a few years ago and $399 turns up at big-box stores, while the people quoted $1,200 for it consistently say no at that number
- +Briquettes plus wood chunks layered into the hopper is a fuel setup owners settle on quickly, and it produces the bark and smoke ring they were chasing when they gave up on pellets
Common complaints
- −The phone app was pulled from the app stores. New buyers find nothing to install, and the workarounds owners share are sideloading an old Android package or running a community-written script someone reverse-engineered from the controller's WiFi traffic
- −The ERF fan error code is the defining fault. One owner logged several over 16 months, and it can be a loose or flaky wire connection - unplugging the controller and restarting usually clears it, but one owner fitted a brand-new fan and got ERF again within seconds
- −The controller's idea of the set temperature and the actual grate temperature often disagree. Owners report setting 280°F and sitting at 350°F, setting 225°F and holding 275-300°F, and setting 400°F while it stalls at 275°F
- −The 980 in the name is cooking area only if you count a top rack owners call virtually useless - one long-term owner puts the real figure closer to 680 sq in
- −Sealing degrades. The hopper lid's silicone gasket deteriorates and leaks smoke, and owners end up resealing the whole cooker with gasket tape or buying an aftermarket mod kit to get it holding again
- −Mid-cook shutdowns happen. One owner's planned 12-hour smoke quit at seven hours with the hopper still full and every damper set correctly
- −The door sensors stick. Owners jiggle them and they pop back out, but it is an odd thing to have to know about a cooker at this price
- −It is thin metal with a one-year warranty and it needs a mains outlet to run the fan, so it is neither a lifetime purchase nor a true off-grid charcoal cooker
Common Questions
Does the phone app still work?
What is the ERF code and how do I clear it?
Should I run lump or briquettes in the hopper?
Is it really 980 square inches?
How does it compare with the Masterbuilt Gravity XT?
Can it actually hold temperature for an overnight brisket?
Compare the Char-Griller Gravity Fed 980
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