Customer Reviews for Brinkmann 55 Gal. Drum Charcoal Grill

I have made this purchased just before my birthday to be use to cook my bbq. I went to the store and got me this product. I brought it home and assemble the product. Over the weekend, as I started the charcoal and fire up. The heat started peeling off the paint and also made dents to the grille. I was very disappointed especially on my birthday to see the Brinkman 55 Gallons peeling off the paints and made dents to the front and right side corner. I would not recommended this product to any one to purchase.

I had big hopes for this barbecue but things started going south when I opened the box and looked at the assembly instructions. It seemed that you had to put everything together and it took some time. Then after you assembled everything, you had to sure the barbecue before using it to cook. After completion, the top cover was bent in on the front, about a 1/2 inch gap. To fix this I just gave a little tug on the cover. The gauge metal to construct this grill is very thin.The barbecue as a whole just leaks bad, really bad. This is important to control heat. I closed all of the vents and ot should put out the heat. With all of the problems listed it just takes the fun out of grilling for me.

It is a good sized charcoal grill with all the functionality that you need in a grill. It is a basic charcoal grill with enough grill surface to cook for the whole family. You can adjust the distance between the cooking surface and the coals using the provided grips attached to the coal holding plate. Built-in thermometer is convenient and there is a small chimney to keep that smoke away. Overall a decent purchase for the price.

We got this grill because of it size - it has a very large cooking surface and is extremely affordable. The reason I am not giving it a higher rating is because the metal is a little thinner than I would like so when the very wide top opens and closes, it does not feel as solid as I would like for a grill. It was moderately difficult to put together. The packet of screw was busted open during shipping and scattered throughout the box, but all pieces were accounted for. The directions could be clarified quite a bit too - better images. We felt that if you were handy, you could figure it out. If you are not particularly handy, you would be better off buying a pre-assembled grill. The size is great though - you can easily cook for a large crowd and have a warming rack at the same time.

Love these grills ,great for cooking large amount of food and perfectly , works great!

I really enjoyed this grill for about 3 months before the bottom burned out.

My son gave me this grill as a gift, after a couple of months the wheel broke off, not good quality.

This grill was bought for me for Father's Day! This grill holds heat well and is one of the best cooking grills I have ever had. The grill is a great size and is easily portable which is a must for me! My only issues is the metal that the grill is made of is really thin! When I grab the handle to move the grill it does not feel sturdy, it feels like the grill is going to break. Also when I bought the grill it did not come with a grill rack remover which is essential to me. The piece of tin where the hot coals falls has already warped after only approximately 30 uses. I would record this grill because this grill cooks amazingly good and other than the few problems I've mentioned it's a great grill.

Just assembled my new grill, took me about an hour to put together, all is well except the missing handle, I think that's pretty important!

This is my first major purchase for our home....so far so good, it was pretty simple to assemble....but I wouldn't recommend if you're not good with directions. Cooked on it twice so far....good buy for a hundred bucks.#NotAGrillForLife #YouGetWhatYouPayFor #ItsAStart

The construction of this product was not up to par. It was difficult to put together as many of the weldings were poorly done and it was not easy to get screws, bolts etc. connected. Then after one use and moving it along my grass backyard, the axle and wheel snapped off. So cheap! Also, this is advertised as having a limited warranty, too bad Brinkmann filed for Bankruptcy and is no longer honoring the warranty. So I can't even get a replacement axle....

I had a Brinkmann cart style charcoal grill that I absolutely loved for about 10 years so I felt pretty confident about my brand selection. Putting the grill together did take a couple hours. I found having a mechanics ratchet set made it easier to tighten the nuts while screwing the screws. I really liked the hardware was in a blister pack and all labeled. It made it easy to keep track of it. I have grilled on this a few times and it works pretty well. Minor comments: the metal for the grill does feel thin. I would have paid more money for a more substantial feeling grill. It also would have been nice if there was tray space attached to the grill. The last thing is that the charcoal tray doesn't cover the whole width of the grill so you actually have less grilling space than you think you do. Overall it was a good value for the money though.

I purchased this grill Sunday afternoon put it together and was finished cooking a couple slabs of ribs, 10lbs of chicken and some veggies by 6:30pm. I'm no Pit Master but pretty good on the grill! My friends and family didn't leave me any leftovers so I would say that they enjoyed it. I did over tighten the axle nut on mine as well and it seems to be an issue as I looked on the site to purchase another one and they are on back order. I would hope that this is something Brinkmann considers rethinking. Over all I think this is a good grill and yes the metal is not Military grade but I new that from looking at the in store display. Also as for longevity I purchased a cover as I would like to have this for a little while. Side note on assembly, my trusted Home Depot associate Mike at store #6848 Lovejoy, GA informed me that free assembly was available in store. I will come back later to update this review.

Great grill for the money!!!! good quality!!! would buy again

Fairly sturdy grill with plenty of space for big cookouts. Temperature control is a little tricky at first if you've never worked with a grill this size, but there's plenty of room for even temperature or multiple charcoal piles. Great for parties. I fed two dozen people with a little over an hour of work. Good for prepping your lunch and dinner for your work week too. Drawbacks are that while it's pretty sturdy, the metal does feel a bit cheap and I won't expect this baby to last more than two or three years with the amount of grilling I do. Keeping it clean is an adventure. Assembly is very tricky and recommended for two people (I did it solo and had to do some precarious balancing acts to get it all together). These aside, it does exactly what you'd expect a grill this size to do, and it does it well. A worthwhile investment.

Awesome grill. Having fun grilling for me and my family, they love it too. Only problem I had was over tightening of the axle so the wheel keeps falling off. Wish it were a solid axle with threaded ends, easy fix though. Easy to assemble. Wish it had a shelf and tool holders, other than that, grilling some good eats. 5 stars from me. Happy gilling.

Thin metal twists when heated. Nothing really lines up properly, metal flexes like crazy. Axel fitting falls apart, so don't wheel around. Paid $130, so not mad about quality but not happy either. If you don't like assembling things stay away, needs extra tweaking to fit everything together. Had to loosen and tighten everything several time just to get legs and lower shelf to fit together; actually had to use my belt to get the leg ends close enough together to secure lower shelf.

Open the box ready to put this together and no assembly instructions. Tried calling no live person available. E mailed no response via the leave a written message. Better customer service is definitely needed. How about a PDF on the web site for the grill so I can download the assembly instructions????

Absolute garbage. Axle split on assembly. Shelf is about 1.5 inches too narrow to attach to legs. Don't waste your money. Fitment very poor. Very difficult to mount hardware with standard length screw drivers.

My husband and I bought this grill 4/15 after having a very big grill and smoker left at the home we purchased. We loved that one, but it got old, so it was shopping time. We got home. And it was up in an hour or so. Not too bad assembly. Large surface to cook everything. It is not as "steardy/heavy" as our last one, but it does the job. Was missing a screw or bolt in which I read on another review- weird. So my handle has 3 screws in it. The pulling handle over on the left side is by the "vent" so it gets too hot- would have been better on the right side so I could then put my tongs on there when I am not using it. There is no where to put stuff down on, so you need a small table or something out there with the grill when you are taking your food off.

Used this grill once for my daughters birthday. The racks for this grill are very light duty. They were bent and warped after being on the grill for four hours.

Great grill, plenty of cooking surface. Only issue I have with it is there is no shelf or attached tray to place things on.

This grill is well worth the money. It is pretty flimsy and I don't think it is going to hold up more than 2 to 3 years, but it is good size and it is around 100 to 150 dollars so it is definitely worth that. I Have had a lot of grills over the years and this is a good one.

Where to start, well lets start with the assembly, it comes with a nice blister pack of all the nuts and bolts and cotter pins and specialty screws. Unfortunately the blister pack in mine had become separated in shipping so everything was loose in the box, I was only missing one nut. ( no problem ) It did take a little while too assemble . As far as quality goes, I'd say average, the wheels seem a bit thin but they are metal. Over all I guess you get what you pay for.

Excellent for parties, has two separate cooking areas as well as a warming area. You can cook your whole meal at once. No more cooking in parts to get it all done for your family and friends. It is very sturdy and easy to move from place to place. A little tricky to put together but once you do it is well worth it.

Wife put this bad boy together by herself, so it must not be too hard to assemble! I really enjoy the smoker, and the ability to control the flap of the smoker, as well as from the side. There is also a thermometer on the front to show you the temperature. There are three separate grills inside, making it easy to take each one off individually and clean them, or access the charcoal rack underneath. The charcoal rack is easy to take out for cleaning. There is also a top rack for any fully cooked items to stay warm. The charcoal rack can be adjusted on the sides to be higher or lower depending on how hot you want things to be. All in all, the quality is well done. A lot of thought comes from this brand, and it shows. There is a lower area below the grill to hold anything you need, as well as a side holder for some of your cooking utensils. And there is just so much space in this thing, you wouldn't know what to do with it but invite the neighbors over for a serious party! The handle for opening this thing up has a coil around it to prevent you from burning your hand. Like I said, whoever made this thing is smart! There are wheels on one side of the grill to allow you to move the grill around some. The grill itself is just the right weight. I definitely recommend it over the others because of the various features it provides, and just cooking the perfect steaks and burgers I have ever had!