Char-Broil TEC Model 463268307: First Impressions
Grilled on June 4th, 2007 in Grills, Reviews
This past weekend I took the time to put the Char-Broil TEC grill together and it took slightly longer than then estimated 30-45 minutes the instruction manual said to put aside, it took maybe an hour, mostly because I couldn’t get one pesky screw to catch. Regardless, it was certainly significantly less painful than putting together the other Char-Broil grill that I bought a year ago, which easily took close to nearly two hours since it was completely disassembled.
So, onto my first impressions. The grill comes mostly assembled, save the two side shelves, which means that the majority of the propane piping is all connected and I wouldn’t have to do any of it. While it wasn’t a big deal for my other grill, there’s always the thought that someone could mis-connected something and have a propane leak and just not know about it. Another great assembly feature was that they clearly marked off each screw and washer you needed in a separate chamber of the packaging instead of opting to throw everything into a small bag and then give you a list of parts.
One nice feature that the grill had, which should be standard on all grills, was that the propane tank sat in a seat that could be extended out of the front of the grill. This means that you don’t have to go reaching into the bottom of the grill to twist the propane value; you just slide it out and can easily turn the valve. It also makes putting the propane tank on a cinch.
Once assembled, the grill looks pretty impressive. Now, I’ve never had a “nice” grill and this one retails around $700 so I was pretty impressed with its construction. It sports a 660 sq. in. cooking area, a third of which is sectioned off for the TEC infrared burner and two thirds for conventional propane cooking, and puts out a pretty healthy 45,000 BTUs that you can certainly feel if you have the thing going full blast. The sideburner looks nice too, putting out 13,000 BTUs itself, and when it burns you can hardly see the flame.
In the coming days I’ll post some more pictures of it, including it in action, a grease flareup, and a pair of steaks getting their grill on.
My husband and I just purchased this grill. What is the compartment on the right side of the grill used for??? We did not get an instruction booklet with our grill as we purchased the floor model, we are curious as to why there is the space with no real significant purpose.
Any information would be helpful so we can put this grill to really good use!
Thank you!