Char Broil vs Dyna Glo: Top Brand Models Comparison

Summer season is coming, and it’s the best time to start thinking about a new charcoal grill for your backyard family evenings and small parties. Don’t be afraid of biting prices and hundreds of models. If you need to make the best choice with a limited budget, here we are with our Char Broil vs Dyna Glo brands comparison.

Both companies are famous American manufacturers. Char-Broil is the most affordable option. Unfortunately, the price makes us sacrifice durability a bit, but all grills are solid enough to last for several seasons. Dyna-Glo is more expensive and managed to come close to the Weber level.

Both have their strong and weak points and dozens of decent grills. To help you sort it out, we resorted to the customers’ choice. Today, we’re going to compare the best-selling models with the highest ratings. They are:

Let’s find the best charcoal grill for you together!

Comparison Table

Main Differences Between the Models

Despite the varying appearance and two different brands, our five competitors share lots of functional and constructional similarities. The main differences lay in grate size and charcoal access. Here is the list of the most important distinguishing features to consider:

1. Char-Broil American Gourmet 800 Series Charcoal Grill

The first model is presented by the Char-Broil brand that tried to balance price and maximum performance this time. We see a truly large grill of classical cylindrical horizontal construction for optimal cooking space and heat retention.

The main area is complemented with a swing-away warming rack, which is a rarity for budget grills. All grates are adjustable, so you can control the heat.

For even more precise heat regulation, the manufacturer recommends using four vents located on the bowl side. The current temperature will be displayed on the built-in lid thermometer.
Cleaning won’t take much time due to a removable ash pan.

Apart from the cooking zone, we can enjoy a spacious storage area that consists of two fixed right and front tables. The grill stands on a cart with the bottom wire platform provided as an additional space for bulky items’ storage.

The model provides lots of space for cooking and keeping ingredients, tools, and accessories close at hand while grilling. We can say it totally costs this money, not exceeding your expectations. And they should be lowered when it comes to materials.

Finally, we noticed a challenging assembly. However, the ease or difficulty of assembling is quite subjective here ad it depends on your experience, skills, and tools available.

2. Char-Broil TRU-Infrared Kettleman 22.5 Inch Charcoal Grill

Despite the same brand, our next grill’s design is absolutely different from the predecessor. Firstly, we noticed a changed round bowl shape. Grate becomes smaller and contains about twice less food. However, heat retention is still outstanding, as well as the grate characteristics themselves.

As usual, the Char-Broil grate is adjustable to bring the heat closer or further to the food, depending on your needs.

Three large vents on the top and 360-degree bottom air inlets ensure heat increase. A temperature gauge will show the current grate temperature.

Though we miss hand tables and the like, the manufacturer still provides us with a small cart storage platform for things like charcoal bags. The wire is set too wide to hold smaller items.

Charcoal access is another drawback. Once again, you’ll have to take out all grills to add coal or chips. A removable ash pan may also feel too tough at first and hard to empty.

Customers love the Kettleman for less charcoal consumption, improved temperature retention, and easy assembly. A worthy compact option to try, especially for the money.

3. Dyna-Glo DGN576SNC-D Dual Zone Premium Charcoal Grill

You can divide the large cooking space into two isolated boxes to grill for a small number of people or to grill two different dishes with their own temperatures simultaneously. Remove the steel firebox divider to unite the boxes for giant cooking projects.

The model finally solves the problem of charcoal access, as both cooking zones come with separate charcoal trays and convenient doors. An ash tray is united and seems to be too shallow for such charcoal capacity, which is a minus.

With Dyna-Glo, we come back to the cooking areas capable of holding over 20+ burgers and even more. A warming rack is also included as well as such a necessary thermometer.

Four handles you can see in the model serve for ventilation and grate customization. The two handles on the front adjust the grates’ height. The black handles on each side open the air vents on each side. Complemented by the chimney, they form a whole damper system. However, practice shows that even closed vents let a bit of air through. Double walls are what save the heat.

Dyna-Glo returned us our favorite side tables for handy ingredients and tools’ storage. Pay attention that tables are fixed. A familiar cart with 2 wheels and a bottom storage zone is included.

Anyway, it’s affordable, especially if we mention the functionality offered. It has everything anyone needs for grilling and even more with its dual chambers and simultaneous cooking of two dishes.

4. Dyna-Glo DGN576DNC-D Premium Charcoal Grill

Very reasonable desire and Dyna-Glo supports you here. Welcome the Premium Grill.

At the same time, we see one large grate of the same size as before. It means you can grill the largest rib slabs with no bustle about grates’ leveling and wall removing. Consequently, the charcoal grill, door, and ash tray are the ones.

All other features are absolutely identical. You’ll get the same grate height adjustment, warming rack, insulation, vents, thermometer, storage tables, cart.

We recommend Dyna-Glo Premium to customers who’d like to cook a lot but without simultaneous grill experiments.

5. Dyna-Glo DGN486DNC-D Heavy Duty Charcoal Grill

Dyna-Glo Heavy Duty combined all the brand’s best features for high-quality basic cooking and packed it in a more compact wrapping.

Lots of users just don’t need to grill 25-30 burgers at once. But despite the number of food pieces, the amount of charcoal necessary for heating will stay the same. That’s when smaller, i.e., medium-sized grills come in handy.

This model will fit about 15-18 burgers. We also note triple grates, which is a wiser decision in terms of cleaning convenience. However, all grates adjust altogether and work as a whole.

Perhaps, Dyna-Glo Heavy Duty is one of the best grills you can get. Low price means certain well-known drawbacks like worse heat insulation, poor painting, and shorter lifetime. But the model gives us much more than it should for the price, doesn’t it?

Design and Dimensions

Almost all grills feature quite bulky dimensions in our review. Please pay attention to this section before choosing a fitting grill for your backyard.

The Kettleman by Char-Broil is the most compact option that will fit any cooking zone. This is also true for nicely balanced medium-sized Gourmet and Dyna-Glo Heavy Duty grills. If you’re going to pick up the Premium models, please consider the storage area beforehand, as they are the biggest and heaviest.

attention

When it comes to the body materials, one has to admit that all products are not as durable as we’d like. Both manufacturers use stainless steel sheets with some additional alloy elements.
Their thickness and weather resistance is ok but won’t last for more than 4-5 years, which is proved practically. Paint and top cover layers are the first to quit us.

However, colors are chosen in a utilitarian manner. All grills feature a stylish black look, except for the Dual Zone Premium made in stainless steel. Colors are not the brightest, but they definitely contribute to the neat look and match with any backyard design.

Cooking Area

The cooking area is one of the key features customers pay attention to. Our five models offer a wide range of sizes, from small grates for family use to almost industrial-level beasts.

The three last grills are large enough to feed 20-25 people at once.

verdict

Verdict: While size depends on your own preferences, grate materials are what interest us most. Thus, we’d recommend you all devices except for the Char-Broil Gourmet, which loses compared with other competitors.

Warming Rack

In the section above, we’ve discussed the so-called primary cooking area that includes the main grates only. However, many grills also come with warming racks. These units are not directly used for cooking but for food heating.

Warming racks form the secondary cooking area and enter the total inches. Once the rack is unnecessary, you can remove it.

Traditionally, racks are made of the same materials used in the main grates.

Grate Height

All grills offer us a nice grate height adjustment feature. Thanks to it, users can control the heat more accurately and change the cooking conditions depending on the dish or current conditions.

When we compare Char-Broil and Dyna-Glo, the last models definitely win this battle as they provide convenient handles for fast grate setting. In some cases, like with the Dual Zone grill, we even have several independent handles for each grate.

The Char-Broil grills need manual grate adjustment. It’s more complicated, especially if you decide to change the height during the cooking when grates are red-hot.

attention

Though we have no official data, users claim we can lift grates up and down within 3-4 inches from the charcoal grill.

Vents

As we’ve already discussed in the descriptions, all grills in our review are equipped with vent systems. Users can manually regulate the opening and closing, thus influencing the heat intensity (when open) or extinguishing (when closed). In Char-Broil grills, it’s made directly by setting the dampers. In Dyna-Glo, they use side handles.

The number and size of vents are crucial. The more and bigger vents you have, the greater the oxygen flow and heat you can reach are.

However, proper sealing and tight closing are also important here. If you cannot close the holes to the end, air will keep circulating and influencing the heat inside without your control.

verdict

Verdict: While with the grate adjustment, handles seemed to be an excellent decision, they are more complicated in use for vent control. Besides, surprisingly, but more expensive Dyna-Glo devices suffer from loose vent closing more frequently. That’s why we’d prefer the Char-Broil here.

Thermometer

You’ll be glad to know that both brands take care of their customers and equip all grills with obligatory lid thermometers.

According to the scales offered, the Dyna-Glo products can reach 350°C/ 600°F. Consequently, you can cook within these limits and control the heat. The Char-Broil’s scale ends at 550°F.

attention

Since we deal with budget grill models, none of them offer thermometer ports for heat sensors or probes.

Charcoal Chamber

On average, chambers fit about 4 pounds of charcoal.

Ash Pan

No matter what model you’ll choose, you can be sure that it won’t cover your backyard with ashes. All grills feature steel removable ash pans.

Pans are installed on the bottom of the grills right under the charcoal chambers. Most of them offer quick slide-in design.

Ash pans are designed in correspondence with the current charcoal chamber capacity. Users confirm they’re big enough to contain all the charcoal burnt.

Storage Space

We always use lots of accessory tools like tongs, mittens, plates, spices, etc., not to mention the food itself during cooking. Grills equipped with special storage zones where all these units can be put meet greater popularity. What’s about our grills?

Four out of five products feature dual table zones. All Dyna-Glo come with two side tables. Each side table is approximately 12″ wide.

Char-Broil American Gourmet 800 offers one side table located on the right and a large front table as long as the grill body itself. The manufacturer doesn’t provide us with tables’ dimensions. However, the grills’ length and tables’ length comparison allows us to conclude it’s similar to the Dyna-Glo units.

The Char-Broil Kettleman is the only product that lacks any built-in storage shelves on the grill level. However, it’s got a cart storage platform. So do the other models. These areas are designed for fuel storage mainly. So, we recommend filling them with charcoal bags or wood.

verdict

Verdict: Choose any grill, and you’ll get enough space for tool storage. The Kettleman is the less convenient option here. But this minor drawback is entirely forgivable considering its most affordable price and other advantages.

Buyer’s Guide – How to Choose the Best Charcoal Grill?

With a good charcoal grill, you’ll have to spend the minimum of your time and effort to get delicious smoky meat. However, a good product choice has its secrets, which we’re going to reveal below.

Other things to consider include:

Conclusion

So, now when we know all the truth, what charcoal grill should we choose?

That’s it. Hope you liked the battle and found your perfect charcoal grill. See you in the next review. Enjoy your shopping and bon appetit!