Looking for a charcoal grill that will allow you to cook and do other things at the same time? Then we have a must have for you. The new LoCo 22 inch SmartTemp Kettle Charcoal Grill is one of the easiest charcoal fueled grills we have ever started and ran. I’m thinking we will be gifting a few of these to friends who are currently stuck on pellet cookers because they are scared they might not be able to operate a charcoal grill well enough not to burn everything they try to cook.

This new SmartTemp technology combined with an adjustable deflector heat shield can almost guarantee you will protect your grilled items from open flame, but it also offers the option to cook directly over the bed of coals if wanted. Our surface testing found three different achievable temperature zones on the 22 inch grate and these can be set up all at once. You can also set up the grill to run one single medium heat temperature across the entire grate (see photo examples). You can also run the entire grill at the max heat possible with the heat deflector taken out of the grill. The first set up is a perfect setup for cooking the perfect steak after searing it and using less direct heat to bring the internal temperature to your desired wanting.

The grill can be set to run for low and slow cooks at a constant temperature. We ran our test model for 11 hours at 250 degrees on about 6 pounds of lump charcoal. We did this test on a windy day just to check the consistency of the temperature but the wind showed no effect as we saw no temperature changes greater or lesser then five degrees for the entire test.

The starting up of the unit is as simple as putting a firestarter inside a sliding tray, lighting it up, and closing the tray. Once the charcoal gets started you simply push in the dial and set it to the desired temperature, close the lid and give it a few minutes to get up to the set temperature. After you are finished, you can simply unplug the unit, close the top vent, and the fire inside will go out due to the lack of air. The grill actually is air tight for that to happen.

Everything we cooked on the unit came out exactly like our 20 plus year old other kettle grill. There was actually not much of learning curve with this unit but we can see where if someone is brand new to running a live fire grill it might take a test run or two to get the hang of changing temperature settings, adjusting the top vent to make sure the grill is running at the desired temperature setting.

Overall we ran this grill for almost a week non-stop and found no issue with it. This one will be on the trailer for a while as we are excited to try it out during an SCA event soon. You can find these grills only at Home Depot now for only $399. You can find and order the grill at https://bit.ly/loco22charcoal.