Two nouns share this grill’s name. Char-Griller sells model CG30040725 as a kettle charcoal grill and smoker. The second one is doing more work than it looks.
Kettles have always managed both jobs. The bowl holds heat, the vents meter air, and a banked fire does the rest. That part is not new.
What is new is the spec sheet sitting beside the name. Char-Griller rates the bowl for 2 lb of charcoal. It publishes a single heat range, and that range stops at 400°F. So the question worth asking is whether the hardware pays for that second noun.
First Impressions of the Char-Griller 22-inch Kettle
It stands on three legs rather than a cart. Two of them carry small wheels, and a wire shelf bridges the gap. There is no side table anywhere on it. Assembly is required, and Char-Griller publishes no figure for how long it takes.
The finish is what reads above the price. Porcelain enamel covers the lid and the bowl in gloss black. A round dial sits on the dome, near the red Char-Griller badge. The lid handle is a bail across the top, shaped to keep heat off your hand.
First cook was chicken legs over a fire banked to one side. The bowl reached working heat inside the 10 to 15 minutes Char-Griller quotes. Skin rendered slowly on the cool half, then crisped over the coals. The smoke read clean and light rather than heavy.
What you notice afterwards is how little the whole thing weighs. At 23.1 lb, one person moves it without planning the route first. That is pleasant on a paved patio. It becomes a consideration on open grass.
Key Features of the Char-Griller 22-inch Kettle
Almost everything on this kettle serves one of two goals. Either it controls the air, or it deals with the ash. The list is short, and unusually focused for the money.
- Coal door: A door in the bowl lets you add fuel without lifting the food. Raise the grate section, drop coals in, carry on. On a bowl rated for 2 lb, this is the important one. The food stays where it is while the fire gets fed.
- Multiple vents and dampers: One damper sits on the lid and one underneath the bowl. Together they decide how hard the fire runs. Closing both is also how you put the fire out.
- Porcelain-enameled lid and bowl: Char-Griller enamels both halves rather than painting them. Enamel holds heat and wipes clean. It also chips, and that is the trade you are making.
- Porcelain-coated cooking grate: The grate carries the same kind of coating as the bowl. Food releases from it more willingly than from bare steel. A hard wire brush will eventually take that coating off. Plastic bristles or a wooden scraper treat it far better.
- EasyDump ash bucket: A bucket clips under the bowl and catches ash through the bottom vent. It unclips and empties in one movement. Nothing needs to be tipped, swept or scraped.
- Lid-mounted heat gauge: A dial reads the dome without anything being opened. Oddly, Char-Griller’s own feature list never mentions it. The retail listing gives it a panel of its own.
- Cool-touch lid handle: The handle is built to divert dome heat away from your fingers. On a kettle the lid comes off constantly. This is the part that decides whether you reach for a glove.
- Grate lifter in the box: A tool for raising the hot grate is included. It is what makes the coal door usable mid-cook. A small item doing real work here.
Char-Griller publishes exactly one heat figure for this kettle. The range runs up to 400°F, and nothing higher appears on the page. That is a modest ceiling to print on a charcoal grill. Treat it as the figure Char-Griller is prepared to underwrite.
The fuel rating tells the same story from another direction. Maximum charcoal capacity is 2 lb. Split the 363 square inch grate across that load. Each pound of fuel then answers for 181.5 square inches.
None of that stops it smoking, which is the interesting part. Low and slow wants a small fire, banked to one side, running for hours. Two dampers give you the air control, and the coal door gives you refills. A published ceiling never bites on a cook that lives well below it.
So the coal door is not a convenience feature here. It is what keeps the word smoker standing over a 2 lb fire. Searing is where the published envelope actually costs you something.
Build, handling and durability
The bowl and lid are enameled steel, and that is the structural story. Char-Griller publishes no gauge for the metal on this model. What it does publish is the total weight, 23.1 lb. Read that as a light kettle rather than a heavy one.
Light cuts in both directions. You can carry it one-handed across a yard, which most full-size kettles resist. You also feel it shift when a gust catches the open lid. On an exposed lawn, a hand stays on the dome.
The footprint is oddly recorded, and worth knowing before you measure a corner. Char-Griller’s spec table gives 23 inches of width and 26.2 inches of depth. The same brand’s retail artwork prints those two figures the other way round. Height agrees at 38 inches, so plan for roughly a 23 by 26 inch base.
There is also nowhere to set anything down. The wire shelf below is sized for a charcoal bag, not a platter. A long cook opens the lid far more often than a quick one. You will be doing that with both hands full.
Running costs, upkeep and value
A 2 lb fire is a cheap fire to run. A bag of briquettes lasts a long time at that rating. The cost shows up as attention instead. Small fires need feeding, and you will be feeding this one.
Cleanup is the part Char-Griller has clearly thought hardest about. The ash bucket does the job a shovel used to do. Warm enamel gives up grease to a damp cloth. Keep the brush gentle, because the grate coating is the wear surface.
The warranty reads better on the product page than on the warranty page. Both say five years. The warranty page then frames those years around burn-through and rust-through. Cover stops short of the orange freckling an outdoor bowl collects.
The listing was checked on August 25, 2026, from a US address. It was in stock at $149.99, sold and shipped by Amazon. Prime showed next-day delivery, free returns and an Amazon’s Choice badge. Char-Griller’s own store asks the same, with free shipping from $200.
Possible Char-Griller 22-inch Kettle Complaints
- The rated fire is small, so long cooks become tending: Char-Griller rates the bowl at 2 lb of charcoal. That is plenty for dinner and short of a brisket. You feel it deep into a cook, reaching for the coal door again. A chimney kept lit alongside turns those reloads into seconds rather than a project.
- The enamel is the wear part, and the warranty agrees: Porcelain enamel is why this kettle looks and wipes like a costlier one. It is also brittle at edges, around the vent and under the grate. A chip in the enamel is not what those five years are for. Keep it under a cover and chips stay cosmetic instead of structural.
