Char-Griller sells the King-Griller Gambler, model E1816, as a grill you can take anywhere. True enough, and easily checked. The complication sits two lines further down its own spec sheet.
The barrel carries 320 square inches of cast iron. That is a full backyard grate, not a camping toy. Underneath it, Char-Griller caps the firebox at two pounds of charcoal. The published heat range stops at 400°F.
Portability is settled here. The open question is how much of that grate one load of charcoal can light. Answer it and you know whether $149.99 buys a portable grill or a compromise.
320 in²Total cooking area
39.4 inAcross, with the frame down
160 in² per lbGrate for each pound of fuel (320 divided by 2)
400°FHeat range Char-Griller publishes
First Impressions of the Char-Griller Gambler
The Gambler arrives as a folding cart with a barrel sitting on top. Pull the locking leg, swing the frame down, and the thing stands itself up. It looks like luggage that grills.
Everything is black, and it is a plain machine that does not pretend otherwise. The only colour on it is the blue King-Griller oval on the lid. A stainless thermometer sits beside it. The side shelf drops out flat and carries hooks for your tongs.
Lift the lid and the barrel opens along its full length. Cast iron bars run end to end. They are heavy enough to notice when you lift them out. Below them sits the charcoal grate, and below that the ash pan.
Then you light it, and the grill tells you what it is. Two pounds of charcoal does not look like much under a grate this wide. Spread it thin and you grill everywhere at moderate heat. Bank it to one end and you sear a smaller patch.
That choice is not a technique you might try later. On this grill it is the first decision of every cook.
Key Features of the Char-Griller Gambler
Most of the engineering here went into the frame rather than the fire. The barrel is conventional. Char-Griller’s effort went into folding a full-width cooker flat. Then into locking it so it stays where you put it.
- Cast-iron cooking grates. Cast iron is the expensive choice at this price, and the right one here. Heat goes into the bars and comes back out when cold meat lands. The trade is care, since bare cast iron will rust.
- Multiple vents or dampers. There are two: one on the lid crown, one on the barrel’s flank. Char-Griller’s own guidance is blunt. More air is more heat, and less air is less heat.
- Stainless steel thermometer. It is mounted in the lid rather than down at the bars. The gauge reads the lid, and your food sits below it. Treat the needle as a trend.
- EasyDump ash pan. The pan pulls out and tips. This grill travels, and ash you can empty in one motion is worth real money.
- Folding construction with a locking leg. The frame folds, the lid locks down, and a handle is built into the side shelf. Two wheels carry it from there.
- Large side shelf with tool hooks. It is the only flat surface the grill has. It also doubles as the grab handle once the frame is folded.
Read that list against the spec sheet and a pattern shows up. Every feature serves moving the grill, keeping heat in, or getting ash out. Nothing in it serves making the fire bigger.
The Gambler’s spec sheet puts a number on its ceiling: up to 400°F. That is an unusual figure for a charcoal maker to print at all. Charcoal has no fixed ceiling. Printing a low one reads as honesty about a firebox holding two pounds.
At that level the Gambler is a capable roaster. Chicken pieces, sausages, vegetables and thick burgers all sit comfortably under that ceiling. Cast iron keeps the bars hot through a flip.
A steak crust is a different job. Two pounds under 320 square inches is near 160 square inches for each pound. That is a thin fire spread wide.
The dampers earn their keep here. Close the side damper, crack the top one, and the barrel drops into low territory. Ribs are within reach that way. Open both and you get everything the load has.
What the dampers cannot do is add fuel. A packer brisket is asking too much of two pounds.
One thing to settle before you buy charcoal. The spec block caps the load at two pounds. The lighting guidance on the same page tells you to pour roughly three pounds. Char-Griller publishes both about this grill and reconciles neither.
Build, handling and durability
Powder-coated steel, cast iron inside, a stainless thermometer in the lid. Char-Griller prints no metal gauge for the barrel. The honest measure left is the published 39.7 lbs. For a cooker 39.4 inches across, that is respectable rather than flimsy.
The word portable is doing unusual work on this listing. Two wheels and a folding frame make it portable the way a hand truck is. It rolls over grass and tarmac happily. Getting it into a truck bed is a lift with both arms.
The parts that worry us are the moving ones. Hinges, a latch and a locking leg take strain on every fold and stow. Those are the components a travelling grill wears out first. They are also the ones the warranty covers for the least time.
Running costs, upkeep and value
At $149.99 the Gambler undercuts what cast iron grates normally cost you. Plenty of portables in this bracket ship with thin plated bars that warp within a season. Cast iron and a folding steel cart at this price is unusual. Nothing else on the spec sheet punches like that.
Fuel is cheap to run, and always will be. The grill will not accept much. A two-pound working load means a standard bag of lump lasts through many cooks.
There is a catch worth knowing. Char-Griller wants you to light with a chimney. Lighter fluid, gasoline, kerosene and alcohol are all forbidden outright. A chimney filled as the maker instructs already holds more than this firebox takes.
Upkeep splits into easy and dutiful. Ash is the easy half, since the EasyDump pan does it in one tip. Cast iron is the dutiful half.
Char-Griller asks you to oil the bars and bake them at 400°F. For 40 minutes, repeated regularly. Skip that and you will be scrubbing rust off the part you paid extra for.
Buying direct has one wrinkle. Free ground shipping at Char-Griller starts at $200. This grill lists below that. The Amazon listing sits at the same price.
Possible Char-Griller Gambler Complaints
- The heat ceiling is the real limit, not the size. The published 400°F range will disappoint anyone chasing a dark crust. You feel it the first time you cook a thick steak. Banking the two pounds into one end is the only fix, and it shrinks your grate.
- The fuel figures on the maker’s own page disagree. The specification says two pounds maximum, the lighting guidance says pour about three pounds. A new owner cannot tell which figure the barrel was designed around. Start at two and open the dampers before trusting the higher one.
