Nexgrill publishes 930.31 square inches of cooking area for the Oakford 36A, model 910-05006. The Oakford 875 Pro, a step up the same line, gets 824.88. Size and price run in opposite directions here. Nexgrill lists them at $399.00 and $599.00.
Retail listings sell this same cooker as the Oakford 930, named after that area figure. Both names are current, and both belong to this machine.
More cooking floor for less money has to come out of something. This review is about where it came from, and whether a cook feels it.
First Impressions of the Nexgrill Oakford 36A
Built, this takes up more of a yard than most pellet carts. Published width is 53.46 inches, with 30.15 inches of depth. Height comes to 50.19 inches and the whole thing weighs 100.3 pounds. Nothing about the build is unusual: legs, axle, barrel, hopper, chimney.
Only one end of the cart rolls, on a pair of 7-inch wheels. Four plain legs hold up the other end. Shifting it is a two-handed job at the leg end, every time.
Hammertone coating covers the barrel and lid, pitted enough to swallow scuffs. A stainless bar serves as the lid handle, and four gaskets seal the join. One more gasket sits where the chimney meets the barrel.
Nexgrill wants a curing run before any food goes in. Hold 250°F for an hour, then 400°F for another 30 minutes. That first burn smells of hot paint, then of woodsmoke.
The hopper has to be filled before the auger will feed anything. Turn the knob to HIGH and watch pellets drop into the fire pot. That is the whole of the setup, and it takes a few minutes.
Lighting afterwards is one turn of the knob to SMOKE. Smoke should show inside 5 minutes. Pork shoulder takes colour slowly on the low presets. The flavour lands sweet rather than sharp.
Key Features of the Nexgrill Oakford 36A
Two things separate this from a barrel with a fire in it. The first is the controller, sunk into the side of the hopper. The second is what Nexgrill hung inside the lid: two enamelled steel racks. Neither is exotic, and between them they decide how it behaves.
- Knob and LCD controller: One knob runs OFF, SMOKE, HIGH and the settings between. The screen reports the grill probe in 1-degree steps. Nothing pairs, and no app is involved.
- Four smoke presets: P0 through P3 sit behind the M/P button, spanning 165°F to 195°F. Nexgrill’s own table says a higher preset makes more smoke and less heat.
- Porcelain-enamelled steel grids: Nexgrill gives the primary size as 35.2 by 17.8 inches. Steel comes up to heat quickly and stores less of it than iron.
- Fuel Gauge: The i-Site window runs down the hopper face and shows the pile shrinking. A full hopper holds 22 lb of barbecue pellets.
- Electric Igniter: A hot rod and a fan light the fire pot once the knob moves. A blown 5 amp fuse is the first thing to check if it will not.
- Stainless steel: Three stainless S hooks are supplied, and tongs end up living on them. The lid handle is stainless too, and the rest is coated steel.
- Latched hopper door: Unlatch it and the pellets pour out into a bucket. A flavour change costs you a latch and a tub, not an afternoon.
- One meat probe socket: One stainless meat probe is supplied with the grill. Hold the M/P button two seconds and the meat reading appears.
A pellet barrel bakes far more readily than it broils. The 36A publishes a ceiling of MAX 500°F over porcelain-enamelled steel. That is real roasting and smoking reach, and it asks a lot of a thick steak. The firebox is 36 inches wide, and that is where the extra area comes from.
The pleasant surprise is how much of the headline is actually grate. Multiply Nexgrill’s two published sizes and you get 626.56 square inches, then 303.75. Those add to 930.31, which is the number printed on the page. Roughly two thirds of the total sits over the fire.
The smoke mode is the part worth understanding first. Smoke and heat share one control here, and they pull against each other. A higher preset buys more wood flavour and takes cooking heat away. Nexgrill prints the trade in its own table, from 165°F up to 195°F.
Cook mode is the plainer half and behaves like one. The screen reports in 1-degree steps, and a new setting should settle within 15 minutes. Watching the number drift tells you where this particular barrel likes to sit.
Where the dial stops on the way down is published nowhere. The manual raises an Er2 fault below 150°F, and a fault limit is not a setting. For greasy cuts it asks you to stay under 350°F.
Build, handling and durability
At 100.3 pounds this sits at the light end for a barrel this wide. The coating is hammertone rather than paint, and four lid gaskets do real work. Enamelled steel grids are the compromise you can both see and lift.
Getting it around the yard deserves a thought before you buy. Two 7-inch wheels live at one end, four fixed legs at the other. Nexgrill’s own spec table claims four wheels. Its parts list and its listing graphic both say otherwise.
The parts that fail on any pellet grill all live in the hopper. An auger, a shear pin, a motor, a fan, an igniter. Damp pellets swell and jam them, which is what the dump door is really for.
Warranty cover runs longest exactly where the risk is lowest. Nexgrill’s page says 5-year limited warranty, with no breakdown attached to it. Open the manual and the table gives 3 years on electrical components and grates.
Running costs, upkeep and value
Feeding one costs pellets and a small amount of electricity. The grill wants a grounded GFCI outlet wired for 120 volts. Nexgrill sells its Heritage Blend pellets at $29.99, though any cooking-grade pellet will do.
Upkeep is ordinary rather than absent. Nexgrill asks for a burn-off at HIGH for 5 to 15 minutes after cooking. Grease runs down a trough into a removable bucket. A foil liner catches the worst of it.
Ash is the chore no controller will do for you. The fire pot has to be cleared of ash and unburned pellets by hand. The manual suggests a shop vacuum, which tells you roughly what to expect.
Buying one is where this grill turns peculiar. Nexgrill lists the 36A at $399.00 and records it as unavailable in its own store. The retail listing on file sells it, as the Oakford 930, at $649.00.
That gap is worth a few minutes before you commit to anything. Both figures describe the same barrel, the same hopper and the same controller. At the lower one the 36A undercuts the 875 Pro and carries more published area. At the higher one it costs more than the Pro’s own listed $599.00.
Possible Nexgrill Oakford 36A Complaints
- Smoke and heat sit on one control: The presets run 165°F to 195°F and trade one against the other. Turn the smoke up and the cooking heat comes down. On a long cook that is a choice you keep making.
- The warranty headline is not the whole warranty: Four words on the product page cover the entire story. Inside, the table drops the igniter, fan, auger motor and controller to 3 years. Those parts are the whole reason this is not a charcoal barrel.
