Lowe’s calls this exclusive model The Char-Broil Commercial Stainless/Black 3-Burner Gas Grill. It is a new version of the previous TRU-Infrared Commercial line. The lid has an inner double layer to help keep in heat. It is capable of high enough heat for searing, and low enough for smoking. Furthermore you can create smoke easily by tossing food grade wood chips, sawdust, or pellets between the grates, right below the food or off to the side: all assets of Char-Broil’s TRU-Infrared designs. Commercial grills have stainless steel burners and battery powered ignition. The 3-Burner also features a 13,000 BTU flush mounted side burner with a hinged lid.
Char-Broil keeps trying new ideas for IR grates. Older versions corroded easily and the exposed emitter plate holes needed regular cleaning or they clogged. The 2015 Lowe’s models, (shown above), have coated cast iron cooking grates that lay directly on top of a 443 stainless steel plate with a row of holes that are covered by the grates and protected from getting gunked up. 443 stainless has better resistance to corrosion and stress than the previous 430 stainless grates. They get very hot and radiate evenly across the surface. The plates have several small holes per square inch allowing combustion gases up and some drippings down, both good for flavor. Most drippings hit the plates and incinerate, adding more flavor to the meat.
Another useful new feature is the fuel gauge integrated in the regulator that connects to your LP tank. Unlike Weber’s fuel gauge scale that weighs the LP tank, CB’s gauge measures tank pressure. Since tank pressure changes with low to high ambient temperatures, the gauge has three readings for 50°, 70° and 100° weather.
Char-Broil includes a special cleaner/scraper with every grill that tucks into a slot inside the cart door. Meathead, our founder, bought a 4-burner version of this line back in 2008 when they were called Quantum Grills. After one year the factory grates corroded and clogged so he replaced them with another company’s product, GrillGrates, which operate on the same principle, only better.
Char-Broil Commercial Grills feature a bi-metallic temperature gauge located above each control knob purportedly measuring the temp of the cooking surface above each burner. Alas, we don’t have much faith in the accuracy of bi-metal gauges so we still recommend you consider purchasing a high quality digital thermometer to check them.
The cookbox and single door cart are a combo of stainless and painted steel. For 2015 the Commercial models feature heavy duty casters. Construction is lightweight and rather flimsy, but Meathead’s 2008 model held up fine in the harsh weather of Chicago. He never covered it so the stainless looked more like aluminum, but other than the grates, it was a decent BBQ grill for the money and worked reliably for several years.
Limited Lifetime Warranty on the burners and 1 year on everything else.
