Char-Broil assembly
Nothing in the box is assembled. Not one thing.
An owner put it plainly: this grill comes with no pieces assembled at all, and you literally have to put every piece together. That is not a complaint about the price. That is the product.
Get it right the first time, because there may not be a second
Char-Broil sell more gas grills than anybody else in America, and they do it by being affordable. The trade is that the assembly manual runs to eighteen pages of assembly steps, the parts are not marked, and you are building the entire grill from components.
Owners report anywhere from an hour and a half with two people to four and a half hours on a Gas2Coal. One built his over three days. Another, who assembled it alone and was pleased with the result, still logged four hours from opening the box to finishing.
And here is why doing it properly matters more on this grill than on almost any other. An owner whose electronic igniter failed on first light called Char-Broil, who sent him the replacement parts, and then told him that to fit them he would have to completely disassemble the entire grill. He returned it to the store instead. Read the warranty too: it applies after CORRECT ASSEMBLY, and the consumer pays the shipping on warranty parts.
How long a Char-Broil actually takes
Owner-reported, from Walmart and Amazon.
| Model | Time | People |
|---|---|---|
| Classic 6-burnerThe good end. | 1.5 hours | 2 |
| Classic 6-burnerSolo, per the same thread. | 2 to 2.5 hours | 1 |
| Performance 4-burner"Simple, but time consuming." | ~2.5 hours | 1 |
| Performance FlavorMaxThe side burner is the fight. See below. | 3 hours | 2 |
| Gas2Coal 4-burner hybridThe owner called the instructions outdated and confusing. | 4 to 4.5 hours | 1 to 2 |
The single best piece of advice from the reviews: assemble it somewhere with plenty of open space, so you can spread the components out. There are a lot of them and they are not labelled.
What goes wrong, specifically
Missing parts. This is the defining problem with this brand.
It is relentless in the reviews. One owner opened the box to find both bottom shelves absent and had to repack the whole thing for collection. Another found the burner tray screws simply were not there and the side burner had not been connected at the factory, leaving the grill unusable. Another had to go and buy his own bolts. Char-Broil do send replacements, and reasonably quickly. But you want to know on day one, which means counting everything against the parts list before a single screw goes in.
The lighting trick nobody tells you
A Gas2Coal owner could not get his brand new main burners to light. He spent an hour on the phone with Char-Broil support, who guessed at spiders in the gas line and a flat ignitor battery. He worked it out himself: on that grill you must light the SECOND burner first, because that is the one the ignitor is attached to. It was not in the troubleshooting section. It is the sort of thing an installer who has built a dozen of these already knows.
The spiders are, in fairness, real
Char-Broil’s own manual carries a SPIDER ALERT. Spiders and insects genuinely do nest in burner tubes, block them, and cause poor ignition and fires behind the control panel. So the support line was not inventing it. It was simply the wrong diagnosis for a grill that was three hours old, and it is the kind of thing somebody who assembles these regularly would have ruled out in a minute.
The side burner is the awkward one
A specific and repeated one: the toughest part is the side burner, and you may need to bend the gas line to get the holes to line up for the knob. Somebody says that and everybody who has done one nods.
It is gas, and it is still gas at this price
Leak-test every connection with soapy water before you cook on it. A cheaper grill is not a less dangerous grill, and Char-Broil’s manual gives the procedure for a reason.
Before you start
Count every part against the list, on day one, before you assemble anything. This is the single highest-value hour on this page.
Find the YouTube video for your exact model. Owners are unanimous that it helps enormously, and several say it was the only reason they got through it.
Clear a large space. The components need spreading out, and hunting for an unlabelled bracket in a pile is where the hours vanish.
Why this one is worth handing over
Not because a Char-Broil is a bad grill. It is a lot of grill for the money, and the people who assemble it correctly are largely happy with it.
It is because it is three or four hours of unlabelled components, missing parts are common, the warranty only covers correct assembly, and if something needs replacing later you may be told to take the whole grill apart to do it.
You get one clean shot at this. That is worth an afternoon of somebody else’s time.
What an installer does
- Counts every part against the list before starting, and tells you the same day if something is missing.
- Assembles the whole grill from components, correctly, which is what the warranty depends on.
- Fits the side burner, including persuading the gas line to line up.
- Leak-tests every gas connection with soapy water.
- Lights it, checks every burner ignites, and shows you the lighting sequence for your model.
- Takes away a very large box.
Get it built by someone who has built one before.
Tell us your ZIP and what you bought. Installers near you will quote you directly, and you deal with them, not with us.
Questions people ask
How long does a Char-Broil grill take to assemble?
Owners report an hour and a half with two people on a Classic, two to two and a half alone, and up to four and a half hours on a Gas2Coal hybrid. Nothing arrives pre-assembled: you are building the entire grill from parts.
Why will my Char-Broil not light?
On some models, including the Gas2Coal, you must light the second burner first, because that is the one with the ignitor attached. An owner spent an hour on support before working that out for himself, and it is not in the troubleshooting section. Also check the burner tubes: Char-Broil’s manual carries a spider alert, and insects nesting in the tubes is a genuine cause of poor ignition.
My Char-Broil is missing parts. Is that normal?
It is common enough that counting everything before you start is the most valuable thing you can do. Owners report missing shelves, missing screws, and side burners that were never connected. Char-Broil send replacements reasonably quickly, but you want to find out on day one rather than at hour three.
What if a part fails later?
Be careful here. An owner whose igniter failed was sent the parts and then told he would need to completely disassemble the grill to fit them. He returned the grill instead. The warranty also applies only after correct assembly, and you pay the shipping on warranty parts.
Is a Char-Broil worth buying?
It is the best-selling gas grill brand in America and it is a lot of grill for the money. The catch is entirely in the assembly and the serviceability, which is exactly the part somebody else can do for you.
Installers.org is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Char-Broil or W.C. Bradley Co. Char-Broil is a trademark of its owner, referred to here only to describe the assembly services that independent installers on this directory provide.