Prefer to smoke ribs at 185 for the first three hours? No problem. That range gives you the versatility to tailor your cooks to your preferences. The 560 is capable of temperatures from 150 to 700 degrees Fahrenheit. And from the side door, that container can be quickly removed, dumped and returned in a matter of seconds - even during a cook. As far as the charcoal goes, all of that falls into a metal bin at the bottom of the hopper. Both of these are easily accessible from the back of the 560. It’s a smaller bin that’s easy to remove, and it sits in a larger angled tray that also slides out for cleaning. The only thing you’ll have to clean is the grease collection pan. With the 560, there is almost no ash or dust to fall to the bottom. And, of course, to keep the grill working efficiently and safely. With a pellet model, you have to vacuum out dust and ash every few cooks to keep all of that debris off your food. Inside Masterbuilt made some design choices to really help with cleanup. It only ships with one, but you can add more if you need them for $20 each.

Lastly, the 560 accommodates up to four food probes at once. A bright blue display is your guide on the grill, or you can do all of this inside the Masterbuilt app. With the exception of connecting to your phone, you select each option and then set the temp or time by rotating and pushing the dial. There’s a separate one for grill temperature, probe temperature, timer and phone pairing. Instead of having to navigate through a menu with a rotating knob, each item has a dedicated button. Masterbuilt has simplified the things here, giving you much less to scroll through than a Traeger or Weber pellet grill. On the left side of the 560, there’s a shelf with the grill controls. Still, it’s worth noting as you consider buying a 560. In over a dozen cooks, I haven’t experienced this, and the problem doesn’t appear to be widespread based on user reviews. There have been some reports of issues with these switches failing, which means the grill always thinks one of the three doors is open and the fan doesn’t operate normally, making it unusable. There’s one on the main grill lid too, and while that one doesn’t stop the fan entirely, it does alert the controller that you have the 560 open. It’s a safety feature, but it also means that you won’t get blasted with smoke, embers or ash when you’re trying to keep the grill going. There are switches on both the hopper lid and the side door, both of which stop the fan while you’re loading or performing maintenance. If you have the temperature set high enough for searing, you’ll see flames too. On the 560, it blows air upward, into the bottom of the charcoal hopper to keep the heat going and circulate it into the main cooking area. There is an analogue temperature gauge mounted in the lid of the grill, with zones marked for Smoke, Baking/roasting and Grilling, the actual temperature is displayed on the digital controller.Like pellet grills, a fan helps maintain the desired cooking temperature. There are four meat probe ports on the temperature controller, and the 560 ships with 1 probe in the box, additional probes are available. The huge temperature range allows for every cooking style from Low N Slow through gentle baking, roasting and on to high temperature grilling and flash baking for pizza and flatbread. The Temperature is controllable in 5° increments from the on-board digital controller. The Masterbuilt 560 gravity feed charcoal grill has a range of a low 107☌ (225☏) and a searingly hot 370☌ (700☏).

Masterbuilt boasts that their 560 model has a capacity of 4 racks of ribs (laid flat) 8 chickens or 21 burgers at a time using the supplied cooking grates. The upper racks can be installed at two different heights and functions as a warming rack when grilling or as additional shelves when smoking.

The cooking area on the smoker/grill measures 560 x 380mm (22 x 15 inches) with 2 x porcelain-coated upper racks of 180 x 380mm (7 x 15 inches). There are two 8″ wheels on the hopper end the unit and two 3″ locking swivel casters are located on the side of the grill below the built-in handle on the side shelf. This Masterbuilt Gravity Feed charcoal smoker measures 710mm (52″) tall, 760mm (54″) wide, and 620mm (24 1/2″) deep.

Masterbuilt gravity series