Review Masterbuilt Gravity Series 800

The Masterbuilt Gravity Series is a true revolution in the outdoor cooking market. It’s the first widely available charcoal-fueled “gravity” cooking system that offers grill, griddle, and smoking options. When we first encountered the Gravity Series 560, it was used to cook a few NY Strip steaks at a temperature of 250 degrees, resulting in a fantastic sear on the outside. We already knew then that this would become a very promising line of models. Fast forward about eight months, and here at Cookers & Grills we’ve had the opportunity to get hands-on with a Masterbuilt Gravity Series 800. We’ve thoroughly tested this unit over the past six weeks, and what follows is the story of our findings.

Dimensions

Masterbuilt 800: unboxing and assembly

The packaging of the Masterbuilt Gravity Series 800 was solid. We can easily stack multiple boxes on top of each other in the warehouse thanks to the amount of reinforcement in the packaging material. Assembling the Masterbuilt Gravity Series 800 took about 90–120 minutes, with occasional help from my colleague for a few “hey, can you hold this for a second” moments. There are a few screws that need to be inserted during assembly where having two people makes things easier, so consider having someone as backup.

The oven of the 800 and the gravity compartment are already pre-attached, so most of the assembly consists of building the cart, the shelves, and other accessories.

How to season your Masterbuilt Gravity Series 800:

Masterbuilt provides detailed instructions on how to burn in the Gravity 800 in the manual provided, and you should follow them. It may be hard to wait the first time before you can finally start cooking, but it is important to burn in the oils and chemicals present on the metal of the smoker before you actually start cooking food in it

The process is quite straightforward:

1. Start the grill and heat at 120°C/250°F for 60 minutes.
2. Increase the temperature to 205°C/400°F for 30 minutes.
3. Turn off the grill and let it cool completely.
4. Treat the internal surfaces of the oven with a vegetable cooking oil. We recommend using one or two spray bottles of vegetable oil to make it easier.
5. Start the grill and heat to 175°C/350°F for 30 minutes.
6. Let the grill cool completely and you are ready to use it.

Why go to all the trouble of burning it in the right way? It's simply the best way to prevent rust on your grill in the future. We do this on every grill we use here at Cookers & Grills as a demo model, and it really helps!

How to burn in the griddle of your Masterbuilt Gravity Series 800:

Firing the grill itself differs from firing the griddle, but the process is quite simple. We started by removing the grill grate and attaching the griddle instead. After we placed the griddle on the cooking surface, we fired up the grill to 260°C/500°F and heated everything thoroughly. Once the griddle was up to temperature, we applied a thin layer of vegetable cooking oil to the surface and rubbed it with a cloth.

As soon as we added the oil, the surface began to smoke, and this is exactly what we wanted to see. The oil is cooked into the surface of the griddle and helps to burn in and create a natural non-stick coating. We waited until the visible oil on the surface was burned, and once the surface looked dry again, we repeated the process. On this particular model, we applied the oil 4-5 times for about an hour before we felt the surface was ready to cook on.

Once we were satisfied with the seasoning of the surface, we began our first preparation by placing bacon on the griddle to allow the surface to absorb some flavor.

Safety features

The grill has several built-in safety features. The first is a lid switch that limits the temperature to 500°F/260°C when open. This means that as long as the lid is open, the grill or griddle cannot get hotter than 260°C. This is especially important when using the griddle because you will probably have the lid open the whole time while using it.

Hopper switches are found on both the top of the charcoal container and on the ash door to control the chimney effect. Without these switches, the entire charcoal column could easily ignite when hot air from a fan enters it, which then becomes a charcoal smoke stack. Masterbuilt is aware of this, and when either door is opened, the fan stops to protect your grill and you.

Grilling

The Masterbuilt Gravity Series 800 is truly a powerhouse when it comes to grilling at high temperatures. If you've ever grilled over a charcoal fire, you know how hot the coals can get. This grill has a fan that fuels the coals to get them glowing hot. We grilled a Porterhouse steak at high temperature as our first test, and the grill stripes from the grill grates were fantastic. The grates on the Masterbuilt Gravity Series 800 are reversible, with markings on one side for smoking and the other side for searing. The grill side (searing) has wide bars to ensure there is enough coverage for nice grill stripes.

A maximum of 371° C for high-temperature grilling is impressive, as most grills available do not even come close to such a high temperature setting for searing. That is one of the things why we are a huge fan of this device.

How to switch from grill to griddle

To switch the 800 from grilling to griddle mode, simply take off the grill grates to access the manifold underneath. There is a manifold for grilling and a manifold for the griddle, and the one not in use has a perfect storage spot on the bottom shelf of the unit. All you have to do to change from grill to griddle mode is take off the ”grill manifold” and replace it with the ”griddle manifold” and place the griddle on the grill surface. It's incredibly easy to switch with the Gravity series and we didn't find it difficult to go back and forth between cooking modes.

There are convenient hooks located under the side shelf for hanging the grill grates while the griddle is in use. However, we do not recommend using the hooks to hang the griddle. It works more or less, but once you accidentally bump the grill, the griddle will likely fall off. Don't ask us how we know this!!!

Baking tray

The surface of the griddle is made of cold rolled steel and it is WHEAT. This is not a light and cheap griddle that you might buy on Amazon for an existing gas grill. It is made to fit the Masterbuilt 800 series and it sits firmly in place and feels very solid when you cook on it. There is a drain on the front left side of the top of the griddle to easily remove grease or food residue from the griddle.

There is a handle attached to the griddle that allows you to pick it up and move it around without having to grasp the cooking surface.

The grilling results you can get on this griddle are extraordinary. Not all griddles are designed to withstand the high temperatures of the Masterbuilt Gravity Series 800. You can set the grill to the maximum temperature, open the lid once the desired temperature is reached and grill delicious burgers or steaks.

Smoking

When it comes to smoking on the Masterbuilt 800, it's a pretty simple process. Fill the hopper completely, but be sure to place a few pieces of your favorite smoking wood in between. We love cherry wood here, so we added about 10 pieces of cherry wood to the full hopper and the smoke was constant and consistent.

The first thing we smoked was a duck breast fillet , and we put it directly on the grills at 135° C for 4 hours. We liked the color we achieved after 4 hours and then we grilled it for a while more at 250° C degrees.

Then we prepared a rack of spare ribs. At 250 °C, we wanted to see how the grill would do if we didn't wrap the ribs throughout the cooking time, and the rack was done after 4.5 hours with a good crust.

We cover the Masterbuilt Gravity Series 800 with the optionally available cover. The cover is sturdy and, in our opinion, worth it if you plan to leave this unit outside. The grill plugs into a standard power outlet, so if you plan to move the unit, keep this in mind as you are somewhat dependent on available power.

Pluses of the Masterbuilt 800

Timer - The controller has a timer that can count both ways, which is handy if, like us, you take notes while cooking. Not many grills offer this option, and we love that this is part of the Gravity Series.

Grill grates - As mentioned earlier, the grills are reversible and are designed for grilling on one side and smoking on the other. The smoking side is shaped like the top of a triangle, minimizing contact with the meat and allowing the smoke to penetrate the product as much as possible. The grill side provides as much grilling surface as possible for the beautiful grill stripes that most bbq enthusiasts crave.

Pluses of the Masterbuilt 800

Probe connection - A lot of grills don't have a probe connector on the side but we're glad Masterbuilt added this. It is annoying to constantly have to put the probe cables from thermometers through the lid when you are cooking a larger piece of meat. It strains the cables and kinks them unnecessarily.

Folding front shelf - We love the fact that the front shelf is foldable. In addition, it is deep enough so that we can put a pan on it while we are doing preparations on the grill.

Points for improvement

Power cable - There is a cable wrap on the back of the side shelf to tie up the power cable when storing the grill. If you use this to store your cable, disconnect the cable from the controller first. The solder joint that attaches the power cable to the motherboard may otherwise come loose, preventing the grill from turning on.

Smoke leaks from the top of the charcoal hopper - The closures were set from the factory so that the top of the charcoal hopper closed reasonably well, but we still had quite a bit of smoke leaking from the top of the container. We tightened the closures considerably and the lid closed much better, but we figured it had to be a fully sealed environment to stop the chimney effect. It may not be serious, but something to keep an eye on.

Points for improvement

Black gunk leaks from chimney seal and discolors patio - Some liquid smoke or black gunk appeared at the bottom of the ash drawer and dripped onto our new patio. We suspect that the seal of the access to the ash drawer was not working properly, but we now have to clean and buy a grill mat for future cooking sessions.

Thickness of the metal - It is almost impossible to meet the build quality that most consumers expect from a grill these days. Let's face it, most of us want a grill that is heavy duty and fully double-walled insulated. We also want it to feature the latest technology, and ideally we want the grill to be able to stay outside 24/7 without a cover. Meeting those expectations with a grill in this price range is an impossible task. But for the price of this unit, we like how they built it. Is it a tank that will last 20 years? Probably not. It is a charcoal grill made of thinner sheet steel. The charcoal combustion chamber is double-walled, which is great! And it does what it's made for.

Conclusion:

Masterbuilt's Gravity Series is a strong addition to the barbecue market. They bring technology to the backyard of hobbyists that was previously only available to competitive barbecuers. Although the Gravity Series has its drawbacks, we feel the advantages outweigh the disadvantages and make this a solid option for anyone who enjoys smoking and grilling. The Masterbuilt Gravity Series 800 model combines the ease of “set it and forget it” we're used to from a pellet grill with the flavor and high heat of charcoal. With smoking, grilling and baking as options on the 800 Series, it is hard to find another machine on the market right now that is so versatile and has such a compact shape.