You know the routine. You decide you want to grill, which means deciding at least 45 minutes before you actually want to eat. You get the charcoal going, deal with the chimney starter, fan the coals, wait for ash, arrange everything by hand, and try to manage a temperature that drifts constantly with no real way to control it. Then comes cleanup: scooping out spent charcoal and getting it into a bag without covering everything in ash. Most people go through that process once or twice, decide life is too short, and buy a gas grill. Convenient, reliable, and somewhere between 40 and 100 percent less satisfying to cook on. The smoke flavor is gone. The experience is fine.
The Masterbuilt Gravity Series 1150 changes the calculation entirely. It is a charcoal grill and smoker that lights in under two minutes, hits 225 degrees in under 10 minutes, reaches 400 to 500 degrees in roughly that same window, and holds whatever temperature you set without you touching it again. Top of the line charcoal flavor. None of the complexity. That is the whole pitch and it delivers on it completely.
Where the 1150 Sits in the Masterbuilt Lineup
Masterbuilt’s Gravity Series spans several models sharing the same core technology, differing mainly in cooking capacity. The 600 is the entry point. The 1050 steps up to 1,050 square inches with a 10-pound lump or 16-pound briquette hopper and around eight hours of burn time. The 1150 is the large-format consumer model at $999: 1,150 square inches of cooking space, a hopper holding 12 pounds of lump charcoal or 18 pounds of briquettes, and up to 15 hours of run time on a single load. It also adds a closed cabinet base rather than an open cart, a practical improvement for storage.
Above it sits the Gravity Series XT at $1,499, which refines the controller, improves fuel efficiency with a fiberglass mesh gasket, and extends the temperature range down to 180 degrees for holding finished brisket. Same fundamental technology, more precision and longevity. For most households the 1150 is the sweet spot. You get the full Gravity Series experience without paying the XT premium.
One long-term Gravity Series owner on the Home Depot product page captured the durability picture well: “I have cooked everything from low and slow cooks back to back for 72 hrs straight, to hot and fast cooks. And until just recently it has never let me down.” That kind of track record across the Gravity Series line is worth noting.
How It Works
The GravityFed hopper is a vertical charcoal chamber on the right side of the grill. You load charcoal at the top. Gravity feeds it down as the lower coals burn out. A digitally controlled fan manages airflow from the hopper through the manifold into the cooking chamber, speeding up when the temperature drops below your set point and slowing down when it does not need to.
That temperature recovery is fast. When I dialed from 250 up to 400 mid-session, the grill climbed there in under two minutes. All the stored heat in those coals releases the moment the fan opens up the airflow. The same happens when you open the lid and heat escapes: the fan ramps up immediately and pulls the temperature back. There is a separate hold mode which disables the fan from turning on and thus the temp won’t increase.
To activate it you tap the power button. Do the same to turn off the hold mode – I forgot on one occasion and the temperature dropped during a cooking sessions from 400 to 300 F. The PID controller reads the chamber temperature continuously and adjusts fan speed to match your set point.
A verified owner on the Home Depot listing described the speed experience directly: “The speed to temp is remarkable — 200 to 400 in just minutes. I’ve reverse seared steaks, smoked brisket, and grilled veggies, all with amazing results.” It’s great for reverse searing since you can run it at 200 F for hours and then crank it quickly to sear.
Charcoal and Fire Starters: This Part Is Easy Now
I cook with Royal Oak 100% All-Natural Hardwood Lump Charcoal.
One important note: never use charcoal with a lighter fluid starter built in. That stuff can damage the grill and raises safety concerns in a gravity-fed system. Natural lump charcoal is the right call here, and it is also a genuine part of what makes this grill taste the way it does.
Lighting is handled by Masterbuilt fire starter cubes, not sticks. They are small wax squares and they work without fail every single time. Some reviews online describe finicky lighting experiences but those were almost certainly people using off-brand options.
The Masterbuilt Fire Starter cubes burn at up to 1,300 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes, are odorless and flavorless, and light even when wet (I’ve read). I have never had a failed start using them. Get them. They are inexpensive and remove one of the last remaining friction points in the charcoal experience.
The actual process: open the top lid, open the hopper door, slide the fire starter cube into the slot at the bottom of the hopper and position it correctly against the edges of the grate holders. Light from the sides. Within two minutes it is going. Close everything, confirm the dampers are removed, set your temperature, and walk away. What used to be a 20 to 30 minute ordeal with a Weber is now a two-minute task.
Assembly and Setup
Assembly takes under two hours but the instructions make it harder than it should be. Everything is image-only, black and white, and some component distinctions are difficult to read in that format. Tom’s Guide noted the same frustration in their review, writing that they had to backtrack several times during the build and encountered one screw hole that did not line up at all. The wiring section is the most challenging part. Budget extra time there.
Two things to know before your first cook. First, the seasoning process is mandatory: one hour at 250, then 30 minutes at 400, cool down, wipe with oil. Read the setup guide fully before lighting.
Second, the dampers. There are two shipping dampers in the airflow path that need to come out before the grill can heat properly. The grill gives you no notification. If you fire it up with them in place, the fan runs and nothing heats up. It is a 10-second fix once you know about it, but it will look like a malfunction if you do not.
What I Have Cooked On It
Everything I have made on this grill has come out with that deep, clean charcoal flavor that you simply cannot replicate on a pellet or gas grill. The results have been phenomenal: all the flavor, none of the complexity. That is the theme that runs through every cook regardless of what is on the grate.
Pork belly was the standout session. I do not have photos and I am sorry about that because this deserved documentation. I cooked it on the second and third racks initially to render the fat low and slow, then moved it to the bottom rack briefly for searing. It came out slightly charred on the outside, which only added to it. Deeply flavored, rich, tender. One of the best things I have made on any grill.
Other Home Depot reviewers cooking ribs described a similar experience. One wrote: “Thanks to the 1150’s ability to hold a consistent 250°F without constant attention, I didn’t have to open the lid or lose heat. The bark was perfect, the smoke ring was beautiful, and the ribs pulled clean from the bone.”
Burgers worked well with the same approach: start on a middle rack, finish hot. The grill rewards understanding the heat gradient between racks. The bottom is a sear zone. The middle and upper racks are where you have control.
Steak worked until it did not. The issue is that fat drips onto the manifold and it sits close enough to the grate that those drips catch fire quickly. I almost lost a steak to this. It is the one inherent design limitation I keep running into. The best workaround is searing on the rack above the bottom, which puts more distance between the fat and the heat source. Staying close and paying attention is not optional at high temperatures on this grill.
Duck and char siu were longer sessions and introduced app and probe issues I will cover below. The char siu came out well. The duck taught me to always have a backup thermometer.
One session I added wood chunks to the charcoal for additional smoke. It was too much for my taste and I would not do it again. The lump charcoal alone produces plenty of smoke character. Adding wood on top pushed it into territory I did not enjoy.
Running Costs
Each bag of Royal Oak lump charcoal runs about $20 and covers roughly six to eight hours of cooking depending on temperature. Higher settings burn through fuel faster. A long low-and-slow session at 225 is more efficient than running 450 and above for several hours. During a three-plus hour session with duck at 375 to 450, I went through a full hopper and had to reload mid-cook. For long high-heat cooks, budget for two bags.
The good news on ash management: lump charcoal produces very little ash. You can comfortably run two bags back to back without emptying the ash bin. When you do clean it out, remove the basket, dump it into a trash bag, done.
Unused charcoal does not go to waste. When you are done cooking, insert the shutdown slides to choke the fire. The remaining charcoal extinguishes and saves for your next session.
The App and Temperature Probe: Be Honest With Yourself
The app is useful when it works. During a long cook with duck and char siu running simultaneously, the app stopped communicating with the grill mid-session. The probe readout froze, the temperature display stopped updating, and nothing on the phone resolved it. I managed the cook from the physical control panel for the rest of the session.
Tom’s Guide encountered the same issue, describing the app as “finicky” and noting it “tends to disconnect often, which requires restarting the app and reestablishing the connection to the grill.” Their reviewer added: “It’s annoying, but it has reliably reconnected every time.” The pattern is consistent enough across users to treat app connectivity as a convenience rather than a guarantee. The connection routes through Masterbuilt’s servers rather than directly grill-to-phone, which means a server-side issue disconnects you even when your own network is fine.
Probe accuracy also needs flagging. During the duck session, the probe shifted position and started reading hotter than the actual internal temperature. We pulled the duck undercooked and only caught it because we double-checked. The ambient temperature readout also sometimes locks to whatever the grill is set to rather than reflecting the actual chamber temperature. Keep a backup instant-read thermometer on hand. Do not rely on the Masterbuilt probe as your only read on a critical cook. That said, I cooked a full chicken the other day. Stuck the probe into the breast and it worked perfectly. Maybe user error. Maybe it works sometimes.
How It Compares
The only direct charcoal-for-charcoal competitor worth noting is the Oklahoma Joe’s Tahoma 1200A, a gravity-fed charcoal grill with WiFi at $899. Its temperature ceiling is 600 degrees versus the 1150’s 700, and it has not been through my hands. Tom’s Guide flagged it as the single comparable option and noted the lack of direct competition speaks to how thoroughly Masterbuilt owns this specific category.
Most buyers at this price are cross-shopping pellet grills. The Traeger Ironwood and Weber SmokeFire are the category standards. Pellet grills are convenient. Fuel costs less, connectivity is more reliable, loading is cleaner. What you give up is flavor. One Home Depot reviewer who had cooked on offset smokers and pellet grills said it directly: “Much better smoke and charcoal flavor than a pellet grill by far. Easy to light and temp control is spot on.” Another put it plainly: “I’m a stick burner guy and maintaining temps can be frustrating — not anymore.” For people who care about smoke flavor, this is not a small trade-off. The 1150 exists specifically for people who refuse to make it.
Gas at this price is a different product for a different cook. Faster preheat, lower ongoing cost, no smoke. If you want charcoal flavor, gas is not the answer.
Where to Buy
The Masterbuilt Gravity Series 1150 is not sold on Amazon. Your options are Masterbuilt direct, Home Depot, and Ace Hardware. As of this writing, Ace Hardware has the best deal on the 1150. Worth checking there first before buying direct.
Who Should Buy It
The Gravity Series 1150 is for households that want the best flavor in backyard grilling without the ritual that has always come with charcoal. If you have defaulted to gas because managing charcoal is too much work, this grill removes every part of that friction. If you already cook on charcoal and manage temperature manually, this makes the same results dramatically easier and more consistent.
It is a large grill. The footprint is 58 inches wide by 32 inches deep. It needs real estate and an outdoor power outlet. Confirm both before purchasing.
The app reliability and probe accuracy issues are real. They do not ruin the experience but they mean this is not a fully hands-off system for critical cooks. Use a backup thermometer and treat the app as a convenience.
At $999+ it is priced like the serious piece of outdoor cooking equipment it is. For households that cook outside regularly, it earns that price quickly.
I’ll be using my all summer long and now I’m actually looking forward to cooking. That and lighting something on fire. Hopefully in this case, just the charcoal.
