Char-Broil TRU-Infrared Commercial 3-Burner Review

This model was replaced by the Commercial Stainless/Black 3-Burner.

The Char-Broil Commercial 3-Burner is a decent, basic grill. 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.

Coated cast iron cooking grates lay directly on top of a radiant surface which consists of thin stainless steel plates. 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. Older version grates made of stainless grates corroded easily and the emiter plate holes needed regular cleaning or they clogged. Char-Broil claims to have improved their grates. We have not yet had a chance to test these new cast iron models.

Char-Broil packs a special cleaner/scraper into every box that works specifically with the Commercial grills. 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.

Meathead feels the optional rotisserie was an afterthought on his 4-burner model. The left bracket of his rotisserie kit scraped against the lid of the side burner. He had to mount it to the inside of the cooking chamber. That was easy because the mounting holes go through, but he also had to mount the motor upside down or when the lid went down it wouldn’t close. The rod came in two parts and needed to be screwed together. They kept coming loose so he had a local auto body shop weld the two parts together. Char-Broil says this is an unusual occurrence, but we have seen many complaints about the mounting brackets on the internet.

The cookbox and single door cart are a combo of stainless and painted steel. 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.