Costco is selling the Masterbuilt Gravity Series 900 grill and it is worth a serious consideration. This review is going to walk you through:
- Key Features of the Grill
- Positive Aspects of the Grill
- Negative Aspects of the Grill
- One Other Option to Consider
If you are short on time and just want to know whether this thing is any good or not then my quick review is, “The Masterbuilt 900 at Costco is a great grill at a great price.”
Key Features
The Masterbuilt 900 is digitally controlled and charcoal fueled. This is a Gravity Series grill which reflects the fact that the grill is designed to let gravity feed the charcoal into a burn pot.
The grill has an impressive temperature range that spans from 225F to 700F.
16 Pound Charcoal Hopper
The charcoal hopper on the grill can hold 16 pounds of Kingsford briquettes or about 10 pounds of lump charcoal. You can also layer in chunks of wood to get even more smoke flavor.
The hopper holds enough fuel to get you around 9 hours of burn time. You fill the hopper from the top and light the charcoal from the burn basket underneath.
There is a sliding baffle that you move to allow air to reach the fire pot. When you are done grilling you simply slide the baffle and it chokes off the air which snuffs out the fire and stops the unused charcoal from burning.
WiFi Control Panel
The temperature of the grill is set with the digital control panel. You can input the temperature directly on the panel or by using an app on your phone.
The control panel comes with an integrated meat probe.
Like most digital grills the control system works fine when used directly but is a little glitchy with the app.
Pizza Oven with Stone
A fun feature of the grill is that it comes with a pizza oven!
I have read a lot of reviews and watched a couple YouTube videos and the pizza oven works great. There is a learning curve to using the oven and the time and temperature you need will depend upon the style of pie you want to make, thickness of the dough, fresh or frozen, etc.
The pizza oven is removable and works great in most other grills as well which is handy if you have a collection of grills sitting on your deck.
When you take the oven out you can replace it with an extra cooking grate to have more room to grill steaks or smoke ribs.
Here is a fun video showing the pizza oven in action!
Cost at Costco
The Masterbuilt 900 is Item Number 2127694 and has a regular price of $649.99. I have seen Costco discount this grill on occasion by $50 to bring the price down to $599.
To appreciate the value of this grill at Costco you can compare it to two other Gravity Series grills that Masterbuilt sells through Home Depot.
The first comparison is to the Masterbuilt 800 which is nearly identical to this grill except it comes with a removable griddle insert instead of a pizza oven. The Masterbuilt 800 currently costs $797 at Home Depot, about $150 more than this grill.
The second comparison is to the Masterbuilt 1050 which has a little more cooking room than the 900 but does not have a pizza oven or griddle. The Masterbuilt 1050 currently costs $897 at Home Depot, about $250 more than this grill.
Why the Grill is Great
The Masterbuilt Gravity Series grills have been around for several years and the general consensus is that the grills are great but a little quirky.
This grill makes excellent Low and Slow barbecue and, unlike pellet grills like the Traeger Redland 650, can also do high heat searing. I think the flavor you get from cooking with charcoal and wood is superior to what you get from gas or pellet grills.
This grill combines the great flavor you get from charcoal with the ease of operation you get with a pellet grill, In theory, the Gravity Series should be more reliable than a pellet grill since it doesn’t use an auger. Auger issues are one one of the most common failure modes on pellet grills.
This is a fun grill and one that I would buy if I didn’t already own seven other grills, smokers and griddles.
Problems
There are no inherent design problems with this grill but there are a few issues that some people won’t like.
The first issue is that the grill requires a power source. You are going to need to run an extension cord or invest in something like a Jackery portable power supply to use the grill.
The second issue is that you will have to deal with charcoal. While charcoal provides amazing flavor it is also a bit of a pain in the neck to deal with. Sometimes it can be tricky to light, you need to deal with ashes, quality can vary significantly between manufactures, etc.
The third issue is that the build quality on the grill is acceptable but not particularly high. The warranty for the Gravity Series grill only lasts for one year and explicitly does not cover paint burn off and rust. On a related note, to minimize rust you are going to need a cover and that must be purchased separately.
Another Option to Consider
If you really like the idea of a gravity fed, digitally controlled charcoal grill then there is one other option to consider beside the Masterbuilt 900.
Masterbuilt makes a much smaller version of this grill, the Masterbuilt 560. The Masterbuilt 560 does not have a pizza oven or a griddle and has about 40% less cooking area than the 900.
If you do not need to cook for a crowd and don’t want a pizza oven then you can save yourself some serious money by purchasing the 560 instead of the 900.
I can’t give you the exact price difference between the grills but will leave a link to Amazon below. (I am an affiliate and will earn a commission at no cost to you if you purchase through my link.)
