Char-Broil C-Line Charcoal Grill 665 review: a recipe for smoky success?
A charcoal grill can be a barbecue blessing or a culinary curse—it depends on whether it is practical for cooking.
With its reasonable price tag and classic design, the Char-Broil C-Line Charcoal Grill 665 is a tempting option for folks who crave the uniquely smoky flavors of charcoal cooking. I proudly belong to that category of person, so I was keen to test out the 665’s cooking capabilities in my yard.
Designed to accommodate four to six people, the 665 is ideal for cozy get-togethers and family cookouts. It’s also small enough to cook for one or two people without burning a wasteful quantity of coals.
This charcoal grill promises desirable features – including a chimney, integrated temperature gauge, and multiple heat settings – in a straightforward design that’s easy to master.
Be aware: there’s no auto-ignition, so cooking with the 665 will come with a test of your fire-lighting skills. If you don’t want to put in the time to learn how to set your charcoal alight, you should probably be looking at one of the best gas grills instead – or a fancy charcoal grill with automatic ignition.
I tested Char-Broil's equivalent grill for the UK market: the Char-Broil Charcoal M. In all the ways that matter, the grills are the same – so whether you're on one side of the pond or the other, this review is for you. The Charcoal M has only minor differences from the 665, including a slightly different charcoal grate and a more traditional-looking logo.
Read on to learn how well Char-Broil's grill performed in my hands-on (and ultimately, ketchup-on) testing.
Char-Broil C-Line Charcoal Grill 665: key specs
Char-Broil C-Line Charcoal Grill 665: price & availability
You can't beat the C-Line Charcoal Grill 665 on value-for-money. At $159.99 (RRP), this grill offers excellent build quality and cooking capabilities for a digestible price. Stockists include Wayfair, Blain's Farm & Fleet, and the Char-Broil online store.
The UK variant of the 665, the Charcoal M, has a slightly steeper list price of £239.99. Brits can buy barbecue from Amazon UK and Robert Dyas retailers.
Score: 5/5
Char-Broil C-Line Charcoal Grill 665: First impressions
The 665 arrives flat-packed, so you’ll need to unpack its components and assemble them before using them.
It comes in a surprisingly small box, but don’t let that fool you: the grill is heavy, weighing around 75 lbs. As a young-ish guy in basically okay shape, I found it strenuous to lift on my own.
So, it's a good idea to move the box around with help from another person – or using a lifting trolley, if you have one. If you don’t have help, rolling the box is a good way to move it. There aren't any handles to help you pick it up.
The grill’s components are packed incredibly efficiently inside the box. Someone on Team Char-Broil is a flat-packing genius.
It's clear right away that most of the components are of high quality, right down to the fixings, which feel strong and chunky. Even the legs have a nice, textured finish. The only minor negative I noted was that the storage rack (underneath the grill) arrived a little warped.
All of the grill’s components arrive individually packaged, which certainly seems to help preserve their condition during transportation. However, that does mean you’ll spend a lot of time removing cardboard and plastic packaging—which should, of course, be recycled.
I recommend you handle the 665’s parts carefully because they're quite vulnerable to scratching if you place them on hard ground. Consider laying out an old rug prior to assembly.
There are two ways to learn how to assemble the 665. You can take the traditional approach and follow the printed diagrams in the instruction booklet, or you can scan a QR code on the booklet to see a step-by-step guide with photos online. Both are clear, so which one to use depends on personal preference.
You need two hand tools to assemble the barbecue: a cross-head screwdriver and an adjustable wrench. Because some of the unassembled parts of the grill have pretty sharp edges, you might want to wear work gloves while assembling them. There are some heavy components to handle, so ideally, you’ll have two people working together on assembly.
Some of the components look very similar but have important, subtle differences. For instance, two of the four support legs have caps and are intended to stand on the ground, while the other two are made to attach to the wheels on one side of the grill. Take time to identify each component before you start fixing things together accurately—it could save you a lot of effort in the long run.
Char-Broil has used a really helpful, simple way of packaging the fixings for this grill. The various fixings are packaged in separate compartments within a single blister pack, labeled with a code letter for each fixing type on the reverse. When fixing is referenced in the assembly instructions, you open the relevant compartment and remove the required fixing(s). It sure beats digging around in a plastic baggie filled with nuts and bolts.
Undoubtedly, some steps towards assembling the 665 would benefit from two people working together. Working alone, you’ll need to precariously balance parts against each other at times before fixing them together with a nut and bolt.
Even so, assembling the 665 on my own took me over 90 minutes—honestly, I enjoyed it. A few fiddly tasks are involved, but you should get by fine if you follow Char-Broil’s instructions to the letter.
Score: 4/5
Char-Broil C-Line Charcoal Grill 665: Design
As you can see, the 665 is a fine-looking barbecue, capped off with a very smart lid featuring a thermometer, coil handle, and the Char-Broil logo (in different variants for US and UK markets). Its charcoal finish is the perfect match for your cooking fuel.
Some super-important features help with temperature control: an adjustable chimney and a damper (a grid on the side of the grill that can be opened or closed to adjust airflow). These components should be closed for low-and-slow cooking or opened to raise the cooking temperature.
For controlled cooking, there’s an adjustable charcoal grate that allows you to set the coals at multiple heights relative to the porcelain enameled cast iron grills. The grate must be adjusted using a grate lifter tool, as it’ll be too hot to handle during cooking. Thankfully, the handle on the lid is safe to touch, thanks to a coil design that ensures your hand grips a cool surface when you open the grill’s lid.
I was particularly impressed with this grill’s selection of storage features. A wire shelf sits at the bottom of the 665, providing a convenient place to store things like burger buns and oven gloves – or other large, light items you need to keep handy.
The little shelf to the left of the grill (from the user’s perspective) provides a useful platform for resting plates and condiments. It has three pegs from which you can hang accessories, such as the grate lifter tool and your all-important burger spatula. You can also keep items in the front grill basket.
Two of the grill’s support legs have casters, which prove helpful for moving the grill around (although there is no obvious handle or grip to help you do this).
You get an integrated bottle opener on one of the grill’s front legs as a nice little extra. This was a crowd-pleaser when I invited friends to help me test the barbecue.
Score: 4.5/5
Char-Broil C-Line Charcoal Grill 665: Performance
Compared to other charcoal grills I've used over the years, the 665 is quite convenient to light, with a fairly high success rate (considering that lighting a charcoal grill always takes some practice and patience). It took me a long time to get the charcoal up to cooking temperature, although some experienced users will be able to get their coals glowing quickly.
You load your charcoal onto the adjustable charcoal grate. By design, the grate helps you identify the right amount of charcoal to use – pour on too many coals, and they’ll just spill over the edges. My one minor criticism of this design feature is that coal spillage can happen too easily. The day after use, it's worth digging around underneath the safely cooled grate to find intact pieces of unburned charcoal that can be burned the next time you grill.
With the 665’s lid open, fire seems to catch pretty well. You’ll need to monitor the progress of the coals by eye, as the barbecue’s lid-integrated temperature gauge is useless for measuring the temperature with the lid open.
The barbecue cooks food beautifully, from thin slices of pepper and eggplant to thick meats such as chicken wings and whole fish. To thoroughly test its cooking capabilities, I used the 665 to grill a whole bream, which came out thoroughly cooked with a crisp, golden skin.
During my testing sessions, sausages got good griddle marks on the sides, creating a deliciously crunchy skin around the well-cooked sausage meat. When cooking some skinny chipolata sausages, I found too much charring – so I lowered the adjustable charcoal grate using the grate lifter tool provided, which successfully reduced charring to an appetizing level. Corn on the cob came out nicely browned and cooked while retaining some juiciness.
Provided your coals are properly heated and glowing, closing the lid of the 665 has a marked effect on cooking performance. It helps items cook right through and ramps up the smoky flavor.
Score: 4.5/5
Char-Broil C-Line Charcoal Grill 665: Cleaning and maintenance
Post-BBQ, the 665 should be cleaned to ensure safe cooking the next time you use it. The most important task is to remove and wash the iron grill grates, which can usually be cleaned effectively using washing liquid, a sponge, and a stiff-bristled brush.
You’ll also need to remove any spent coals from the firebox. These can be brushed down into the ash trap – a small drawer that slides out easily from the underside of the grill. Ensure it has cooled down fully before you empty it because you may need to use a hand to support the ash trap from underneath.
If possible, I recommend storing the 665 inside a garage or shed to avoid weather damage to the grill. Thankfully, the grill's relatively small footprint will help many users find a suitable space—especially if you uninstall the storage shelf on one side of the 665.
Char-Broil C-Line Charcoal Grill 665: User reviews
This is a great grill for the money you pay. So, we were unsurprised to find that online customer reviews of the 665 are consistently excellent.
At Char-Broil, customers rated the 665 at an average of 4.8 stars. One buyer hailed the barbecue as "the best charcoal grill ever" and remarked on its easy assembly and the smoky flavors it produced.
Should you buy the Char-Broil C-Line Charcoal Grill 665?
Buy it if...
Don't buy it if...
How does the Char-Broil C-Line Charcoal Grill 665 compare?
The obvious comparison is between the 665 and the larger Char-Broil C-Line Charcoal Grill 840. In addition to providing a larger cooking surface, the 840 also features additional storage shelves on the front and right-hand side, so the design is better suited to higher-volume cooking all around. Of course, this means it comes at a higher price and can consume charcoal at a steeper rate.
If you’re looking for a charcoal grill that’s more advanced than the 665 (which comes at about ten times the price), you might consider the Kamodo Joe Konnected Joe, which features automatic charcoal ignition and digital temperature control. Or, for lower budgets and smaller group sizes, the Napoleon NK14 Portable Charcoal Kettle Grill might be just the ticket.
How I tested the Char-Broil C-Line Charcoal Grill 665
Used rigorously for several cooking sessions
Multiple charcoal grate heights and lid positions (open/closed) were used
On multiple occasions, I tested the Char-Broil C-Line Charcoal Grill 665 to cook various popular barbecue foods, including sausages, fish, sliced vegetables, and foil-wrapped bananas.
To assess the grill’s full range of cooking capabilities, I tried grilling with the adjustable charcoal grate at all three available heights and compared the results when cooking with the grill’s lid open and closed. Read more about how we test.
