How hot do charcoal grills get?
As a college student, I am working with limited cooking equipment. There are several outdoor charcoal grills however, which students sometimes have cookouts on. How hot do can these grills get? I have literally no idea how hot they get, but would like to find something in the 700 degree area.
Best Answer
Charcoal can get to 700 degrees F but in normal use you're more likely to be in the 500F range. In order to get to the higher end of charcoal's abilities there are a couple things you can do:
Use natural lump charcoal, not briquettes.
Lower the grill grate to within 1" of the hot coals
If 1&2 don't get you enough heat, consider using the Alton Brown chimney approach (Setup starts around the 8 minute mark)
Pictures about "How hot do charcoal grills get?"
Quick Answer about "How hot do charcoal grills get?"
The maximum temperature of a charcoal grill is 1200 °F. Before using the grill for the first time, do a trial run without food. This will help you find how hot your grill gets and how to use the vents (top and bottom). Vents control heat and smoke.How hot can you burn charcoal?
Charcoal burns at temperatures exceeding 1,100 degrees Celsius (2,010 degrees Fahrenheit). By comparison the melting point of iron is approximately 1,200 to 1,550 \xb0C (2,190 to 2,820 \xb0F).How hot will a Weber charcoal grill get?
The answer is that Weber grills are designed to max out between about 500\xb0 and 550\xb0 F.Does a charcoal grill get hotter with the lid on or off?
Remember this basic rule of thumb: If you're cooking on a gas grill, opening the lid will make it cooler. If you're cooking on a charcoal grill, opening the lid will make it hotter.Does a charcoal grill get hotter than gas?
Charcoal burns hotter than gas. Since you can't dial down the heat, you can leave areas without briquettes to control the temperature. This allows you to sear your protein and then allow it to finish cooking in the cooler areas. Many people also prefer the smoke flavor a charcoal grill provides.How To Light a Grill the Right Way
More answers regarding how hot do charcoal grills get?
Answer 2
There are several factors that determine how hot your grill will get:
- How much fuel you are using.
- How much oxygen is getting to your fuel.
- The proximity and position of your grill surface relative to your fuel source.
Dump a chimney full of charcoal into a Weber kettle, leave the lid off, and you will easily get temperatures of 700f or more at the grate. Put the lid on, opening the top vent all the way, and closing the bottom vents by half, and the same amount of fuel will probably give you 450-500f temps at the grate. Mound a half-chimney of coals to one side, and you can achieve 200-300f on the other side of the grill with the lid on and proper manipulation of the bottom vents.
So it's all pretty variable, but the same grill can get you to a variety of different outcomes depending on how you set it up.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Gonzalo Guzman, Pixabay, Pixabay, samer daboul