Brinkmann grill fails Consumer Reports' safety test

Update (June 4, 2015) After the flaw was corrected, the Brinkmann grill rose to the level of our top picks list. Read the full story.

Update (May 11, 2015) Brinkmann and Home Depot worked together to provide replacement parts for the affected grills. Read the full update.

Original (April 22, 2015) Grilling seems a lot more fun than cooking on a range and it's hard to argue with the results—seared steaks and sizzling burgers—but cooking with fire has its risks. That's why the grill experts at Consumer Reports put well over 100 gas grills through safety checks. Our latest tests found that the Brinkmann Patio 810-6230-S small gas grill failed one of our safety tests and we do not recommend buying it. We paid $129 at Home Depot, and this grill is also sold at Albertsons and Hy-Vee, according to the manufacturer.

The test

If a burner's flame goes out and the gas still flows it can build up and result in a potentially dangerous situation. To check how likely it is that a grill's burners could go out, we drop the grill's lid from a height of 6 inches above the closed position. When the lid drops, a burst of air is forced over the burners, which could happen if you quickly open or close the lid or if you drop the lid. We do this test at both the high heat and low heat settings.

The results

Two Brinkmann Patio 810-6230-S gas grills failed our drop-lid test.  Flames on one of the grill's  two burners occasionally went out on each grill when operated on the low heat setting. This test failure poses a safety risk and we do not recommend buying the grill at this time. The risk from this situation is low, but no gas grill should have this flaw. All the other grills tested passed the drop-lid test on both heat settings. We are not aware of any reported injuries.

Brinkmann's response

"We have done numerous tests here in Dallas and at our factory and this grill passed the ANSI standard (an industry test)," said Bradley Gleaton, director of quality control for Brinkmann who added he did not believe this issue posed a risk. "We found that one burner can occasionally be extinguished during the lid drop test on low." Gleaton added that the company has since looked at the grill's crossover channel and improved it, making sure the gap is the correct size, and the factory has made this change for future production. But Brinkmann has shipped the majority of its grills for the 2015 season, so Gleaton could not say when grills with the new crossover channel will be in stores. (See company's full response in this note on the Brinkmann website.)

What you can do

If you own this grill call Brinkmann's customer service at 800-527-0717 and ask for a new crossover channel and it will ship within 48 hours, says Gleaton. You can also try returning the grill to the store. In the interim, if you must use the grill, operate it only on the high heat setting.

CPSC alerted

Consumer Reports notified the Consumer Product Safety Commission of the grill's risk and asked the federal agency to investigate. "We take it seriously and are following up, but the CPSC cannot provide any additional details at this time of the nature of which direction we'll go," says Scott Wolfson, director of communications. "When any incident with a grill poses a risk of harm or is harmful we want consumers to go to saferproducts.gov and let us know. It provides benefits as an early warning system for us and it provides other consumers with information that empowers them to make their own decisions that precede CPSC action."

Buying a grill?

If you're shopping for a small gas grill, with room for 18 burgers or fewer, see our gas grill Ratings. Prices range from $115 to $1,800, and include the top-rated Weber Spirit E-220 46310001, $450, Broilmate 165154, $200, and the Brinkmann 810-3800-SB, $200, which is also sold at Home Depot.
 
—Kimberly Janeway