PK Grill Review – PK 360 Grill & Smoker

Tara Williams

Food Writer & Editor For KitchenSanity

Tara Williams is a seasoned food writer and editor who's been with KitchenSanity since its beginning. With a knack for experimenting with food and creating delicious recipes, she's your go-to for straightforward kitchen advice and practical tips from personal experiences. As a mom of two, Tara understands the value of time. She crafts articles that enhance your cooking skills and free up time for what matters most—like family moments.

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The PK360 cast aluminum grill offers fans of fast, hot grilling and slow barbecue an ideal and versatile tool.

Not only does this grill provide an effectively insulated cooking container, but the aluminum material reduces the risk of dealing with corrosion over time.

The unit features a pedestal base that’s easy to attach to and wide black shelves for prep work and food service.

Is the PK360 really all it’s cracked up to be? In this PK grill review we will break down features and specifications to help you understand what this unit is capable of for you to decide if it’s right for you and your backyard grilling and smoking needs.

Features & Specifications

How does the PK 360 cook? Here is a great video review by Alan, an expert backyard smoker and griller, who explains how to use the 360 for the first time and other helpful tips on temperature and the product’s features.

Not Interested? See our charcoal grill reviews to help you find the best grill for your needs.

Temperature & Venting

Let’s start with the most important part of grilling, temperature and venting.

The PK grill and smoker offers four places to adjust the vents. The two rotating bars on the bottom will serve to increase airflow and thus rate of burn.

As you turn the bars, airflow to the bottom of the grill is increased or reduced. The lid of the grill also has two adjustable holes for venting.

Because of the venting options available, you can pile your charcoal to one side and cook up a small meal in your PK360.​

Lower Vent

The PK360 is ideally suited to long, slow cooking processes that use intense heat and wood smoke to produce amazing flavor and juicy texture.

You’ll have to keep an eye on your air intake and venting holes so the fire doesn’t get too high and put you at risk of incinerating your dinner. You should use a meat thermometer, see our best wireless meat thermometer reviews, before pulling your meat or poultry off the fire.​

Charcoal​

Because the PK charcoal grill offers four vent holes, you can control your rate of charcoal burn. In addition, the heat containment offered by the cast aluminum means that the heat will last longer, require shorter burn times and use less charcoal.

The PK360 grill will burn any wood charcoal or briquette as long as they are fresh and haven’t soaked up a lot of moisture. You can also use wood chips for extra flavor.​

Slow Cooking​

While many barbecue fans swear by ceramic cookers, one of the challenges with these tools is cool-down time and risk of cracking the ceramic liner.

Additionally, on many of these units the lid mechanism can wear and sometimes fail because the fasteners can’t hold the weight of the lid.

The PK 360 grill offers barbecue aficionados the chance to shut down all four vents and create a slow cooking process similar to a ceramic cooker, but when you’re done you can completely remove the top of the cast aluminum grill for rapid cooling and easy clean up.​

Temperature Gauge

The temperature gauge for this tool is close to the seam between top and bottom on the lid of the grill, giving you accurate and quality readings as you wait for it to heat up again after being open.​

Be absolutely certain to always use a meat thermometer!​

PK Grill Thermometer

The only risk with a great temperature gauge is that many cooks will skip the meat thermometer step.

Lid & Bowl

The lid and body of the PK360 are heavy duty cast aluminum. Aluminum is the base metal for many nonstick cooking pans and transmits heat exceptionally well as well as terrific corrosion resistance.​

Once you’re done cooking, you can completely remove the lid for cleaning and cool-down.​

The hinges are cast in place, so the loss of connectors like rivets will not impact the stability of your grill lid, and when you’re ready to clean it or light it, you can completely remove the lid.

The grilling bowl that holds the food and the charcoal is made of cast aluminum for terrific heat transfer and offers a solid footing for your grates.

Be aware that both the lid and bowl will get extremely hot while you’re cooking; the lid has a handle that will be easier to maneuver.​

The PK 360 Grill

Both the charcoal grate and the food grill are made of marine quality stainless steel for extreme corrosion resistance. If you can keep the grill clean, these materials will naturally resist rust.

The top or food grate offers a large hinged portion that will swing out of the way if you need to add more charcoal.​

Thanks to the cast aluminum construction, the PK360 is highly corrosion resistant. No PK grill review would be complete without a shout out to grillers in rainy climates: If you’re tired of rust, this may be your new grill!​

Workspace & Clean Up

There are two heat-resistant countertop shelves included with your PK360 that offer an elegant flat black finish.

These shelves can be easily removed and hung on the sides of the grill for transport. Additionally, these shelves offer a front lip or bar from which you can hang towels or tools as needed.​

Once your grill has cooled down, grate clean up and ash removals are simple and fairly quick.

Instructions​

  1. Clear away the food grate and charcoal grate.
  2. Pull the ash plug from the bottom of the pan and sweep your charcoal ash out of the bowl of the grill into your ash can. You’ll also see two long tubes or covers over your venting tubes that allow you to control air flow.
  3. Once the ash is out, clear these two tubes and make sure there’s no charcoal debris ready to clog up or block open your air flow controls for your next round of grilling.​
  4. Finally, the food grate will fit into your dishwasher thanks to the removable hinged portion.

Portability & Assembly

The pedestal base included with the PK360 offers traveling cooks several options.

First of all, your PK360 can be used without the base. Secondly, the pedestal base is easily moved for camping or tail-gating and offers little bulk. The base has heavy duty formed wheels for easy transport and location adjustments.

The PK360 weighs in at only 90 pounds for all the components and can be adjusted thanks to the wheels molded into the pedestal.

Much of this grill is either pre-assembled or easy to assemble. as demonstrated in the following video from PK Grills themselves.​

Because the grill is cast, most of the fastenings and connectors are pretty obvious and the knobs and screws are quite large.

For example, the table mounts feature a spot to slide the edge of the table and clamp it down for a really sturdy work surface without extra mounting screws.​

The venting tubes on the bottom may look like handholds to someone who hasn’t worked with the grill, but the weight of the grill bowl should not be carried by these tubes.​

The design of the bottom venting tubes means that these tubes can be turned and controlled even if the grill is sitting on the ground. These tubes line in brackets cast into the bottom of the grill bowl for protection and flexibility.​

Final Thoughts

If you’ve ever had a steel grill rust out after one season or had the lid hinge crack when you opened your grill, you know how frustrating it can be to watch things crumble no matter how carefully you tend to them.

The PK360 is one of those tools that you finally buy when you’re tired of replacing things.

However, this grill is a sizable investment and definitely not for everyone, especially those with a small budget.

If you like to grill and barbecue, and don’t have a lot of space, the PK360 may be a great choice.​

Written By Tara Williams

Tara Williams is a seasoned food writer and editor who's been with KitchenSanity since its beginning. With a knack for experimenting with food and creating delicious recipes, she's your go-to for straightforward kitchen advice and practical tips from personal experiences. As a mom of two, Tara understands the value of time. She crafts articles that enhance your cooking skills and free up time for what matters most—like family moments.

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1 thought on “PK Grill Review – PK 360 Grill & Smoker”

  1. How long can I expect the initial load of charcoal to last for a long slow cook? Also, I prefer lump charcoal over charcoal briquettes, can this grill use both?

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