Landmann 31421 - Taurus 660 Large Charcoal BBQ

My search for a decent BBQ lead me initially to Weber. A few of my friends have a Weber and I was set to purchase one as I know the build quality of such the brand is really good. On my travels though, through several review sites Landmann BBQs kept cropping up. I decided in the direction of Landmann as the style of BBQ suits me better. I prefer the drum/tray style that Landmann do, over the Weber kettle shape. Which lead me to purchase the Landmann Taurus 660.Having read mixed reviews about the Landmann Taurus 660, I was sceptical at first. Reading through seeing that the paint peels, the charcoal grill buckling under the heat, it being scratched when it was out of box, and problems with assembly. I have had a few BBQs out of it so far and I have not had a problem with any of the issues. It was packed securely. No obvious defects on the product. There was just one little gripe with the product, but certainly not to give it less than 5 stars. The warming rack bar that connects it to the lid is too short and keeps slipping out. Now I do not know if this is by design or manufacture fault but on one side seems to have 2 inches sticking out and the other side nothing at all. It just seems to fit, barely. The paint is what looks to be a powder coating, which is good.Apart from that, it is a solid build. Which is evident from the weight of the box you get. I would recommend that it is set up by 2 people. One person can build it, but it is a struggle due to the weight of it and the awkwardness of the BBQ parts.With normal use the BBQ is fine I have used it between 2 hours to 6 hours a time and no defects explained in previous reviews happened. As the bad reviews stated they have experienced peeling of the paint and the charcoal grill buckling and warping.I decided to see what it takes to do what was described. I loaded it with fuel (about 10KG of Charcoal) then adding another 5KG about 2 hours after it. I can say that it survived for about 4 hours without any cosmetic defects. After that the paint burnt off down to the prima on the drum, then the charcoal grill warped, and the food grills have suffered minor cosmetic damage, I have no idea of the temperature range but it was off the inbuilt thermometers’ range. The morning after the next, the coals were still warm, which leads me to believe it was hot!The cooking area really is big, you can quite easily cater for 12 plus people on it. It is sturdy, with the thermometer attached to the lid you can tell when it is time to add meat and start cooking on it. Also the fact that you can move the coal up and down to alter heat is also a massive bonus, as you are not moving the food, meaning an over enthusiastic sausage doesn’t roll into the coals or worse, the ground!!! The side mounted tray feels flimsy but seems to cope will with a medium sized tray of meat on it. Also the ash removal tray is a good idea. It help keeps the BBQ lasting longer. The food grill is in 3 pieces which makes it easier to add coals while still cooking and warming food.All in all, if you use the BBQ properly it will be fine, obviously though through use you will get heat marks on the drum but that is why there are paints to treat it. It is normal, through normal uses. There is even a guide on how to BBQ included and how to look after it. I enjoy using it. I can see me having this sturdy bit of equipment for years.Buy it, you won’t go far wrong.

When I bought this item a year ago I'd give the Taurus 660 BBQ 2 or 3 stars. However with a few minor adjustments I now have a really good BBQ that produces excellent results. But be warned this BBQ gets extremely hot and can easily burn your food.So here are my suggestions:1) Only fill the centre 60% of the fire pit with charcoal. This will create one red hot zone and two hot zones inside the BBQ.2) Only cook using 2 out of the 3 grills. This means that you can slide each grill sideways should you have a flair-up. It also means that you can slide each grill over the centre to brown the meat then push the two grills to the edges, close the lid and smoke / cook the meat.3) This BBQ could be improved further if I can locate a pair of handles to safely remove the grills after I've finished cooking. This will make cleaning easier the following morning.Hope this review is helpful.

Arrived yesterday so hasn't been used yet. Box felt very heavy which made me think it would be good quality.Legs and wheels are quite flimsy and made me think it was possibly going to be a bad choice, however once the drum is connected it feels a lot more solid. Need to do a bit of "adjustment" to get the whole lined up correctly in some places but overall relatively straight forward to put together.My lid doesn't close properly at one side but think once I adjust some bolts it will.Looking forward to firing it up now.Warning - do not buy the recommended landmann cover. It is cheaply made and ripped as soon as I put it on

After being tempted to buy a new BBQ at the local supermarket I decided to hold off and spend a little bit more money to get one with an overall better build quality.Unfortunately, I have to say I am very disappointed with the product overall. Aside from the fact the wooden handle was broken when it arrived, it is either very poorly designed or very poorly manufactured. When putting it together a few of the holes didn't line up, so we've had to build it with screws missing. None of the moving parts move smoothly and the whole thing feels like a budget model, certainly nothing like what I expected.My advice would be look elsewhere, you're likely to get a much better BBQ for half the price.

Nice bbq got loads of use out of it this summer easy to put together nice and sturdy and stylish... It doesn't draw as well as my old weber when lighting charcoal but it gets going

Not too difficult to put together but make sure you get the legs the right way round. First one arrived dented, Amazon replaced it but pick up old one was badly organised. Used twice up to now, once for closed lid cooking, once with lid open. No complaints with results but there are two faults with the design. Two bolts are in the base at either end, fat runs along tray and drips through these onto the floor. Had to hang can uner the bolts, but worse still, fat drips off the open lid if you store food on the rack, which hangs over it. There is, no way of stopping this and it's made a real mess of our patio. I can also see that any condensation or fat that gets on the lid would automatically run off the back edge as soon as the lid is put down, as the lip at the back hangs outside the base. Really bad design faults and spoils an otherwise good bbq.

It's only ok could have got something better for the money

Took me a hour or so to assemble. Build to last. Like the warming shelf design. Large enough to feed my Australian family visitors in June.