Masterbuilt Gravity Series 1050 Review (2026): Lump or

Why you should trust this review

I bought this smoker at retail and paid for it myself. Masterbuilt did not send a sample, did not see this review in advance, and has no influence over the score. I am a weekend cook, not a competition pitmaster, which I think is the right lens for this grill because that is exactly who buys it.

This review is built on ten months of real cooks, not a single test weekend. Over that time I ran briskets, pork butts, ribs, chicken and plenty of weeknight steaks through it, and I logged temperatures with my own instruments rather than trusting the onboard readout alone. Everything below comes from that pile of cooks, including the part Masterbuilt would rather I left out.

How we evaluated

I treated the 1050 like a household grill, because that is what it is. I tracked hopper burn time across multiple long cooks, measured how long it took to reach searing temperature, and watched how well it held a low setpoint when the weather turned against it. For grate level temperatures I used a Thermoworks Smoke X4 rather than the built in probe, so the numbers reflect what the food actually sees.

I also paid attention to the things that only show up over months: how the seals age, how the DigitalFan controller behaves, and where smoke starts to escape. That is how I found the gasket issue, which is the kind of thing a one weekend review never catches.

Temperature range: sear and low and slow in one box

This is the headline strength. The 1050 swings from a true 225F overnight smoke setpoint all the way to 700F for searing, and it does both well. From a cold start it reached 700F at the grate in about 13 minutes in my testing, which is fast enough to reverse sear a steak without the long wait a kettle or offset demands.

At the other end, it holds low temperatures with real discipline. Across an eight hour brisket cook the app held the setpoint within about 8F even with 25 mph gusts knocking around the patio, which is the kind of stability that lets you actually sleep through an overnight cook. The DigitalFan does the work, modulating airflow to the gravity fed charcoal, and once you trust it you stop babysitting.

Charcoal capacity: a real overnight hopper

The gravity hopper holds 16 pounds of lump charcoal, or about 12 pounds of briquette, and it feeds itself by gravity as the fire consumes fuel at the bottom. In a 14 hour brisket cook at 225F with the ambient around 50F outside, I had roughly 2 pounds of charcoal left in the hopper at the end. That means a full hopper is good for a genuine 12 to 15 hour cook depending on wind and outside temperature.

That is the practical difference between this and a traditional charcoal smoker. You are not getting up at 3 a.m. to add coals. You load it, light it, and the gravity feed plus the fan keep the fire steady. Lump gives you the flavor that pellet purists complain is missing from pellet grills, and you still get the walk away convenience.

Cooking area and app: it fits a real cookout

The 1050 square inches across the main grate and warming rack is a lot of room. In one session I fit a full packer brisket, two pork butts and a tray of beans, and on a rib day it will take roughly 12 racks of baby backs at once. For a family that hosts, that capacity is the reason to buy this size over the smaller gravity models.

The Masterbuilt app over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth shows hopper temperature, the grate probe and two meat probes, and it sends alerts. It is not the prettiest app I have used, but it was reliable enough that I checked my phone from the couch instead of standing over the grill. The one included grate probe and two meat probes cover most cooks without buying extra hardware.

Build quality and the gasket flaw

I will not gloss over the weak point. By month eight, the gasket at the back hinge started weeping smoke, and I replaced it with a Lavalock strip to seal it back up. The fix was cheap and easy, but it is annoying that a grill at this level needs it before its first year is out, and it is the main reason this is not a flawless score. The rest of the build held up fine across ten months of weather.

The other limitation is power. The DigitalFan needs a 110V outlet within about six feet, and there is no battery pack option, so this is a backyard grill, not a tailgate rig. If you wanted to take it to a parking lot, you would need a generator, which defeats the purpose.

Who should buy the Masterbuilt Gravity 1050?

Buy it if you want charcoal flavor without charcoal babysitting, if you cook long and you cook often, and if you host enough people to use the 1050 square inches. It is the right pick for the weekend cook who wants to run an overnight brisket and a sear session from the same machine, and who has a power outlet near the patio.

Skip it if you need a portable or tailgate setup, since it requires mains power, or if you want a sealed for life grill with zero maintenance, because you should plan on a gasket replacement at some point. Purists who insist on a stick burner offset for flavor will also want to look elsewhere, though most people will not taste the difference.

The verdict

After ten months, the Gravity 1050 is the gravity fed charcoal smoker I would buy again. It nails the thing it promises, which is charcoal results with pellet style convenience, and it does it across a temperature range that covers both an overnight brisket and a quick reverse sear. The hopper genuinely lasts a long cook, the app keeps you off the patio, and the capacity handles a real cookout. The gasket weeping at month eight is the blemish, and it keeps this from being perfect, but a few dollars of replacement gasket put it right. For most backyard cooks, this is the smoker to buy.