TAINO HERO Smoker klein

A grill cart with a chimney, not a smoking cabinet

In the Amazon catalogue the device is called TAINO HERO Smoker klein, in the manufacturer’s shop simply HERO Holzkohlegrill (charcoal grill). Both refer to model number 93535. TAINO calls it a “City model”, and that is exactly how it is built: a small grill cart with a single cooking chamber, a lid and an attached smoke vent. In our site it sits in the charcoal grills category, and it costs approx. €75 (Amazon page on 20 October 2026: €74.90).

What the name promises and what the product image shows only half match. You see a rectangular box with a rounded lid edge. A short chimney pipe rises at the top left, the round thermometer sits in the middle of the lid, with a horizontal handle bar beneath it. A small hatch with a latch and ring handle is set into the front wall of the bowl, and the crank is attached to the right end. The side table hangs on the right, a push handle on the left. Below, a shelf of cross struts connects the legs, and one of the two wheels is visible at the bottom right.

A second, side-mounted firebox, as an offset smoker has, is not in the picture. So “smoker” here means: a grill cart with a lid in which you can also smoke. Alongside this model, TAINO offers the HERO XL, the HERO XXL and the HERO DUO, a gas and charcoal combination grill, in the same range.

Dimensions, grates and shelves according to the manufacturer

TAINO gives the overall dimensions as approx. 87 × 57 × 108 cm (width, depth, height) and the weight as approx. 15 kg. Converted, the values in the Amazon catalogue match these. The 87 cm is an envelope dimension that includes the side table and push handle; the cooking chamber alone is narrower.

Grilling takes place on a two-piece, porcelain-coated grill grate of approx. 42.6 × 31.5 cm. Above it sits a chrome-plated warming rack of approx. 39.5 × 20.5 cm. According to TAINO, approx. 20.5 cm of clear height remains between the grill grate and the lid. Multiplying the manufacturer’s grate dimensions gives roughly 1,342 cm² for the main grate and roughly 810 cm² for the warming rack. We calculated these areas ourselves from the two figures. For context: an A3 sheet is 1,247 cm², so the main grate is only slightly larger.

A split grate has a practical advantage: you lift one half, add charcoal or a piece of wood, and do not have to clear all the food off. Porcelain coating is an enamel layer on metal; TAINO does not say which metal lies beneath. It protects the base for as long as it stays intact; chips from wire brushes or knocks expose it.

The side table folds and measures approx. 27 × 32 cm. That is enough for tongs and a plate, but not really for a cutting board with meat. Beneath it, the frame carries a shelf, the handles are stainless steel, and a bottle opener is built in. According to the Amazon catalogue, the grill cart is made of powder-coated steel with elements of stainless steel and plastic. According to TAINO, the two large wheels are also meant to provide a secure stand and mobility on grass.

In detail: controlling heat through charcoal height and air

On the HERO you set the heat through distance, in addition to the amount of charcoal. The product page says “charcoal grate height-adjustable by crank”. The Amazon text says something different: there, both the grill grate and the charcoal grate are supposed to be adjustable by crank. We go with the manufacturer’s page, because the image shows exactly one crank and TAINO nowhere describes the grill grate as adjustable.

Why charcoal height matters so much: over charcoal, most of the heat reaches the food as radiation, and that decreases markedly with distance. If you crank the embers up, the surface browns quickly. If you lower them, thicker meat cooks through more slowly without burning on the outside. The advantage over a fixed charcoal grate is that you can change this in the middle of grilling without rearranging embers.

Air is the second lever. The product page speaks of two vents, the manual of an air damper and a damper on the smoke vent. As a general rule on a charcoal grill, the intake air at the bottom determines how much oxygen reaches the embers, and so how hot they burn. The damper on the chimney controls how quickly smoke and warm air escape. If you want to lower the temperature, first close the intake a little. According to the manual, you only operate the vents with heat-resistant gloves.

TAINO sets a clear limit on the fill quantity: no more than 1 kg of charcoal in the charcoal compartment. The manual also advises against filling the combustion chamber completely, because the grill can then become too hot for use. If you want a longer grilling time, add charcoal in small amounts on top.

The lid thermometer sits at the top of the lid and measures the air there, not the temperature at the grate. If the embers lie directly beneath the food, it is usually hotter at grate level than the display shows. How to work with a direct and an indirect zone is explained in our guide on direct and indirect heat.

Can you really smoke in the HERO?

Yes, in the sense TAINO means. The product page says: “Suitable for direct and indirect grilling or smoking”. However, embers and food lie in the same chamber; the HERO has no separate firebox like an offset smoker.

In a single chamber, indirect cooking works like this: the embers go on one side, the meat on the other, and the lid stays closed. The heat then reaches the food mainly through the hot air circulating under the lid. With this grate width, roughly one half is left for the indirect side; in our assessment a whole pork shoulder will be a tight fit. Taller pieces must also fit under the clear height given above with the grates.

For long sessions at low temperature, the charcoal limit is the real bottleneck. How long 1 kg of embers lasts depends on air supply, weather and type of charcoal; TAINO has not published a consumption figure. For smoking over several hours, expect to add charcoal and open the lid to do so. If you want true offset smoking with a separate combustion chamber, you end up with a device like the TAINO KAMAYO, which according to the Amazon catalogue separates the combustion and smoking chambers. The basics are in our guide smokers for beginners.

Seasoning, care, extinguishing: what the manual prescribes

The assembly and operating manual 93535 HERO is dated 11/2024, runs to 28 pages, and is in German and English. It states in capital letters that the grill must be seasoned before first use.

Before that comes the pre-clean. Remove packaging residue, clean with hot water and washing-up liquid, rinse, dry, and grease the grill inside and out. The fire grates must not be greased, because the fat would otherwise ignite on the open flame. Then you keep the grill at a temperature of 180 °C for approx. 2 hours, fuelled with dry hardwood, charcoal or briquettes. The manual mentions wood chunks for this, small pieces of hardwood up to 12 cm long and up to 7 cm in diameter, which go into the embers regularly. From then on: “From now on, the smoker should never come into contact with cleaning agents again”, because they would destroy the patina; otherwise you have to season it again.

A few pages further on there is a sentence that fits poorly with this. Immediately after use, grates and tools are supposed to go into hot soapy water, then be dried carefully and stored in a dry place. We read this as the soapy water applying to the removable grates and the tools, and the ban applying to the seasoned chamber. The manual does not explicitly separate the two, however.

On grease the manual is unambiguous. Grease is flammable, so after every use you remove excess grease from the grease tray, and only once the grill has cooled down. You never extinguish grease fires with water. TAINO recommends keeping a fire extinguisher to hand and advises asking a specialist about the right size. If the flames get too close to dripping fat, you control the flame height with water from a spray bottle. The manual forbids pouring cold water directly onto the charcoal, because that can damage the grill. As alternatives it names sand, old ash or, again, the spray bottle.

You only empty ash and charcoal once they have cooled completely, but then promptly: according to the manual, ash absorbs moisture from the air and acts like an acid on the surface. As protection, TAINO suggests lining the combustion chamber with aluminium foil before grilling, shiny side up, leaving the air holes free.

On durability there is an open-ended sentence. Through weathering, ageing and excessive heat, the paint can come off over time, and this cannot be entirely avoided in the long run; touch-up is done with exhaust or stove paint. The stainless steel surfaces can discolour from the heat. Outdoors, the smoker must never stand without a cover. One more note: in two places the manual speaks of “specified gases” and a gas supply. These are evidently text blocks from a gas grill manual and make no sense for this charcoal grill.

Balcony, patio, clearance: the location rules

The fact that TAINO promotes the HERO for the balcony does not mean you may operate it on every balcony. For the location, the manual gives these points: check local regulations before use. Use the grill only for grilling and cooking outdoors, only in well-ventilated places. Use in enclosed spaces is dangerous and forbidden, and there is an acute fire risk. Do not operate it on a boat, in a motorhome or in a caravan. Protect the device from weather and penetrating moisture. Do not store flammable items nearby and always keep at least 95 cm clearance from combustible materials. Do not grill under combustible surfaces or roofs; the area above must be clear. Place it on a stable, heat-resistant surface so that nothing wobbles or tips over. And position it so that children and animals cannot come into contact with the grill.

Work out the clearance once. If there is something combustible on the left and right, such as an awning, wooden cladding or a bamboo privacy screen, you need 87 cm plus twice 95 cm, so 2.77 m of width. On many city balconies that is not possible. If your balcony has another balcony above it, you are also grilling under a roof; whether its underside is combustible is something you have to clarify yourself. The English part of the manual additionally says “DO NOT use on wooden decks.”, while the German part lacks that sentence. We would still take it seriously and not operate the HERO on wooden decking.

According to the manual, you must never move the grill during operation; it and all parts must cool down first. The wheels therefore help with putting it away, not with relocating it with embers in it. On clothing, TAINO requires closed shoes, long sleeves and trouser legs, and no loose clothing, sleeves or scarves. What house rules and tenancy law allow on a balcony, we have collected in the guide grilling on a balcony.

What the manufacturer does not state

For the HERO, the following are missing from every source we found: the material thickness of chamber, lid and frame, the material of the combustion chamber, lid and charcoal grate in detail, a maximum temperature, the heat-up time until the grill is ready, charcoal consumption per hour, the travel of the crank, the working height of the grate above the floor, the size of the lower shelf, the load capacity of the side table, dimensions of the smoke vent and grease tray, what the hatch in the front wall is for and how the ash comes out, packaging dimensions and parcel weight, and spare part prices. TAINO also gives no portion figures, meaning how many sausages or steaks fit on the grate. And there is no link between the manufacturer’s shop and the Amazon listing; that ASIN B0CDGTF9XH belongs to this grill is something we infer from the model number 93535 in the Amazon catalogue and the matching dimensions.

What else comes into question?

The prices come from our price boxes and change constantly. The rating is our editorial assessment from the data comparison; it says little about the build quality in detail, because material thicknesses are not documented for any of the four devices.

When the HERO, when another

First, floor space. The HERO is the narrowest device in this selection, and at approx. 15 kg including wheels you can move it aside on your own once it has cooled. But if you factor in the safety clearance, the advantage over the Outsunny shrinks: its extra width hardly matters when almost a metre has to stay free all around anyway.

Then the number of people. For two or three people we consider the HERO sufficient; we derive that from the grate dimensions, not from a manufacturer’s statement. If you often grill for more, the Outsunny BBQ Smoker is the obvious choice: it costs approx. €78, the HERO approx. €75, and its manufacturer states in the Amazon catalogue a recommended charcoal quantity of less than 1.8 kg, so clearly more embers than the HERO can take.

If you want to smoke, pulled pork or ribs over many hours, a chamber with embers right next to the food is a makeshift solution. The KAMAYO costs approx. €100 and separates fire from food, but needs considerably more width. We would pay the higher price if smoking is the main purpose, and save it if it is about after-work grilling with occasional smoking.

The Everdure HUB II stands in the table as a counterpoint. It costs approx. €2,503, lights the charcoal electrically and has a motorised rotisserie spit. It is hardly meant for the balcony: it needs a power socket and, with the minimum clearances in its manual, roughly 1.9 × 0.84 m of floor space; it shows rather where the money can go on a charcoal grill.

We would not choose the HERO if you grill on a small wooden balcony and cannot keep to the manual’s clearance rules there. Nor if you want to smoke for hours without adding charcoal in between. If you are still undecided between types of grill, the Grill Finder gives you a shortlist by space and budget.