A Small Recall With a Hidden Failure: How to Check Your Grill, Get the Free Fix and Claim the Gift Card
Credit: Homeowner.ca
On September 17, 2026, Health Canada published recall RA-82607 for the Char-Broil Bistro Pro Electric Grill + Charcoal Mode. The grounding wire on the grill's heating element can disconnect, and when it does, the grill loses its fault protection. Char-Broil reported 342 units sold in Canada and 10,605 in the United States between October 2025 and June 2026. As of August 26, no incidents or injuries had been reported in either country.
Most owners will read "342 units" and "no injuries" and file this under someone else's problem. That is the wrong conclusion. The unit count tells you how many households are exposed. It tells you nothing about how serious the exposure is for yours. And the failure at the centre of this recall is the kind that gives no warning: a grill with a disconnected ground wire can still heat, still cook and still look perfectly normal.
This report covers what was recalled, how to check your grill against the label, how the grounding fault creates risk, and exactly how the free repair and the $25 gift card work. It also separates what the official notices say from several claims circulating about this recall that the notices do not support.
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The recall is a joint action by Health Canada, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Char-Broil, but the two countries' notices do not list the same products. According to the Health Canada recall notice, the Canadian recall covers a single product: the Bistro Pro Electric Grill + Charcoal Mode, SKU 25302177, UPC 099143021775, manufactured from October through December 2025. The American notice lists nine different model numbers, including griddle, tabletop and QVC-exclusive versions. That matters because nearly all of the early coverage of this recall is American, and it identifies grills by model numbers a Canadian owner will not find on their label.
The date that matters is when the grill was built, not when you bought it. Affected units were manufactured in the last quarter of 2025 but kept selling until June 2026. A grill bought this spring, well after production of the affected batch ended, can still carry a 2510, 2511 or 2512 date code. The only reliable test is the label itself. Health Canada's notice names Char-Broil, LLC of Columbus, Georgia as the company and does not list Canadian retailers or prices, so there is no store-by-store shortcut either.
Homeowner.ca has been tracking a run of outdoor-cooking recalls this season, including the Cuisinart grill brushes recalled at Crate & Barrel Canada.
The product label carries both the model number and the serial number. Where it sits depends on the configuration. On full-size grills, it is on the bottom shelf. On tabletop models, Char-Broil's recall questions and answers place it on the right-side bar. The four-digit manufacturing date code is embedded in the serial number in year-month format, so 2511 means November 2025. You do not need to decode anything else in the serial.
Three quick checks settle eligibility. First, the model should read 25302177 if you bought the grill in Canada. Second, the serial number should contain 2510, 2511 or 2512. Third, the grill must be electric: the same FAQ states that Bistro Pro gas grill models are not part of this recall. If all three line up, your grill is in scope regardless of where or when you bought it.
Some Canadians buy across the border or order from American retailers. If your label shows one of the U.S. model numbers from 25302145 to 25302163 with a 2510, 2511 or 2512 date code, that grill is covered by the American recall. The remedy is the same kit and the same gift card.
Other recent shock-hazard recalls on Homeowner.ca, such as the Panasonic FlashXpress toaster oven power-cord recall, follow the same pattern: the identifying detail is on a label most owners have never looked at.
Health Canada describes the fault in one sentence: the grounding wire for the heating element can disconnect and lose fault protection, posing a potential electric shock hazard. It helps to know what that wire is for. In an appliance like this, electricity flows to the heating element through the live and neutral conductors. The ground wire is a separate path. In normal operation it carries nothing at all. It exists for the failure case, when a damaged or wet component lets current leak onto metal the user can touch. With the ground connected, that stray current has a low-resistance route home, and a breaker or ground-fault device can react. With the ground gone, the metal body can become the path, and the path can run through a person.
This is the crux of the recall. Because the ground conductor plays no part in heating, a grill with a disconnected ground wire can cook normally. The official notices do not say this in so many words, so treat it as interpretation rather than a manufacturer statement. But it follows from how grounding works, and it explains why Char-Broil's FAQ answers the question "Can I keep using my grill if I have not had a problem?" with a flat no. A working grill is not evidence of a safe grill. The absence of reported injuries is not evidence either. It means no one has yet hit the failure case on an affected unit.
The cause, per Char-Broil, is mundane: the grounding wire on recalled grills "may not be fully tightened." That is why the remedy is a screwdriver and a wrench rather than a replacement part or a new grill.
Outdoor outlets are commonly protected by a ground-fault circuit interrupter, the outlet with the Test and Reset buttons. A working GFCI is a separate layer of protection that cuts power when it detects current leaking where it should not. It is worth pressing the Test button on any outdoor GFCI from time to time to confirm it trips. Be clear on the limit, though: none of the official recall materials tells owners to rely on a GFCI or to test one before using the grill. A GFCI does not reconnect the missing ground, and it is not a substitute for the repair.
Homeowner.ca's coverage of the Workbless pressure washers recalled for a missing GFCI shows the other side of the same coin: two layers of shock protection, and trouble when either one is missing.
Health Canada describes the fault in one sentence: the grounding wire for the heating element can disconnect and lose fault protection, posing a potential electric shock hazard. It helps to know what that wire is for. In an appliance like this, electricity flows to the heating element through the live and neutral conductors. The ground wire is a separate path. In normal operation it carries nothing at all. It exists for the failure case, when a damaged or wet component lets current leak onto metal the user can touch. With the ground connected, that stray current has a low-resistance route home, and a breaker or ground-fault device can react. With the ground gone, the metal body can become the path, and the path can run through a person.
This is the crux of the recall. Because the ground conductor plays no part in heating, a grill with a disconnected ground wire can cook normally. The official notices do not say this in so many words, so treat it as interpretation rather than a manufacturer statement. But it follows from how grounding works, and it explains why Char-Broil's FAQ answers the question "Can I keep using my grill if I have not had a problem?" with a flat no. A working grill is not evidence of a safe grill. The absence of reported injuries is not evidence either. It means no one has yet hit the failure case on an affected unit.
The cause, per Char-Broil, is mundane: the grounding wire on recalled grills "may not be fully tightened." That is why the remedy is a screwdriver and a wrench rather than a replacement part or a new grill.
Outdoor outlets are commonly protected by a ground-fault circuit interrupter, the outlet with the Test and Reset buttons. A working GFCI is a separate layer of protection that cuts power when it detects current leaking where it should not. It is worth pressing the Test button on any outdoor GFCI from time to time to confirm it trips. Be clear on the limit, though: none of the official recall materials tells owners to rely on a GFCI or to test one before using the grill. A GFCI does not reconnect the missing ground, and it is not a substitute for the repair.
Homeowner.ca's coverage of the Workbless pressure washers recalled for a missing GFCI shows the other side of the same coin: two layers of shock protection, and trouble when either one is missing.
The repair is designed to be done at home by the owner. You do not return the grill to a store, and you do not need a receipt, only the model number and the manufacturing date code from the label. According to Char-Broil's recall page, registered owners receive repair instructions, a screwdriver, a wrench, screws and a label to affix to the grill once the repair is done. The Health Canada notice specifies the tools as a long-extension screwdriver and a 5/16-inch (8 mm) wrench. Char-Broil also publishes a step-by-step video at charbroil.com/2026BistroProRepairVideo.
The online order form lists Canada as a country, but it was built for American addresses. The postal-code field is labelled "Zip," and when Homeowner.ca reviewed the form on September 18, the State/Province menu showed only U.S. states before a country was chosen. It may update once Canada is selected. If it does not accept your province, skip the form and order by phone or email instead. The model number and serial number are the only product details the form requires; purchase date, price and store are optional.
The $25 offer is easy to miss because it sits at the very bottom of the recall notices, and easy to misread because of how it is often described. It is a digital gift card, not a cash refund. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission notice specifies that it goes to consumers who provide photo documentation of the completed repair, and Health Canada describes it as valid at participating retailers. So photograph the finished connection and the applied label before you close the grill up. That photo is your claim.
Free-repair remedies with a proof step are becoming common on this beat. The recall of 6,758 home saunas and infrared kits also relies on free repairs rather than refunds.
The repair is designed to be done at home by the owner. You do not return the grill to a store, and you do not need a receipt, only the model number and the manufacturing date code from the label. According to Char-Broil's recall page, registered owners receive repair instructions, a screwdriver, a wrench, screws and a label to affix to the grill once the repair is done. The Health Canada notice specifies the tools as a long-extension screwdriver and a 5/16-inch (8 mm) wrench. Char-Broil also publishes a step-by-step video at charbroil.com/2026BistroProRepairVideo.
The online order form lists Canada as a country, but it was built for American addresses. The postal-code field is labelled "Zip," and when Homeowner.ca reviewed the form on September 18, the State/Province menu showed only U.S. states before a country was chosen. It may update once Canada is selected. If it does not accept your province, skip the form and order by phone or email instead. The model number and serial number are the only product details the form requires; purchase date, price and store are optional.
The $25 offer is easy to miss because it sits at the very bottom of the recall notices, and easy to misread because of how it is often described. It is a digital gift card, not a cash refund. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission notice specifies that it goes to consumers who provide photo documentation of the completed repair, and Health Canada describes it as valid at participating retailers. So photograph the finished connection and the applied label before you close the grill up. That photo is your claim.
Free-repair remedies with a proof step are becoming common on this beat. The recall of 6,758 home saunas and infrared kits also relies on free repairs rather than refunds.
The grill's charcoal mode makes it tempting to keep cooking without plugging in. The official guidance does not allow for that. Char-Broil's recall FAQ tells owners to immediately stop using and unplug the grill and not to use it again until the repair is complete. Neither the Health Canada notice nor the American notice carves out an exception for charcoal cooking. Until the kit arrives and the fix is done, the grill should not be used at all.
Some owners will prefer not to open up an electrical appliance themselves, and that is a reasonable instinct. But the recall does not offer a professional continuity test as a substitute for the kit. The remedy is the repair, the label and the documentation. If you are not comfortable doing the work, call Char-Broil's recall line and ask what help is available, rather than relying on an informal check that will not qualify for the gift card and is not what the recall prescribes.
At least one early recall summary described the wire as something that can come loose over time. The manufacturer's stated cause is narrower: the connection may not have been fully tightened when the grill was built. The practical upshot is the same, which is to fix it now, but it is a reminder to take the facts from the notices themselves.
Homeowner.ca's report on the Cuisinart Propel+ gas grills recalled after pizza-oven glass shattered covers a different grill hazard with a similarly specific remedy.
Health Canada's notice includes a line that applies to every Canadian consumer recall and that American coverage has no reason to mention: under the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act, recalled products may not be redistributed, sold or even given away in Canada. That covers a garage sale, a Marketplace listing and a hand-me-down to a family member. Repair the grill first, and keep the certification label on it.
Char-Broil designed these grills for smaller outdoor spaces such as patios and balconies. That puts many of the Canadian units on condo and apartment balconies, where a tenant or owner moving out may be tempted to leave the grill behind or pass it along. Check the label before it changes hands.
This is not Char-Broil's first electric-shock recall in Canada. In February 2024, Health Canada recalled Char-Broil Digital Electric Smokers because they could leak electrical current during use, after 79 American reports of minor shocks. That was a different product family with a different fix: the repair kit added a GFCI plug to the smoker's cord. The Bistro Pro remedy works on the grounding connection inside the grill itself. If you own a Char-Broil electric smoker from that era and never ordered its kit, it is worth checking that recall too.
For a broader view of appliance recalls that reach Canadian kitchens and patios, see Homeowner.ca's report on Frigidaire gas ranges recalled in Canada for delayed oven ignition.
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About the Author
Angela Nightingale is the Senior Editor at Homeowner.ca with two decades of experience in digital publishing and content strategy. She has owned two homes, taken on her share of DIY projects, and learned what most guides fail to mention. She writes from the belief that the best home guidance comes from people who have lived through the decisions — and her goal is always to leave readers feeling confident, not overwhelmed.
