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Discussion Forum

What grill do you own and use?

Nuke | Posted in General Discussion on April 21, 2005 03:07am

The forth January ago (and about a month after closing on my first and current home), I bought a Sunbeam 540 LP grill from Home Depot. Total cost was $169+Tax and it came assembled with a full LP tank. I’ve used that grill a heck of a lot (probably >150 times) and even bought a second tank to make sure I wouldn’t run out.

The other day I went down to Costco to get a membership for some new tires and came upon BBQ Galore retail store and decided to stop in and check things out. I was treated very nicely and have to admit its a guy’s paradise for the stomach. The only thing they could have done was sold beer and had a hottie hand me a cold one while she flamed-cooked me a Brat.

Anyway, I was thinking of buying a new grill and I noticed some of their entry-level grills from Capt. Cook and Turbo and wondered what everyone else was using and if they had good/bad feedback for the typical patio/deck appliance for cooking meat.

Anyone care to ante up some words of BBQ wisdom?

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Replies

  1. User avater
    Nuke | Apr 22, 2005 03:10pm | #1

    Wow, I would never have thought so many homeowners didn't cook on an outdoor appliance. :) Is it because it ain't football season yet?

    1. User avater
      madmadscientist | Apr 26, 2005 12:36am | #12

      Nuke,

        Consumer Reports rated the regular sized all stainless steel LP gas grill that target sells tops.  Its the Thermos Stainless 461246804 (Target) model.  If you have a target near you I'd check on that.  They have a couple of different models but the only one you want is the all stainless steel one. It also has a side burner.  You want long warranty and stainless grates also.  I couldn't find that particular model grill at any of our local targets but Costco had a very similar grill last year that also had a rotisserie motor included.  You can buy LP -> NG conversions for all the grill now a days I belive.

      I'm happy with the grill we got from Costco (but I have yet to use the rot. thing)

       Daniel Neuman

      Oakland CA

      Crazy Home Owner

  2. Aberwacky | Apr 23, 2005 04:06am | #2

    We have a Weber Genesis and love it.  I'd buy another one in a heartbeat!

    Leigh

  3. Tish | Apr 24, 2005 05:49am | #3

    Nuke I've been after Himself to replace the Weber for four years. After the thingies that the fire grate rests on fell off he finally agreed. I also went to BBQ Galore. It was the Big Green Egg that caught my eye, as I've been wanting a brick oven for years.

    But I showed Himself the thing I considered right for him: forgot the brand but it burns charcoal and wood (we are very partial to wood, especially fruit wood) looks like a horizontal can, and has a small fire box on the side that can be used a a small grill or to build a smoky fire to smoke whatever you've got in the large chamber. I'd say it would hold a 36 inch salmon or maybe five pork shoulders.

    The man was impressed. Very impressed. Especially when he thought about how long it has been since I have been able to smoke pork shoulder in our rusted out Brinkman. But the BBQ Galore option would have cost us between $500 and $600, when we added the temp guage and the cover. And the man is constitutionally unable to make quick decisions about purchases. I have seen him spend two hours mulling over quarter-round.

    So then I took him across the street to Lowes and showed him one like my dad's new set up. Char-Griller Smokin' Pro, same layout as the one at BBQ Galore. Not as sturdy. About three quarters as much sturdy for less that half the cost. Himself suddenly realized that he'd found his new grill.

    http://www.chargriller.com/grills.html

    I just built it this week. Then started doing yard work after work every day so he'd have to grill dinner. Now don't tell anyone that wives do these things, OK? It's a trade secret.

    I am still lusting after my brick oven.

    If a woman is to have a well-kept home, she must have power tools and a tool shed to call her own.

    1. User avater
      Nuke | Apr 24, 2005 03:43pm | #4

      Do you always refer to yourself in the 3rd person? Or, is it the 'monster' talking? lol

      You do bring up a very good point, though. All grills will have wear done to them. I guess one could make a reasonable argument that replacing a $200-300 every four years vs. replacing a $400-600 grill every eight years is what wears out first.

      I tried to go to Home Depot yesterday to get a replacement grating and flame-tamers for the Sunbeam 540 I bought there four years ago and they are now anti-Sunbeam. I think Lowes had picked them up, but I wonder if the cost for the grate, tamers, and burner replacement, plus the sand-blasting of four years worth of pork and steak goodness grease is worth the effort.

      Heck, even the $200-300 grills at these big boxes 'seem' surprisingly a bargain compared to the $500 Capt'n Cook or $600 Turbo Classic (3-burner) grills. Needs and wants are never in alignment. Today, even though it plunged down to below 39ºF in Atlanta, will be a steak day with some bacon-wrapped fillets.

      1. zendo | Apr 24, 2005 04:16pm | #5

        Nuke,

        She was talking about her husband, and Tish thank you, its the first time I have laughed all week.  You could start buying your bread oven a brick at a time.

        As for the grill, I might have a lemon, but I have a pretty expensive (at the time) Sunbeam, and its a POS.  The gas just trickles out of it.  It takes forever to cook, and I have to full blast it for a while before I start.  Ive had it for quite a while, because when it cools I pull it in the garage so it doesnt take on the weather.

        If I was buying one on the cheap I would consider that Charbroil Co that the boxes sell, Ive seen those cook some food.

        -zen

         

        1. User avater
          Nuke | Apr 24, 2005 04:46pm | #6

          No disrespect intended. I thought their was a feminine intonation to the words, but I really didn't know. I apologize for any unintended insults.

          1. Tish | Apr 25, 2005 04:35am | #7

            No insult taken, Nuke.I refer to my husband as Himself or the man, except when I would like to convey some degree of blame. Then I call him the man in question.As in, the man in question asked me to purchase high-quality grass seed for our back yard, but never got around to raking last fall's leaves. So this week I while he barbecued dinner night after night I scraped leaves off the backyard moss and ground them up in my spiffy leaf mulcher, then mowed, then seeded. Now we are having a cool rainy week, perfect for the grass seed, and I am typing one-handed because I've got my burning, aching left arm in a brace. I still have 20-year-old ambitions, but decidedly middle-aged wrists.But back to the topic, we are very partial to wood cooking and have never seriously considered a gas grill. My in-laws all have gas grills, but they are such bad cooks all of them that I can't tell if the problem is with the cookers or the cooks. For quick fires we use hardwood charcoal, not briquets. It lights quickly with my home-made firestarters and burns clean. We can compost the ash. For slow cooking or if we need to keep the fire going for a crowd, we used fruit wood when we have it and oak when we don't. Right now we have a pretty good supply of apple and a cherry tree down that I'll cut when I get the chain back on my chainsaw. (I asked the man in question to do that for me back in September, but I think he's working on the "never come between a woman and her power tools" principle.)Tell me what it is you like about gas grilling, please?If a woman is to have a well-kept home, she must have power tools and a tool shed to call her own.

          2. User avater
            Nuke | Apr 25, 2005 03:08pm | #8

            My introduction into grilling was with gas. It seemed convenient (when I'm done cooking I do not have to wait for something to cool down or go out), not appearing as messy as charcoal (brick handling, ash cleanup, etc.), and had the opportunity to convert the grill over to be directly connected to the household NG. While I am in the South these days, I was raised on NG and I am quite comfortable with it. Changing LP tanks is getting old and is why I inquired (to a local mechanical company) to directly connecting to the household's NG service.

            I have no personal experiences with charcoal but the perceived dislikes seem to outweigh, for me, the limited experiences I've had with gas. I've heard some dislike gas because it lacks the taste charcoal brings, or it adds a 'gas' taste when using LP/NG. I've not recognized any gaseous anti-flavoring from the grilling I've done so its not bothering me to a negative condition.

            Yesterday I had a terrible afternoon. Saturday I bought some bacon-wrapped fillets to cook yesterday afternoon, for dinner. The wind that appeared on Saturday kept gusting and gusting and the grill just would get hot enough. One moment the thermometer would creep up above the half-way mark and then a gust of wind would knock it back down below. After 20-minutes of this I simply gave up.

            Depriving a man of high-density protein that is source from red meat and doing this during strong craving is a very bad thing. I will not go into the events of my temper-tantrum yesterday afternoon. Just say that the fillets hit the trash, a frying pan hit the enamled kitchen sink, and I now am searching for a replacement kitchen sink.

          3. Tish | Apr 25, 2005 10:03pm | #9

            I understand about the kitchen sink. Indoors, I prefer to cook with gas, but I currently own a house with an all-electric kitchen. partial gas conversion is in the long-range plan, but since we recently had to buy a new electric cooktop and didn't have the option of converting to gas, our eventual rebuild will include a small gas cook station combined with the current electric cooktop. We are a two-cook family anyway.I do not like charcoal briquets. They don't light well and they taste funky. they have to burn down to lose their chemical-y flavor, so you can't add extra to your fire and keep cooking. The chunk charcoal we use doesn't have those problems, nor does actual wood. Ash clean-up can be a problem, but we use fire sources that are compostable. You oughtn't let the ash reserves build up in the bottom of the grill, but we do. Maybe that's why the old Weber rusted out so quickly. We got it used and only had it for about 8 years. If a woman is to have a well-kept home, she must have power tools and a tool shed to call her own.

          4. UncleDunc | Apr 26, 2005 04:11am | #13

            >> The wind that appeared on Saturday kept gusting and gusting ...There's one advantage of charcoal over gas. The harder the wind blows, the hotter it gets.

          5. 8hcap | Apr 25, 2005 10:06pm | #10

            The best smoker is an Oklahoma Joe's with the remote fire box.  It is very heavy construction and will last almost a lifetime.  I know Academy Sports carries them for about $395.  You might try a search if Academy is not in your area.

             

            8

          6. Tish | Apr 27, 2005 11:09pm | #14

            Yes, I believe Oklahoma Joe's was the one we looked at. If so, the $395 is only the base price. It doesn't include the removable ash pan or the temperature guage, or one or two other very basic parts. We're happy with the CharGriller we bought. It is not as heavily built, but is very heavy and was sold as a complete grill. We didn't have to buy the ash pan separately. Since the cheap Weber came to us used and lasted many years, I expect we won't regret the use we get out of this one.If a woman is to have a well-kept home, she must have power tools and a tool shed to call her own.

          7. User avater
            aimless | Apr 25, 2005 10:08pm | #11

            Tish,

              I'll jump in on your question about gas grilling, even though I wasn't asked. Where I live, we often have 'no-burn' days when it's cool (and who says I only want to grill on warm days?). Add to that the fact that there isn't a lot of hardwood around here and gas starts looking better and better. On top of that you have the lazy factor - no need to build a fire and wait for it to get hot enough, just turn a dial and poof, you're ready to cook.

          8. Tish | Apr 27, 2005 11:18pm | #15

            lack of hardwood would be a complication for a wood-fired cooking system. Yes. I can see that. I have no lack of hardwood. I have 6 maple trees on my property, plus 2 more street trees and they drop firewood on the lawn constantly. Plus I have two oaks still standing. We cut down a dean one early last spring and late last spring one fell from my neighbor's yard into my yard. I gave away the fireplace sized wood, but the little stuff I'm burning. I've got a cherry tree on the ground that I hope to get cut this spring. And that's just the trees with tasty wood; I've got a lot more that make unpleasant smoke. Previous owners didn't keep control of volunteer seedlings.As for lazy, what can be lazier than testing the first bottle of Shiraz while you wait for the fire? You do have to be sure the wine is right. You might have to open a bottle of merlot! Anyway, my own cooking preference aside, I am not really against gas grills as much as I am against eating my in-laws' cooking.If a woman is to have a well-kept home, she must have power tools and a tool shed to call her own.

          9. User avater
            aimless | Apr 28, 2005 12:14am | #16

            I'm totally with you that cooking with wood tastes better. And a drink before dinner DOES sound good - though I'm more of a beer type. If only it weren't for the no-burn thing and the lack of hardwood. Around here, a heavily wooded lot means a bunch of waist high scrub oak. Mature trees are those which manage to reach over your head. We do have one walnut on our property which is around 30' high, and that is a treasure.

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