Baby Q vs. Go-Anywhere

Hello all!

Question - for those that have used them, can you give the pros and cons to these grills? I am a cahrcoal guy through and through, but am looking to add a grill to my arsenal specifically for our beach trips. We have a beach access for 4x4's year round and go out there once every weekend. I'm not going to haul my platinum 22.5" out there - and don't really want to mess with dragging a smokey joe, charcoal and chimney every time. Plus the charcoal grill doesn't cool down as fast. And we are typically grilling dinner - just before leaving for the day.

I like the Baby Q better on paper than the go-anywhere, but the price is a definite pro for the go-anywhere. Also, from reading, it sounds as if the go-anywhere has at least an attempt at flavorizer bars whereas the Baby Q is direct heat. Another pro for the go-anywhere IMO. But the porcelain coated cast iron is a big plus on the Baby Q.

Ok - maybe I just listed the pros and cons of each so can you give me some feedback on your experiences with either of these??

Thanks in advance!

I have the Baby Q and really like it. Before you go gaga over the PCI grates, a word of caution. They are NOT PCI like the typical Weber PCI grates, all shiny and smooth. They have a rough finish and not what you might expect. At first I was put off by that, but they cook fine, give one heck of a sear and they won't rust.

I recently purchased the griddle accessory and that work great as well. I got the rolling cart too, which says it will fit the Q and the Baby Q - wrong! It fits only the Q. This was confirmed by Weber after a call to them.

Indirect cooking is a bit hard with the Baby Q, but not impossible. What I do is raise the meat after I sear it, by putting it on a small wire rack I have. I'm sure you can improvise. Also, if you get the adapter hose for a regular 20 lb tank, you can adjust the heat much finer by regulating at the tank as well as the grill.

Update: It seems that Weber does indeed make a rolling cart that will fit both the Q and the Baby Q. They updated the product to include the Baby Q. I got one of the carts they made before the upgrade.


Hope this helps.

I have a Go-Anywhere gas grill and love it. The Baby-Q is tempting, but I have really been happy with the Go-Anywhere. It does have a flavorizing bar that covers the burner. I have not ever really had a problem with flare-ups even cooking fatty foods such as sausage. It cools pretty quickly with the lid off. I have cooked fajitas, burgers, dogs, sausage, etc and all have been perfect. VERY comparable to my Genesis Silver Gasser and in some cases, the wife thought some of the items turned out better. Having not uses the Baby-Q, I can't compare them, but I can speak very high praises of the Go-Anywhere and at the price, it can not be beat.

Thanks for the replies guys - I appreciate both of your feedback - nice to have a reply on both grills! I just got back from Home Depot looking at both of these grills. These are my observations:

Baby-Q: Very nice looking grill - rough CI grate, but ok. I worry a little here living at the coast and using it on the beach A LOT. Salt is no good for CI. I did like that the grate seems to have a solid portion right over the burner in an attempt to keep the burner from clogging. I also like that it is a bit bigger in grate zie than the Go-Anywhere. Not sure just how available the little propane cylinders are. And I'm not worried about indirect because I won't do that on the beach - it will be all direct type cooking - burgers, dogs, thin chicken breast, sausage - maybe a steak sometime.

Go-Anywhere: Very simple design - classic old portable gas grill. The grate seems like it will need replaced every couple years - thin gauge and chrome. The "flavorizer bar" is more like a plate - reminds me of how Holland tries to market their grills a little bit - no flare up and sizzling grease for flavor. And I know you can find these gas cylinders everyewhere. Even convenient stores in beach/camping type areas.

At $54 it seems like the Go-Anywhere is the front runner for my needs. I've got the WSM and 22.5" platinum for my other cooking styles and locations. But for a beach grill, I think the Go-Anywhere may get the nod.

Now anyone know anywhere cheaper to get than Home Depot??

Rick
G'day mate.
best suggestion is try and borrow 1 of each and give them a try yourself.
The Gas Go-Anywhere is not available here in Australia so I can't compare it to the Q or baby Q, but I can tell you from my experience that the Q and it's baby brother are extremely good. I use my Q 3 or 4 times a week and cook both directly and indirectly or a combination of both. The Q does have a flavoriser system which is the solid part of the grate that covers the burner.
I always put some of the meat over this area, when it cooks the juices and fat boil off and give it a BBQ flavour. with the Baby Q you cann use a doubled over sheet of foil and a rack on top of it for indirect cooking. As you get a 5 Year gaurantee on all parts of the Q you have a lot of confidence in the product. It is designed for rugged use.
You may find that you will cook more than burgurs and hot dogs on it.
A steak about 3/4 inch thick brushed with oil and cooked for 2 1/2 minutes each side on high with the lid down will turn out slightly on the medium rare side and will be one of the best natural steaks that you have had.
Obviously I am biased with the Q but you should try them both
regards

I have a baby Q and a charcoal go-anywhere. The go anywhere is a nice tidy package to carry as it all fastens up and you can carry it by one handle.(I'm working on making a charcoal chimney that will fit inside it, full of charcoal and paper for a self contained package!). Unfortunatley I can't comment on the gas version.
The baby Q doesn't have a lid catch so would really need a belt or something around it to carry any distance and even then the grate would rattle around inside scratching on the case.
That said the baby Q gives good results (it's my first gasser) so if you're only going a short way or can carry it by both handles you'd be OK. Depends on your definition of portable.

Thanks again for the feedback - this is becoming a little bit more of a struggle. My definition of portability is that it needs to be able to ride in the back of my truck from my house to the beach (15 min. or so) and then I will slide it on to my dropped tailgate which becomes a handy cooking table!

Now maybe this is getting a little philosophical here and might be getting into a very general gas grill type question. How does having one long burner through the center of the grill get good, even heat distribution to the entire cooking surface? On the Go-Anywhere, it seems like the flovorizer plate would help diffuse the heat more evenly to the cooking surface - plus, it is fairly narrow. On the Baby-Q it seems like the center of the grate would cook hotter and faster than the edges of it. Has anyone tried to fashion some type of flavorizer plate to go over the burner in the Baby-Q? Seems like you could do this fairly easily as a mod - maybe even using the Go-Anywhere as a start if it would fit. I need to go back to Home Depot and look at these things side by side again.

The Baby Q cooks very evenly, because of the solid part of the grate that is over the burners, as you pointed out.

Baby Q is made to last forever, too. Only things you might have to replace is the burner and maybe the ignition.

Three words: Cast Iron Grates. You oughta see the sear this baby makes! Don't worry about them rustin'. I was concerned about the coating when I first got mine, so I left it outside purposely and it didn't rust. There is some sort of coating on it.

Phil,
In a post of yours regarding the Gas Go-Anywhere vs Baby Q, your wrote:

"A steak about 3/4 inch thick brushed with oil and cooked for 2 1/2 minutes each side on high with the lid down will turn out slightly on the medium rare side"...."Obviously I am biased with the Q"......

Based on your post, I assume you got these results with the Q and not the BabyQ. I have a BabyQ and have observed that it cooks very quickly on Direct HI.

For what it's worth, the Beef Cooking Guide at the Weber Site recommends 8-10 minutes on Direct Medium, while the Grilling Guide in the owner's manual for the BabyQ suggests 6-8 Min on Direct Medium.

We prefer our steak the way your have cooked them and I will definitely try you time and heat on the next round.

Do you have a Q and Baby Q and do you notice any difference between the cooking time for the same type of food?

Steve

Steve
I only have a Q, use it 3 or 4 times a week minimum. I got my times from trial and error. I use a timer to cook the steaks and they always turn out perfect (unless we have drunk too much Cabernet). Do not forget that the propane gas that we use here in Australia may be slightly different to yours. My best advice is to get yourself a timer and some steaks and try different heat settings and different times. (start off with my basic timing) if you use steaks from the same batch the meat will be consistent so any changes in the flavour will come from the cooking method. Invite some friends around and make an afternoon of it.

When I cook for guests who want their steaks rare or well done I do them in batches and adjust the time for each. Doing them on High for an extra 30 seconds can make a lot of difference. I like to do the steaks on high to get good sear mark on them. I also place part of the steak over the solid part of the grill so that the juices will boil off it like the flavorizer bars on the Weber Genesis and Summit Grills. It adds to the taste.

Have Fun - Regards

Other than steaks what have any of you cooked on the Baby? And what is clean-up like?

Kevin,

I do burgers, chicken pieces, sausage. But steaks are best. You can grill veggies as well.

I find cleanup to be fairly easy. I just fire it up high when I'm done cookin' then use a wire brush on the grate. Then take the grate off when it cools and wipe it off. Can easily go in the sink if you want to wash it better. The cast iron has a coating, not typical PCI, but something fairly tough.

You can wipe down the inside of the grill with paper towels and the drip pan (small weber pans, cheap on Amazon) you can rinse or pitch.

I'd think the BabyQ would be excellent for you on the road. If you're over my way, stop by and I'll let you take it for a road trip.

i have a baby-q that i use for tailgaiting, and when i had to live in an apt. for a year that didn't allow grills on the deck.....shhhhh!
i had to be quiet, but it helped that the apt. above me was vacant for a long time, so no one could smell it!

anyway, it is great for steaks, chicken burgers, pork chops, i even did a small pork tenderloin on it, leaves great sear marks on high, then turn down low for simulated indirect grilling.
i've even wedged a few soaked hickory chips in the grate tightly, and got some flavor in them burgers.

it's pretty solid, and definately worth the money, and its nice that it fires up and gets hot quick.

These are most of the things that I have done in my Q. Of course you may be restricted a little bit with size on the Baby Q but all is possible.

Direct
Steaks, Beef Rib Pieces, Hamburgers
Lamb Chops, Lamb Fillet, Lamb Ribs
Pork Chops, Pork Fillet
Chicken Wings, Chicken Fillets & Pieces
Fish
Calamari, Octopus, Mussels
Prawns (big shrimp)
Vegetables – either direct on grill or foil parcels
Pineapple

Indirect
Muffins, Cake, Damper (type of bread)
Deserts – Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Beef Joints, Corned Beef, Beef Ribs
Roast Pork, Pork Fillet, Pork Belly, Pork Hocks
Leg/Shoulder Lamb.
Whole Chicken/Duck, Chicken/Duck Fillet/Pieces
Roast Vegetables
Fish

I have also used a combination of Direct and Indirect and added some smoke a few times.

I guess it is up to you and the style of cooking you want.

Hope it gives you a few ideas.
Regards

I've done all of the above, including 5 one and half pound lobsters on my Q. The only limitation I've found is in cooking space both on the grill (5 lobsters as opposed to 8-some folks had to wait), and in height (no standing chickens). But neither issue has been a show stopper.

Like Phil mentions above - "I guess it is up to you and the style of cooking you want."

This is an old thread, but I'm new and thought I'd contribute something in case folks are still using this thread.

I have both. Here are my thoughts on both:

Baby Q
The baby Q was purchased about two years ago for
road trips in our vanagon westy. It's great. We use if for everything from toasting toast to weenies to chicken. The cast iron doesn't seem to rust and clean up is pretty easy. It's well built -- the grates and stainless burner tubes seem like they will last forever. That appeals to me because I hate throwaway stuff.

Travel: I've removed the lid handle and replaced it with a little wood dowel stub (using one screw). This is so it will fit in an old heavy duty duffel bag. I stack it on top of our coleman propane stove and run a strap around both. I have room in there for wire brush and three bottles (I modified the ring to take coleman bottles) It rattles a little, but not anything I notice when it's in the bag.

Other: It's a little bulkier than I'd like. I feel like the designers made some decisions about the legs and side handles that emphasized looks over function. It seems like they could have trimmed down the overall size w/no loss of cooking space.
Griddle: I want to try one of these -- I know it would be good for pancakes, etc...what I'm wondering is if I can boil water and skip the coleman stove all together.

Go-Anywhere

I picked this up off the curb in my neighborhood (w/ a free (!) sign on it). It was really dirty. the bottom pool w/ some kind of gel that I'm going to pretend was grease, and the flavorizer plate is really nasty and rusty. I almost didn't grab it (because my wife was with me), but I decided to take a risk. It took about and hour to clean but looks basically new. I intended to replace the rusty flavor plate, but for now just coated it w/oil and did a burn it.

This unit gets HOT! Way hotter than the Q. At one one time I shot the lid w/my IR thermo and it was ~680F. I actually think it makes better steaks than the Q -- maybe because of the extra searing heat, but my self-esteem feels better using the sexy little Q. Overall it feels pretty tinny and cheap compared the babyQ but it gets the job done. I know how well the actual body will hold up -- my kettles are mostly going strong even with years uncovered out in the Seattle rain -- but it still feels cheap.

Travel: Small, compact and easy to carry. What's not to love. It's got less grill space than the baby, but still enough room for myself, wife and two kids. No noticeable rattles. low "profile" means it probably won't get "liberated" from my campsite during the night (a worry w/ the Q).

Overall: If I didn't have the baby, the Go-Anywhere would have more than met my needs for a mobile grilling rig -- and especially considering the $120 price difference! Right now I continue to use the baby Q because I have it but I know the "Go" (now on loan to my in-laws) is all I really need. Of course, if I had waited I could have purchased a larger Q to use as my home grill (to go w/my kettles and old-but-awesome Kamado pot) and had the "Go" for the road. Of course, it's not like I knew I'd score a free "go."

Cheers!

Tim

Tim,

How did you modify the ring to take Coleman bottles? Can it still take the long, thin bottles?

When I first got the Weber Q I called Weber to ask about Coleman bottles and they said they don't recommend using them and won't support them. But the Coleman bottles are easier to find and cheaper so I'd love to switch over.

Bill

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Bill Freiberger:
Tim,

How did you modify the ring to take Coleman bottles? Can it still take the long, thin bottles?

When I first got the Weber Q I called Weber to ask about Coleman bottles and they said they don't recommend using them and won't support them. But the Coleman bottles are easier to find and cheaper so I'd love to switch over.

Bill </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

The propane bottles used by the Q are everywhere. Lowes, Wally Word, etc. all have them. They are the same bottle used by a hand help propane torch.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by D Jennings:

The propane bottles used by the Q are everywhere. Lowes, Wally Word, etc. all have them. They are the same bottle used by a hand help propane torch. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I guess when I said easier to find I meant you can get them at Costco.

Bill

Out of curiosity, has anyone here made a ring for the Coleman bottle? I was wondering how to go about making one myself.

I can get the 14.1 bottles for $2.38 each at the Expo here but I'm at Costco much more often than the Expo so its a matter of convenience.