David Munson
TVWBB Super Fan
It was the cracked burner tube that drove it over the edge. Nothing like watching flames coming out of the burner tube where there should be no hole. Other things that went wrong was the broken bottom cast aluminum box. Not sure why the bottom drop tray did not just fall off. Frame is rusted through. The grill kind of rocks on it's own. We think we purchased it in 1992. A decade and a half of use. I did replace the burners once or twice before. Also the planks were replaced after the wood one’s rotted away. For some reason, the grill would no longer heat up much beyond 400.
I took a serious look at the summit series. Many times, different stores. How steady. How much power. Dug around underneath. Picked up each to estimate weight. Measured the REAL cooking area and calculated BTU per square foot and BTU per square inch. REAL cooking area is the same as the square inches of the primary cooking grill grates only with a burner under them. Compared, estimated available mass. Measured the burner diameter and compared with other burners and learned to estimate BTU on the diameter of the burner tubes. I think most of the companies lie. Construction. What it is made of. How it is made. Features. Cost. For the current price, if it would have had at least one powerful infrared burner I would probably own a summit. It did not hit my bang for the buck ticket. The price did not bother me. I think it will last at least one decade with care. As a side note: one dealer said that Weber “will not let him” set his price lower on the summit grills. This dealer also had several last year’s high end Weber’s that he could not sell. His prices were too high.
After the summit series came my examination of the current genesis grills. I don’t like the rotisserie set up. With my next grill I plan on taking the rotisserie to the next level and the genesis would not make it as easy as it should. The grates are smaller than my current PCI grates. On the weber it is important because there is no other thermal mass. I have used a genesis grill for a 15 years. I want more. I would never go back to small grates: Give me thermal mass. When you open the grill the heavy grates are the only thing that retains the heat. I love winter grills. I want to be able to grill with the top open. The new genesis grills are not as “heavy” as my older one. One of the nice things about a weber is that they do not flame up as much as other did. The problem is they have no thermal mass at all to keep the heat.
I thought the strange brand named grills at Homey’s & Low’s were too fragile. The TEC grill came close but failed in the construction part. I did not like the newer infrared burner style as much as the older style infrared. There is “something” wrong about the burner on the Charbroil TEC. Too thin? I judged the frame not quite durable enough to survive a decade. I thought the cooking design was also poor. There seems to be a huge wind flow around the grates with the lid closed. I have nothing to judge how stable the temperature will be other than a judgement of “burners plus thermal mass minus large holes when the lid is closed”.
Sears and Sam’s and Low’s and Homey Depot too cheaply built. Shiny junk. Underpowered and an overestimate of available BTU’s for cooking. There are also a lot of underpowered infrared burners out there.
I believe that companies will get sued for lying about their BTU calculations. I hope they will.
The available high end grill store only carried Solaire and DCS. Now there are some nice grills. I purchased a 3/4" steak and 3/4" chops. Took the meat to the store and grilled them up to try out the infrared burners. I think the infrared burners are a good idea if your grill is underpowered. They do heat up quickly and seal the steak. The“V” grate collects some drippings, boils it off and spits the steam back on the steak. Kind of a self basting thing. In the end I learned that infrared is not the whole answer. I think the DCS grill I saw would last almost forever. The Solaire almost as long.
My high end dealer is proud of his pricing. My thought was that he did not have the experience to be as proud as he was. He had been in business less than a year. The dealer did not have a good enough selection to fully display the DCS grills. The one I saw did look good.
I learned that high end grills want at least $100 per linear inch of grill. I almost purchased a Q300 at this point.
Anyone else ever buy a grill on line? (fyi: shopper’s choice is a real outfit). I found a grill at a good price. A 42 s/ rotisserie & base by a company called Twin Eagles(TE). Powerful enough. Too heavy. Big enough. Good reviews. Well built. Prettier than most other high end grills. Normally ridiculously expensive. This one used as the store demo and had some scratches on it. Nice rotisserie. 380 pounds (grill and base). 42 inches wide and almost 30( ) inches deep. The price worked out to be about $53 / linear inch delivered with a grill cover. I am not sure about the Twin Eagles company being around in a decade but I believe the grill will hold up. The inner workings (burner / controls) very similar to DCS and a couple others. Very pretty finish - better than others I have seen - finely polished stainless.
I have three cooks under my belt. 4-1/2 pounds of porterhouse steaks (3 steaks) last night, rotisserie chicken for lunch and chicken and beef kebabs tonight. I have a whole tenderloin for tomorrow. Just finished making some nice Spanish paprika + smoked onion compound butter to go with it.
The TE cooks differently than the weber. The weber had nothing for thermal mass. It will take some getting use to. The three cooks have tested out the normal three different temperatures: as hot as possible to sear a steak, Rotisserie and medium low for the kebabs. Going to also try a pizza tomorrow.
Anyway. In a long rambling fashion I wanted to say why I left weber for another grill. I wanted more and they had less.
I took a serious look at the summit series. Many times, different stores. How steady. How much power. Dug around underneath. Picked up each to estimate weight. Measured the REAL cooking area and calculated BTU per square foot and BTU per square inch. REAL cooking area is the same as the square inches of the primary cooking grill grates only with a burner under them. Compared, estimated available mass. Measured the burner diameter and compared with other burners and learned to estimate BTU on the diameter of the burner tubes. I think most of the companies lie. Construction. What it is made of. How it is made. Features. Cost. For the current price, if it would have had at least one powerful infrared burner I would probably own a summit. It did not hit my bang for the buck ticket. The price did not bother me. I think it will last at least one decade with care. As a side note: one dealer said that Weber “will not let him” set his price lower on the summit grills. This dealer also had several last year’s high end Weber’s that he could not sell. His prices were too high.
After the summit series came my examination of the current genesis grills. I don’t like the rotisserie set up. With my next grill I plan on taking the rotisserie to the next level and the genesis would not make it as easy as it should. The grates are smaller than my current PCI grates. On the weber it is important because there is no other thermal mass. I have used a genesis grill for a 15 years. I want more. I would never go back to small grates: Give me thermal mass. When you open the grill the heavy grates are the only thing that retains the heat. I love winter grills. I want to be able to grill with the top open. The new genesis grills are not as “heavy” as my older one. One of the nice things about a weber is that they do not flame up as much as other did. The problem is they have no thermal mass at all to keep the heat.
I thought the strange brand named grills at Homey’s & Low’s were too fragile. The TEC grill came close but failed in the construction part. I did not like the newer infrared burner style as much as the older style infrared. There is “something” wrong about the burner on the Charbroil TEC. Too thin? I judged the frame not quite durable enough to survive a decade. I thought the cooking design was also poor. There seems to be a huge wind flow around the grates with the lid closed. I have nothing to judge how stable the temperature will be other than a judgement of “burners plus thermal mass minus large holes when the lid is closed”.
Sears and Sam’s and Low’s and Homey Depot too cheaply built. Shiny junk. Underpowered and an overestimate of available BTU’s for cooking. There are also a lot of underpowered infrared burners out there.
I believe that companies will get sued for lying about their BTU calculations. I hope they will.
The available high end grill store only carried Solaire and DCS. Now there are some nice grills. I purchased a 3/4" steak and 3/4" chops. Took the meat to the store and grilled them up to try out the infrared burners. I think the infrared burners are a good idea if your grill is underpowered. They do heat up quickly and seal the steak. The“V” grate collects some drippings, boils it off and spits the steam back on the steak. Kind of a self basting thing. In the end I learned that infrared is not the whole answer. I think the DCS grill I saw would last almost forever. The Solaire almost as long.
My high end dealer is proud of his pricing. My thought was that he did not have the experience to be as proud as he was. He had been in business less than a year. The dealer did not have a good enough selection to fully display the DCS grills. The one I saw did look good.
I learned that high end grills want at least $100 per linear inch of grill. I almost purchased a Q300 at this point.
Anyone else ever buy a grill on line? (fyi: shopper’s choice is a real outfit). I found a grill at a good price. A 42 s/ rotisserie & base by a company called Twin Eagles(TE). Powerful enough. Too heavy. Big enough. Good reviews. Well built. Prettier than most other high end grills. Normally ridiculously expensive. This one used as the store demo and had some scratches on it. Nice rotisserie. 380 pounds (grill and base). 42 inches wide and almost 30( ) inches deep. The price worked out to be about $53 / linear inch delivered with a grill cover. I am not sure about the Twin Eagles company being around in a decade but I believe the grill will hold up. The inner workings (burner / controls) very similar to DCS and a couple others. Very pretty finish - better than others I have seen - finely polished stainless.
I have three cooks under my belt. 4-1/2 pounds of porterhouse steaks (3 steaks) last night, rotisserie chicken for lunch and chicken and beef kebabs tonight. I have a whole tenderloin for tomorrow. Just finished making some nice Spanish paprika + smoked onion compound butter to go with it.
The TE cooks differently than the weber. The weber had nothing for thermal mass. It will take some getting use to. The three cooks have tested out the normal three different temperatures: as hot as possible to sear a steak, Rotisserie and medium low for the kebabs. Going to also try a pizza tomorrow.
Anyway. In a long rambling fashion I wanted to say why I left weber for another grill. I wanted more and they had less.
