Jon Tofte
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
I can already here you guys saying “Crazy Jon has done it again!”
A while back, I started looking for parts to rehab the “beat up” Broilmaster grill parts that were thrown in along with an almost new grill I got on CL. The cost can add up quick, just like when you try to restore a Weber with all new parts. So, when a guy (forum name “Chiku”) who is a member of our forum and also the Weber Kettle Club reached out to me about a $100 Broilmaster he saw on OfferUp in west central Florida, I agreed to his offer to get it for me. (I had previously actually helped him with a nice old “red mist” kettle from my area.) Anyway, it looked nice and seemed like a cheaper way to get a barrel full of parts.
After he got it for me, I learned more about Broilmaster and studied the pictures closer. I realized that what I was going to be getting was “3” model. In Broilmaster’s nomenclature, a 3 is the larger model, while the 4 is the smaller model, the type that I had picked up already. It is something like the Genesis Silver B/C vs Silver A/ Spirit from the early 2000s. I would say the “small” Broilmaster is closer to the regular Genesis size, while the large is maybe bigger but not at all in Summit category. I need to look up the square inches and compare...
While some parts are interchangeable, just like the Silver B vs A, the grates, burners, and other important parts are not. So, while I waited to get together with Chiku, I went ahead and shopped carefully to judiciously find the parts I needed to complete the “beat up” grill and also new parts to replace the ones I scavenged from the nice one. You have may have seen my posts about the restoration of the beat up one, and soon I will put the new parts on the nice Broilmaster which needs little restoration since the firebox, grates and burner are all brand new. My goal is to keep the restored one while I sell off the essentially brand new one.
Thursday night I went on a road trip to finally get the Broilmaster from Chiku. He and his family were so gracious, introducing me to some great Indian food. Chiku has an amazing collection of Weber kettles and other Weber stuff, including a Weber cooler. That would be a cool thing to have
! He also has a Summit Charcoal that was pretty impressive when seen in person.
After a nice visit, I hauled the Broilmaster home (along with a couple kettle bargains I lined up since I otherwise would not normally venture this far). So, yes, I now have THREE Broilmasters! I know, I know...
One nice thing is that this big one, while not sparkling by any means, was ready to grill on. My renovation of the smaller size model is pretty much done, but my homemade handle isn’t, so I haven’t been able to use it yet.
I did a little inside cleanup, scraped the cast iron grates, and put the included ceramics briquettes back in place. It fired up easily.
Temperature registered a little over 500 degrees on the hood thermometer:
But, check out that grate temperature as recorded on my Harbor Freight laser thermometer:
824 degrees! Before you doubt the thermometer, let me say that it seems very accurate when compared to things I know the temperature of. For comparison, I just grilled on my Silver C this afternoon using GrillGrates. Got the grill extra hot and it was over 90 outside. The grates registered in the high 600s. Another thing about this larger Broilmaster is that you can set the grates to one of THREE different levels. The smaller model offers two. In my test I had them at the lowest, therefore hottest, position.
I tried making a few burgers on the Broilmaster, but even with shortened grilling time they were overdone.
Wow, this is one hot grill! I am going to try out the ceramic tiles with holes to see how that impacts things. I didn’t have much in the way of flare ups with the ceramic briquettes, though. Moving the grates to a higher level would probably make that even less of an issue.
Now I have to figure out what to do with a third Broilmaster
A while back, I started looking for parts to rehab the “beat up” Broilmaster grill parts that were thrown in along with an almost new grill I got on CL. The cost can add up quick, just like when you try to restore a Weber with all new parts. So, when a guy (forum name “Chiku”) who is a member of our forum and also the Weber Kettle Club reached out to me about a $100 Broilmaster he saw on OfferUp in west central Florida, I agreed to his offer to get it for me. (I had previously actually helped him with a nice old “red mist” kettle from my area.) Anyway, it looked nice and seemed like a cheaper way to get a barrel full of parts.
After he got it for me, I learned more about Broilmaster and studied the pictures closer. I realized that what I was going to be getting was “3” model. In Broilmaster’s nomenclature, a 3 is the larger model, while the 4 is the smaller model, the type that I had picked up already. It is something like the Genesis Silver B/C vs Silver A/ Spirit from the early 2000s. I would say the “small” Broilmaster is closer to the regular Genesis size, while the large is maybe bigger but not at all in Summit category. I need to look up the square inches and compare...
While some parts are interchangeable, just like the Silver B vs A, the grates, burners, and other important parts are not. So, while I waited to get together with Chiku, I went ahead and shopped carefully to judiciously find the parts I needed to complete the “beat up” grill and also new parts to replace the ones I scavenged from the nice one. You have may have seen my posts about the restoration of the beat up one, and soon I will put the new parts on the nice Broilmaster which needs little restoration since the firebox, grates and burner are all brand new. My goal is to keep the restored one while I sell off the essentially brand new one.
Thursday night I went on a road trip to finally get the Broilmaster from Chiku. He and his family were so gracious, introducing me to some great Indian food. Chiku has an amazing collection of Weber kettles and other Weber stuff, including a Weber cooler. That would be a cool thing to have
! He also has a Summit Charcoal that was pretty impressive when seen in person. After a nice visit, I hauled the Broilmaster home (along with a couple kettle bargains I lined up since I otherwise would not normally venture this far). So, yes, I now have THREE Broilmasters
! I know, I know...
One nice thing is that this big one, while not sparkling by any means, was ready to grill on. My renovation of the smaller size model is pretty much done, but my homemade handle isn’t, so I haven’t been able to use it yet.
I did a little inside cleanup, scraped the cast iron grates, and put the included ceramics briquettes back in place. It fired up easily.
Temperature registered a little over 500 degrees on the hood thermometer:
But, check out that grate temperature as recorded on my Harbor Freight laser thermometer:
824 degrees! Before you doubt the thermometer, let me say that it seems very accurate when compared to things I know the temperature of. For comparison, I just grilled on my Silver C this afternoon using GrillGrates. Got the grill extra hot and it was over 90 outside. The grates registered in the high 600s. Another thing about this larger Broilmaster is that you can set the grates to one of THREE different levels. The smaller model offers two. In my test I had them at the lowest, therefore hottest, position.
I tried making a few burgers on the Broilmaster, but even with shortened grilling time they were overdone
. Wow, this is one hot grill! I am going to try out the ceramic tiles with holes to see how that impacts things. I didn’t have much in the way of flare ups with the ceramic briquettes, though. Moving the grates to a higher level would probably make that even less of an issue.
Now I have to figure out what to do with a third Broilmaster
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deserves credit for making Weber synonymous with high quality grilling. Webers also have style, whereas these Broilmaster grills look out of date and frumpy. I would love to work for that company and really promote the TRUE made in USA aspect while trying to come up with some style improvements that don’t compromise the rock solid durability they offer.
