Chris in GA
TVWBB Pro
Hi All,
Been reading the forum for a long time now. Always wanted to write something about gas and charcoal grills. My experiences.
My story starts many years ago when I bought a Charbroil charcoal grill. Yes, charcoal is still my first love, but gas is convenient. After the Charbroil literally was destroyed by the heat and it started flaking like pastry I looked for something else. All aluminum I said. So next stop was the PK or Portable Kitchen. It was nice and a tried and true design but the cleaning piece on the bottom turned me off. Besides that one there is no other charcoal grill all aluminum that I know. I did look at the Weber but the cleaning system at the bottom that must be turned I did not like. I do have a couple of friends that have them and I did help them cook a couple of times, the half bowl design is great, cooks good but I do not like the cleaning system.
I looked for the Charbroil 940 but unfortunately is now discontinued. From what I understand is a solid charcoal grill. So after my disappointment with charcoal grills I went to gas.
Few years back I bought my first Broilmaster gas. I said this is the end of all grills with the aluminum top and bottom. While is a great grill the H burner for the P4 model and the bow burner for the P3 model which good in theory becomes a rusty mess after many years of use. It all rusts. The anchor system is flawed the way it attaches to the body in my opinion. The two tubes that go to the burner destroy itself, especially the newer ones made of thin steel. It collapses. That I think is a weak point of Broilmaster and many other grills. The ceramic briquettes are a good idea, but they have to be high quality to be effective. So after collecting about three Broilmaster grills with all stainless steel shelves and carts I still have them sitting in the garage. I bought the BM all used not new.
In the meantime, I got a new Broilking Regal 420 and while it was a great grill and I did like it, the burners and the burners support and the iron grates totally and completely disintegrated. I then bought the SS grates and these rusted in about 1 to 2 years.
I then went to the local dealer and they have MHP, Lynx and Firemagix. MHP has the same burners design as BM that I don't like. Lynx has a brass burner but is cost like $250 to be replaced. Dealer said last a long time but still needs to be replaced. Next brand I looked at was the Firemagic which the model I looked at had a stainless-steel burner. Solid SS that was drilled. That I really liked. But the grill cost about $4500. Not sure how much the burner is to replace but the dealer said people never do or if they do it has lifetime warranty. Did not buy any grills there.
About two years ago I jumped to Weber gas....I got a Genesis Silver B. I have invested at least $300 to rehab, paint like $40 or $50, grates and flavorizer bars from rcplanebuyer maybe like $170 or so, new drain pan, bunch of other parts. all new SS screws, etc. Since then I rebuilt another for brother in law and works great. Collected few more Genesis Silver B after that.
What I like about Weber is the dead simple design and repair at least with the Genesis Silver B. Let's say even if someone does not want to do a full rehab just buying new burners, flavorizer bars and grates and assuming the manifold is still good can have a grill that can go for another 10 years. I would say just vacuuming the grill assuming all is rusted inside and mounting the new parts takes like 15 minutes and is ready to grill. Since then I have collected like three more Genesis Silver B almost no place to put them.
Few years back I got a Warm Morning grill all aluminum from Michigan from my sister. Still in great condition after 50 some years. Can't beat aluminum. Really nice natural gas grill. Solid construction. I could not really use natural gas as I don't have it, so I used it as a charcoal grill. While it worked great, one day I put too much charcoal and the aluminum started to melt. Really it was not designed for that
Last summer in 2017 I bought a brand new Broilmaster charcoal all aluminum grill
I got it for a good price, so far happy with it. This thing is hard to keep below 400 F. Being all aluminum and it has gasket all around the perimeter it stays hot. Is a good design it resembles an oven.
Do I even need to mention all the Red Kamado Joe that I looked at like at least 20 times at Costco ? lol....In the end I did not get one.
This summer of 2018 I got an old Embermatic all aluminum grill that looks like it got used just a few times. It looks nice, the grates are the thickest I have ever seen. Is natural gas but maybe it can be converted to LP.
Two weekends ago just got the Genesis SS E II 310 from Lowes for $400. Will see how this will perform. I like the new square burners they have, supposed to have an even flame. Will see how long these last.
So from all this I kind of start thinking that a gas grill really is designed around the burner.
At this point I have too many grills that I don't know what to do with it
Been reading the forum for a long time now. Always wanted to write something about gas and charcoal grills. My experiences.
My story starts many years ago when I bought a Charbroil charcoal grill. Yes, charcoal is still my first love, but gas is convenient. After the Charbroil literally was destroyed by the heat and it started flaking like pastry I looked for something else. All aluminum I said. So next stop was the PK or Portable Kitchen. It was nice and a tried and true design but the cleaning piece on the bottom turned me off. Besides that one there is no other charcoal grill all aluminum that I know. I did look at the Weber but the cleaning system at the bottom that must be turned I did not like. I do have a couple of friends that have them and I did help them cook a couple of times, the half bowl design is great, cooks good but I do not like the cleaning system.
I looked for the Charbroil 940 but unfortunately is now discontinued. From what I understand is a solid charcoal grill. So after my disappointment with charcoal grills I went to gas.
Few years back I bought my first Broilmaster gas. I said this is the end of all grills with the aluminum top and bottom. While is a great grill the H burner for the P4 model and the bow burner for the P3 model which good in theory becomes a rusty mess after many years of use. It all rusts. The anchor system is flawed the way it attaches to the body in my opinion. The two tubes that go to the burner destroy itself, especially the newer ones made of thin steel. It collapses. That I think is a weak point of Broilmaster and many other grills. The ceramic briquettes are a good idea, but they have to be high quality to be effective. So after collecting about three Broilmaster grills with all stainless steel shelves and carts I still have them sitting in the garage. I bought the BM all used not new.
In the meantime, I got a new Broilking Regal 420 and while it was a great grill and I did like it, the burners and the burners support and the iron grates totally and completely disintegrated. I then bought the SS grates and these rusted in about 1 to 2 years.
I then went to the local dealer and they have MHP, Lynx and Firemagix. MHP has the same burners design as BM that I don't like. Lynx has a brass burner but is cost like $250 to be replaced. Dealer said last a long time but still needs to be replaced. Next brand I looked at was the Firemagic which the model I looked at had a stainless-steel burner. Solid SS that was drilled. That I really liked. But the grill cost about $4500. Not sure how much the burner is to replace but the dealer said people never do or if they do it has lifetime warranty. Did not buy any grills there.
About two years ago I jumped to Weber gas....I got a Genesis Silver B. I have invested at least $300 to rehab, paint like $40 or $50, grates and flavorizer bars from rcplanebuyer maybe like $170 or so, new drain pan, bunch of other parts. all new SS screws, etc. Since then I rebuilt another for brother in law and works great. Collected few more Genesis Silver B after that.
What I like about Weber is the dead simple design and repair at least with the Genesis Silver B. Let's say even if someone does not want to do a full rehab just buying new burners, flavorizer bars and grates and assuming the manifold is still good can have a grill that can go for another 10 years. I would say just vacuuming the grill assuming all is rusted inside and mounting the new parts takes like 15 minutes and is ready to grill. Since then I have collected like three more Genesis Silver B almost no place to put them.
Few years back I got a Warm Morning grill all aluminum from Michigan from my sister. Still in great condition after 50 some years. Can't beat aluminum. Really nice natural gas grill. Solid construction. I could not really use natural gas as I don't have it, so I used it as a charcoal grill. While it worked great, one day I put too much charcoal and the aluminum started to melt. Really it was not designed for that
Last summer in 2017 I bought a brand new Broilmaster charcoal all aluminum grill
I got it for a good price, so far happy with it. This thing is hard to keep below 400 F. Being all aluminum and it has gasket all around the perimeter it stays hot. Is a good design it resembles an oven.
Do I even need to mention all the Red Kamado Joe that I looked at like at least 20 times at Costco ? lol....In the end I did not get one.
This summer of 2018 I got an old Embermatic all aluminum grill that looks like it got used just a few times. It looks nice, the grates are the thickest I have ever seen. Is natural gas but maybe it can be converted to LP.
Two weekends ago just got the Genesis SS E II 310 from Lowes for $400. Will see how this will perform. I like the new square burners they have, supposed to have an even flame. Will see how long these last.
So from all this I kind of start thinking that a gas grill really is designed around the burner.
At this point I have too many grills that I don't know what to do with it