Can I grill with gas on a Performer?

[Ryan D]

Sorry for the stupid question, but I am a long time kettle user (two 57cm) and got a WSM 18inch on the weekend, but have just started the purchase process of a Performer. Why? Because it's going very cheap, but mainly because I want a gas grill for when the power goes out during storms. I don't generally believe gas is cooking but I need hot food in an emergency sometimes!

So is the performer just able to start up using gas and you have to use charcoal, or can you grill on it using gas?

Thanks for the help! I will post a better question when I try use the WSM on Saturday for the first time! Hmmm, ribs...

Ryan

 

[Kent]

You have to use charcoal. The gas lighter on the performer doesn't put out enough BTU to grill. Even if you were to try it for "semi cold" smoking a piece of salmon or something, you can't regulate the heat. As well, I would think the tiny canister tank wouldn't last very long. The 5lb tank on my old Performer would contain, I'd think, about 100,000 BTU, which at 5000 BTU/hour should burn about 20 hours. I hadn't thought of that; maybe that's why get about 200 charcoal lightings per tank.
Hope this helps,

 

[James M-B]

As Kent says - you have to use charcoal.
That said if you have a chimney, some charcoal and some gas in the tank the performer's as quick to come up to temp as the Gen Silver (I have both). If you were halfway through a cook on your kitchen oven you could get the Performer hot before your oven lost temp as long as you knew where the charcoal was!