Charbroil Cruise thermostatically controlled grill
- Thread starter Joe Anshien
- Start date
Brian B Atlanta
TVWBB Gold Member
Well to your point 95% of people won't care. Its a great price with a decent warranty obviously the burners must be Stainless as its 10 years on those the other stuff okay again the price is a factor for people not wanting to spend 1300 or whatever take their chances and what we always need to remember is take care of your grill keep it covered and who knows how long you can ride it.
Bruno
TVWBB Hall of Fame
Me 3.
LMichaels
TVWBB 2-Star Olympian
Heck, I think if people took as good of care of most of those CharBroils as the love they lavish on the Weber like we do (well some of us LOL) (I ride mine hard and put it away wet). I think the Charbroils would be just fine. But, never owned one so honestly don't know 100%
Joe Anshien
TVWBB Honor Circle
After reading the reviews it surprises me how many of the people either never grilled before or were afraid of grilling. This seems to be perfect intro gill for them.
Joe Anshien
TVWBB Honor Circle
Those are great turkey cookers. I used one for many turkeys and a few chickens myself. It is also built way better than any charbroil grill I have seen.
Jim C in Denver
TVWBB All-Star
How do you set up zones?
The design should eliminate the need for having zones in almost all cases. Which is a great idea, since you can then use the whole cooktop area for cooking. Rather than leaving half of the cooktop empty. Pretty much how my gas grills now work with a full set of GrillGrates -- the grill now has a much bigger use-able effective cooktop size.
You typically cook indirect for two reasons: (i) to cook at a lower temp and (ii) to avoid flare ups that come from cooking directly over the flame.
The thermostat should take care of (i). And the Charbroil perforated diffuser plates (which are not new with this grill) should do a good job at flame supression and spreading the heat evenly across the whole grill top.
So if you want to cook on low, you just turn the temp down.
The only thing you couldn't do is to cook on two different zones at the same time. Like searing a steak on one side while simultaneously cooking something else on low on the other side.
The design should eliminate the need for having zones in almost all cases. Which is a great idea, since you can then use the whole cooktop area for cooking. Rather than leaving half of the cooktop empty. Pretty much how my gas grills now work with a full set of GrillGrates -- the grill now has a much bigger use-able effective cooktop size.
You typically cook indirect for two reasons: (i) to cook at a lower temp and (ii) to avoid flare ups that come from cooking directly over the flame.
The thermostat should take care of (i). And the Charbroil perforated diffuser plates (which are not new with this grill) should do a good job at flame supression and spreading the heat evenly across the whole grill top.
So if you want to cook on low, you just turn the temp down.
The only thing you couldn't do is to cook on two different zones at the same time. Like searing a steak on one side while simultaneously cooking something else on low on the other side.
Darren Lebner
TVWBB All-Star
I've been a Weber customer for decades now. Started with a 22 kettle back in the 90's. Bought my first gas grill, a Genesis 310, 11 years ago. Last year I needed to buy something at least as big. Before I went straight to Weber, I went to stores to see what's cheaper and whether they're worth the savings.
After one round of looking under the hoods, I eliminated everything except for the Charbroils. I went back to give them a 2nd look. Didn't like the materials and I especially don't like their "even-heat" grill system, which looks like hell to constantly clean so the pores don't remain blocked.
And that's how I wound up buying my Genesis II 435!
Hate to get off topic but how does the Genesis II 435 compare to the Genesis 310? Aside from size of course. Does it get hot enough?
Darren Lebner
TVWBB All-Star
I have only used the 435 once. It's in our vacation home. I tried it out in November and I made notes of temperatures at the time. The notes in the house but It was OK for a cold windy day. Soon heading back there and of course plans are to fire it up plenty.
Dustin Dorsey
TVWBB Hall of Fame
What I'm referring to is cooking foods at different temps simultaneously. 2-zone (or more) cooking. Part of that is dealing with flareups, of course. You can always set your burners on low, I get that. I'm in no way trying to knock the product. I think it's a fantastic idea. But, not having multiple zones is going to matter for some people.
I'd disagree with this. Cooking directly at 225 or 325 is completely different than cooking indirectly at the same temperature. The difference is cooking with direct radiant heat or indirect convection heat. You simply can't cook indirect on this grill as far as I can tell. The point of indirect is not just controlling heat it is making sure the meat is cooked evenly throughout and not overcooked on the outsides due to the direct heat while perfect in the center.
Another important reason to have two zones is to do two different things during the same cook to the same piece of meat:
- Sear at high temp
-cook evenly with indirect heat.
2 zone set up even on a gas grill allows you to do both.
For example how would you cook a prime rib on this grill? I don't think cooking it right on the grate even at a 225 would do it. Your best bet would be to keep it at 225 and put it on the upper shelf if it fits, with a water pan under, and turn semi frequently (which would cause your temp to fluctuate). Then when its almost done take the meat off turn the grill up to high , wait for it to preheat then sear. I highly doubt that would get you nearly the results of doing a reverse sear on a 2 zone setup even on a regular 4 burner char broil.
Joe Anshien
TVWBB Honor Circle
I would think that you cook on this as you would a pellet pooper or a Q. Neither can zone. On the Q I use a rack with perforated aluminum foil or broiler tray underneath. On this grill that would not be necessary as it has the perforated grates underneath the grates.
Dustin Dorsey
TVWBB Hall of Fame
This thing seems to have enough steel between the burners and the food that the direct heat isn't really the issue. They probably have more steel there than my oven has. Gas grills and pellet grills (when grilling) seem to be more about conductive heat from the grates than radiant heat from the burners.
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Jim C in Denver
TVWBB All-Star
Interesting discussion.
I agree that you couldn't have two hi/lo temperature zones on this grill at the same time. The pictures seem to suggest that you are going to have one big zone that will be all hi or all lo at any particular time. I somewhat disagree with Ross's point about low direct vs. low indirect.
If you look at the pictures, you can see (as Dustin notes above) that there is a lot of perforated metal between the flames and the grate/food. So is that really still direct? Or is that more like indirect? Like how you'd say a WSM is cooking "indirect" when you have a pizza pan, empty water pan or clay saucer blocking the fire?
There might be some minor differences cooking low direct/indirect with regard to the amount of infrared (direct) vs. convection (indirect) energy you get. I'm no scientist, but I cook on my Genesis with a full set of GrillGrates (i.e. direct low) sometimes and sometimes half GGs and half regular grates (where the regular grates would be the typical indirect convection zone). I really don't notice any difference. 300F on either side (direct or indirect) seems to me to be the same thing.
What I mostly notice is a big difference in flare ups. And flare ups are, by definition, very high heat. Which means that direct low stays low and doesn't result in incinerated or overcooked food. Which, imo, is the main reason that two zone cooking is used.
How many people say "Hmm, I'm getting too much direct infrared at 300F. I better move the food over so I can still get 300F but only with more convection? I doubt it. I think most people are moving the food to go from hi to lo. People don't seem to need two zones when cooking in an oven or on a stove top. You just turn the heat up or down.
And if you believe the marketing, the boss thing to have in a gas grill is more infrared. Charcoal grills have tons of infrared and gas grill have little. Gas grills being primary convection devices usually isn't seen as a plus. Same goes for pellet grills -- no sear because no infrared and no high temps.
Like I said, I'm no scientist. But low direct without flare ups seems to be similar to low indirect without flare ups.
If a Santa Maria style grill is set to the elevated position, you might still say that is direct. But the main impact is that the temperature is lower -- further from the heat source and above the flares. When you use a Vortex to cook wings in a kettle, that is very high heat. But (most important) it is indirect (so the wings don't get burned up).
Anyone want to talk about induction vs. infrared vs. convection? : )
I agree that you couldn't have two hi/lo temperature zones on this grill at the same time. The pictures seem to suggest that you are going to have one big zone that will be all hi or all lo at any particular time. I somewhat disagree with Ross's point about low direct vs. low indirect.
If you look at the pictures, you can see (as Dustin notes above) that there is a lot of perforated metal between the flames and the grate/food. So is that really still direct? Or is that more like indirect? Like how you'd say a WSM is cooking "indirect" when you have a pizza pan, empty water pan or clay saucer blocking the fire?
There might be some minor differences cooking low direct/indirect with regard to the amount of infrared (direct) vs. convection (indirect) energy you get. I'm no scientist, but I cook on my Genesis with a full set of GrillGrates (i.e. direct low) sometimes and sometimes half GGs and half regular grates (where the regular grates would be the typical indirect convection zone). I really don't notice any difference. 300F on either side (direct or indirect) seems to me to be the same thing.
What I mostly notice is a big difference in flare ups. And flare ups are, by definition, very high heat. Which means that direct low stays low and doesn't result in incinerated or overcooked food. Which, imo, is the main reason that two zone cooking is used.
How many people say "Hmm, I'm getting too much direct infrared at 300F. I better move the food over so I can still get 300F but only with more convection? I doubt it. I think most people are moving the food to go from hi to lo. People don't seem to need two zones when cooking in an oven or on a stove top. You just turn the heat up or down.
And if you believe the marketing, the boss thing to have in a gas grill is more infrared. Charcoal grills have tons of infrared and gas grill have little. Gas grills being primary convection devices usually isn't seen as a plus. Same goes for pellet grills -- no sear because no infrared and no high temps.
Like I said, I'm no scientist. But low direct without flare ups seems to be similar to low indirect without flare ups.
If a Santa Maria style grill is set to the elevated position, you might still say that is direct. But the main impact is that the temperature is lower -- further from the heat source and above the flares. When you use a Vortex to cook wings in a kettle, that is very high heat. But (most important) it is indirect (so the wings don't get burned up).
Anyone want to talk about induction vs. infrared vs. convection? : )
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Haha interesting indeed. Sort of all comes down to how well all of that metal displaces the heat. WSM or Santa Maria style grills you do low and slow even though the meat is directly above the flame because the meat is far enough from the heat source and/ or there is a water pan to help with convection. In this case the meat is much closer to the heat source. If indeed all that metal displaces the heat as well as advertised then I guess its possible. There is really only one way to find out! If it was a Weber (good re-sale value) I would buy one just to test it out then sell it.
I would ad that the problem I brought up would only really be an issue on longer cooks. I doubt you would notice much of a difference on a steak. But on a roast, Id really have to see it in action to believe it doesn't make a difference.
Edit: Meathead has some pretty good articles on "the science"
I would ad that the problem I brought up would only really be an issue on longer cooks. I doubt you would notice much of a difference on a steak. But on a roast, Id really have to see it in action to believe it doesn't make a difference.
Edit: Meathead has some pretty good articles on "the science"
2 Zone Grilling Setup: How Best To Control Temperatures On A Grill
Improve your recipes and make the best BBQ possible with this one essential concept: temperature control. The secret? 2 zone grilling setup, a.k.a. an indirect grilling setup!
amazingribs.com
The Thermodynamics of Cooking and How Different Cooking Methods Work
Learn about thermodynamics: the basis of all cooking! Find out how heat transference works by conduction, convection, radiation, induction, and infrared heat in your grill, bbq, and smoker.
amazingribs.com
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