Jon Tofte
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
As I have mentioned, my grill restoration work has been taking a back seat to catching up with my wife and family. This past Thursday through today (Saturday) Faith and I took a quick mini-vacation over to the west coast, staying in the lovely town of Venice, FL on the Gulf of Mexico. It is a laid back, pretty town with a vibrant downtown that leads then to the beach. We enjoyed two sunsets over the ocean which is special for us east coast Floridians.
While driving around the first day, I spotted a store that said "Swimming Pools and Barbecue Grills." It looked pretty blase, but I asked for a few minutes to shop and told her that they "probably have three or four grills." Well...
I would estimate better than FORTY grills! They had every conceivable Weber and Big Green Egg grill you could think of. They also had pellet grills from Green Mountain Grills, Smokin Brothers (I had never seen these, and like my Rec Tec they use the shorter front to back path for the auger, except these put the pellet holder in the front allowing the top lid to double as a tray table.), and finally Yoder which are pricey buy man are they heavily built. I picked up a new beef rub and got bags of Dave in KC's recommended duo of Lumberjack "Char Hickory" and "Cherry." My wife said I should for Father's Day
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Probably more interesting to me was this was the first time I got to check out in person gas grills from Napoleon. They were priced pretty much competitively with the similar Webers. I would say this company and to a lesser extent Broil King are the closest price/quality competitors that Weber has.
I thought you might enjoy a few comparison pictures:
Here is a Napoleon non-stainless grill that looks to compete with the Genesis II 3 burner + sear burner:
It looks small because my picture cut out the left table and the right one is folded down. Here is a look inside. Napoleon uses proprietary stainless grates with a wavy "S" curve:
Here is a black Weber that they had nearby:
About the same price. This one has the 9mm stainless bar grates:
Speaking of these new Weber stainless rod grates, I know they are not 100% up to "rcplanebuyer quality," but I think you would have to admit they are at least close, and look REALLY NICE. They are not at all widely spaced as some of you have lamented about earlier Weber stainless rod grates, and they have nice finishing:
So, I think these grills are competitive, but based on my in person look and touch, I would have to say in my opinion advantage Weber.
While driving around the first day, I spotted a store that said "Swimming Pools and Barbecue Grills." It looked pretty blase, but I asked for a few minutes to shop and told her that they "probably have three or four grills." Well...
I would estimate better than FORTY grills! They had every conceivable Weber and Big Green Egg grill you could think of. They also had pellet grills from Green Mountain Grills, Smokin Brothers (I had never seen these, and like my Rec Tec they use the shorter front to back path for the auger, except these put the pellet holder in the front allowing the top lid to double as a tray table.), and finally Yoder which are pricey buy man are they heavily built. I picked up a new beef rub and got bags of Dave in KC's recommended duo of Lumberjack "Char Hickory" and "Cherry." My wife said I should for Father's Day
!Probably more interesting to me was this was the first time I got to check out in person gas grills from Napoleon. They were priced pretty much competitively with the similar Webers. I would say this company and to a lesser extent Broil King are the closest price/quality competitors that Weber has.
I thought you might enjoy a few comparison pictures:
Here is a Napoleon non-stainless grill that looks to compete with the Genesis II 3 burner + sear burner:
It looks small because my picture cut out the left table and the right one is folded down. Here is a look inside. Napoleon uses proprietary stainless grates with a wavy "S" curve:
Here is a black Weber that they had nearby:
About the same price. This one has the 9mm stainless bar grates:
Speaking of these new Weber stainless rod grates, I know they are not 100% up to "rcplanebuyer quality," but I think you would have to admit they are at least close, and look REALLY NICE. They are not at all widely spaced as some of you have lamented about earlier Weber stainless rod grates, and they have nice finishing:
So, I think these grills are competitive, but based on my in person look and touch, I would have to say in my opinion advantage Weber.
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. A friend of mine splurged on one of those setups. I don’t remember the brand and I know he doesn’t know much about grills, but he dropped a used-car’s worth on what he got. I saw it pre-used, so it really looked spectacular.
