How many of you have a charcoal grill? what makes you decide what to use?


 
A

AlexCuadros

New member
How many of you also have a Kettle or performer?? what makes you decide to use charcoal over gas? or vice versa?

Mine would be the fact that Im able to easily control the heat in a gas, or need to fire it up quick for a quick cook.
 
I have a 22" kettle, it's mostly used with my Comal, but I'm giving serious consideration using it to cook this year's Thanksgiving Day Turkey. It's handy to have a charcoal BBQ around for when the propane runs out :)
 
and you have to have charcoal at home, always :)... But you are right. I also have a charcoal, however it is not a good one, it is not Weber just only a cheap store item.
 
I use charcoal whenever I have the time, am wiling to put forth the effort, and am not worried about precise temp controls. I've been a Weber Gasser for years and know my way around them quite well. I just started with charcoal earlier this year and am still learning the ins and outs of it i.e. how many coals to load, how/where to position them for direct or indirect cooks, how many lit coals to use, those kinds of things.
 
I have a weber gasser, a 22.5 weber kettle and a smokey joe. I actually probably use the smokey joe the most when I am cooking up a quick meal for my wife and me. I will fire up the 22.5 kettle when I am cooking more or doing some veggies on the grill too. As a practical matter, I will start the charcoal in the chimney and then go do dinner prep and by the time the meat is ready to go on the grill the charcoal is ready. It really doesn't take me any longer than the gasser. I have only used a gas grill maybe 3 or 4 times over the past few years, and that was primarily for hot dogs for the kids. I much prefer using charcoal over gas.
 
I have a few charcoal kettles and the Lady of the House has a gasser. The charcoal allows me to induce smoke into the cook and I use charcoal 95% of the time.
 
I have two Weber gassers one NG and the other LP a performer and two smokers a mini I built and an 18.5. I try to use the performer because I like the charcoal taste, but where I live has a lot of high winds and in the summer fire season there is a no burn restriction that includes charcoal grills.
So the gassers are used for those occasions and when its a quick cook like BSCB or brats, hot dogs and when smoke is not used and things like that where its a waste to fire up a charcoal grill for a 5 minute cook.
The weber 1000lx LP gasser is used for rotisserie cooking only as it's the only one my rotisserie will fit and I bought it new in 1997 so it's part of the family.
 
Genesis EP-330 and several charcoal kettles. I prefer cooking with charcoal and get a better result. I also grew up cooking on the Weber kettle. My Dad liked to enjoy a glass or three of scotch while cooking burgers and I quickly took over.

Cooked two chickens last night on the Performer with rotisserie for 6 of us and the comments universally were just how flavorable and moist they were. Like a lot of the folks here I stock up on charcoal when it's on sale.
 
I had a gasser, decided i wanted to try charcoal and never went back and got rid of the gasser. the taste on a charcoal grill is a lot better in my opinion. The gasser is nice though for something real quick like burgers or hot dogs but i'll take the little bit of extra time and hassle for the charcoal. As far as having it on hand, lower and home depot always runs sales where it is 2 20lb bags of KBB for $20 and i usually stock up pretty heavy.....i am actually down to my last two bags though.
 
I agree with JayRob, although around here when KBB goes on sale at Lowes and Home Depot around Memorial Day, the 4th of July and Labor Day it's usually around $10 for two 20lb bags.
 
My Genesis ran out of gas 2 or 3 years ago and I never refilled it; I almost always use the Performer. I fixed the Genesis (gas, regulator) a couple of weeks ago so my wife could use it. She's been grilling almost every night since.
 
I use the gas grill for veggies, shrimp, hot dogs, and usually burgers. Pretty much everything else goes on the Performer.
 
I go back and forth. Right now I'm enjoying the charcoal flavor for most cooks. Also, the Q get's fired up for things that cook fast. :eek:
 
Once you move away from steel over the burners to ceramic you'll be amazed at how close to charcoal the flavor becomes on a gas unit. I discovered this when I got my first Broilmaster. The second is undergoing restoration (I just have not bought the parts a burner and rock grate). Some of you may even remember a post I made of converting my Genesis II to the same setup. It is now VERY difficult to tell the difference between my kettle or the gas units
 
I have 3 charcoal and 2 gassers. I use the gasser for convince when I don't have a lot of time or much to cook.
 
gas is just so much easier for me when I'm cooking a single entree - I did a slight rehab of an old (circa 2001) Genesis a couple months ago & instead of BBQ / Grilling once a week, it's probably once a day average now. Last night it was just me - wings on the gasser. Today for lunch there were 2 of us, it was wings & quesadillas on the WSM with the fire in the middle (higher) position.

Cost is probably about the same if you use blue rhino (expensive for propane).
 
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