Ninja 5-in-1 for the win


 
Yah, Cody, I like Quisinart for the kitchen too. Have a small food processor that I love and have had for a good ten years...used it last night in fact. My coffee pot is also Quisinart which I have had nearly as long. Then a couple years ago, I got a Cuisinart Toaster oven/Air Fryer and love that as well. I would have high hopes for their grill offering. But, personally, I would probably never use the side burner griddle feature anyway.
 
I think the "natural convection" is just openings in the front of the grill that draws in air and sweeps it across to the back. This is way short of what the Ninja Flex Flam offers with a real convection fan - plus the ability to draw in smoke from the small pellet holder. Still, this shows that things are on the move in gas grilling. People today apparently expect a lot more than just a well-built even cooking grill. I think the clientele for "classic" Weber grills is going to be more and more older people, although there are some younger people like @Josh Dekubber who have a special place in their heart for the "real" Webers.
 
Yah, basically this convection stuff basically turns the grills into an oven. I guess until recently, we just used indirect heat grilling method to accomplish the same thing.
 
Good video. I imagine that is where grilling is going with all the automated stuff and the electronics. I certainly see some big positives to it, but like anything electronic and complicated, it can be a source of frustration as well.
 
I am having to accept that reality myself. I don't really like the idea of the grill deciding and controlling my burners, but for most people that is probably a relief and maybe even a way to prevent screwups :LOL: .

What I LOVE about this new Ninja is that convection fan/pellet combo. That has very positive implications for grilling evenness and speed. Add the easy ability to add smoke (like you also can with the Ninja Woodfire) and you have a winner in my book. Will it last for 20 years like a classic Weber? No. But can an old school Weber deliver the same results? I sadly tend to doubt it, but I am very interested to see what Tom does with his. I asked him about the Flex Flame before he got it, and his reply was not entirely enthusiastic. He doesn't like the size vs. the cost. The other reviews I have seen of the Flex Flame come off like Infomercials, so I am eager to see Tom do his thing on some real cooks in the near future.
 
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I am not sure something that has been out for what 5 months can be called a winner. Being a first adopter has risks see the Weber Smokefire some here had good luck some not so much. The Huntsman again looking at Jon's posts low and slow good go broke in the winter trying to cook a steak and still maybe not getting it up to a temp that it should. This is not just Jon this was Tom and he just did a 1 year review suggested they needed to make some kind of blanket to keep the heat in for the lid which at that point to me its not an all in one cooker and there are better solutions out there.

My deck is 16' long so to keep it plugged in I would need at least that for a cord if not more and I have my table in the middle with 6 chairs just does not work for me and I don't need the hassle of dragging an extension cord out every time I want to cook. The Silver C on the gas side does the job, I also have a performer with the slow and sear which is down on the pool level covered space where I do wings, ribs not a big brisket fan so can't speak to that but Tom in his video did not seem all that impressed with the brisket he cooked on that no smoke rings which seems strange to me in something that is supposed to put out a lot of smoke. When you cook a brisket on a pellet grill and I don't own one does it have smoke rings?

I guess for some who do not have the space for another grill this might be a solution if you want to do other stuff on it and you are willing to be a first adopter and you need to use gas.
 
I think here, Ninja is likely on much safer ground than Weber was. Weber did not use off the shelf tech when it made the SmokeFire and it came back to bit them. Unlike how they handled the SearWood and Smoque which used more industry standard tried and proven tech.
Ninja has been using the tech quite a while (mostly on electric appliances) so here they did stray by adapting gas burning to a tried and proven grill tech.
Re the Huntman Spider that grill needs 110V as well FWIW. I don't have an issue with plugging in an outdoor appliance
 
Brian, Good to see you post. :coolkettle:

Yah, I was an early adopter. While the Huntsman does live up to much of what they said, it is for sure NOT a winter high heat grill. I think they are located down by your way in Georgia, and they didn't have to do much real-world cooking in winter weather like we have here in the Midwest. If I was still in Florida, I probably would never have noticed any issue with mine at all. BTW, it is true that the Huntsman's Venom fan does require either a 110 plug in for the power supply or that you use some type of battery pack.

On the Ninja, there is also probably some risk that there are weaknesses that haven't been revealed in its limited run so far. I like a LOT of what Ninja has done - a way better approach, in my opinion, to adding pellet smoke to high heat grilling than the new Recteq X-Fire. However, I remain unconvinced about how long that firebox entirely made from thin porcelain coated steel will hold up.
 
Yeah, there are possible weaknesses to be sure. But, it really looks like they hit the "tech nail" on the head. They took everything that made the original Genesis the great appliance it was and then refined it with high tech.
Jon, I don't get why the Huntsman cannot seem to hold heat. IIRC the thing is made of 1/4" heavy steel all the way around. Then too wouldn't you simply adjust how much fuel you want basically like a very heavy Weber kettle which is very thin sheet metal yet it doesn't have any issues in the cold. So Both you and seeing Tom Horseman noting this has me pretty darn puzzled
 
Larry, it is made of very thick carbon steel, which is what makes it nearly indestructible, unlike the Big Green Egg I used to have (and sold because I was afraid to move it here from Florida). My take is that even sitting in my garage, that heavy metal gets pretty cold in the winter and that it takes a good long while to overcome that cold metal from a fire inside. A Weber kettle's thin metal gets red hot very readily as I noted when I watched my recently acquired yellow kettle turn orange when hot. Anyway, I think you have radiating cold working against you for quite a while, prolonged if it is really cold and windy outside.

I think Tom Horsman is right about the need for Spider to come up with an insulation package (like sold for several pellet grills). He also has suggested that the Spider Venom, while adequate for a regular Weber kettle that it was originally designed for, may be underpowered for the larger internal volume of the Huntsman.

While I am disappointed that the Huntsman couldn't be a winter high heat grill for me, the real deal breaker for me is my wife's anger that I want to cook on charcoal for family cooks. That's what has made the Huntsman no longer the right grill for me, despite some GREAT bbq it has turned out for me.
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I have kettles - and hopefully someday soon a return of my Weber CharQ - all more than sufficient for the times I can charcoal grill just for myself or for events. For home cooking, gas or pellet grills will have to be the choices. I am dreaming of options such as the Pit Boss Phoenix pellet kettle for when my Huntsman sells. I am getting inquiries but so far everyone has been pretty far from me.
 
Jon Tofte said:
Larry, it is made of very thick carbon steel, which is what makes it nearly indestructible, unlike the Big Green Egg I used to have (and sold because I was afraid to move it here from Florida). My take is that even sitting in my garage, that heavy metal gets pretty cold in the winter and that it takes a good long while to overcome that cold metal from a fire inside. A Weber kettle's thin metal gets red hot very readily as I noted when I watched my recently acquired yellow kettle turn orange when hot. Anyway, I think you have radiating cold working against you for quite a while, prolonged if it is really cold and windy outside.

I think Tom Horsman is right about the need for Spider to come up with an insulation package (like sold for several pellet grills). He also has suggested that the Spider Venom, while adequate for a regular Weber kettle that it was originally designed for, may be underpowered for the larger internal volume of the Huntsman.

While I am disappointed that the Huntsman couldn't be a winter high heat grill for me, the real deal breaker for me is my wife's anger that I want to cook on charcoal for family cooks. That's what has made the Huntsman no longer the right grill for me, despite some GREAT bbq it has turned out for me.
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I have kettles - and hopefully someday soon a return of my Weber CharQ - all more than sufficient for the times I can charcoal grill just for myself or for events. For home cooking, gas or pellet grills will have to be the choices. I am dreaming of options such as the Pit Boss Phoenix pellet kettle for when my Huntsman sells. I am getting inquiries but so far everyone has been pretty far from me.
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IDK that looks like some AWFULLY good eats right there.
 
Jon Tofte said:
Thanks for the compliment. Coming from you, a way more experienced, true chef, that means a lot to me.

The Huntsman does great bbq - year ‘round, but high heat grilling is best left to non-winter weather.
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I believe you but I still am amazed that it simply cannot use more coals and once up to temp I would think it would stay there. Seems like the mass should work in it's favor not against it. But, I do believe you. In all honesty with the brutal cold we get around here (N IL and southern WI) I can tell ya even my double walled pellet grills cannot burn fuel fast enough to keep up sometimes. On Big Z I have found I need to close off some of the louvers in back and it helps. I just shove folded foil in them
 
Jon Tofte said:
I think they are located down by your way in Georgia, and they didn't have to do much real-world cooking in winter weather like we have here in the Midwest.
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Yes they are in Athens, GA we do get below freezing in the winter but generally it will get to at least 40 during the day so compared to you people out in the Midwest its balmy.

It kind of amazes me and I am sure its a cost consideration that these companies don't ship a prototype to a cold weather area for testing heck you, Bruce or Larry or others in cold areas would probably sign up to test a new grill in a heartbeat. If you remember the Smokefire had issues with wind I thought it was windy out where they are located obviously I was wrong. :unsure: It also amazes me how the press sometimes anoints some of these new offerings as being so wonderful before they have any consumers using them for any length of time. This article was from April 2024.

www.forbes.com

One Grill To Rule Them All: The Huntsman From Spider Grills

With Spring knocking on the front (and back patio) doors across America, attention inevitably turns to the latest and greatest innovation in outdoor cooking.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com

I hope the Ninja is successful, I own a Ninja 9 and 1 oven and absolutely love it. So I am familiar with their products at least the toaster oven but of course that is far different than something that lives outside and uses gas which is a new offering for them.
 
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