Performer as a a gas grill

[Dustin Flavell]

Curious if anyone every tried grilling on their performer? This weekend I was getting the cooking grates from my WSM 22 hot on the performer to hit them with a wire brush. I was using the performer's gas assist to get the cooking grates hot. Had the top and bottom vents open and the lid down. When I pulled the lid I noticed that the thermometer in the lid was reading 400*. Got to thinking wonder if I could use this as a grill or a way to warm sides up. anyway curious if anyone tried it. If not, what do you think?

 

[Greg Y]

I can't imagine it would work very well. I mean all the flame is in one spot, there are no flavorizer bars, etc. I guess for indirect cooks it might be OK. I haven't tried it but there are people who have.

 

[Dave from Denver]

Judging by the ads I see on Craigslist something like 10% of performer owners use them as a gas grill.

 

[W Tyler]

Unless you were doing 10 min cooks, you would need a 20 pound LP tank. And, like Greg said, there's the problem of heat biuldup and distribution with the tiny flame and, at a minimum, you'd have to jury-rig up somethiing to use as a flame block/flavorizer bar.

It's not designed to be a gas grill, and wouldn't be easy to modify to be even modestly effective - so I wouldn't waste time trying to make it one.

 

[Josh G]

Like Dave said, a lot of the ads on craigslist I see are people selling a grill that is both gas and charcoal.

 

[Dustin Flavell]

Thanks for the thoughts. I have seen those craigslist ads too. Thought I'd throw it out there to see what y'all thought. Never owned a gas grill and had to look up what a flavorizor bar was... Works good cleaning up grills with a wire brush, guess I'll just stick to that and using it to start my chimneys! Thanks again

 

[Clint]

Might be good for cold smoking using something like this: http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?57981-Mo-s-smoking-pouch-anyone-try-it

I have an old platinum, which is the same as a performer except it doesn't have the gas setup.

I found a performer almost a year ago but I grabbed it for someone who needed it more than me.

I've seen mentioned, only available in other countries, gas-powered kettles.

 

[TOM BAUER]

I think that the 1998 Performer I purchased used a few years ago was used that way because the charcoal grate was really warped everywhere. I only use charcoal in it now.