Sear Station...Not-Traditional Uses


 
B

BradH

TVWBB Member
I am deciding between the Summit 470 and the 620. They are the same price but for me it comes down to getting a big grill with a sear station or a huge grill without one. Added grilling space is always a plus for me as when I cook on the grill, the whole meal is done on the grill and right now it takes 3 shifts on my smaller grill, but the sear station has me baffled. Call me odd, but I don't eat steaks. I can see the appeal of the sear station for steaks, but what else would I use it for? Do any of you use that station for things other than steaks? I understand the 470 has a smoker box, but I have a WSM, and would just use that. The rotisserie is not really a draw for me, but if I really wanted one, I could buy an add-on for under $100 from Weber later. Right now I can't justify the smaller grill for cooking one steak one every 15 years, but all my buddies swear I need to get it. So if anyone has ideas on other things I could do with the sear station, please let me know.
 
If real estate is a main priority to you get the 620. Just by your post it's obvious that you would be left wanting and wondering if you buy the 470. The 620 will get plenty hot enough to sear a steak or anything else without a sear station. My Genesis will sear without the sear station, just does it faster with it. Your buddies will probably be jealous of your 620 after they see it in action!
 
Hey Brad I was in a similar situation before I bought my 470. I liked the idea of more real estate on the 6 series grills, but also liked the idea of the sear burner (we do cook steaks quite often). I really do like the sear burner, not only for steaks (gets the outside perfectly browned and leaves the inside nice and pink), but it also works great on burgers with the same effect. I've also used it on salmon steaks as well. Since grill space was initially a concern, and since I have a separate dedicated smoker, I found a guy on eBay who makes a kit that contains a small filler grate to take the place of the smoker box, and a single flavorizer bar to cover over the smoker burner. So now I have the full grate surface available, along with a sear burner and built in rotisserie (which we also use a lot).

Not sure about the price difference or your budget, but why not just get the best of both and go with the 670? ;-)
 
The other thing you're failing to notice is the lack of rotisserie burner. It is not just a $100 add on and voila you have rotisserie. The difference is the 470 has a dedicated burner for it and the 620 no. Can the 620 do it? Yes (to a point). But as the owner of the following grills here is what I can tell you. I have an old style Genesis II. (E/W burners). Also a Summit 450 (no rotisserie burner) and an old Ducane 2004 model with rear mounted rotisserie burner.
The beauty of the old Genesis is the E/W burners allow you to turn off a burner directly under the food. You now have a nice "wall" of heat across the entire rod full of food. On that Summit 620 and (my own 450) you have only end burners. So the spinning food is not "bathed" in heat across it's surface. Passable performance but not great. On the old Ducane I acquired (BTW this is an old American made Ducane) it has a conventional (not infra red) completely across the back with a smoking tray above it. Spinning food is basically all I do with that Ducane as it sure ain't a Weber in general cooking performance but OH BOY can it spin a mean roast.
So here is order of performance. 1. Ducane outstanding rotisserie performance. Just incredibly good. 2. Old Genesis. Damn near as good as the Ducane but not quite there since it can still get a flare up still due to the burners being lower than the food being spun. 3. Summit 450. If I had nothing to compare it to I would probably be very happy. But I DO have comparison units and they DO blow it away.
So yes the 620 can do spun food but it will never come close to the 470 or a 670.
As for the sear burner well probably a nice thing but not a must have. AS for the smoke burner something I REALLY wish I had but since I don't I work around it
 
Jay - that next step up to the 670 is another $500. Sounds small with the overall price, but I originally set out to buy the 420, so I already upped the budget by $500. Running it past the wife, I had to prove that it would actually last for 13+ years before getting approval. :D Lucky for me this board has lots of grill owners with grills older than that! (The last one only lasted 4.5 years, but it was not the same quality as getting a summit or genesis).

Thats an interesting idea about a filler grate. Do you know about how much space is reclaimed by doing that? I am thinking it is probably about 60 sq inches. And by doing this, you don't really loose the ability to use it if you really wanted to, you could just swap out the parts.
 
LMichaels - See, now you are making this harder for me! I always thought of just cooking chicken on a rotisserie, which I have little interest in doing...but now you made me search out other things I can do when you pointed out the roast. The question now is: is it worth $150 (weighted value) to get a dedicated rotisserie burner I may never use, but am getting more intrigued with the idea of using. This one I may have to struggle with for a while (or turn the question over to my wife and let her make my decision for me!)
 
You get about 70 sq inches of space back by replacing the smoker box with a filler grate....it's the same overall surface as a 420. And you're right, you always have the smoker box if you want to swap it back in (although I haven't had much luck getting good smoked results with it....all the smoke just seems to go out the side vents of the grill).

Oh, and count me in with the crowd that's gotten a lot of life from weber products....the grill we replaced was a Genesis Silver from 1997, so 16 years out of that one! I'm still debating whether to drop a few hundred $$$'s on new burners, flavorizers, and stainless grates to refurbish it or not. I just don't think my wife wants that many grills on the deck!
 
BradH said:
LMichaels - See, now you are making this harder for me! I always thought of just cooking chicken on a rotisserie, which I have little interest in doing...but now you made me search out other things I can do when you pointed out the roast. The question now is: is it worth $150 (weighted value) to get a dedicated rotisserie burner I may never use, but am getting more intrigued with the idea of using. This one I may have to struggle with for a while (or turn the question over to my wife and let her make my decision for me!)
Click to expand...

There is no such thing as "just plain chicken" from a quality "spin" :-) There is only mouth watering delicious bird. The flavor possibilities are almost endless. Everything from just salt and pepper to the sky's the limit. A pork roast or roast beef truly takes on new dimensions of taste, Heck even taking chicken pieces in a basket and tossing them with olive oil, salt, pepper, herbs, garlic and so on and putting some baby potatoes and some carrots in the basket and spinning the whole thing together............................well here I go making myself hungry.
 
I have a Genesis EP-330. My grill makes a GREAT rotisserie chicken and other foods without a rotisserie burner. IR burners and rotisserie burners are over rated in my book. If your grill is hot enough you will get crisp skin and a good juicy chicken. People have been making great rotisserie foods long before specialized burners came along. I had great rotisserie foods off of charcoal grills and they don't have extra burners on them.;) Just like sear burners, they are nice but it can be easily done without them.
 
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I will add my 2 cents, but not much more than what's been said. I, too, had a similar decision to make between an EP-330 and an E-420. I went with the E-420, even though more expensive. Among other features I liked the extra space, and it has four burners, although not in a sear configuration. But, like you I don't do a lot of steaks, and I've read enough where folks are still pleased with how their steaks turn out without a sear burner. I also have a WSM for smoking, and two 22.5" kettles if I want to use one of those for smoking. I like the idea of a rotisserie, but have not had a strong desire for one (actually, I've thought about getting one for the kettle).

So, I guess my point is that you'll likely be very happy with the E-620 and will have no regrets, especially if space is the priority. With that said, you can't miss either way.

Hope this helps!
 
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