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Searwood - Yea or Nay?


 
In fairness to Weber and the Searwood, I think in this case he's not being at all fair with his assessment. For one thing I don't get this constant worrying about black lines, another thing if all he's gonna do is simply keep opening the lid then complain about the temperatures, again there is no grill other than an over loaded coal burner or over powered gas burner that can stand up to that.
Sorry I like watching the guy but IMO he's WAY WAY WAY off base on this
 
LMichaels said:
In fairness to Weber and the Searwood, I think in this case he's not being at all fair with his assessment. For one thing I don't get this constant worrying about black lines, another thing if all he's gonna do is simply keep opening the lid then complain about the temperatures, again there is no grill other than an over loaded coal burner or over powered gas burner that can stand up to that.
Sorry I like watching the guy but IMO he's WAY WAY WAY off base on this
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I am guessing his expectations are not going to be met with a 600 degree high temp on the Searwood. And maybe Searwood isn't the right name for this unit.
 
LMichaels said:
In fairness to Weber and the Searwood, I think in this case he's not being at all fair with his assessment. For one thing I don't get this constant worrying about black lines, another thing if all he's gonna do is simply keep opening the lid then complain about the temperatures, again there is no grill other than an over loaded coal burner or over powered gas burner that can stand up to that.
Sorry I like watching the guy but IMO he's WAY WAY WAY off base on this
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I enjoy Tom's reviews and do believe he gives his honest opinions, not like some of the "infomercial" reviews I have seen some others do. I agree about opening the grill too much. You just cannot do that with a pellet grill, although his charts show pretty good recovery times overall. Even though I love doing diamond pattern sear marks (Sorry!), I also agree that they are NOT the definition of searing.

I think his tests are not dissimilar to my first runs with my new Pit Boss Phoenix pellet kettle. Those thin wire grates don't hold much heat. If you consider how the Weber Q grills use their thick, tightly spaced cast iron grates as part of their heating equation, I think that could be applied to the Searwood. Put a GOOD set of cast iron grates on there - or really thick stainless rods - and I think his results might have been a lot better with the benefit of radiating heat. Fortunately, that would be easy to do as the Searwood uses the very common size grates that goes back to the first Genesis grills and continues today on the larger Spirit grills.

Tom probably missed the mark on this review, but I think you can be confident it was just his honest attempt and done without prejudice.
 
Jon Tofte said:
I enjoy Tom's reviews and do believe he gives his honest opinions, not like some of the "infomercial" reviews I have seen some others do. I agree about opening the grill too much. You just cannot do that with a pellet grill, although his charts show pretty good recovery times overall. Even though I love doing diamond pattern sear marks (Sorry!), I also agree that they are NOT the definition of searing.

I think his tests are not dissimilar to my first runs with my new Pit Boss Phoenix pellet kettle. Those thin wire grates don't hold much heat. If you consider how the Weber Q grills use their thick, tightly spaced cast iron grates as part of their heating equation, I think that could be applied to the Searwood. Put a GOOD set of cast iron grates on there - or really thick stainless rods - and I think his results might have been a lot better with the benefit of radiating heat. Fortunately, that would be easy to do as the Searwood uses the very common size grates that goes back to the first Genesis grills and continues today on the larger Spirit grills.

Tom probably missed the mark on this review, but I think you can be confident it was just his honest attempt and done without prejudice.
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No doubt but I just think he was expecting too much from it given how he was running it
 
Well good to see that with better grates (and less opening of the lid), the Searwood CAN get hot enough. I don’t think Tom has any affection for it though. Watch on FB Marketplace for a chance to buy it from Tom the next time he thins the herd in the Land of Grills!
 
Jim Weber said:
I'm not impressed.
Startup + time to 600 + 30 minutes at 600 just for some pathetic 'grill marks'....?....?
Wrong tool for the job IMO.
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I agree in general. Any decent gas grill can do much better and faster. A kettle can get up to speed in that timeframe and of course high heat grill way better.

But if you are in my fix in having a wife who cannot handle charcoal and can only have one grill, I can still see it as an option. Better to add even a beat up old Genesis to the arsenal, though, and have a smoker and a GRILL!
 
Jon Tofte said:
I agree in general. Any decent gas grill can do much better and faster. A kettle can get up to speed in that timeframe and of course high heat grill way better.

But if you are in my fix in having a wife who cannot handle charcoal and can only have one grill, I can still see it as an option. Better to add even a beat up old Genesis to the arsenal, though, and have a smoker and a GRILL!
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Jon
Have you considered a round grill pan with a lid so you can keep smoke off the wife’s grub?

Would require different timing and method but at least you could use your preferred fuel source…
 
Jon Tofte said:
But if you are in my fix in having a wife who cannot handle charcoal and can only have one grill, I can still see it as an option. Better to add even a beat up old Genesis to the arsenal, though, and have a smoker and a GRILL!
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I know my BiL was tenting Sis's food with foil to keep the smoke level down on her food...... (on a pellet smoker).
 
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