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).
 
Maybe, I think he's getting a little "over obsessed" with the whole thing. From what I've seen and other users here, the SW is doing a darn fine job. One of those things where I think he simply needs to learn how to roll with the flow and learn to use it properly
 
Todd K Wisc said:
Searing / customer service debate for Tom Horsman. @johnburns will want to view this.


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I must have missed this post. I can't pretend to be any expert on our pellet grills. I left the Consumer Care team in January of 2020 and SmokeFire launched in February, so I missed out on that first hand troubleshooting experience that gave me so much insight into our grills. What I can say is that I think Larry has hit the nail on the head with his assessment. SmokeFire really shot for the moon with combining that really high heat we hadn't seen on a pellet grill before with the roasting and smoking temperatures more typical for the fuel type. It was a really tall order, and we definitely learned a ton about pellet grilling. Searwood is a refinement of what worked best on SmokeFire, but you can't expect it to reach those same temperatures because it simply isn't going to get there based on the design. Swapping out the standard grates for PECI sear grates will definitely help. There's a whole line of what we call Crafted inserts that let you upgrade/modify your grill.


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People (Like TH and many here) keep confusing "searing" with "marking". Those lines are not "seared" food. They're "marks" and most chefs will refer to that as "grill marks" or "sear marks" or just plain "marking" the food. An actual "sear" is an overall crust on the surface. Akin to say placing the food on a heavy iron flat surface and developing a crust. If CAN be done on a grill but it's very rare for a "grill" to get hot enough to perform that task. Although those IR burners can do a helluva job if used correctly. But, I really don't believe we can actually get a regular old "grill" hot enough to do anything more than make show off lines.
So quite honestly the Searwood will never get that hot. Some REALLY REALLY hot standard type gas grills can get close like my Wolf. But, frankly it's not even practical to use that temp level. It's actually dangerous.
Another good way is a glowing bed of charcoal. Because it gives off so much infrared. Otherwise the only "practical" way to actually "sear" something is by contact method overall I.E. full contact with a hot griddle or pan
 
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