This Grill PAYS For Itself!!! Charcoal vs Propane vs Pellet


 
Joe Anshien

Joe Anshien

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Really thought provoking video. I would like to see the costs if you were using a Weber kettle or even your big *** offset with charcoal instead of a kamado that is like the Prius of grills;-) Would really like to see how my Masterbuilt Gravity comes out;-)
 
Hmm, I will say my pellet cookers operate quite inexpensively. Of course I do watch for big sales on pellets then stock up
 
Without a doubt, my NG grill is the cheapest to run, especially when using the rotisserie and IR burner. The Traeger is the next least expensive. Watching out for good deals on pellets really helps. Upgrading to the PID controller also improved fuel consumption. That leaves the charcoal grills as most expensive to operate but their versatility and flavor enhancement definitely makes up for the extra cost.
 
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I never measured my gas flow when using the Wolf. It's a very thirsty gas grill simply because of how it's vented and it's huge size. I've always said the OG Genesis grills were MUCH MUCH more efficient than any gasser I've ever seen. Weber built them that way.
But that table showing pellet grill costs???? WAY outta touch. No way my pellet grills cost me that kind of $$$ to run. Especially if I watch sales and I'm buying 40# of pellets for $8. Or heck even when using Kirkland pellets ($12.99 40#) or Smokehouse from Sam's $14.99 per 40#.
IDK, maybe if I was running a regular "smokehouse" with the pellet grill running all day/all night 6 days a week
 
My east/west Spirit 3 burner burns about 1lb of propane per hour. I use $1 per pound of propane for a cost estimate.

My propane cost is low enough where it doesn’t justify switching to a different type of grill.

Almost seems like the guy is trying to justify a big grill purchase
 
I do not care, my home cooks are still 50 - 60 % cheaper than eating out plus i control the things that go into each bite. Plus with a performer (or two) i can do about every kind of cook required with out having so many grills. Plus every grill i have i have refurbish from CL or FB market place so i am way cheaper,and that is me cheaper....
 
Joe Anshien said:
I also do the same with charcoal. I did think some of the info he presented was quite interesting.
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Joe, I always appreciate the items you present for "food for thought" on this forum. While I can't agree with much of what was in the video, I can say that for most of us, we all look for the best value for our fuel options, especially for charcoal and pellets. We also probably use whatever leftover charcoal we have after a cook, which is not possible for gas or pellets.

I have a natural gas Gold B, and I could not even estimate what I pay for using that but it is not much...my summer gas bill is about $10 a month and the only other gas I use in the summer is my burners on my stove...which isn't much that time of the year. I will do very long burnoffs on my Gold B and add other grates from my grills into it to burn those off, too.
 
Interesting but kinda beside the point.

So he SWAGs the per year cost of propane at $590 per year using his assumptions.

$25 bucks to do a Blue Rhino exchange (which is maybe 15 gallons of fuel).

So he thinks I'm going to go be using my grill so often that I'll do 23.6 swaps per year?

How many propane swaps/tanks do you do a year? Do you even hit double digits? I don't.

Fuel cost is a minimal consideration. If it was just about the fuel and grill acquisition price, we'd all just cook using your kitchen stove/oven. By far the cheapest.

People use a gasser, kettle, smoker, pellet grill, offset etc. because...they like cooking on that equipment, because it is fun, and because they like the food that comes off of it.
 
Well, let's see here . . . I've got a 22 year old One Touch Platinum that I bought off of Craigslist a couple of years ago. I paid $50 for it and it came with a set of GrillGrates and a SnS. For most of my cooks I light up a small Weber chimney (bought that extra) and put about the same amount in the SnS. I can cook 3-4 days of food, shut it down, and save about what would fill the small chimney, for next time.

I do that about twice a week, interspersed with some burgers, steaks or chops on the GrillGrates.

I know that my situation doesn't mirror any of the scenarios offered in the videos. But, I can't imagine spending less that I do right now, especially when you consider my initial investment.
 
Jim C in Denver said:
Interesting but kinda beside the point.

So he SWAGs the per year cost of propane at $590 per year using his assumptions.

$25 bucks to do a Blue Rhino exchange (which is maybe 15 gallons of fuel).

So he thinks I'm going to go be using my grill so often that I'll do 23.6 swaps per year?

How many propane swaps/tanks do you do a year? Do you even hit double digits? I don't.

Fuel cost is a minimal consideration. If it was just about the fuel and grill acquisition price, we'd all just cook using your kitchen stove/oven. By far the cheapest.

People use a gasser, kettle, smoker, pellet grill, offset etc. because...they like cooking on that equipment, because it is fun, and because they like the food that comes off of it.
Click to expand...
I think I am about 200lbs of propane per year using my 3 burner Spirit about 10 times a week. About 30 minutes per use.
 
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