Vermont Castings VM400 nearby free pickup


 
DSteinschneider

DSteinschneider

TVWBB Member
I've been walking by a grill at the side of the road the past 3 nights. I finally brought a flashlight and found it is a Vermont Castings VM400. The frame is rusted from the casters up two inches at each corner. I found a website that has the JennAir parts for the tubes, and "heat plate" and it looks like most of the other parts that might be needed. I'm going to pass but I was curious how the unit compares in use to my Silver B's.
 
I would look at that as what Bruce calls a "rabbit hole." I don't know much about those, but I think I remember them getting good reviews from Consumer Reports years ago, for whatever that's worth. It looks like they are still in busines - or at least someone is making grills today with that name. I think an old one could prove problematic for support, though. A well rusted one doesn't sound promising to me. The strength of the old Webers is the availability of many (though not all) parts and the abundance of old ones out there that you can serve as donors for parts.
 
The Vermont Castings are all iron. They use a porcelain enamel cook box.
Nice grills but if you see rust they are all done.

Leg rot on any grill is not worth fixing
 
I was gifted a new one several years ago. All stainless, with a porcelain hood. Burners and crossovers started to fail (along with porcelain grates). Found out that while Vermont Castings is still in business, they no longer sell (or support) their grill lines. They directed me to a site that purchased all of their inventory, but came up zilch for my parts. I have seen some aftermarket parts on Amazon for the VC grills, but haven't had the desire to research to bring it back to life, since I now have Weberitis.
 
VC is now one of Canadian Tire’s “ House Grills”. The current models seem to be poorly made.
 
Jon Tofte said:
I remember them getting good reviews from Consumer Reports years ago,
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I remember that too. Problem with Consumer Reports is that it is based on performance. The top grill from CR right now is an Even Embers while the rest of the top grills is dominated by Weber and Napoleon. What kind of shape will that grill be in in a few years compared to the Webers? Will you find parts and support? I will stick with old reliable.
 
I love grilling on my Genesis Silver B 3 burner, indirect, direct, I even bought the little v shaped tray for wood chips just to add a little extra flavor. I know exactly how to cook everything on it and I have a second completely renewed one in the garage thanks to all the advice here. That's why even though the Vermont Castings looked interesting I decided to pass on it.
 
I recall CR gushing over VC grills like they were the second coming of Jesus himself. Almost fell for it myself
 
For whatever it's worth, I had that exact grill (VM400) (my wife had it before we got married so I inherited it). The lid was very, very heavy, and it had a nice set of cast iron grates, but that was about the extent of the niceness of it. The firebox and legs and all the other important bits were sheet metal that rusted badly. I tried replacing the burners only to have the drip pan fall off due to rust. I gave up on that grill and turned my attention to the Silver B the previous owner of my house left behind and restored that instead and it's been going great ever since.

IMO, there would be no value whatsoever in trying to restore a Vermont Castings, even if you could get the parts.
 
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