Weber Grills: Why Do You Have What You Have?


 
When I was a kid my Dad upgraded to a Charmglow 2-grill natural gas setup in the 1950's and he was happy with it from then on. When my wife and I got married in 1974 we got a hibachi as a wedding present and loved it but soon upgraded to an early Weber kettle, and enjoyed it till we got a deal on a Sunbeam propane grill. That seemed great - it could cook indirect like the Weber had but no charcoal mess. Late 1980's my Dad had passed and my Mom moved away, so we bought the house. Those Charmglows worked OK for 25 years, but not without lots of fiddling (spiders nest in the gas orifices every few weeks for one thing) and I replaced burners at least twice - stainless burners rust. Chrome grills and fire grates too. If it was at all windy there was a good chance the grill would blow out - countless meals were delayed when I went out to check and found the grill out. No way to cook indirect either. It was so much trouble that we almost never grilled.

A couple of years ago I got interested in learning how to smoke, so after some investigation I bought an 18" WSM. It's OK, though to do it over again I'd ignore the advice about the 22" using too much fuel and just buy that one for more room and a bigger front door. First thing I learned is that KBB just isn't for me. I had to clean out ash mid-smoke, kept adding charcoal, and I never got enough heat to maintain smoking temperature reliably. And at least in our climate I need lump and a welding blanket around the smoker to get enough heat whenever it's cold or windy. With lump I can go almost 24 hours on one load and heat is adequate - it's seldom a temperature overshoot issue for me unless it's summer.

Once I learned that charcoal doesn't have to be a pain in the butt, I wanted to get another Weber kettle like we used to enjoy. I bought the 22" Mastertouch for the ash cleaner, lid holder, gourmet grill system (we plan to make pizza), charcoal side bins to help with indirect cooking, a warming rack, and Amazon even threw in a beautiful cover that's way nicer than the Weber one on our WSM.

I absolutely love using charcoal now. The Weber chimney and Weber lighting cubes take away all the issues of lighting the grill, and using either lump or RO "Embers" briquettes along with the ash removal system eliminate the excessive ash, filth, and bother of using charcoal. Since I always have smoking wood chunks on hand anyway, I throw one in the grill every time too, and everything comes out just a little more smoke flavored. Big hit. The kettle makes everything come out so perfectly - I almost don't have to even pay attention. Gonna try to do some low 'n slow smoking on the kettle too. It's so much more convenient to use than the WSM and I don't have to take it apart to clean it like the WSM. Thinking of trying one of those temperature regulator gizmos on the top vent for smoking. Briskets and butts will still go into the WSM, but the kettle is so much faster and easier to set up and use.
 
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I have four. A 22" WSM and 22" Kettle for home as well as an 18" Jumbo Joe and 14" WSM for the RV. All naturally aspirated charcoal. I prefer lump.

This is why:
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I'm with Dwain!
I'm the happy promoter of the Weber line whenever I can.
"Go to"- 22 basic black (pre performer) carriage modified with...
18.5 "Ultra Maroon".
See avatar.
18.5 WSM, recently acquired.
Also on hand, NIB Smokey Joe gold, an unfired charcoal "Go Anywhere", not quite new but, never used.
35 year old cast iron Hibachi, recently restored.
Recently shared with someone who needed a better grill:
Blue "Silver B"
I guess I'm just not a gas guy.
I have them because they are what serve my purposes.
 
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My BBQ story

I have been AWOL from this site for several years, poking my head in once in a while to look for something or see what is going on. Life got in the way… (teenagers, new business, wife’s battle with cancer and so on. She kicked stage 4 to the curb BTW!). But I saw this thread and just had to write.

When I was a teenager in the 70’s, my grandfather was the one who did the family BBQ. I remember him showing off his modified coffee can to start the charcoal in. My grandmother just rolled her eyes, but I saw the utility of it.

After college I moved into an apartment complex that had a central area with built in natural gas BBQ’s. I used them a few times myself, but most of the people smoked cigarette’s and I hated the smell.

I moved to Washington in 1989 and after a couple moves finally had a place with a deck and a view. Someone gave me a salmon and I picked up an OTS on the way home. I loved this grill and the salmon was great! A year or so later a friend had a birthday and he asked if I would BBQ. I showed up with my OTS and his wife thought that was my gift… so it stayed.

It was the fall of about 92 and a local store had some gas grills on clearance. So I picked one up cheap. It was OK, being single I could cook dinner on it as much as I wanted with no mess. I seemed to be replacing them every other year since I used it probably 5 times a week. I got married in 1993 and moved from my wonderful deck. I still cooked on the gasser quite often.

About 1999 I got tired of cheap grills needing replacement and purchased a Weber Genesis Silver B. I loved this thing! Even heat, no flair ups and so on. Used the crap out of it for years, replacing parts when needed instead of whole grills.

In 2006 I picked up a Brinkman side box smoker on sale and tried my hand at smoking. It was a disaster! Temps all over the place. I jumped on the interwebs and did some research. Made a baffle, extended the chimney and this helped a lot. Tried different fire techniques and slowly made progress. It was still frustrating to cook on.

At work someone said they had an old kettle they wanted to get rid of and said they would take $15. I said yes. It turned out to be my first Red Head. I forgot how much I loved cooking on charcoal! I used the crap out of this thing for the next few years. In 2010 I was doing some more research on my Brinkman and found this site. I was an instant convert!

It quickly became an obsession for me. I took a BBQ class with Paul Kirk and then became a noob BBQ Judge with the PNWBA. I started collecting Weber’s much to my wife’s dismay. I put a rack on the motorhome so I could haul a OTG and my 18 WSM when we went camping. It made a 4k mile trip in August of 2010 and cooked at several friends and family’s homes along the way.

2013 saw a major change in my life when I got laid off from a decent job I had figured I would be retiring from. 3 weeks later my wife was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. My Weber collecting came to an abrupt halt.

I sold off a few but still have about 13 hanging around here in various places. I started a new business in 2014 and it is doing very well and I am now going to build a dedicated BBQ kitchen in the back yard next year.

2015 I saw a local casino was offering a Rib Cook Off with a $40 entry fee and they provided the meat. No brainer for me! I called a friend and we entered. We actually won the BGE that was the grand prize! Now this is funny. We had NEVER cooked together. I sent him my rub recipe and he came up with an apple and habanero jelly based sauce. We have never been able to duplicate the sauce… and we never entered another contest. I sold the BGE though as I did not want it and needed the money at the time. My van needed the transmission rebuilt and that was now my mobile locksmith shop.

For the last 6 years I cook for the Ham Radio club I belong to at our annual Field Day in June. They love my pulled pork using a recipe I modified from this site. I still cook regularly, but have not judged in a couple years as I have been too busy. My youngest goes off to college in 2 years and my wife wants to join me on the judging scene when we will have time to do so. My friend that won with me is hooked and is both KCBS and PNWBA certified now and goes to as many comps as he can.

Last weekend saw 4 racks of ribs and today was a batch of chicken legs on the OTG.

I mentally thank Chris often for getting me on the right track with this site. And I also had a blast down memory lane writing as I had completely forgot about my grandfather and his home made chimney.

That $15 Red Head? It turned out to be a 1972 and I retired it once I found out it was that old.
 
Sheldon great to read about your wife's wonderful news... I remember my Grandpa Uncle and Dad all had homemade chimneys but they where made out of unused steel paint cans that the hardware store use to sell.
 
When I was growing up we had a few of the cheap grills that barely last one season, so grilling was not a big thing in our family. The fact that my mother insisted on covering the grate with foil for easier cleanup meant that the burgers we got might as well have been cooked in a frying pan on the stove.

When I got married I wanted a Weber, and bought an 18-inch kettle when a local store had them on sale. I used it for 30+ years. In the meantime I wanted to try barbecue, so I bought a Brinkmann smoker and spent untold hours modifying it to the point that I could make good ribs and pulled pork, but it required a lot of babysitting. Eventually I saw the light and got an 18.5 WSM.

About 10 years ago I saw a green 22-inch kettle (One Touch Gold), new in box, for $75 at one of those "damaged freight" places and jumped on the deal. The lid had several bad chips in the porcelain and when I called Weber to ask what kind of high-temp paint would be best to touch up the damage the CSR insisted on sending me a new lid, free of charge. That became my go-to grill.

Fairly recently I found a Pizza-Cue on sale, and decided to make my original 18-inch kettle a dedicated pizza cooker, but before I could it went down from a rusted off leg socket. Rather than try to fix it I parted it out and bought another 22-inch kettle via Craigslist.

So now I have two 22" kettles and an 18.5 inch WSM. I would like to add a Performer but lack of space makes this unlikely unless I see a really great deal, in which case I could sell my wife's car to free up half the garage. ;)
 
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In the early 60s, my dad had a cheap tripod charcoal grill with a half round chamber attachment, which could take a rotisserie, which he eventually bought.
He used an electric wand starter, and buried the leftover charcoal in some gravel or whatever he had as the base.
I still have the Weenie Wheel spit attachment he used for hot dogs.

So i learned to like grilling at an early age.

When first married, we couldn't afford a real Weber, but i found a Meco swinger grill, end of year sale for $25, circa 1975. Still have it and use it.
Borrowed a friend's 22 inch kettle one thanksgiving to roast a turkey, managed to get it done OK, and resolved to someday get a weber kettle.
With a new house, eventually made the plunge for a 26 inch flattop kettle, did a 30 lb turkey on it the next thanksgiving.
Then years later inherited a 22 inch one touch gold, no one else wanted it.
Then craigslist came along, and picked up another 22 inch kettle one touch gold.
...and then a 22 inch WSM.
...and another Meco (for a spare?)

I have used as many as 4 grills at once, depending on what is cooking, how many guests are coming, etc.
Have done pizza with the kettle pizza, at same time as two chickens on the kettle roto, at same time as ribs on the WSM, and sausages and veggies on the Meco.

Mine is a mixed marriage, I use both Kingsford blue and also assorted chunk charcoal.
Why Charcoal?
I try to explain to gas users that charcoal gives a hotter fire when doing things like veggies (asparagus, green beans, squash, carrots, etc.).
Let alone it feels more like you're actively cooking. You're more involved.
 
I grew up in a Weber house. Dad has had a kettle for a long as I can remember. Growing up, and still today, that man makes my favorite London Broil. I've gotten good at it, too, but nowhere near as good as his come out. After college, I moved up to the great state of Maine. I loved living up there. It was so beautiful. But, it seemed like everyone up there grilled on propane. From time to time, I'd get nostalgic for the flavor of charcoal. But, it seemed like there was never any charcoal grills or charcoal up there. So, I made do with a crappy gasser. Didn't matter that much to me at the time, just as long as I could grill. I got some funny looks and some snarky comments one time when it was snowing at about an inch an hour and I was out grilling.

Anyways, married...moved back to Florida...finally got a house. Got a cheap gas grill that rusted out quickly. I knew then that it was time to go back to my roots. I had to convince the wife that charcoal tastes better than propane and that the Weber kettle was a better product for less money than any of the gassers in our price range at our stores. Since I was only cooking for the two of us, I bought the 18" kettle. After that first cook, the wife admitted that I was right and that charcoal was better. I had it for a year before I played around with making some ribs on it. They were really good, but obviously there wasn't going to be enough space for more ribs if we had more than just the two of us for dinner. So, I convinced her that I needed the 22" kettle.

Following some of Jamie Purviance's recipes got me some really great cooks under my belt. I did several great prime ribs, more ribs and a whole mess of steak. A few years ago, I tried to smoke something on the 22" kettle using mesquite. I seriously thought I did something majorly wrong because it tasted awful. So, I left the world of smoking and returned to my comfort zone. Last summer, I decided to try my hand at pulled pork. I changed the wood up to hickory this time and tweaked two of Jamie's recipes to come up with the rub I wanted. I did a couple more butts over the next several months. Those cooks were big successes.

In January, we discovered this new BBQ joint. The food was so tender, juicy, and not overpowered by smoke. I took the wife there and she loved it too. So, I got fascinated with the idea of smoking again. And she thought that I could learn to make food as good as their's. We ate there literally every Saturday from the end of January until the past month. A few weeks ago the wife went grocery shopping and came back with two whole chickens and a pound or so of wings. I told her that I wanted to experiment with smoking one of the chickens and the wings and found some maple wood. The smoked beer can chicken and the wings over the maple wood came out phenomenal. It was at that point that I decided I wanted a smoker so I can do some big hunks slow and low. I think what might have sold her was my promise to learn to make her some good brisket. So, last week my 18" WSM found her way home. So, that's how I ended up with an 18" kettle, a 22" kettle, and an 18" WSM. Looking forward to learning more from y'all about how to use it and sharing the cooking fun (regardless of whether the results are good or bad. :) )
 
You ever take a good look at yourself and realize you've unwittingly become a fan boy? Yeah, happened to me with Webers.

Back when we bought the house I had purchased a Char-Broil gasser. Not one of the super cheap ones, but it was workable, even if I rarely used it.

Eventually I realized I almost never used the thing and wanted to get rid of it in favor of a switch to charcoal. I gave that thing to my parents (where it's been ever since, even though it's almost reached the end of its run) and bought my Performer.

The Performer didn't get used all that much over its first few years either. Maybe a couple times a year. Then last year I decided I wanted to get serious about learning to grill- a Weber Grill Academy had opened up in the (relatively) nearby Weber Grill Restaurant, so between reading and learning on my own and a few classes there, I was doing good work on that Performer.

Then I realized I wanted to start smoking. So I looked at WSMs, but just couldn't pull the trigger. Then I saw a 22" WSM for sale about an hour away- it was brand new/unused and a few bucks under retail, so I went ahead and bought that. That was a good move, it expanded my horizons quite a bit.

I realized that sometimes I might need to add some lit charcoal to the WSM when my Performer was also in use, so I got on Amazon and ordered the Smokey Joe. I don't use it much, but it does come in handy from time to time.

A few months later, I was finding that sometimes it wasn't easy to cook multiple items on that Performer. Not for space reasons, but because getting major temperature change on a charcoal grill doesn't happen fast. So we looked at gassers, and I ended up getting natural gas run out to my patio and added the Genesis EP-310.

The Performer and Genesis are a fantastic combo and worked extraordinarily well for me, with occasional use of the WSM for some pulled pork, ribs, or other nice smoked meat. Then last winter I had a cook where I was fighting that WSM the entire time- it was cold and windy and keeping temps in the desired range took a lot of work. The results were still great, but it got me thinking.

This last spring I had some (well, a bit more than some) spare money and decided to go talk to my Weber dealer. I had looked at some kamados and was thinking about a Kamado Joe. Well, I'd also been drooling over the WSC, but wasn't sure about spending that kind of cash (I was looking at a smaller KJ). One thing led to another and then I was loading a Summit Charcoal into my truck.

So now my patio has a Performer, Genesis, and Summit Charcoal out there. I wheel the WSM out when needed (a few casters makes life much easier). It's one big happy Weber family out there. Tonight I'll try my hand at pizzas on the WSC.
 
1. A 2002 Weber One Touch 18.5 kettle. This was my first Weber. It now serves as a firepit in the winter. I have modified it with a drum from a washer machine and a chimney in the lid. It seems no matter how I abuse it, it just refuses to die!

2. A 1997 red 22,5 kettle. This one I inherited from my father in law, when the our family outgrew the 18,5 kettle. It is currently tucked away in the garage.

3. A Weber Go Anywhere. I bought it as soon as I saw it. Perfect for hotdogs and burgers on the beach!

4. A Q120. I rescued this one from a neighbor a few years ago. He was about to toss it because it did not work. A couple of hours of cleaning later, it was working just fine! This one gets used every summer when we go camping in our caravan. Small size and conveniently gas powered makes it perfect for this job.

5. A Weber Q3200. This is the best grill i have ever owned. The size and ease of use has opend a whole new world of grilling for me. I feel confident enough to test out new recipes as I know that temperature control is going to easy. I also think the results get better than ever! Before I bought this grill the season up here in the arctic we used to grill from April to August. Now we grill all year round. This year I have grilled several times in blizzards and in temperatures below 14 degrees Fahrenheit. The best thing about this is that the beer just keeps getting colder and colder!
 
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