Whats the best barbecue to buy?

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Weber makes some awesome stuff. We prefer using propane, simply because it makes the process so much easier. Instead of using the grill only on the occasional weekend, we use it several times each week. Building a charcoal fire just to cook a couple of burgers is not something that we want to deal with. We have a Char-Broil Commercial Series gas grill and love it.

Also, the current issue of Consumer Reports tests lots of different propane grills.
 
You can't go wrong with Weber. As far as gas or charcoal, it's all a mater of taste. Most people prefer the taste of cooking over charcoal or wood, but some foods, like steak need to be cooked over very high heat and gas is ideal for that. Gas is obviously more convenient as well.
 
is the Kettle barbecue the way to go?

I have friends from Zimbabwe that only cook in Big Oil drums and pour beer over the flames (seems a waste of beer to me)

They do cook like Half a pig at a time..LOL

I live in the UK and Barbecues are Exciting to us over hear (Only time the man does the cooking)LOL
 
With a charcoal chimney, I can get a charcoal grill ready in the same time my napoleon gas unit takes to warm up. True, there is more maintenance to a charcoal grill, and more cleanup, but that means more beer drinking time. :) I like the convenience of having both. Its easier to cook in the rain on the gas unit.
 
I've got the older version of this: http://www.academy.com/index.php?page=c ... 02219-3361

The only difference i can see in mine and this unit is the pull out ash pan on the smoker side.

I use it for a grill all the time in the larger kettle side, a bit of a pain to clean all the ashes out but I can usually grill three or four times before I have to clean it out.

Also, it works awesome as a smoker! I've done pounds and pounds of pulled pork, brisket, fish, etc...

I call it my 2 in 1 :)
 
I gave up on charcoal a long time ago for the convenience of gas. If I want a wood taste (without the charcoal starter taste!) in my food I put some moistened wood chips in a smoker box in the grill and l close the grill lid. I prefer the mesquite chips. If you don't have a smoker box you can just wrap the damp chips in aluminum foil, poke some holes in the foil, and place it on the grill.
 
I love to grill so I bought the Weber Summit Platinum. This thing is awesome! It has a side mounted burner and a smoker. It cooks perfectly everytime. Also Webers customer service is top notch. I had a low end Weber before and it got picked up by the wind and thrown off my deck. At the time I couldn't buy a new one so I called Weber to buy parts and they sent me out brand new ones without even charging me. It was clearly out of warranty but they were so cool about it. I say Weber all the way!
 
The wood chips work pretty good on a gas grill to add a little extra flavor. I think a wood plank might do even better, though I've never used one.

If you use charcoal and your food tastes like lighter fluid, then you are not letting the coals burn long enough before putting on your food.
 

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SeanB said:
If you use charcoal and your food tastes like lighter fluid, then you are not letting the coals burn long enough before putting on your food.
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I'd certainly agree with that. If you're using lighter fluid, be sure to let the coals get good and hot before putting your food on the the grill. You can also use an alternative such as the charcoal chimney(mentioned above) or a blowtorch on the coal pile. I use my MAPP gas blowtorch with good results.

happy grill hunting!
dan
 
Yeah thats pretty crafty waterbear, my smoker box upgrade was 150$ when I bought my grill. Wish I had known that before. The lighter fluid taste is a huge issue with grilling. Although I agree when you have the time to grill properly it is a better taste but actually studies show cooking with gas is safer due to the carcinogens being released during grilling over coals. But I sure do loooove the taste of those carcinogens :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
I've never used lighter fluid, we go through one or two of these a season (yes, I bbq A LOT) they work great, throw a pile of charcoal on them, plug in, 15 minutes perfect flame, 10/15 more and perfect for grilling! I also use it to start the smoker, get some lump charcoal, put a couple of pieces of wood in there, plug in...done!

https://www.hardwareworld.com/Electric- ... NHAQH.aspx

You can get them at Lowes not sure about home depot or wal-mart, been over 7 years since I've ever shoped at either. Lowes and Target always has everything we need, their closer and better customer service! :D
 
I use gas for grilling. I like the taste of food cooked over charcoal, but like even better the convenience that gas provides. I also use gas fired smokers, but use some charcoal with them for flavor and for igniting the smoke wood. Now that I think about it, I guess you could use a couple of charcoal briquets with a gas grill for flavor as well. I'll have to try that, next time I throw some burgers on.

Best way I've found to light off a chimney of charcoal is to put 5 or 6 of the instant light briquets in the bottom of the chimney, and then finish filling up the chimney with regular briquets. Word of warning - whatever you do, do not use only instant light briquets with a charcoal chimney!! Your chimney will look like the business end of a jet engine! (Don't ask me how I know this.. :shock: )
 
My recommendation is to buy something that you will use. If your new to it all, buy something that is easy and convenient. That probably means gas or electric. If you find you really like it and want to invest more time into it then you can move to something charcoal related.

You can make very good BBQ on any of them.
 
The better grills can be purchased at those BBQ specialty stores like Barbeques Galore. We bought a Barbeques Galore Captain Cook model 12 years ago and it still works great. Certainly not even close to their top model but excellent nonetheless. They are a little more pricey than going and getting a grill from Lowe's but their stuff will last longer and when things wear out and need replacing, you can always get them right again because they have all the parts available.

One thing to consider if you have natural gas is to have a gas jet installed outside. We did this on a new construction home previously and it is the greatest thing ever to not have to worry about ever running out of gas in the middle of a cookout. Any decent gas grill can be fitted with a simple conversion kit to go from propane to regular natural gas. You switch out the flex line and the Venturi nuts (NG requires larger lumen "holes") and that is that.

Now for a real opinion and it is just my $0.02, but when I do steaks, I only do them on charcoal. It's a taste thing. I've tried adding wood chips and all that jazz for the gas grill and it just isn't as good as the flavor you get with charcoal no matter what anyone says. For that reason, I still have an old Weber kettle out back for steaks. If I remember, whenever I go out to the ranch, I try to bring back some mesquite wood. Lighting that stuff up in the Weber and letting it burn down into coal is just the BEST for steaks.

Craig
 
SeanB said:
I'm shopping for a new smoker. My starter model is starting to burn out on the firebox already. It gets the job done, but it doesn't hold the heat well which makes it tought to keep a consistant temperature.

I'll be buying a much better one this time.
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Sean,

I saw an ad for an Orion OC-1 smoker in my last issue of Popular Mechanics. They sell them at Home Depot for about $140, they're charcoal fired, made of stainless steel, and supposedly create a convection cooking chamber by placing hot coals around the base and in the chimney of the unit. Here's the link to the manufacturer's website:

linky

I was sorely tempted to get one, but the DW reminded me that I have three smokers already, and don't have room for a fourth. Hmmm...maybe I need to let one sit in the rain and rust out too... :wink:

Edit: Oops! It wasn't an ad, it was a test drive by the PM staff. There's a .pdf of the article on the website as well.
 

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