Gas Grill Struggle

[Pat]

I have plumbed my walk out basement patio with propane to run a gas grill. So... I need a grill... so I read the latest Consumer Reports magazine's reviews of grills A-N-D listen to wife's admonition to get a good big one.

I read the reviews and go with a highly rated unit by Blue Ember. It is on sale at Lowe's for $100 off so it is "ONLY" $800 (she had cut an ad out of a magazine and when I researched the depicted grill it was over $4,000!!!) Not in stock at the closest store so off to Norman, Oklahoma the home of OU. Buy grill, they load it, and we take it home and BIL helps me unload it.

It has 4 main burners, a rotisserie burner, and an external burner not under the lid. The rotisserie burner doesn't light with the electric spark ignition(this grill plugs into the wall for electricity) The external burner doesn't light. I "manually" adjust the spark electrodes of the rotisserie burner and it works OK. Ditto the external burner. The LCD computer screen is defective. We fire up the main burners and try to grill some steaks and fresh pineapple hunks. Pineapple gets warm and after an hour the steaks are discolored but require microwave to get to medium for SIL.

The thermometer in the lid started at 100F with the unit off and barely made it to 300 with all 4 main burners.

I return the unit for a refund (no replacement in stock) and go to Moore, OK 10 minutes away to get another of these highly rated units. Take it home after buying the extended warranty which gives me in home service instead of carry in.

The rotisserie burner doesn't light. The electrode holder for the external burner is loose and doesn't light the burner. The main burners work and rapidly bring the lid mounted thermometer to about 500 degrees. Since the spark doesn't light the rotisserie burner I use a flame to light it. WOW! The fire brick IR radiator thingy doesn't get a flame or make heat but flames shoot out the back of the grill and char some wires and stuff.

The two thermostats do work and yo can control the left two burners and right two burners independently. There is a removable separator to put in the middle to essentially make it into two half size grills for cooking things at different temps.

I call Lowe's #2 and we negotiate. The manager is very nice and the bottom like is they will deliver a 3rd unit to my patio (60 mile drive) and pick up the defective 2nd unit. I will test it before they leave.

Looking forward to the thermostatic controlled grilling with meat probe and such...when and if I get a good unit.

The unit has a smoke box to hold chips but I want to get a smoker as a separate unit, preferably a cold smoker, I think.

Any smoker recommendations?

Pat

[egon]

Back in another life we had one of these. As I recall it was reliable and had no defects. It also served as a smoke house! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[jimbrown]

Ahh So much for Consumer Reports. I haven't believed anything they say since they claimed Porches were unsafe do to poor handling.

Pat did the things come the regulator hose to use with bottled gas. If so and you are hooked into your home you should not need that regulator and it would cause poor burning.

Sounds like a really nice grill if you ever get one to work.

I can't wait to here the story of the delivery guy. Duhh you want me to hook this thing up!

When they built my outside kitchen thing the owner of the place personally built the grill area. Its made out of stuccoed blocks. He spent considerable time and effort to get the top perfectly level. The next day a couple of tile idiots came and covered the perfectly level top with some kind of tile cement and the thing wound up up wavey as the ocean.

[Pat]

Egon, I love the red shoes. He's not in Kansas anymore.

Jim, Right on about the regulator. I have my house set up with two stage regulation, first stage at the tanks and 2nd stages at points of entry to the house or point of consumption (standby generator.) The grill is set up to use a 20 lb bottle and has an ultrasonic fuel gage that updates every 30 seconds to show fuel remaining and at current consumption rate, the hours and minutes of fuel remaining.

I intend to go to a 20-25 ft hose and quick connects between the grill and nipple on the output of the ball valve on the patio, installed for grill hookup. The gas as supplied to the ball valve on the patio is already at 11 inches of water column so the restriction of the regulator on the hose that came plumbed into the grill would starve the grill for fuel. I will probably remove the supplied hose, regulator, and screw-on connection for mating to the 20 lb bottle and replace it with a quick connector.

By using multiple quick connectors I can choose to hook up to the house gas supply via the long hose or to a bottle via the original hose supplemented with a matching quick connector. Ah, redundant fuel supplies. I could, in fact, take the grill anywhere and bottle feed it or bypass the bottle and the hassle of refiling it and just run off the house's tanks (two each 1,000 gal tanks.)

All tests of the two grills (and counting) have been made with a bottle gas supply. I suspect the first grill was in some reduced flow rate malfunction. The four main burners are thermostatically controlled in pairs, 2 on the left and two on the right. I suspect they didn't get the unit sufficiently hot because they didn't turn on all the way but stayed in a low setting even though the user control knobs were in the MAX fuel position. Correct usage when using thermostatic control is to put the knobs in the max heat position and let the thermostat system manage the gas flow. This worked on unit #2 (and hopefully on the undelivered unit #3.)

I have faith that the grill couldn't be a dog design and get rated so highly. CR might run something down a bit unmercifully but they aren't in the habit of puffing something up beyond its actual performance. If this surmise is well founded then eventually by the luck of the draw and sufficient samples of the item, I should get a good one. Otherwise back to the study phase. For the same bucks I cold have got a little less grill but with a small electric frige built in.

Now to wait for cold smoker recommendations

Oh... my previous grill of 7 years standing is about a 20x20 inch charcoal grill on flimsy tube legs and a variable air vent in the lid and under the charcoal. It served well and is still in great shape but... SWMBO has spoken. Automatic gas grilling will undoubtedly be easier than managing the charcoal burner.

Pat

[egon]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
It served well and is still in great shape but... SWMBO has spoken. Automatic gas grilling will undoubtedly be easier than managing the charcoal burner.


[/ QUOTE ]

The Conundrum; first we attempt to emulated our ancestors by roasting meat outdoors using open fires minimally contained. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Then to enhance up the experience we keep adding modern devices till we end up up with a modern stove requiring no wood fuel that sits outside and requires a master chef to supervise the burning of the meat.! [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img]

Yet we have the impression of treading with the bare soles of our ancestors. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

A simple ring or platform of rocks with a nice fire surrounded by folks holding sticks with a piece of meat attached to the heat of the flames should sate all those base primordial cravings. [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img]

Each and every one is their own chef. Cutlery would be simple; a knife to cut the green stick and fingers to handle the meat as it is eaten. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

We complicate things needlessly! Just think of the joys of a child roasting/burning wieners and the delight with which they consume them.

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Bird]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
So much for Consumer Reports. I haven't believed anything they say since

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm with you, Jim. A Consumer Reports positive recommendation would be a minus instead of a plus to me, and a really big minus at that. Maybe that's one reason I don't read anything from Consumer Reports anymore because if I learned that they recommended something I was considering buying, I'd have to re-consider and do a lot more investigating. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

[jimbrown]

Egon in Europe they have a thing kinda what you describe for use in your house. It is a slab of granite usually about 12x18 in.

It sets on a stand and there is a burner under it. sterno or alcohol or something similar.

You cut up the assorted meat, vegiies, whatever in small pieces. put them in bowls. You usually have several sauces for dipping pre and after cooking.

Each person picks his items of choice and puts them on the slab and cooks them the way they want.

And of course drinks a little wine while it cooks.

[Bird]

Jim, that sounds a lot like a Mongolian BBQ or Mongolian Grill. Former neighbors used to have a 4th of July party each year and did the Mongolian BBQ. He said, in the original version, soldiers cooked the food on their shields over a fire. Of course, he simply had a big round flat piece of pretty thick steel that he set on the grill. I've tried the Mongolain BBQ at a couple of restaurants in our area and neither one was bad, but neither were they as good as we had at the neighborhood parties.

[egon]

I've eaten at several Mongolian Barbeque's type restaurants. No complaints. It's just a version of stir fry in my opinion.



But I'm thinking Pat should be installing a proper propane cooking stove that has the ability to Barbecue right in his kitchen! A commercial model no less! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

That would take all the guesswork out the chefs position as all would be based on thickness and time. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Egon, I'm sold, convince my wife!

Pat