Grill Recommendations

jonTheFisherman

jonTheFisherman

Steelhead
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In the market for a new do-all grill for the back patio. Propane, charcoal, pellet, whatever. I'm open any and all suggestions. If you could have one grill to do it all what would it be? I've got room for one, to ideally handle everything from low & slow to general grilling. Anyone have any favorites, or dream machines that get their juices flowing? I'm currently eyeing them fancy new Traeger's...
 
I have both the Weber Performer and the Genesis-both excellent. Grills are like boats though-one is never enough. And like fly rods in that you can spend a fortune on one and never cast well or cook as well as a guy with a $100 Weber Kettle.

Some other things to consider are that there are so many aftermarket accessories for Weber due to it's enormous popularity. And parts are readily available for them as well which can really stretch out the life span of a grill. And finally, a lot of grill makers have come and gone since Weber started up but they remain at the top of the popular priced heap-they simply work damned well.
 
I went with a Napoleon...very happy with it, and the 1800 degree sear station. We do steaks, the sear station rocks...
I have a smoker, so while we dont need low and slow, we use it for grilled whole chickens and lamb legs.
I looked at Weber, have owned Webers, but in the end, this was a better product for us.

Recommend.

Napoleon is a Canadian company, with parts readily available and a damn good warranty, better than Webers.




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I really like my Weber Q3200 propane grill. Very durable cast aluminum lid and body, heavy porcelain coated cast iron grates, and easy to adjust heating.

As for service....a contractor once dropped a heavy board from the deck above on one of the grill's side wing tables and snapped it clean off. Contacted Weber to buy a replacement part and they sent me one free of charge.
 
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I have had a weber genesis for about 10 years. it's a solid grill, does pretty well, but I think it actually needs about 8-10K more BTU for it's surface area. If you throw a half king fillet on it, or a whole coho, with some potatoes and veggies, really filling the surface area, you sort of max out it's heat production and everything cooks slower than optimal. I have to batch out cooking in that situation, so I now think the genesis burners are a bit underpowered.
 
Stonedfish said:
I’ve been extremely happy with my Weber Genesis if you don’t mind propane.
SF
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I’ve got a Genesis in Natural gas and will throw in a vote for that one as a general purpose grill. I guess the real question is, since I’ve been drooling over those new Traeger’s, can those things actually serve as a general purpose grill for burgers etc.? I know from experience that the Genesis and similar won’t smoke a brisket satisfactorily and I’m looking to avoid doubling up on the new deck. Any votes for a Kamado style?

The convenience of electric start and temp regulation (and fancy tech) sounds dreamy to me, and steered me away from charcoal about 15 years ago, but if a traeger can’t grill a decent burger then I’m back to doubling up for my smoked meats with separate grill and smoker and won’t bother. And if a kamado/green egg takes the hassle out of temp management, then charcoal could be back in the running, although I have my doubts.

Thanks for the replies!
 
copperJon said:
I’ve got a Genesis in Natural gas and will throw in a vote for that one as a general purpose grill. I guess the real question is, since I’ve been drooling over those new Traeger’s, can those things actually serve as a general purpose grill for burgers etc.? I know from experience that the Genesis and similar won’t smoke a brisket satisfactorily and I’m looking to avoid doubling up on the new deck. Any votes for a Kamado style?

The convenience of electric start and temp regulation (and fancy tech) sounds dreamy to me, and steered me away from charcoal about 15 years ago, but if a traeger can’t grill a decent burger then I’m back to doubling up for my smoked meats with separate grill and smoker and won’t bother. And if a kamado/green egg takes the hassle out of temp management, then charcoal could be back in the running, although I have my doubts.

Thanks for the replies!
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I’ve had a Weber Spirit for at least 5-6 years now and it’s been great. I am intrigued by the Recteq pellet grills, but I don’t know anybody who has ever used one and I haven’t seen one in person.
 
The folks I know with Kamado -style cookers sure like them. Kinda like the people with Webers. I’m not sure a Kamado or anything else that uses burning wood or charcoal is any less effort to run well.

If you want an outdoor appliance, get a high end pellet rig with Wi-Fi control. I’ve seen some that look pretty legit for high temp jobs as well as smoking meat.
 
troutpocket said:
I’m not sure a Kamado or anything else that uses burning wood or charcoal is any less effort to run well.
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My thought exactly, despite owners stating the contrary.

troutpocket said:
If you want an outdoor appliance, get a high end pellet rig with Wi-Fi control. I’ve seen some that look pretty legit for high temp jobs as well as smoking meat.
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Even the highest end Traeger states max temp 500 degrees. You have any examples?
 
Hmmm, maybe there just isn't a one size fits all option. Those recteq's look promising, but those pellet grills all have min temp setting of 180. Anybody out there smoking fish on a pellet grill? Recteq has a smokebox sold separately for their larger models, but maybe I'm just chasing a unicorn...
 
For my 25th wedding anniversary I bought a Weber Genesis as a present for us. 15 years later it is still going strong. I cook year round on it.

I bought a Genesis model Gen 1 with 3 burner tubes going from side to side rather than 5 burner tubes going front to back. It has enough cooking surface to support fairly large groups gathering at our place. Room for lots of hotdogs, sausages, chicken, cedar planking of a whole salmon on 2 planks, etc. I prefer the side to side burner tubes so that I can cook with indirect heat by turning off the middle burner tube. I especially like the burner tube configuration for cooking boneless leg of lamb. The Genesis is great for cooking low and slow. It maintains a temp of 220 degrees with little effort at all. I rarely use all three burner tubes. Two burner tubes stays at 400 degrees quite easily - summer or winter.

I was fortunate that Weber provided a 25 year warranty on many parts of the grill. They have lots of parts in inventory and they ship quickly. I recently sent in a picture of the cabinet bottom that had rust issue and a claim against the warranty. Less than a week later they sent out a replacement. No cost! My understanding is the warranty is now 15 years. They build a great product and back it with parts readily available - even during the pandemic.

The Genesis is not a great smoker even with add-ons. But that is not what I wanted. I wanted a grill that cooks things easily and consistently. I was sick and my SIL was tasked to cook on it. I told her heat to this temp, put steaks on for this long, flip and cook this long and pull and let rest. They came out perfectly.

Now my wife knows how easy it is to grill on it. DRAT! My secret has been revealed...
 
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I had a small Traeger and so gave my Weber gas grill to my son, big mistake. The Traeger does not do hamburgers well unless you sear them on the stove or some other way. I got rid of the Traeger and have a Kamodo-type. Much more work than a gas grill as you got to get it started, and there is a learning curve as well but I can do burgers and steaks and also slow smoke things. Bought some accessories that make clean up much easier (Kick-Ash basket) and I use a propane torch to start the charcoal quickly.
 
I have a larger Weber Summit grill that I bought in 2011 and it's still going strong. I replaced the flarvorizer (sp?) about 3 years ago but otherwise, everything is still working great. I cover it after every use regardless of the weather so that has helped a lot. I also grill probably 3 to 5 nights per week. It was an investment for sure but I would have gone through 2 or 3 other cheaper grills in the last 11 years. I suspect this still has another 11 left in it. The nice thing about Weber is you can always get parts.
 
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copperJon said:
Hmmm, maybe there just isn't a one size fits all option. Those recteq's look promising, but those pellet grills all have min temp setting of 180. Anybody out there smoking fish on a pellet grill? Recteq has a smokebox sold separately for their larger models, but maybe I'm just chasing a unicorn...
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I have not used a Rec Teq w/ a side smoker box but I have a Pitts & Spitts 1250 with side box and it works great for cold smoking. It runs about 100 degree lower than the main chamber. Works great for Salmon! The Pitts & Spitts is a much larger smoker than the Rec Teq but I'd assume the side box work in a similar fashion?

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@Aleforme when you say "cold smoke" do you mean your standard salmon candy stuff? I generally start my hot smoke salmon at about 140 for an hour, then start gradually raising temp to a finish at 200 to minimize the white goop (albumin).
 
copperJon said:
@Aleforme when you say "cold smoke" do you mean your standard salmon candy stuff? I generally start my hot smoke salmon at about 140 for an hour, then start gradually raising temp to a finish at 200 to minimize the white goop (albumin).
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I've done both. Cold and Hot smoke and the side box works great for either. Mainly Hot smoke for Salmon though. I do a lot of sausage via a lower temp cold smoke. Cheese as well.
 
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