Drone and I are planning to buy a propane grill after years for loyalty to the Webber kettle. We would love to get suggestions on what we should look for. We don't want to spend a ton of money, around $500? Is that a good goal?

The basic Weber three-burner model will do anything you ask of it. It's now designated the Spirit E310 and can be had for less than $400 online.

I have a Webber Genesis Silver and love it: sturdy construction; thick, solid grates; thermometer. My only complaint is that the front to back placement of the three burners (rather than side to side) can make indirect cooking a bit difficult in certain circumstances.

Webers are certainly good, but I'd also recommend you take a look at Vermont Castings. Their grills are very high quality, but you're not paying the premium for the name and marketing of the Weber brand. I bought a Vermont Castings last year from Home Depot, and have been very happy with it. Heavy cast iron construction for key components. Heats up quickly and holds the heat well. And about $100 less than the comparable Weber.

http://www.weber.com/bbq/pub/grill/2005/charcoal/cg_p.aspx

This is the grill you want- all the benefits of charcoal, but with the ease of lighting of propane. Use a cheap disposable propane tank (I get mine for about 3 bucks from Ace hardware) that will last you quite a long time and fire your coals up for about 5 minutes- in about 5 minutes you have a smokin hot grill ready to go that can do anything you need it to.

Oh and it's a lot cheaper than 500- I paid about 275 or so + shipping + 40 for a cover for it. I use cowboy charcoal in it or sometimes the whole foods brand hardwood.

Man this is the grill I have been looking at for the last few weeks. All the review I have read are pretty postive. I think I am going to buy it this weekend. How long have you been using it? I was thisclose to buying a gas grill until I saw this one.

The one year anniversary of my grill is in a few weeks. I use it at least 2 times a month, though during summer it gets a workout about 3 nights a week.

If you get really good at planking salmon you'll never go back to eating salmon the same way again. It's very easy to put together from the box- so don't worry about that. The only very minor complaint I've had about this thing is that the cover tends to come off in a heavy wind, thus I've come to keep it without the cover on all that much. One of the nicest things is that it protects a bag of charcol in its bin very cleanly. It's an extremely well designed grill and it's pretty cheap on amazon.com

As usual, I will proselytize on behalf of at least one infrared burner, for quickly searing-off meats. Charcoal sears via infrared, and this is the one place where conventional gas burners are simply inadequate, even with a long pre-heat and a bed of lava rocks. Once seared, you can use conventional burners to complete the roasting.

Is there a drip tray? If you're grilling something really fatty, where does excess grease end up?

Are replacement parts available? Look at the engineering and construction of the gas piping. Is it well-supported to avoid placing excess strain on the welds and fittings? Is it all hardline until it fully exits the grill body? Are the gas valves in a protected location? This may seem like a minor point, but even some premium grills get this wrong...you don't want to deal with a runaway grill fire that has overheated and melted the gas controls save for the regulator and cutoff on the bottle itself.

eta: Per their latest flyer, Lowe's now carries hybrid grills with one infrared burner starting at $499 for the "Perfect Flame" brand, but $700-1000 is where the majority of them are priced. Char-Broil has licensed TEC's new flareup-resistant burner technology for their 2007 line of grills. I haven't examined them myself.

Like jpschust, I have a Weber Performer charcoal grill and it will take an awful lot to get me to go back to a gas grill. The Performer is available at Strosniders Hardware (there's one in downtown Silver Spring) for $299. The convenience of the propane starter is nice....BUT....my starter gave out within a year. On top of that, I found that the small baskets that Weber provides don't really have enough capacity for me. So I went to a standard chimney starter. No propane needed whatsoever and I think it lights the charcoal just as quickly (if not quicker).

This one is for ol' ironstomach - I would agree on the need for an infrared searing burner on a gas grill. Do you think infrared burners are superior to the heat generated by charcoal? I can get a decent char with charcoal (without resorting to throwing the meat directly on the coals) but it doesn't come close to what I'm sure places like Ray's have. What's your experience with infrared? I may have to add a fourth grill to my deck!

Oh, and I tried Char-Broil's hybrid grills a few years ago. Nah. For charcoal, it's gotta be a kettle grill.

Absolutely not. Fiorentina, the gold standard of grilled steak, is prepared over a small amount of charcoal which has been stoked to "thermonuclear" with a small bellows or blower immediately before. In fact, I looooooove charcoal...I'm just usually too lazy to wait for the coals to heat up, or to burn out. For me, gas is strictly a matter of convenience. Mine (first-gen TEC, 37000 btu/h from two emitters) is ready in two minutes. It shuts down immediately, and cools off unattended while I eat. I never have to schedule cooking around adding more fuel if I'm grilling for 15.

You've got me beat with three grills; I just keep one charcoal kettle and one gas unit. Next up will either be a smoker or a Caja China.


Do you mean the charcoal/gas hybrid? I was referring to their new gas burner/gas infrared hybrid.

Oh, my bad. I meant their charcoal/gas hybrid. It was a nice idea (and a better ad campaign) but it wasn't really pragmatic. It was difficult to get a decent drip tray down there and there wasn't room for a good amount of charcoal.

My third grill is indeed a smoker which has only been used for brisket, ribs, and salmon. I need to branch out more. And I hear you on the "cooking for 15" thing. It's almost like a dance trying to work out different courses and levels of doneness. But...having a chimney starter (or two) really does make it easy to replenish your coals. Oh, and maybe some silicon gloves.

I have had one of these for over 12 years and it is still going strong. Whenever, because of abuse or misuse, I need to replace some part, Weber comes through. I will say that I really like the cast iron grate insert grill that I think came either from Weber or Williams Sonoma, but I think is no longer available. It works like a champ. I can get it ready to slap meat on in about 15-20 minutes.

I just bought a new gas grill up at BBQ Galore. It is their 4 burner in house Captain Cook ($639), So far I am really happy with it.

I would like to take a poll - Does anyone really use the grill cover and cover the grill for bad weather? If yes, all the time or just during a storm?

I try to keep mine covered, but that said as I mentioned above my cover is very light and comes off a lot- thus the grill ends up uncovered a lot.

A datapoint from the countryside. YMMV.

Pros: keeps leaves and bird shit off the grill. slows dirt accumulation. reduces oxidation of plastic and painted surfaces.

Cons: leaks. stitching fails due to UV degradation. provides shelter for field mice (and nesting material, if flock-lined). lightweight covers get blown off in strong winds. have to store it somewhere while cooking, and can't replace until grill cools.

I leave mine off during the height of grilling season, but try to use them over autumn and winter, or if that grill isn't going to see any use for an extended period. The mouse thing tends to be more of an occasional problem with the gas grill's many nooks and crannies...the charcoal kettle just seals up so there's nothing of interest to them. Probably not as much of an issue if you don't back onto a 20-acre farmer's field.

I keep mine covered all the time. It really only takes an hour or so for my Weber to cool off enough to cover. I don't live far enough out in the boonies to really have a field mice problem. My bigger concerns are leaves and other tree detritus.

Who would have thought that of all of the things to worry about when coming home from vacation it would be that a f@#*ing squirrel took out my propane grill. One of those furry tailed bastards chewed an inch and a half long hole in my gas hose.

You probably already know this (since you didn't solicit help) but most propane stores, the Hank Hill/King of the Hill "Propane and Propane Accessories" type of store, will cut you an appropriate length of hose with the proper fittings, regulator, etc., quicker and cheaper than going through the grill dealer.

I had always just gotten my refills/exchanges at Home Depot or a gas station but I wandered into one of these joints one time lured by the low price on the sign as I was driving by, and found out that they do this sort of stuff too. Which allowed me to set up my propane tank a couple feet further from my cajun cooker, probably paranoid but I like the fuel being further than 2 feet from all that hot peanut oil and flame.....