I’ll let Steve post specifics if he has some time later, but we’re going to be in the market for a new grill. We have a large-ish 6 year old Kenmore stainless steel grill with a natural gass hook-up to the house. It needs some replacement parts, and they’re going to cost almost as much as the grill cost to begin with. We used to have a Weber Kettle, but it takes so long to get it going. We’ve seen Webers with propane starters-- does anyone know if there’s a charcoal grill with a natural gas starter out there? As long as we have the hook-up, why use propane?
I’ve seen a lot of references to the Big Green Egg around here. Any thoughts on that? We grill burgers, steaks, sausages, chicken… occasionally we grill pizza, fruits, vegetables… but I don’t see us doing any heavy duty smoking. Is the BGE overkill?
If the Weber Performer (gas starter) has a regular propane connector you ought to be able to get a conversion kit for it from NWNG. I almost bought one but it didn’t use the big propane bottles, it used little LP bottles and a quick look at the Weber site says they’re good for 14 starts. What a waste. For all I know the connectors are different, though Amazon shows a photo of one hooked up to a regular, five-gallon LP bottle.
I’ve never seen any other charcoal grill with a gas starting mechanism.
I bought the Performer a couple of months ago. Extremely happy with it. Do have the small LP tank hooked up to it. Have started it up a good dozen times…still on the first tank. Don’t understand the issue Bob. Why not just buy 2 LP tanks at a time (my local Target has them for around $6-7 per two)? Or is it the waste of tanks? Aren’t those recyclable?
I have a primo grill. http://www.primogrill.com/home.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
it is very similar to the big green egg. Please consider this as the best choice possible.
They grill super hot for steaks and maintain moisture is items that tend to be dry Ie, chicken breasts.
Also great for pork butt and I’ve even made a 20lb turkey on it.
Having a backup is always a good idea with a finite source of propane, but those guys are really expensive compared to what it costs to fill up one of these. The smaller the container the higher the price, that’s all.
extra large.
They are easy to start and give a whole lot of options on cooking. My husband thought I was crazy to buy it but he has fallen in love…with the grill and me. Hopefully not in that order.
Appreciate all the ideas and suggestions. Although we’re going to have to get used to waiting for charcoal to get going, I think the most attractive idea is one of the super-insulated kettles like BGE or the Primo. I like the idea of using natural wood fuel, the temperature ranges they offer, and their relatively affordable cost.
If we were grilling 12 months out of the year, I might be looking at a higher performance kinda thing, but I think for our rather modest needs, the kettle is the way to go.