Looking for 1st Grill for my House

[ofelles]

Welcome from the California Delta. You're getting some great advice.

[Mr. Bones]

True Dat, Brother!

...and you can’t go wrong with a Weber.

[Mr. Bones]

Can also usually find Smokey Joes fer ~$10-~$15 on CL, ime. I have seven of em, as proof lol.

[Donw]

I have the Spirit II 3 burner in stainless and it is a good all-around grill. I did buy grillgrates for it. I have other cookers but still appreciate the convenience of a gas grill for fast heat-up and quick meals.

[MBMorgan]

Welcome from Colorado ... and you can’t go wrong with a Weber.

[dshaffes]

I would agree with the recommendation to buy the Weber Spirit E-310. This will be a good foundation grill for you to get going. However, I would also buy a Weber Smoky Joe for $35 that you can use to experiment with charcoal grilling of steaks, burgers etc. If you are ok with the effort and like charcoal cooking, you could then invest in a larger grill and still have a portable grill for tailgating/camping with the Smoky Joe.

[FireMan]

Take a look at Dave’s (he’s a member- David Parrish ) SnS Kettle. It was just talked about last week. Get the kettle & the accessories. You’ll be in under 5 bills &!you can use the certificate for other goodies.

[jfmorris]

I bought a Weber Spirit II E-310 for my son last year, and its a good grill. I've got a Weber Genesis 2 burner bought in 2002 that is still working well. That one has been semi retired since I got a Weber Genesis II E-410 4 burner on clearance last year for $399 at Home Depot (lucky find).

I also have a Performer Deluxe, and love the gas ignition, and love cooking with charcoal more than gas. That said, if I want to cook a quick meal, nothing beats turning on the ignition on a gas grill and having it preheated and ready to go by the time I go gather up the meat, spices, tongs, etc, and head out to the grill. The Performer is great, but you have to accept an extra 30 minutes to get the charcoal going.

I have all my grills outfitted with Grillgrates, which do an excellent job of letting you cook either on the rail side for conventional grill marks, or the flat side for an all over sear. I use the flat side as a griddle for bacon, burgers, or a full sear on my steaks.

Tonight, I turned the Genesis grill on at 5pm, went inside, made 8 2" balls of ground beef, gathered the salt and pepper shakers, a spatula for smashing, a spatula for scraping and flipping, and 3 slices of cheese. By the time I got back outside, the grill was ready, and I had all the burgers done 10 minutes later. With the Performer I would have been waiting another 30 minutes to get the charcoal chimney going and the grill up to temperature.

I vote for the Spirit 3 burner for sheer convenience. You can always add a kettle later. If you don't have the money for a set of Grillgrates, which is highly recommended (keeps inside of grill cleaner, eliminates flareups and hot spots, great for searing), you can always use a cast iron skillet or cast iron griddle on top of the stock grates for those times you want a great sear. I used to blacken steaks on the stove, filling the house with smoke. I keep that kind of activity outside on the grill these days!

[Murdy]

Home depot also Carrie's Broil King, I am a big fan of the Monarch, good value at about $450. A weber kettle also makes sense, and is very affordable. Are you leaning towards charcoal or gas?

[Mr. Bones]

Howdy from Kansas Territory, Welcome to Th Pit!
Lookin forward to learnin along with, an from ya!

Reckon some smarter folks'll come along, soon, git ya steered in th right direction...

[RonB]

Welcome to The Pit. You will get a lot of opinions on this because everyone has their own preferences. It would help to know how many you might be cookin' for. A Weber kettle will feed four fairly easily, but if you will be entertaining a lot, you will be limited in what you can cook. HD can get a 26" Kettle, but you would have to order it. That will allow you to cook for more people.
If it's just three of you, a 22" Kettle would do nicely. The Performer with the table gives you somewhere convenient to set things, and the gas igniter makes it a lot easier and a bit faster to light the charcoal.

And charcoal cooked food just tastes better, (at least to me ). I do suggest getting a Slow N Sear for a Kettle though. It makes lots of things easier to do.

[mcook2201]

Greetings and welcome Davis from NC.

I just had a similar conversation with my B-n-L at Bragg. If I understand your funds right you have up to $700 total to spend? 500 + 200 gift card. If it were me and IMHO, I would go for the Spirit 310 (480 @ home depot) and add on a Weber Premium Kettle (165 @ HD) for my charcoal learning (the $65 is worth the upgrade from the standard kettle). With tax, looking around that 700 mark. In the future you can pick up a Lodge griddle for the Spirit if you want a quick 'flat-top griddle'.
Hope this may help.

[Nate]

If you are staying with the Home Depot option then Weber Gas grill or maybe camp chef pellet grill.

[Davis Berryman]

Hey y'all, as the title says, I came here looking to make up my mind on what grill I want (that's a loaded question, how about all of them?) and need for my house. After spending my 20s in sadly grill-less apartments, my family has a house and yard of our own and it's time to grill!

I've got around $500 to spend and would prefer something available at Home Depot since I've got a $200 gift card for a housewarming present specifically to buy a grill. At this point I'm deciding between a Weber Spirit II E-310, or a Weber Performer or just a MasterTouch or Premium Kettle. The Original PK almost won me over but just feels like I'd like the extra grill space a little more. I haven't cooked much on charcoal personally but would like to learn, although I'm a little concerned for the safety of my 3 year old running around outside while the grill's hot.

A couple other things of note, I love steak, and after a few ill-fated runs with the cast iron pan on the stovetop / oven my wife has banned me from cooking steak if it's not on the grill. I run operations for a BBQ restaurant and catering company here and have access to a smoker if I'm ever craving something off menu, so the ability to smoke on the kettle is secondary to me compared to the experience and flavor of cooking with coals. Also I'd like to be able to grill fairly frequently so the convenience of gas both in setup and cleanup is what's keeping the Spirit in the conversation, especially when it comes to a personal goal to cook more fish this year, since my daily work diet is just full of brisket and ribs.

Thanks for the advice!
-DavisBerryman