Purchasing a new Outdoor BBQ Grill for your Lakefront
It was the start of a new season at my lake front home in Vermont (http://lakehousevacations.com/page-5140.html). I had just recently replaced my seasonal 700 square foot cabin with a modern day 3 bedroom 1000 square foot vacation home (1500 square feet if you add the walk out basement). See the section on replacing your seasonal cabin with a modern vacation home.
My wife and I have four teen age kids and it had worked out so that we had this weekend to ourselves. Yep, a sunny spring weekend at the vacation lakefront away from the worries of the world including kids! The increases your expectations of a great weekend!
It was 6pm and I had decided to cook steaks on the BBQ grill. I proceeded to light the grill using matches (How many of you know why you have to light your gas grill with matches?). I turned both burners on and dropped the match in. Sure enough, after a minute POOF! One burner caught and then a minute later the fire spread to the other burner….poof. Now, this procedure should encourage you to start you outdoor grill with a buzz cut.
I liked this grill, or, perhaps I just liked grilling. Or, it just could be that there are not much better things in life then having a beer while you are grilling and watching the action on the lake from you deck!
I purchased the grill six years ago from Wall Mart in August. I remember the call to my wife “honey, WE really need a new grill and Wal-Mart has this Great Outdoors grill for $99 dollars on sale”. What happened to our last grill? Well, it caught on fire as the burner rusted out and caused more of torch in the middle of the grill. That grill did cook your food very quickly though! My wife commented that grill was only 3 years old (I paid $75 for that one. It had 1 burner!). Her answer was ok, as she rationalized the $99 dollars due to the fact that we did use the grill every time we were at the Lake front which was about 14 – 18 weekends a year.
Back to the present. After my 5 year old “Great Outdoors” grill was warmed up, I put the steaks on closed the hood and walked away to water my flowers. Within a few minutes I saw a huge billow of smoke come from the grill. As I ran to the grill I could see that the plastic shroud that holds up the cast iron grate had caught on fire. It was burning very slowly and plastic was melting over top of the propane tank (stored underneath). Now at this point, I could envision my new deck going up in flames. I rushed for the hose. Turned it on and nothing! A kink….a #@#$* kink in the hose was preventing me from putting out the BBQ fire! Finally after 2 kinks I was able to spray the fire out (motivation to get a kink less hose?). What a mess. The worst part was that now I have to cook the stakes inside!! It’s like when you run out of gas!
After looking the grill over and trying it to see if I could cook using a single burner, my wife says “Honey, I wouldn’t try and use it now, it might start on fire again”. Now why would it do that? Then she says “I guess we’ll have to just purchase another grill”. DID I HEAR THAT! YES! How often do you get to look at your past years of experiences with grilling and then put them all into one purchase! I put on my Chef’s hat! YES…what a silver lining…a new grill!!
Ok…this was it! I was out to find the most serious grill that I could afford (or not afford). I was going to spend $500 dollars on this grill and get a good one!! Time to hit the internet and research. Google: Gas grills reviews. This led me to about.com top ten grills http://bbq.about.com/od/gasgrills/tp/aatp060402.htm. Let’s see: Char broil, Nexgrill, Napoleon, Sunbeam, Kenmore, Weber, Broil King, Broilmaster, Vidalia, and about 10 other names I have never heard of. Wait a minute, an outdoor kitchen! YES! OOOOOHH that would be nice! OOH $5-10,000. Not this year!
A “Great Outdoors” grill was not in the listing of top ten grills!! But I liked that grill! After researching the company, I found out that it went out of business in 2004! Parts were not available. Hmmm?
I started to think about all the grills that I owned. I bet that I have purchased perhaps 10 grills in my lifetime. Then I remembered that I have a 2 burner grill at my house (back in the real world) that I purchased in 1999 or 2000. Wow, that’s a long time ago! That grill is going on 10 years old. Two years ago I purchased replacement parts, the grates and a burner. Initially I didn’t think about this grill as I do not cook on it much (I am always at the lake house on weekends). I think that it was called a Weber Spirit 500. It was ok. It always cooked well. 90% of the time the ignition switch worked unless it rained (I did not have a cover for it). It is a small 2 burner grill in basic black. No, let me find something else…there is nothing special about that Weber grill. Or, perhaps, it was because that grill was at home, where the everyday stress abounds, work calls, teenage kids and their problems, and free time is nonexistent. Well alright, I’ll consider a Weber in my grill search.
After reading up on all the various grills, two grills emerged to me as the best choice for my Lakefront. They were Weber (Weber website) and Napoleon (Napoleon website ). The entry level Napoleon grill was the Prestige for about $800 (what happened to $500?). Weber had several grills at all price ranges. The Match to the Napoleon Prestige was the Weber Genesis. First I’ll discuss the Napoleon.
I was attracted to the Napoleon Prestige for several reasons. Napoleon offered a Lifetime Limited Warranty that seems to cover everything. I could imagine problems with this grill in 5 years and having it covered under the warranty. I liked the heavy duty steel used in construction, the simplicity of design, and that the burner control knobs were in the front. That was important as I needed space to put my food while I was opening the grill cover. In general it seemed like this grill was constructed well. I liked the way the grill cover opened and the wave grill bars. I also liked the great website. I was able to view videos about assembly, maintenance, and grilling. I was also able to down load the instruction manual. I thought if the grill is as designed as well as the website, then I found my grill. One difference between Napoleon and Weber is that this was Napoleon’s entry level grill! Prices go up from here!
The next step was to go and look at a Napoleon Grill in person. Eagerly I clicked on the “Where to buy” tab. Typed in my zip code, and 2 locations came up. One dealer, Matchless Stove and Chimney, was relatively close about 10 miles away. The other was nearly an hour south. I followed a link to the Matchless stove and chimney site. Not one mention on their web site about selling Napoleon gas grills or any BBQ grills. I called and they said that they did not sell BBQ grills. Next I called BAC sales. Yes, they are a wholesaler but they do have a retail store. It was open 9am-5pm Mon – Friday and part of the day on Saturday (For which I am at the lake that day!). I expanded the zip code search. Next there was one near Lake George. But, when would I get there? I asked my wife to see if she could drive to BAC and look at one. But due to her work hours, she would arrive as the place closed. I think that you get the idea. Access is important.
I was hoping to purchase a new grill inside of 1 week so that I could use in the upcoming weekend. Otherwise I would have to cook inside, yikes!
My first stop to look at grills was Home Depot. They had numerous makes, models and sizes to choose from. They had several Weber grills. I noticed that all their Weber Grills were models “E” without a side burner. Next I went to Wal-Mart. The selection was far smaller. They had the kid of grills that you buy and throw out in 3 years. I also went to Lowes. They seem to sell the same kind of grills as Home Depot.
My last stop was an outdoor store called Best Fire. They sold Weber grills. The sales person, Kyle, was very knowledgeable and helped me understand the difference between his Weber Grills and the ones at Home Depot, True Value, or Lowes. He called those companies “box stores”. Kyle explained that he sold Weber models that were “EP”, P meaning premium grill. At first seemed like a sales pitch. He explained and I corroborated on my own research that the difference between “E” and “EP” is the size and type of metal in the cooking grates and flavor bars that are just above the burners. In the “E” model, the cooking grates and flavorizers are cast iron. In the “EP”, they are both stainless steel. Stainless steel will last years longer than cast iron. There were a few other minor differences related to accessories (stainless steel handles, cook book, and more hooks for grill utensils). The price was also $50 more.
After years of thinking how nice it would be to have a side burner for corn on the cob, or beans, I decided that any grill I purchase needed to have one. Lowes and Home Depot only sold model “E-210” or “E-310”. This meant no side burner. Best fire had a model “EP-320” which included the side burner. True Value also had a model “E-320”.
Another reason that I decided on the Summit series Weber grill model “EP-320” is that I wanted 4 burners. Throughout my grilling career, I had always had 2 burners. That is great when you are cooking for 1-3 people, perhaps 4. But if you cook for 4 or more, or have guest over, you have cook in rotating shifts. You know, start the chicken first, then move it the side, start the burgers, then the dogs, etc. by the time you have finished, the first rotation is cold. The other problem is that 2 burner grills, especially the cheaper one, heat in the middle of the grill area. This causes you to have to shift the food around on the grill or the outside food might be really rare. With a 4 burner grill, I can choose to cook on 2 burners for just my wife and I, or, if I have guests over, I can cook on all 4.
In conclusion I looked at many makes and models of grills. I researched reviews on the internet. From this process I narrowed my choice down to 2 manufacturers. I chose between those manufacturers based on access, support and part availability. My choice was to purchase a Weber. The model that I choose was based on my previous grilling experiences. I wanted 4 burners and a side burner. I wanted my knobs on the front so that I had work space (that is why I move up to Summit series from the Genesis series). I wanted the “EP” models as I liked the stainless steel cooking grills. Best Fire discounted the grill $200 less than other places. Kyle was an honest sales guy.
