My grill burner rusted out, and it's not worth fixing. Uni Flame from Wal-Mart is cheap by the way. Anyways, I've been looking for a new grill. I've always thought about getting a charcoal grill in addition to my gas grill to experiment with. I'm looking for help to see if this grill I like is good or not. They make Propane/Charcoal combos. The one I found is at Sam's. It has a side infrared burner, and includes a smoke box for indirect heat. Here is the link at the Smoke Hollow website. It's the first one on the page.

http://www.olp-inc.com/smoke-hollow-wagons.php

They have a Char-Griller brand that is similar at Lowe's, and a Brinkmann at Home Depot. They don't have the amount of features this one at Sam's does for around the same price. Does anyone have an opinion on this?

I have paid 200 for a grill and have paid 600 for a grill, all during the last 20yrs. My experience is that the grills I bought 20 yrs ago lasted a long time, but the ones I have bought in the last 10 especially from Home Depot, but also from Walmart and others, no matter the price have all rusted out. I paid 600$ for the ultimate grill for my dad about two years back, its all rusted out now. Frustrating. Im going back to buying the 199$ bargains and just assuming that in 2 yrs they will need to be replaced. Everything is built disposable these days.

I have the Char-Griller Duo with the offset smoker box attached, I got it at Academy about three years ago. It is a good grill for the money, definitely not a "long term" grill but good nonetheless. When I build a house it will be replaced by an outdoor kitchen with custom built smoker/charcoal grill and drop-in gas grill.

I saw the Char Griller at Lowes. The Smoke Hollow is cheaper than the Char Griller with te firebox. It also has 4 wheels rather than 2. Those combos are difficult to move. What do you think about the Smoke Hollow's side infrared burner vs a normal stovetop side burner?

You can't go wrong with Weber IMO.

What others have said is true.... The lifespan of today's gas grills is a mere couple of years. I gave up my Sam's gas grill two summers ago and went with a Sam's charcoal grill. My decision came down to life of the product, lower maintenance and better tasting food.

The best way to get better life out of your grill is to keep it clean and protected from the elements. I keep a cover over mine, clean it after every use and move it into the garage in the winter.

Good luck!

Down here I tend to use mine more in the season that is called "winter" as going out to a 105 degree patio to grill just isn't enjoyable.

I'm a fair weather grillmaster - March thru October mostly.

In recent years I was shown how to make an unbelievable steak in the oven with a cast iron skillet like they do in many 5-star steak restaurants. That's my winter method of choice.

Considering that we have been in the 90's for 2-3 months and hit the 100's last week summer got started early in Austin, summer is my winter. The motorcycle stays in the garage and the top stays up on the car....and I grill only on a rare occasion.

Ha, I grilled in Austin just 2 hours ago. And yes, its pretty warm here in Austin today.

I mowed and walked today, it actually is not as bad as it has been in recent weeks. I will be grilling tomorrow but about late June I will give it up.

I hear ya about the grilling when it's in the high 90's and 100's! That's when you throw some hot dogs on the propane for 15 minutes. It's miserable.

Chargriller with an offset. Make sure you clean out the grill atleast a day or two after use and get a grill cover to keep it out of the elements and most grills will last a lot longer than u expect. Like most people say thing don't last as long now days but also people don't care for items like they once did....

As far as outside temps go I do more grilling and smoking during fall, winter, and early spring. I don't have any real enjoyment sitting outside baby sitting a grill when the humidity is high and the temp is pressing 100.

In order for the grill not to rust out you it's needs to be 300 series stainless which is hard to find at a descent price point. BBates, care to share your recipe? I've been doing almost an identical method...Use a cast iron fajita pan on the actual grill as it gets much hotter than my oven and also adds a little bit of "char" flavor...

Oven at 525 and stove (gas) on high. Preheat a cast-iron skillet in the oven. Let steak warm to room temperature. Coat each side of steak with oil and coarse salt and pepper. Remove skillet from over and place on stove. I put a small amount of garlic in bottom of dry hot skillet and then add steak. Cook over stove about a minute each side. Then place steak in skillet into the oven for an additional 1-3 minutes per side. Sometime I put a small pad of butter on each side as I flip it in the oven. Really good!

You can't go wrong with Weber IMO.

I'll second that. The gas burners are warranted for 10 years and the gas grill(Genesis Silver) rivals the "kettle" in quality and ease of clean up. i got the gas one 4 years ago at Wally World for 300.00 off season. I replaced the cheap cooking grates last year with some cast iron ones. Seems that Weber sold these grill types to Wal Mart to meet their price point. I see it lasting a long time. I keep it covered with a heavy duty Weber cover year round and it is flawless.

My grill burner rusted out, and it's not worth fixing. Uni Flame from Wal-Mart is cheap by the way. Anyways, I've been looking for a new grill. I've always thought about getting a charcoal grill in addition to my gas grill to experiment with. I'm looking for help to see if this grill I like is good or not. They make Propane/Charcoal combos. The one I found is at Sam's. It has a side infrared burner, and includes a smoke box for indirect heat. Here is the link at the Smoke Hollow website. It's the first one on the page.

http://www.olp-inc.com/smoke-hollow-wagons.php

They have a Char-Griller brand that is similar at Lowe's, and a Brinkmann at Home Depot. They don't have the amount of features this one at Sam's does for around the same price. Does anyone have an opinion on this?

This forum has a great breakdown on the various brands and where they are made.
http://www.bbqsource-forums.com/

Great source for Weber grills with free shipping
http://www.aimtofind.com/

Oven at 525 and stove (gas) on high. Preheat a cast-iron skillet in the oven. Let steak warm to room temperature. Coat each side of steak with oil and coarse salt and pepper. Remove skillet from over and place on stove. I put a small amount of garlic in bottom of dry hot skillet and then add steak. Cook over stove about a minute each side. Then place steak in skillet into the oven for an additional 1-3 minutes per side. Sometime I put a small pad of butter on each side as I flip it in the oven. Really good!

Can't go wrong if you prefer a crust...I've had the best luck with a reverse sear, season a cold steak, insert the cold steak in a non preheated 300f oven until the inside of the steak gets around 90f (your preference doneness and the thickness of the steak may change that number). Then sear it on the already piping hot cast iron pan on your grill. Make sure to let it rest for 5 minutes. The beauty of the reserve sear is when you cut into it...You'll see from top to bottom almost all pink...On a normally seared steak, you'll see the upper and lower thirds from from dark gray to light gray to pink. That means that the top and bottom of your steak is cooked a higher level of doneness. This is the point of letting the steak get up to room tempature, yet you can avoid this step if you use the gentle low heat of a unpreheated low temp oven.

Wanted to give a thumbs up to the ceramic grills offered at Sam's Club ($598). I decided to ditch my previous charcoal grill after several years of good use - it still works good, but it just could not easily get to the temperatures I often want (500 - 800 degrees) and stay there.

I've been wanting an egg style ceramic grill for awhile ever since using one by Kamado at a friends. I decided to give the egg shaped ceramic grills a try from Sam's. Haven't had it long - but WOW what a difference.

In my previous grill I had to either use an electric heated wire type charcoal starter or a charcoal chimney (my preference) - I don't do fluid starters. But neither was ideal and it took extra time and made a mess. I originally considered a charcoal grill by Weber with a small gas charcoal starter built in.

These ceramic egg grills are a dream. Just pour some real wood chunk charcoal in the base, toss in a starter stick and wait about 10 minutes for the coals to get going, shut the lid and within 9 minutes I am always reaching 500 degrees. The best part, no matter how many times I open and close the lid to add veggies, meats, check on the status, etc. the temp only drops briefly and is back up with 1-2 minutes.

We've done several cuts of steak (everything from Omaha to Braums bacon wrapped filets), cabbage in foil with beef bouillon and EVOO, spiced rum soaked and coconut encrusted fresh cut pineapple, corn on the cob, baked potatoes and even a pizza (comes with heat deflector and baking stone for baking). Everything turned out excellent. Hope to try to smoke some meat this weekend.

The only downsides I've found are the grill size is smaller than my previous double chamber charcoal grill, and you need to plan your cooking to the temp needed. The size factor was expected as I knew my previous double chamber grill was really large and the temp factor is simply a matter of changing my thinking of how I cook. The ceramic retains heat so well that it took 6 hours for the grill to drop from 550 to 125 degrees (with the lid closed and all vents closed - as per the manual). I have had to cook some items with the grill lid open (due to poor planning on my part) so as not to burn the items due to the heat. So far I've been able to maintain a low temp of about 200 degrees by adjusting the coal and vents and was even able to max the grill out for over an hour (800 degree max on the gauge). We even ended last nights dinner by making S'mores over the grill.

Cleanup is a breeze and the thing looks great too sitting on the patio when not in use. I'm hoping to remove it from the stand this fall and build a stone enclosure for it. It costs a bit more than other grills (but less than other egg type grills), but the quality seems exceptional and there is nothing to break or maintain, so I'm thinking this will be around awhile.

I mowed and walked today, it actually is not as bad as it has been in recent weeks. I will be grilling tomorrow but about late June I will give it up.

Keep it that way for this weekend. I'll be down your way Fri-Sat-Sun

Keep it that way for this weekend. I'll be down your way Fri-Sat-Sun
ROT Rally I take it?

They are already hitting town and the pavement, a friend of mine is the EMT Commander for that district he said they have had many, many calls already today. He didn't get out of working it this weekend. A few years ago he was off and organized a ride out to Fayetteville in search of the remains of the Chicken Ranch.

Be safe this weekend, I still haven't decided whether to get the bike out and head down for the Congress Avenue parade.

I have been thinking about getting one of these myself but did not know anyone that had one. I would think that this grill would last virtually forever.

Have a Big Green Egg and would never have any other grill

Have a Big Green Egg and would never have any other grill

How much does one of these cost?

Anywhere from 200 to 1000 dollars depending on size

Step up to Kamado and it can go alot higher. I really like the quality of the BGE, but the wife hated the look and color. The Kamado is beautiful (like artwork on your patio) and the quality is unbeatable - but I didn't want to take out a mortgage just to grill a steak. I think the Sam's egg is a good mix of quality, size and looks (shinny black).

Anywhere from 200 to 1000 dollars depending on size

Not bad at all. Did a little searching, the grill place up on memorial has them. Will have to check them out. Thanks for the info.

Step up to Kamado and it can go alot higher. I really like the quality of the BGE, but the wife hated the look and color. The Kamado is beautiful (like artwork on your patio) and the quality is unbeatable - but I didn't want to take out a mortgage just to grill a steak. I think the Sam's egg is a good mix of quality, size and looks (shinny black).

Sounds great! I'll defiantly check them out as well.

I can't seem to find the one at Sam's online. I can find the BGE's they carry but not the GrillMaster alternative. I know the Memorial Sam's kept selling out. We bought ours at the MWC location.

You want to be a grill master? Do this....

1. Buy one of these:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41MXBH52FVL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Weber 22.5" Kettle

2. Then these accessories:

http://www.amazon.com/Weber-7416-Rapidfire-Chimney-Starter/dp/B000WEOQV8/ref=wl_mb_recs_3_dp

http://www.amazon.com/Weber-7403-Char-Basket-Charcoal-Briquet/dp/B000WEMGM4/ref=wl_mb_recs_2_dp

http://www.amazon.com/Weber-7436-Replacement-Hinged-Cooking/dp/B000WEPHKW/ref=pd_sbs_ol_3

http://www.amazon.com/Smokenator-1000-Transform-Kettle-Efficient/dp/B000HI3I68/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1308171490&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Weber-6416-Large-Aluminum-10-Pack/dp/B000WEMG74/ref=sr_1_3?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1308171536&sr=1-3

Now you can cook directly, indirectly, and smoke anything... THEN you will be a grill master....

True that. I had one of those Weber grills for a couple of years. The only issue I had was not being able to get the Kettle hot enough, long enough. But you can't beat the cost and simplicity. Come winter and Target marks them down 30-50%.

You want to be a grill master? Do this....

1. Buy one of these:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41MXBH52FVL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Weber 22.5" Kettle

2. Then these accessories:

http://www.amazon.com/Weber-7416-Rapidfire-Chimney-Starter/dp/B000WEOQV8/ref=wl_mb_recs_3_dp

http://www.amazon.com/Weber-7403-Char-Basket-Charcoal-Briquet/dp/B000WEMGM4/ref=wl_mb_recs_2_dp

http://www.amazon.com/Weber-7436-Replacement-Hinged-Cooking/dp/B000WEPHKW/ref=pd_sbs_ol_3

http://www.amazon.com/Smokenator-1000-Transform-Kettle-Efficient/dp/B000HI3I68/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1308171490&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Weber-6416-Large-Aluminum-10-Pack/dp/B000WEMG74/ref=sr_1_3?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1308171536&sr=1-3

Now you can cook directly, indirectly, and smoke anything... THEN you will be a grill master....

I had one of these attractive--and useless items as well. I had to load about 40-lbs of charcoal into it to make it work then it would take three days to become ash afterwards. If you were smoking something--it is a tolerable thing. I left mine on the balcony of an apt I moved out of for the next person to have. I will say...the much smaller one is a decent device for two people. This one is just too deep to be effective.

I had one of these attractive--and useless items as well. I had to load about 40-lbs of charcoal into it to make it work then it would take three days to become ash afterwards. If you were smoking something--it is a tolerable thing. I left mine on the balcony of an apt I moved out of for the next person to have. I will say...the much smaller one is a decent device for two people. This one is just too deep to be effective.

That's why I specifically included the recommendation of purchasing the charcoal baskets. You can put them in the middle next to each other and it puts a nice pile of coals together right in the middle for a good sear. BTW, I almost exclusively cook with indirect heat on my Weber. And even using indirect, I can grill 4 chicken breasts in about 15 minutes with those baskets, one on each side and the chicken in the middle of the grill with both top and bottom vents wide open. Then after the 15 minutes, I put the chicken right over the coals and sear them.... I've NEVER had a problem getting excellent heat from the Weber.

But, then again, I AM a grill master.... :tiphat: lol

I also dislike these as IR sear burners can get much hotter, quickly. A trick I learned was to use a chiminey starter filled with hot coals and to put the grill grate right over top. Sear each side of whatever meat your cooking, remove the meat and grate, dump the coals in the kettle and put the meat and grate back on the kettle to finish.

With steaks, as I stated eariler I prefer to let a steak gently get up to 90f followed by a high heat sear on a piping hot cast skillet to give it that steakhouse crust.

Maybe--just get a NuWave cooker with infrared searing unit and throw some meat in there and pour a bunch of liquid smoke on it...then you have 30 minutes to drink a lot so the taste might seem about the same as the good stuff!

Best way to BBQ?--go out and buy some from a place with comfortable seats and lots of napkins--the good kind.