P1Fanatic

Just having a nice new patio laid so have a permanent home for a BBQ so thinking of replacing my ageing Outback Gas BBQ (which has lasted about 8 yrs mostly outside with just a burner change) and contemplating going back to Charcoal. Everyone bangs on about how good a Weber is so it seems the logical choice. Not in any hurry as looks like you can get some decent deals at the end of the summer. The 67cm Premium One Touch is stupidly priced at £300 so have ruled that out

Is the Premium worth the extra over the original – looks like it has some sort of cage underneath but not sure exactly what its for? Both have the lid mounted thermometer so how easy is it to adjust the cooking temp when you keep the lid on?

Any must have accessories? I have always wanted a rotisserie / spit for whole chickens, leg of lamb, rack of ribs etc but damn they are not cheap at over £100!

Cheers
Simon

cster

I use a Weber.
One word of caution is that their preferred fuel is Weber heatbeads, which are quite expensive to buy - about £6 a bag.
I have used other fuels, but they are all inferior to the Weber product IMO.

P1Fanatic

That is one of my main concerns - fuel costs. For the gas BBQ I have a 15kg butane cylinder and that lasts me about 4yrs and costs around £30 to fill it up. That is quite a price differential.

I take it heatbeads are just smaller sized briquettes?

Abx

iTrader: (15)

I've just bought this from B&Q in their sale, had about £150 off, it's their gas Classic E201 and from what I've read is very good and the way it cooks is second to none, again from reviews I read. Only thing is in the UK it only comes with Stainless ceramic grills where in the US it comes with cast iron ones but you can upgrade direct with Weber for about £45.

Only built it today and quality is very good.

P1Fanatic

Yeah saw that one on UK Hot Deals. Good price. Do they run on Butane gas ie the blue bottles as thats what I already have?

Abx

iTrader: (15)

Think they run on that yes, I have propane so am hoping that will work.

Leslie

They say that Dellortos are easier to set up than Webers!

Les

turbosid69

Weber gas bbq run on both gases it's just propane will not freeze in the winter and weber send propane regulators out with there bbq as standard you would have to exchange the reg to run on butane hope this helps

CrisPDuk

I see what you did there

cster

They are smaller and of higher quality.
They will hold a constant temperature for considerably longer than standard briquettes which will break up a lot quicker.
Another issue is that it takes about an hour to light them properly - all part of the fun I suppose, especially if you are necking wine for the duration. I mean a man has gotta keep an eye on his fire - right?

P1Fanatic

Does the starter chimney that everyone bangs on about not work with heat beads? The reviews say people are ready to cook after 20 mins or so when using it?

cster

I bought one of those and then just chucked it. It wasn't that quick and it didn't get them all burning evenly (unlike the picture on the box )
My preferred method these days is to get two fire lighters, put a fair amount of Kindling on top, followed by the measured amount of heat beads.
I then pour a load of vegetable oil over the coal (cheap) and light it.
There is heaps of black smoke, so I go indoors, after a fair while, there is no sign of the wood. You need the coals to go completely white and cool down a bit, then away you go.
It is a bit of an art, and I rarely have a BBQ where I don't learn something new (ie there is usually something that doesn't go right). Makes it all the better when it does though.
After reading all of this, you would probably conclude that gas is the way to go, and you'd probably be right, but in the words of a former Aussie PM, "life wasn't meant to be easy".

P1Fanatic

Assume on the 210 you put the gas bottle in the cabinet underneath? If so I guess only up to a 6kg size cylinder?

Abx

iTrader: (15)

Not sure on the size of my bottle but there is a lot of room under their.

vallumlj

I have a weber 57 preminum. The preminum is worth the extra money the grill has flaps on it so you can add more charcoal while cooking. The preminum also catches all the ash so it's really easy to clean out. The chimney starter is expensive but will light all the charcoal in 20 minutes and will burn 3 -4 hours. They are expensive but they come with a 10 year warrenty. Wowbbq and riverside bbq centre are the cheapest places to buy them.

P1Fanatic

Just to add confusion there is now patio gas in green cylinders which apparently is also propane. Only difference I can see is it costs more and has a gauge to tell you approx. how much gas is left. I assume you can still use a brown propane regulator on these?

P1Fanatic

Did you have a chance to fire it up yet? I ended up sticking with gas (boooo I hear the charcoal enthusiasts) and wanted a 3 burner sized BBQ for a bit more cooking space and being able to do indirect cooking. The Spirit Classic E310 was a great price at B&Q but whilst the wife was onboard with the idea of a decent upgrade and most of Sunday spend visiting Garden Centres and one BBQ specialist shop, I have decided on the Spirit Original E320 from WowBBQ. Has a side burner with lid, cast iron cooking grate, proper door to conceal the gas bottle (the mesh one I played with at B&Q seemed rather flimsy) and electronic ignition (rather than a click starter).

Only problem with the 3 burner models is the side tables don’t fold away which would be handy in winter when it goes in the shed. That said should be easy enough to unscrew them.

Looking forward to trying some slow cooking & smoking. Pulled pork from a bone in shoulder is going to be my first mission I reckon.

P1Fanatic

I read the manual whilst in B&Q and it says max dimensions & a weight of 6kg so limits me to a 5kg Patio Gas Cylinder (the green Calor gas ones that come with a gauge). Just hoping that local garden centre accept one of my 7kg butane cylinders (blue) as a direct swap for Patio Gas without the need to pay another deposit.

dpb

That's going to play merrry hell with his carpet!

P1Fanatic

Haha havent you heard indoor BBQ'ing is all the rage?

Back in my uni days if it was pissing it down we stuck the BBQ in the shed. The smoke build up (even with the window and door open) meant you had to kneel down to cook lol.

Allan

iTrader: (1)

What's the preferred type of grill plates for a gas BBQ?

Our Leisuregrow is on it's third set of porcelain coated cast iron plates (due to rusting), and it's only three years old. Was looking at stainless for our next one but apparently they don't have the heat retention of cast iron, if that actually makes any difference.

Either way it won't be made by Leisuregrow, absolute rubbish.

dukeoffenland

What's point in a gas BBQ ? Might as well put it in the oven

P1Fanatic

I am guessing it is just cheap materials / poorly made if it’s that bad. My old BBQ is an Outback Omega Gas 2 burner that I have owned for 9 yrs and only needed to replace the burner (£20) in that time. The food grate is enamelled and never shown any sign of rust. Only thing that does is the bottom tray.

The better Weber gas BBQ have cast iron with porcelain enamel and the top of the range Genesis and Summit models all have stainless steel so you would assume that was the best option.

P1Fanatic

It was only a matter of time

Graz

You were lucky not to get carbon monoxide poisoning, tends to be fatal as well

Allan

iTrader: (1)

Tending towards stainless at the moment, but then not all stainless is equal. Really want to make sure the next one will last a bit longer.

P1Fanatic

The Weber Cast Iron cooking grates are warrantied for 3yrs and the stainless steel ones 5yrs. You can buy them separately as an upgrade for around £50 if you did have problems further down the line.

dpb

316?

mamoon2

I've got a Brinkmann like this

One thing i'll say about charcoal is....... they are no good if you just want to throw a couple of pieces of chicken on. You have to wait half an hour for the coals to get to the right temperature.

Great for big BBQ's when all the family are round but i wish i had gas so i could use it at a moments notice on a nice day

The Brinkmann is £205 in Costco by the way

Geezer

We had various gas BBQs over the yeas, and changed to a Weber 57CM Premium Kettle last year.

I will never go back to gas. It's a great piece of kit, easy to use and clean. I have yet to burn anything, stuff tastes better than a gas BBQ.

As for briquettes, I did try some stuff from Aldi and it wasn't very good, but I have used ones from Tesco and Homebase and had excellent results, so I'm not sure how much better the Weber ones would be TBH.

We paid about £150 from a garden centre for it, and they threw in a few things.

Geezer