Sweet Jeebus, I hate barbecues

[Rollin Hand]

Ok, so way back in 2012, my wife and I used some of our wedding gift money to gou out and buy a good barbecue, one to last us forever. I picked out a Napeon Prestige 500 with side and rear burner. Stainless burners, stainless sear plates stainless, grids, made in Canada -- all good stuff, and like I said, ready to last forever.

So one of the burners goes bad. No worries, cheap and easy to fix.....except the screw won't go back in to hold the burner. I added some foil and it held well enough. Then one of the burners won't turn off -- if the propane's on, and one of the other burners is on, it's on, even when turned off.

So I call a BBQ repair.place. they say it's the manifold. $140 for the part (OK, I can live with that), $295 for the replacement because it has to be torn down and, by law, repaired by a licensced gas tech. Oh, and it'll be $50 to pick it up, and $50 to drop it off.

My previous barbecue was a Broil Mate that I got for $400, and squeezed 7 years out of. So for triple the price, I got an extra 2 years? WTH?!?!?

Of course on the new Napoleon Prestige models, the warranty is 15 years on the manifold, burners et al. GAH!

Thank you for letting me rant.

[Floridian FX]

Been there. I tried to do the same thing down here. Humidity is so high, coupled with a grill cover, it doesn't matter how much you spend, they all go to crap. I just plan on buying a new $150 grill every 4 years.

[Rollin Hand]

Yeah....I gather that much of this can be avoided by buying a Weber.

One of the things that hurts the most is we have a charcoal box that allows us to use it as a charcoal grill too. Works great.

I might just pull it apart myself and see how it goes together. If I have to toss it anyway, I lose nothing. And if I sort out how to fix it, I save some cash.

[Flatline]

Been there. I tried to do the same thing down here. Humidity is so high, coupled with a grill cover, it doesn't matter how much you spend, they all go to crap. I just plan on buying a new $150 grill every 4 years.

This. I haven't even used a cover since my got ripped up in early spring. I'll get a cover before winter hits though. My current grill is about 3 years old and I'll be happy if I get another year out of it.

[ID10t]

We don't use ours very often but ours is 20 years old, uncovered (but on a covered porch) and the only thing I've replaced is the ignition system once and now we just use a long tip lighter. I keep 2 pieces of cast iron and a bamboo steamer basket stored in our when not in use.

[uwmcscott]

Yeah....I gather that much of this can be avoided by buying a Weber.

I can speak from experience that this is at least partially true. I was a charcoal snob for many years, but when I bought my first house some 21 years ago I inherited a cheapo char-broil gas grill with a side burner from the previous owner. I am guessing he was going to throw it away if I didn't take it so it saved him the trouble of disposing of it. Having said that, for quick burgers/brats I grew fond of the convenience of gas. I went through a couple sets of those cheap burners, and finally the whole thing just rusted away.

I bought a weber genesis to replace it, that was probably back in like 2003 or 2004 maybe, not sure - but at the time I got the 3-burner genesis with a side burner. I got it as a memorial day sale at Home Depot and it came with enamel coated cast iron grates, which honestly still look like they did 20 years ago even after heavy use. Mine was prior to the super spaceship size/stainless ones with all the bells and whistles...but it does have the heavy duty coated chassis and is still running strong. I have replaced the burners once ( about $80 for a stainless set of 3 ), the "flavorizer bars" - which are basically consumables that are metal and cover the burners - twice ( about $40 ) and the regulator once, which was about $30. Again, that's over about 20 years of use though, and it is a well designed unit too - easy to control heat, gets up to 500+ degrees F to sear if need be. I think I paid about $600 for it back then, not sure what they cost now.

[mozz]

Just bought a Weber 2 years ago, tired of the throwaway grills i had before. No parts needed yet but i did see a web store who sell flavorizer bars in stainless. Also spent the money and bought a "smokin it" smoker. This thing takes less time, uses less wood and it very well insulated where most dont even have insulation.
https://www.smokin-it.com/

[mickey]

I LOVE BBQ!
I just let someone else do the cooking!

[bleys21]

Another Weber fan here, 3 burner natural gas grill. Can't believe how well this thing cooks, even heat across the entire surface, grates are still looking good 3 years later, and gotta love natural gas...connect it to the valve, turn it on, and never have to worry about charcoal issues (starting, keeping it burning long enough, heat spread, etc) or propane running out(for me, running out every freeking holiday weekend :-/ )

[tlarson58]

[Partscaster]

i have small cast body weber model. looks a bit like a clam shell. Its been great. I do nothing to it.

[Rollin Hand]

I would want the side burner, even though I only use it occasionally. And I have to admit to likeing the rotissery option on the few occasions when we use it.

The enamel-coated cast-iron grares concern me -- my experience has been that they flake a lot, but perhaps the Webers are better.

I did find a nice Broil Mate that has the same basic feature set as my Napoleon, but for less than half yhe price. Naturally, it is sold out.

[uwmcscott]

The enamel-coated cast-iron grares concern me -- my experience has been that they flake a lot, but perhaps the Webers are better.

Mine are 20 years old and have held up extremely well (weber). There are 2 chips but both were by my doing - I dropped the motor assembly for the rotisserie directly on the grates when I was removing it and the bracket directly chipped it. I scrub/scrape them every time cook with a brass brush and even a metal scraper and it doesn't seem to do any damage at all.

Regarding the rotisserie, i have to say it's well built but not super useful for large pieces of meat. What it does work well for is a couple of smaller whole chickens or a pork shoulder cut in half. The clamps that you use to hold the meat function fine but they are kind of clunky to set up. And to be honest, if I'm slow cooking something I"m going to do it on the charcoal grill I believe weber actually makes an adapter ring to mount the same rotisserie unit on a kettle, which I should look into.

[Rollin Hand]

Basically we have rotisseried chicken, so it's not a necessity to have.

I have thought hard about buying a charcoal grill for occasional use. I like the charcoal flavour on steaks a lot even if it is a pain to get that going for what is essentially 13 minutes of actual cooking time (we like rare steaks). Even a good-sized Hibachi would be fine. I used to use the gas grill at my cottage as a table for a hibachi, and it worked great.

[uwmcscott]

Basically we have rotisseried chicken, so it's not a necessity to have.

I have thought hard about buying a charcoal grill for occasional use. I like the charcoal flavour on steaks a lot even if it is a pain to get that going for what is essentially 13 minutes of actual cooking time (we like rare steaks). Even a good-sized Hibachi would be fine. I used to use the gas grill at my cottage as a table for a hibachi, and it worked great.

My weber kettle is still my primary grilling/outdoor cooking tool. You can grill, smoke, broil and even cook right on the open coals in foil or a dutch oven. Most often I cook indirect with coals on one or two sides of the grill. The gas grill is my go to for quick grilling on weeknight but if time is not a factor I always opt for charcoal.

[Rollin Hand]

We, I talked to another BBQ repair person, and he said basically, do NOT toss my grill. He told me to contact the manufacturer with my concerns, which I have. Now, I just have to wait to see ehat yhey come back with.

The guy also.will do the repair for.way less money. Looking at the parts, I should even be able to do it myself.

[Mossman]

When I read the title of this thread, I thought you were talking about the event, not the appliance, and thought: "who doesn't like to eat burnt meat and drink beer?". I used to think I didn't like barbecues, but it turned out I just didn't like family gatherings! I'm glad I sorted that out! When I was growing up in Massachusetts, we didn't call the thing you barbecued on a "barbecue"... We called it a "grill" (or sometimes, a "grille" if we were feeling fancy). If it used gas, we called it a "gas grill". If it used charcoal, it was just called a "grill". And we didn't even call the event a "barbecue", either... We called it a "cookout". In fact, we didn't call anything "barbecue" unless it had barbecue sauce on it. Burgers and hot dogs weren't "barbecue" to us. Of course that all changed as I got older, and now the word is used more broadly there.

Every gas grill I ever owned I bought used, or it was given to me, or one time, it came with the house that I rented. Never anything fancy, though... I don't need any side burners, or rotisseries, or warming areas... I just need fire. In all those cases I either gave the grill away, or left it behind when I moved, so I don't have any heartbreaking stories of manifold failure and lost wages. I can't imagine spending 400, 700, 1200 dollars on a grill. That's guitar money, man!

[Tonray's Ghost]

When I read the title of this thread, I thought you were talking about the event, not the appliance, and thought: "who doesn't like to eat burnt meat and drink beer?".

Ha ha...thought the same thing....I always hated going to extended family BBQs but once I was there...it was nice to see people I really didn't see the rest of the year....except my (rest their souls) Aunts who would continuall ask 'Why aren't you married yet?" I'd simply tell them no modern girls could stand up to the example set by my Dad's sisters...just not worth the trouble...that was always good for a few extra special Lebanese pastries that they hid away from the crowd.

[UrenragK]

Weber all the way! The initial outlay for a charcoal only kettle is a bit crazy, but those things are like the Terminator!

[Rollin Hand]

This reminds me, I need to pressure Napoleon on a couple of things....

Since I posted this, I have used the charcoal function of my propane "grill" couple of times. As it seems I am beeping the thing, no need to buy a separate charcoal BBQ, which is a savings.

That's one thing about grilling: I wish I still could drink beer, because an ice cold beer while watching the steaks is damned enjoyable.

[solteroblues]

I personally don't like gas, I can always taste it in the food, no matter who cooks it. I have a poor man's Green Egg, the Char-Broiler Akorn, which at about 1/3 of the price seems to be pretty durable. I've used it for at least 4 years and no rust, nothing to repair, and we use it all of the time.

[Rollin Hand]

Well, thus far Napoleon has been no help. I spent half an hour on hold with them today, and sent a note to that effect, asking them to please tell me the part number for the manifold. I have found another source, but I need the number to be sure (there are two versions of the propane manifold).

And I will clean the thing out properly too. It's looking a bit gnarly on the inside.

[Rollin Hand]

An update: Napoleon is sending me a new manifold for the going price (~$130 CAD), but are also sending me new burner kits for free, with all screws. So, that means the guts of my BBQ are getting redone form minimal money. That's pretty awesome, and goes against what I had heard about them.

So, it's a win, and many more years of barbecuing to come, with minimal cost.

[tonebender]

Well good, they stood behind their product. I had the baby Weber kettle and the full size for at least 20 years and when we sold the farm I gave them away. I had not grilled in forever and decided if I did start back I was going with gas. I have been looking at all kinds and it looks like if I do jump in it will be a Weber.