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I love my gas grill for the convenience, but do miss the great taste of a charcoal grill. Was considering buying a Weber with my tax return. (What little I got back). Last weekend I was at Menard's helping my son with a home repair project. Ran into this crazy contraption. It was on sale for 248.00. Couldn't resist. What can I say? I like to be different.
Wednesday evening I put it together. Went together without any hitches and nothing missing. Was impressed with the construction. Double walled and insulated. All the inner parts are porcelain coated. Heavy cast iron grate. The bottom comes off to empty ashes. Both the lid and bottom have gaskets and latches. Even the chimney has an O-ring on it. Supposed to be air tight. More on that.
Thursday evening I fired it up to season the grate and burn off any oils and such. They recommend Lump, but didn't know that. Had some RO in the shed. Used that. Lit a full chimney. Like to season cast iron at 500 degrees. Easily got it to settle in at about 480 at the grate using the Maverick. The thermo in the lid is a 100 degrees lower. It's also much higher than grate level. It cruised at that temp for 3 hours and showed no sign of slowing down. Shut both the vent and chimney hoping to smother it. After 3 hours it was still at 350 degrees. Obviously air was getting in. Finally left it and went to bed.
Friday morning almost all of the charcoal had burned up and the grate was a nice dark black. Looked into the air issue. The chimney was not down properly. Adjusted the O-ring and got it tightened down. Loosened the bolts to the lid hinge. Pushed the back of the lid down as far as I could get it and retightened the bolts. I curled the hook part of the latch and got the lid to really close tight. Did the same with the bottom latches.
Mixed up some Mad Hunky pork brine. Threw in 4 big bone in pork chops. Went to work and day dreamed about dinner.
Wednesday evening I put it together. Went together without any hitches and nothing missing. Was impressed with the construction. Double walled and insulated. All the inner parts are porcelain coated. Heavy cast iron grate. The bottom comes off to empty ashes. Both the lid and bottom have gaskets and latches. Even the chimney has an O-ring on it. Supposed to be air tight. More on that.
Thursday evening I fired it up to season the grate and burn off any oils and such. They recommend Lump, but didn't know that. Had some RO in the shed. Used that. Lit a full chimney. Like to season cast iron at 500 degrees. Easily got it to settle in at about 480 at the grate using the Maverick. The thermo in the lid is a 100 degrees lower. It's also much higher than grate level. It cruised at that temp for 3 hours and showed no sign of slowing down. Shut both the vent and chimney hoping to smother it. After 3 hours it was still at 350 degrees. Obviously air was getting in. Finally left it and went to bed.
Friday morning almost all of the charcoal had burned up and the grate was a nice dark black. Looked into the air issue. The chimney was not down properly. Adjusted the O-ring and got it tightened down. Loosened the bolts to the lid hinge. Pushed the back of the lid down as far as I could get it and retightened the bolts. I curled the hook part of the latch and got the lid to really close tight. Did the same with the bottom latches.
Mixed up some Mad Hunky pork brine. Threw in 4 big bone in pork chops. Went to work and day dreamed about dinner.
.He said there was a forum he was looking on and said there is some mods recommended.But they are supposed to be really efficient.I'll find out where and let ya know,Ray.
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