I have had mine for a few years now and paid a pretty penny for my Brinkman Pro Series 2600. So that you do not make hte same mistake I did please follow these guidelines. When looking at grills understand that they are made to break to put it plane and simple. I was impressed with the stainless materials incorporated im my grill and the base being Aluminium and Stainless of decient guage even will likely last forever. But since buying mine I have looked closer at other models. The achelies tendon of my model is the grids (cast iron with porcelon coating) and the burner (cast iron) and the diffuzers (porcelon coated steel) Looks like it will cost a pretty penny to replace these items about half the cost of the origional purchase. http://207.44.165.144/gas-products/cast-iron-burner-fits-kenmore-and-brinkman.html http://207.44.165.144/gas-products/1-porcelain-steel-heat-plate-for-brinkmann-grills.html http://207.44.165.144/gas-products/porcelain-coated-cast-iron-cooking-grid.html This really sucks so take my advice the ones that can be had for a few hundred dollars more that are 100 percent stainless are tyhe ones to go for.
I learned the same lesson. I bought a commercial stainless cooktop like they use in resturants. It cost like $1500.00. All stainless, heavy stainless burners, cast iron grill, etc. I figured it would last forever. It lasted 3 years before it disintegrated. The stainless shell was fine, but the rest literally crumbled. Cost to rebuild -$750.00 I bought a cheap but decent stainless grill from Walmart in 2004, on sale for $200.00. It still works fine, but is starting to look like it needs new burners and grates. Rebuild cost - $100.00. I'll probably opt for a new one. I got four years out of the old one, so $50 a year is OK.
yeah I'm convinced they are made to not last by design if you want it to last you got to pay twice so it boils down to either get the walmart model and simply replace every few years or pay twice the amount you normally would for even the upscale models and it should last. But when guaging quality for me the cast iron is great for holding heat and searing a steak really well, but not so great when it comes to rust. I just thought keeping the cover over it would help against the rust I was wrong about that though.
Aaaaah, yes... "The cover." - One of the most brilliant marketing schemes of our time. All that cover serves to do is trap moisture underneath it, and advance the oxidation of your new grill. As long as you have a roof over your grill (at least when it's not in use), you'll be fine, and it'll last many years longer than if you left it to the elements with the cover on it. As much as I dislike them, I too, have been the owner of a couple of gas grills in my time. Yes, those steel heating elements are worthless, and when it came down to replacing them, I only bought porcelain elements. Instead of the traditional oblong device, I opted for an "H-shaped" distribution unit, and have had no problems with it for the last 6 years (at least). Directly above the metal grate that's above the heating element lies a layer of these interesting briquettes, they are 2 inches squared, by about 3/4 in thick, with a concentric pattern of tunnels from one face to the other. It looks sort of like a honeycomb when looking at it from the side. Atop that, is a layer of the more traditional lava rocks, approximately 1.5-2 inches in depth. Then there is the grilling surface, which is that porcelain-covered steel, parallel lines, and in need of replacing. My guess is that the heat causes the metal to expand past the porcelain's capacity, and it ends up flaking off. At any rate, I plan to eventually replace it with a sheet of that 'expanded metal' - - both to solve the immediate problem, and also to minimize the problem of food dropping through the grill. Now, one problem with one of my grills was their inclusion of a glass window on the hood itself. One day, while preheating the grill for some steaks, I was across the street talking to the neighbor, and when I came back, the glass had shattered into a thousand pieces. That was fun collecting all the pieces afterwards... I thought about welding a piece of metal in it's place, but I think I'm just going to say 'fuck it' and get rid of the damn thing. Right now, the only purpose it serves is to house my coal-stirrers and brass brush. One thing I have considered for when I build my permanent brick grill, is to include a separate chamber reserved for gas-use only, and run an additional line to a side burner. I'm still in the planning stages for this, so don't expect any results anytime soon.
Got a rustic look about it. You could buy a bunch of those and start a "Brick Oven Pizza" enterprise. Yeah you know the convenience factor and control of a gas grill is so damn nice. But I got to tell ya for charcoal those Weber round models are nice you can line the bottom with foil and make them last a bit longer. No need though because they are not that expensive. And what is killer about them is the highly adjustable cooking grid which makes them close to on par with the gas grills for temp control. My issue is I always want one big enough for a group of several people over for dinner. And at that there are the other 80 percent of the time that it is just me and Terri. And firing up a New Brunswick charcoal smoker grill to cook properly takes a full bag of coal and that sucks for two hamburgers. I started making a shit load of hamburgers and putting them in the fridge along with whatever else and cooking it all at once but reheated meat is not at all the same as right off the grill.
Since I live alone, that's exactly what I end up doing most of the time (cooking a large quantity, then saving most of it for leftovers). I like the pic IMC posted, but I'm not looking to do anything that, well... "tall" - Mine will probably be stomach-high, with a hinged lid that opens in a manner that lets the grilling surface face the sky. I've got a few plans here, but I want to take the best aspects of each of them and incorporate them into my grill. The furnace-door design in the picture might be just what I need for a separate smoking chamber. Hell, the way I figure it, as long as you're going to the trouble of building the damn thing, you might as well go the full nine. If nothing else, it'll save some time and effort when you try to upgrade it in the future.
I still stay in contact with her, but we never actually had a relationship where I would refer to her as "girlfriend." IOW, I've taken her out, she's taken me out, but we never fucked. Good thing, too, considering she just informed me that her ex, whom was cheating on her towards the end of their breakup, had just called her to tell her that the girl had Syphilis. I couldn't help but feel the need to clap when she shared that with me (the info, not Cupid's Disease)... I'm currently working on inventing a Pennicillin-infused condom, in case I decide to hit it later...
i didn't need such a detailed answer.. i just thought it would be funny if you built a brick barbecue that looked like the auschwitz ovens in the pic imc posted.. y'know .. if you were still fucking the jew
I could still probably convince her to hop on in one of 'em... Never underestimate the power of Ethanol.
S'ok... the Keys girl is my ex, the Jew was my possibly pending, and now I'm considering a lab partner, and at the same time, about to dip my pen in the company ink yet again... (damn, I'm bad at that... every job but one) - this time with someone a bit closer to my normal 'game' - 13 years my senior, an ass that constantly distracts me at work, and it won't be long until I find the proper moment (when she least expects it, I've already got the duct tape...) It's a good thing that I've got a key to the electrical room... If nothing else, it upscales the crudity of the rented storage crate behind the other store, and it's completely private (so I won't have to adorn the ground around the building with bubble wrap, as an advance warning of someone approaching... When I plan these sorts of compensated fornication, I go the full nine. Fuck it, I might even take this one up to the roof so we can join the 48-ft club Damn, that - and let me get back to the BBQ thread... Last night, I cooked some sausage I got at this local meat market, I forget the brand name of the sausage, but it was a garlic sausage. Also got a different set of polish sausage links, they weren't bad at all, but that garlic shit was the bomb. Kept turning them, and they ended up having the most delicious crispy layering (not burned), and inside that lied the juicy core... Got a new grilling tool, I'll have to post a picture of it when I'm sober, but the main thing is that it encases the sausage and allows you to turn it to cook any angle over the coals and mesquite chips. It turned out to be the fucking best sausage job I've ever done on the grill, and I can't wait to try it on the real German sausage I get in this little town about an hour's drive away...
