OT: Could this be the perfect grill solution?

[Tom Adams]

Hmmmmm.......been needing to replace my gas grill and would love to have a charcoal/wood smoker, but can't justify buying two. Maybe this is the solution???

http://www.chargriller.com/duogrill.html

Tom

[CECAA850]

Neat idea, how much will it set you back?

[Mighty Favog]

I can just picture about 40 lbs. of fat-back ribs on that thing!!!

[rplace]

If you want a smoker and a grill look no further then a BGE. I was a life long "gasser" but the BGE changed my life...well not quite that drastic, but it is the finest grill/smoker I have ever used.

You can sear a steak at 700 degrees or smoke pork shoulders for 12+ hours at 200 degrees and never open it back up to add more hard wood. It could not be simplier to light. Go from adding lump charcoal to red embers in about 10 minutes. About the same time a gas grill take to warm up. You can cook pizza, bread, pies, cakes...you name it. I grill almost ever day in the summer and 2-3 times a week in the winter. My poor Ducane gas grill has only seen about 3 uses in the past month. And that was only because I neglected to pick up more wood for the smoker. Smoking salmon on it with a little apple wood is to die for. Sorry for the rant. I could go on all day. I truly love my BGE.

Check them out herer http://www.biggreenegg.com/ or search for BGE on google...tons of good info

[InnerTuber]

I vote not perfect

I agree with rplace, the eggs are nice. Also pretty expensive, but really nice especially for slow cooking.

I'm not a big fan of Ducane anymore after watching two die from usage. Just don't get hot enough either.

For charcoal, and just grilling for two, I use this - http://www.amazon.com/Weber-40020-Smokey-Charcoal-Grill/dp/B00004RALP/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1207600001&sr=8-1. It gets hotter than heXX and doesn't waste a lot of coal. In fact it will snuff it out and you can relight it to use again.

For bigger feasts using coal I use one of these - http://www.amazon.com/Weber-758001-2-Inch-One-Touch-Charcoal/dp/B00005V5ZS/ref=sr_1_24?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1207600080&sr=1-24. Bar none it is the best coal grill I've used. I love that thing. Ditto on the snuff and save.

For gas, if I was to buy one now I think I would look real hard at http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100606085. It got a good review in consumer reports and lots of brand names did not. It has a rotisserie too I think. I just don't care for the look of it.

Also for gas I would buy this today if it had a rotisserie, http://www.weber.com/bbq/pub/grill/2007/gas/GenesisE320.aspx. It doesn't, so I am waiting.

For smoking, based on the design and quality the egg probably would best suit me. But I am a bit too cheap I fear, so I went with the http://www.weber.com/bbq/pub/grill/2005/charcoal/cg_sg_smk.aspx. It is really a good tool for smoking. It can smoke quite a bit of poundage and is efficient.

The main issue I have with that entire genre of cooker/smoker things made out of the black metal be it Brinkman or whatever is that they really take a lot of fuel of whatever sort to do the job. They have never struck me as particularly "tight". The Egg or the Weber smoker can probably use a twig compared to the others needing a branch if not tree.

I use coal almost for everything anymore. With a chimney its a snap. You need a couple good thermometers (digital is fine) and a chimney. Gas is convenient tho I suppose ....

Steve Raichlen is King! http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Steven%20Raichlen

Happy Grilling

[oscarsear]

I have a Chargriller Pro unit. It is my second one. I think a Big Green Egg would be better still but you can get what I use for about $125 with the side hot pot smoker. It has 4 independent cast iron grates and a charcoal level adjustment. The combo unit looks a little too compromised for my liking. What's the real advantage to having both? You lose half your surface area if you use just one mode of cooking.

[Daddy Dee]

Well, it's not perfect, but workable, IMO.

One thought, one of those cajun cookers are a pretty inexpensive smoker option, and they are pretty cheap.

That would be for a two cooker solution.

[Arky]

They list Lowes as a vendor but I don't see it on their site.

[Tom Adams]

I don't think Lowe's is carrying the Duo. Oddly enough, the only place I've seen it was in a new Kroger grocery store that just opened. The price they listed was $248. And in person it's bigger than what it looks like in the photo. The smoker side probably has enough room for 4 slabs of baby back. And for 2 people, that's plenty. The gas side is bigger than the cheap POS I have now plus there's a side burner I can use for frying which I'd much rather do outside to lessen the risk of an oil fire (not to mention keeping from stinkin' up the house when I fry fish).

Yep - seen a BGE. And it's price made me choke. Sorry - but I'm a cheap sumb*tch. Yeah, yeah, yeah....in the long run it's......whatever. Long run matters not when ya ain't got the moola today.

You kill me InnerTuber. You've never used the CharGriller product (assumption on my part) yet you can already vote no. Wow - that's quite a gift you have there. Oh.....and then you offer up some solutions that total over $650 to do what the CharGriller Duo might be able to do. Sheesh....your math is almost as bad as mine. LOL

I'm gonna buy one....what the hell.

Tom

[billybob]

OK, I'm hungry!

[Arky]

Can't go wrong for that price, imo.

[oldtimer]

Tom, I'm not into grilling with gas. For me, there are a couple of main features that are most important, First, you want a grill or fire that can be moved up or down, this basically functions as temperature control. Second, a side firebox for smoking. Size is independent of these things. That's all you need.

[Daddy Dee]

One thing Oscarear mentioned is that this grill has very nice cast iron cooking grates.

I mean, they are really nice, as good as anything on the market.

[InnerTuber]

Maybe this is the solution???

http://www.chargriller.com/duogrill.html

Tom

Gee sorry, I thought your post ended with a question so I responded. Next time I'll be sure to agree with you. DOH, silly me. I thought you wanted some alternate opinions.

[theplummer]

I can't personally dispute the BGE as being one of the best in ALL that it does, IF your cooking for ONE!!!, Me personally, I'm always cooking for five (at minimum), with three girls in the house (believe me, They Can EAT!!!), Not to mention any guests we may have over. My large weber with gas assist is the cat's meow, except it's too small, I've been trying to come up with a double decker addition to the weber, to accomodate more food (I like to cook side dishes with my antree.), I haven't been able to spend as much time with the project as I'd like yet, but, Hark!!! I've just had a revelation as I type. Now, If I could just spare some time with a welder, maybe I'll have something to sell Weber!!!!!!

Short of that, I'd die for a Weber "Ranch" Grill, but I'd have to add inderect heating and Gas assist to make it "POP". Imagine 54" round cooking surface, But, $1000.00 price tag sucks.

Maybe I'll apropriate more time to the "double decker" design.

[Daddy Dee]

Now I see the design of this grill. It's a side by side gas and charcoal grill.

For smoking, the offset firebox option would be needed.

This is a pretty cool little guy.

[rplace]

I can't personally dispute the BGE as being one of the best in ALL that it does, IF your cooking for ONE!!!, Me personally, I'm always cooking for five (at minimum), with three girls in the house (believe me, They Can EAT!!!), Not to mention any guests we may have over.

Wow, those people must eat a lot. I have made pulled pork for over 15 and ribs for 8. It will easily do 12 hamburgers in one shot and probably 20 hot dogs if you eat hot dogs.[] Do you realize there are 4 or 5 different sizes? To each his/her own. Just offering up suggestions from personal experiance. I work with a guy who is a hard core smoker. Has 3 different ones at his house. He came over and used my BGE once just to check it out...said he was getting rid of all his steel items and going with ceramic. As for the people stuck on the price, give some thought on TCoO. The thing uses harldy any wood. At about 600 bucks for the 2nd biggest egg and given the fact that it will last a life time AND it is the right tool for so many jobs (smoking or grilling) I think it would be a deal at twice the price.

Best of luck on finding what works for you. Lots of ways to skin this cat all tasty.[]

[J.4knee]

I was in our Lowes last night and they had it on the floor. For gas I use a Charmglow I got from HD, has an infrared sear and rotisserie burners, side gas burner, and 4 gas main burners with stainless steel grates. I am getting this for charcoal and smoking duties

http://www.bbqgalore.com/smokers/misc/197822

[theplummer]

I can't personally dispute the BGE as being one of the best in ALL that it does, IF your cooking for ONE!!!, Me personally, I'm always cooking for five (at minimum), with three girls in the house (believe me, They Can EAT!!!), Not to mention any guests we may have over.

Wow, those people must eat a lot. I have made pulled pork for over 15 and ribs for 8. It will easily do 12 hamburgers in one shot and probably 20 hot dogs if you eat hot dogs. Do you realize there are 4 or 5 different sizes? To each his/her own. Just offering up suggestions from personal experiance. I work with a guy who is a hard core smoker. Has 3 different ones at his house. He came over and used my BGE once just to check it out...said he was getting rid of all his steel items and going with ceramic. As for the people stuck on the price, give some thought on TCoO. The thing uses harldy any wood. At about 600 bucks for the 2nd biggest egg and given the fact that it will last a life time AND it is the right tool for so many jobs (smoking or grilling) I think it would be a deal at twice the price.

Best of luck on finding what works for you. Lots of ways to skin this cat all tasty.

Well, I did not know that they make different size BGE's, the only one I've ever seen at the BBQ boutique would not do 6 decent size pork steaks (how many of you know what they are, and no cheating those of you midwesterners),

But, as I've said before, I like to cook side dishes on the Grill with my entree. There's nothing better than sweet ear corn in the husk cooked over coals. They take a lot of room. I slice potatoes and place them in a tin foil bag with butter, pepper, and velveeta cheese. Carrots in a tin foil bag with butter is delicious also. So, cooking for 5+ actually requires quite a large cooking area.

Figure two ears of corn per person, especially my kids. a package of hot dogs, a package of polish sausage, a package of brat's, and then the main meat. ( I do like to cook extra for leftover lunches the next couple of days).

[Gilbert]

Here's one that I use at home. It's made by HastyBake, and works with either wood or charcoal, and functions equally well as either a Smoker or Grill. The smoker feature offers a stainless steel cover plate so direct heat is never applied directly on your masterpiece. The construction is solid, and I've had mine for nearly 9 years now, and it's used every weekend.

I've had the big heavy split-level 30" dia. pipe systems, and they are nice too, but for me their just too bulky and a real PITA to clean. What made me fall in love with my HastyBake is the infinitely adjustable coal/wood rack. You can raise it all the way up to sear the food, or lower it down and smoke away. The Hastybakes are really cool grills, but good luck with whatever you decide.

HASTYBAKE

Hmmmmm.......been needing to replace my gas grill and would love to have a charcoal/wood smoker, but can't justify buying two. Maybe this is the solution???

http://www.chargriller.com/duogrill.html

Tom