I went shopping this week to replace my old gas grill. For many years, I
used a gas grill from Sears (small grill, low-cost) that used briquets that
heated up and helped with the cooking.

Now, I can't find any grills that use briquets !! They seemed to have been
replaced by a "vaporizer" , instead of briquets.

How does a vaporizer take the place of the briquets, or is this just a
cheaper way for manufacturers to make a gas grill ?

Anyone have any comments or knowledge about this ?

I will appreciate any helpful comments.

Thanks !!

--James--

On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 16:44:44 -0400, "James Nipper"
wrote:

===
===
===I went shopping this week to replace my old gas grill. For many years, I
===used a gas grill from Sears (small grill, low-cost) that used briquets that
===heated up and helped with the cooking.
===
===Now, I can't find any grills that use briquets !! They seemed to have been
===replaced by a "vaporizer" , instead of briquets.
===
===How does a vaporizer take the place of the briquets, or is this just a
===cheaper way for manufacturers to make a gas grill ?
===
===Anyone have any comments or knowledge about this ?
===
===I will appreciate any helpful comments.
===
===Thanks !!
===
===--James--
I have seen em both ways. The grill we have now when we bought it came
equipped with vaporizer bar and ceramic briquettes, but the later
model (identical in every way) only comes with vaporizer bar. From
what I was told the vaporizer bar does essentially what the briquettes
did and that is to catch and burn off the grease and other drippings.
Briquettes can always be added if need be in addition to a vaporizer
bar. We prefer having the vaporizer bar, and of course briquettes, as
they heat up and help make the heat more uniform and add a bit of
flavor to things on the grill. Of course this may all be in our
imagination, but after a meal or two on the grill without briquettes,
we soon replaced the worn out briquettes with some good quality
ceramic ones and things are back the way they used to be.

Visit my website: http://www.frugalmachinist.com
Opinions expressed are those of my wifes,
I had no input whatsoever.
Remove "nospam" from email addy.

"James Nipper" wrote in message
...


I went shopping this week to replace my old gas grill. For many years, I
used a gas grill from Sears (small grill, low-cost) that used briquets
that
heated up and helped with the cooking.

Now, I can't find any grills that use briquets !! They seemed to have
been
replaced by a "vaporizer" , instead of briquets.

How does a vaporizer take the place of the briquets, or is this just a
cheaper way for manufacturers to make a gas grill ?

Anyone have any comments or knowledge about this ?

I will appreciate any helpful comments.

Thanks !!

--James--

After a year of using the "vaporizer" that came with my gas grill I
converted it to one using briquettes and was pleased with the results. The
food seems to taste better and I seem to be able to attain higher
cooking/searing temps by letting the briquettes pre-heat longer. A downside
is the residue from cooking now falls on the burners and their life span
seems to be shorter as the "vaporizer" acted like a roof over the burners. I
didn't have room to leave the "vaporizer" and also use briquettes.

"James Nipper" wrote in message
...

I went shopping this week to replace my old gas grill. For many years, I
used a gas grill from Sears (small grill, low-cost) that used briquets
that
heated up and helped with the cooking.

Now, I can't find any grills that use briquets !! They seemed to have
been
replaced by a "vaporizer" , instead of briquets.

How does a vaporizer take the place of the briquets, or is this just a
cheaper way for manufacturers to make a gas grill ?

I just replaced a 15 year old $100 Montgomery Ward gas grill with a big
stainless-steel Kirkland gas grill from Costco. No more "lava rocks." I
can't say that I notice a difference, but I'd have to compare the food
side-by-by side. The big difference is that the stainless steel grill is
three times as large, and was eight times as expensive (though adjusting for
inflation, it was probably only about three times as expensive).

The gas grill I bought has a little drawer where you can put in wood chips
to add the wood flavor, but I haven't tried it yet.

It probably is cheaper to not have the lava rocks, but I also think that
it's for reliability as well.

"James Nipper" wrote in message
...


I went shopping this week to replace my old gas grill. For many years, I
used a gas grill from Sears (small grill, low-cost) that used briquets
that
heated up and helped with the cooking.

Now, I can't find any grills that use briquets !! They seemed to have
been
replaced by a "vaporizer" , instead of briquets.

How does a vaporizer take the place of the briquets, or is this just a
cheaper way for manufacturers to make a gas grill ?

Anyone have any comments or knowledge about this ?

I will appreciate any helpful comments.

The vaporizer is just a better design IMO. There were several problems with
the old lava rocks that were improved upon with the vaporizer. The biggest
is flame ups. Flame ups were impossible to prevent with lava rocks. I
remember many times when I would leave a steak on the grill only to come
back in a few minutes and find a meteor where my steak used to be. With the
vaporizer, flame ups are almost non-existent.

James Nipper writes:

For many years, I
used a gas grill from Sears (small grill, low-cost) that used
briquets that heated up and helped with the cooking.

Briquets were baloney to make people think a gas grill would work like a
charcoal broiler. The temperatures, radiation, and distribution are quite
different. Probably a health hazard to be putting all those particulates
of silica and alumina from "lava" rocks into your lungs, besides. Good
riddance.

You can still use briquettes if you buy the rock grate for your grill. The
vaporizer/flavoriser bars are for evenly distributing the heat as well as
flavoring your food with drippings "frying" on the bars....You can clean
them off...Its awful hard to get that steak to taste good after that great
salmon you cooked last week, and its in the lava rock....ack.......




"James Nipper" wrote in message
...


I went shopping this week to replace my old gas grill. For many years, I
used a gas grill from Sears (small grill, low-cost) that used briquets
that
heated up and helped with the cooking.

Now, I can't find any grills that use briquets !! They seemed to have
been
replaced by a "vaporizer" , instead of briquets.

How does a vaporizer take the place of the briquets, or is this just a
cheaper way for manufacturers to make a gas grill ?

Anyone have any comments or knowledge about this ?

I will appreciate any helpful comments.

Thanks !!

--James--

Richard J Kinch wrote in message ...
James Nipper writes:

For many years, I
used a gas grill from Sears (small grill, low-cost) that used
briquets that heated up and helped with the cooking.

Briquets were baloney to make people think a gas grill would work like a
charcoal broiler. The temperatures, radiation, and distribution are quite
different. Probably a health hazard to be putting all those particulates
of silica and alumina from "lava" rocks into your lungs, besides. Good
riddance.


I've used both types and now have the Weber bar system. The bars
definitely reduce flare ups significantly, because the grease has no
place to lay on and accumulate. As for flavor, I'm not sure I notice
any difference between ceramic bricks and the bars. I'd have to try
them side by side. Real charcoal does add to the flavor, but that's
another story.

You can also get one of the cast iron boxes and wood chips to add to
any grill that will add flavor while cooking.

Chet Hayes wrote:
Real charcoal does add to the flavor, but that's
another story.


I'm sorry, but I don't see the point in using a gas grill. The only
difference between the gas grill and my gas range is the grill would sit
outside. The whole point of grilling is to get the flavor that you can
only get with charcoal.

What's next? Electric grills?

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
Blatant Plug: Spend your Amazon gift certificates he
http://www.holzemville.com/mall/associateshop.html

Richard J Kinch wrote in message ...
James Nipper writes:

For many years, I
used a gas grill from Sears (small grill, low-cost) that used
briquets that heated up and helped with the cooking.

Briquets were baloney to make people think a gas grill would work like a
charcoal broiler. The temperatures, radiation, and distribution are quite
different. Probably a health hazard to be putting all those particulates
of silica and alumina from "lava" rocks into your lungs, besides. Good
riddance.

I can't say I miss the lava rocks either. We just replaced our old
model and love it without!

Mary

"James Nipper" wrote in message ...
I went shopping this week to replace my old gas grill. For many years, I
used a gas grill from Sears (small grill, low-cost) that used briquets that
heated up and helped with the cooking.

Now, I can't find any grills that use briquets !! They seemed to have been
replaced by a "vaporizer" , instead of briquets.

How does a vaporizer take the place of the briquets, or is this just a
cheaper way for manufacturers to make a gas grill ?


It's not cheaper or more expensive to use vaporizer to replace the
briquets.

It's not better or worse than birquets.

The vaporizer distribute the heat more evenly in the whole cooking
area. If you put a burger, hot dog or a troll on the vaporizer grill,
the whole body of the troll will be burned evenly. While on the
briquets grill, some part of the troll will get burned, some part will
get simmered and some will get flamed. It depends on your cooking
style and taste, you may or may not like the vaporizer.

In article izyEc.3341$%_6.1450@attbi_s01,
"Warren" wrote:

Chet Hayes wrote:
Real charcoal does add to the flavor, but that's
another story.


I'm sorry, but I don't see the point in using a gas grill. The only
difference between the gas grill and my gas range is the grill would sit
outside. The whole point of grilling is to get the flavor that you can
only get with charcoal.

What's next? Electric grills?

Actually, yes. There's an electric indoor/outdoor George Foerman grill
sold by Amazon for about $60 that has gotten rave reviews from users.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...d=1088617685/s
r=8-4/ref=pd_ka_4/002-5181197-0085603?v=glance&s=home-garden&n=507846

--

Take out the invalid if replying by email

In article ,
(Chet Hayes) wrote:

Richard J Kinch wrote in message
...
James Nipper writes:

For many years, I
used a gas grill from Sears (small grill, low-cost) that used
briquets that heated up and helped with the cooking.

Briquets were baloney to make people think a gas grill would work like a
charcoal broiler. The temperatures, radiation, and distribution are quite
different. Probably a health hazard to be putting all those particulates
of silica and alumina from "lava" rocks into your lungs, besides. Good
riddance.


I've used both types and now have the Weber bar system. The bars
definitely reduce flare ups significantly, because the grease has no
place to lay on and accumulate. As for flavor, I'm not sure I notice
any difference between ceramic bricks and the bars. I'd have to try
them side by side. Real charcoal does add to the flavor, but that's
another story.

You can also get one of the cast iron boxes and wood chips to add to
any grill that will add flavor while cooking.

The Webers have that box that fits on the side of the grill to put
soaked mesquite chips in. My 10 year old Genesis is hands-down, the best
outdoor grill I've ever used for cooking.

--
To reply by email, replace the word "space" with "renault"

My 10 year old Genesis is hands-down, the best
outdoor grill I've ever used for cooking.

Same here. 5-years old and still starts with one click.
Much better than the disposable Sunbeams that would last one year.

the whole body of the troll will be burned evenly.


Mmmmmmm....troll.