Hmmm.... maybe JD should take note of this.

I really love my el cheapo round gas grill. It cooks perfectly evenly--every spot on the grill is the same as any other. It seems like most gas grills are rectangular, but really consider a round one!

The latest issue (June 2007) of Consumer Reports has a feature on gas grills. Reading it makes me drool. But as some of you have suggested, I'm going to repair my current grill and make it work. Maybe I'll start saving for a new grill for 2008 or 2009. One thing I know I want to do is construct sand and flagstone patio. Some friends of our have done this, and it looks great. We'd love to have a dedicated surface for grilling.

After a little over a month with the Weber (using as often as possible), I am very pleased with my purchase. I'm absolutely amazed at how easy it is for me to get the results I want. Even after 10 years with my old Char-Broil, I couldn't make foods turn out like this...

So far my favorite meat to grill on it is pork tenderloin... I just get the grill heated up good, turn off the middle burner, and set the outside burners at medium and put the tenderloin over the middle burner. Turn a few times (and baste, if called for) until it reaches 145 degrees. Tent with foil for 5 minutes. Done. Yummm...

An interesting side note here, one related to personal finance...

Tonight after grilling dinner (about 30 seconds after pulling the food off), I heard a poof as the flames went out... empty propane tank. I ran to the closest gas station to get it filled, but they only offered 'Blue Rhino' tank exchanges (a $20 fee) -- a service that they had temporarily discontinued due to being under new ownership. So, I drove the one whole mile into town to another gas station that actually filled empty tanks... it cost me a whopping $11.12 to get it filled, and it maybe took an extra 7 minutes (and I was headed into town to drop stuff off at Goodwill, anyway).

I think it's safe to assume that I won't be going the exchange route next time my tank runs dry...

im too poor to buy my own grill.. i just go to my friends house! lol

I live in a apartment and missed having a grill. I also was not gonna buy charcoal and walk all the way to the pool area to use the broken "common area" grills.

I ended up getting the portable Weber Q (200 series) and I like it so far. It will use the little 14oz propane cyclinders and I also have a 20lb propane tank adapter. I have taken it camping a couple times, and it works great on my tiny porch.

I figure one day when I get a house I can use it until I get a bigger bbq or I can use it on a boat (have to get one of those too). I need to get the rolling stand/cart and the duffel bag.

We got lucky with a ground floor apartment - hooray for concrete patios. I have a Weber Smokey Joe Platinum - one of the little portable guys, but with an 18 1/2 grilling diameter instead of 14 1/2. I named him Bobby (Hill, not Flay - I don't care for Bobby Flay) I've had it for 2 years and I love it. I prefer the taste of charcoal over propane, but I absolutely can't STAND lighter fluid, so I use a charcoal chimney starter (I named HER Charlene). I also have charcoal separators for indirect heat (when I smoke meats), and really enjoy plank grilling. I don't think I could ever own a gas grill, but I'll cook on them if I'm at a friends house cooking for a large, hungry crowd. But at that point, I usually have at least 2 grills going.

S.O. and I just bought a plain jane Weber round charcoal grill. I like the taste of meats grilled over charcoal, and this little grill fits great. It's the classic Weber - round kettle-style with a little pan under the kettle to catch ashes & grease. It's also the perfect size for two people. He inaugurated the grill with a beef brisket that was fantastic. I look forward to many summers of grillin' goodness from my honey and his new grill.

I cannot second the recommendation of a charcoal chimney more strongly. They're great. The carcoal is ready faster, and you don't have to dump a bunch of chemicals on your coals before your food goes on. If you put a little cooking oil on to the newspaper before you light it, it burns a little better. (Got that trick from Alton Brown.) The weber website (that sounds funny if you say it out loud) has great tips and some good recipies for cooking just about anything on the grill.

I would really like to have a little charcoal grill like that... and I would also opt for a chimney starter, as I also can't stand the smell of lighter fluid.

Right now my grill storage area is pretty well taken up by my gas grill, so no Smokey Joe. And, at this point in my life, the gas grill wins out over charcoal simply due to convenience. But if I had both types available, I could use charcoal for certain cuts of meat or if time allowed for it... because even with my hickory wood chip smoking trick, the flavor of gas just doesn't compare to charcoal.

I'm interested in hearing about wood-burning grills, anyone use one? I'm thinking of switching to wood for three reasons: 1) lower costs of fuel 2) using a renewable resource (I'd probably use coppiced wood rather than logs from cut-down trees, but even harvested trees would be a good environmental choice if done in a sustainable fashion) and 3) potential for even better-tasting food.

Apart from the Woodflame grill that I mentioned earlier in this topic, I'm wondering what other ones are out there. I suppose you could use any charcoal grill and just burn wood in it instead, that might be a solution. The nice thing about the Woodflame grill is that you can regulate the heat almost as precisely as you can with a gas grill -- the Woodflame has an electric fan (powered either by D cells or household current) that you can adjust to get the coals hotter or cooler.

Are you talking about a grill that actually burns chunks of wood, or would you consider wood pellet burning grills to be close enough?

Chunks of wood is really what I'm looking for. The $ savings from pellets probably aren't as significant, plus it takes more energy to create pellets so the environmental benefit's not as great. I'd like to glean wood from fallen trees or trimmings, or else buy a small stack of firewood and chop it up into smaller bits.

I have a small camping stove (a Zip stove) that burns wood and uses the same kind of electric fan technology to regulate the heat, it's quite great. I've used it for a number of camping trips and it's very convenient, you don't need to carry fuel with you.

So is something like this more along the lines of what you were thinking?

http://www.aztecgrill.com/homegrill.html

Looks like a pretty nice hunk of metal... I'm sure it ain't cheap.