Does anyone have any updated thoughts?

Yes - have you considered moving?

sundevilpeg wrote:

Does anyone have any updated thoughts?

Yes - have you considered moving?

Not an option down here if you want to live in a hi-rise.

I ended up purchasing the Char Broil Patio Electric with tru-infrared. The grill heats to 550. My first cook was a Morton tri-tip from Costco. It took a bit longer than gas(it wasn't flaming like my previous grill). The texture was a little different but not bad. There was a bit of char but not nearly like the gas(I missed that the most). The meat was perfectly cooked and juicy. Frankly, other than the char you can get from gas I'm not sure of the the taste difference between gas and electric-neither can compare to charcoal. If I throw in some melted butter I could get that flame. I will most likely do chicken next and toss wood chips in(recommended in the manual) and see how much flavor it adds. Overall, it beats the oven. At least the Weber Smokey Mountain I purchased is still at the pool.

RevrendAndy wrote:At least the Weber Smokey Mountain I purchased is still at the pool.

Andy,

The WSM does a great job on steaks with one of the cooking grates placed directly over the fuel ring. Talk about a hot fire and some good char...

Steve,

That's true but riding up and down the elevator and messing with the smoker is a bit of a hassle for a couple steaks or chicken. The building has a few gas grills at the pool if I wanted to do that. Also, the no see ums kill me. I don't mind it for a smoke.

Finally got around to my 2nd cook which was a couple chicken thighs. I spread some wood chips on the bottom of the kettle which were smoking pretty well by the time the grill was hot about 12 minutes later. The skin was pretty crispy and the meat had a bit of smokey taste. It was probably more moist than when I use gas. Otherwise not much of a discernable taste difference. There's obviously no substitue for wood however I'm thinking this is no worse than gas. Maybe this is because of the tru-infrared technology touted by Char-Broil. It does take a bit longer to cook however because there's not the flame the meat doesn't burn.