Sunday, July 27, 2014

Cheap Weber Performer Platinum Charcoal Grill

Weber 1481001 Performer Platinum Charcoal Grill, Black
Customer Ratings: 5 stars
List Price: $369.00
Sale Price: $349.00
Today's Bonus: 5% Off
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The grill was very easy to assemble. It took less than an hour and it was ready to go. It's very easy to use. You just put charcoal in the baskets, push the button on the gas ignitor, let the coals get cooking for about 5 minutes or so, turn off the gas and let the coals get up to temp. Then add your meat and cook. The work surface is plenty big enough to place platters, etc. I can't find a single negative about this grill.

UPDATE 4/1/13

I have used the grill upwards of a dozen times and it is still functioning flawlessly. One thing I really like is that when I am done cooking, I just close the top and bottom vents and the charcoal extinguishes. This allows me to reuse some of the charcoal the next time I grill.

Here is what I have found as far as time it takes to get from ignition to cooking. I turn on the flames and let them go for about 5 minutes to get the charcoal started. I then let cover the grill and let the charcoal sit for about 20-25 minutes to get up to temperature (around 300-350 degrees if using one basket) At that point, it's time to start cooking.

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I've had this grill for a few weeks now and have used it ten times. I love it. But there are a few things that might be helpful to know:

1. I'm a grill newbie and debated for a LONG time about whether to get gas or charcoal. I wanted something hassle free so that I would use it frequently (I'm lazy) and all my friends said I needed a gas grill. But I couldn't resist the charcoal grill flavor and bought this instead. Wow, it is easy to use and easy to clean! I don't regret not getting a gas grill at all.

2. That said, gas is definitely easier if you don't want to think about grilling. To use charcoal I got online and studied two stage heating and where to place coals etc. This is pretty interesting and I enjoyed learning about cooking with charcoal. Note that although this grill makes it easy to cook with charcoal, learning to cook properly takes some studying to do it right and have amazing steaks (and once you learn the basics it becomes second nature). If you just want to fire up a grill for some burgers and steak without watching a bunch of YouTube videos and reading BBQ blogs, gas is the way to go.

3. The Weber propane lighting system isn't as good as I expected. Some reviews talk about how big the flame is and whatnot, but I disagree. The charcoal holder is an oblong shape and the flame only covers the center of the holders. Thus, the middle charcoal is ready to go very quickly and the coals on the edge aren't even hot yet. After about ten minutes I find myself using the tongs to move the charcoals around a bit so that I can put the edge pieces on top of the hot ones. I was expecting the flame to cook all the coals while I was in the kitchen prepping the food and not having to play with coals half way through, but that isn't the case. Weber should make the flame much longer to heat all the coals in the basket evenly (or use two flames spread apart). I read on another website that it's better to get a Weber charcoal chimney and place that over the flame. The chimney keeps all the charcoals stacked on top of each other and they all heat at the same rate with no cold coals afterward. I'll probably buy a chimney this weekend and try it out. Of course, if you need a chimney why spend the extra money to buy the propane starter on this grill? Not much reason, but I already bought it. It should make lighting the chimney with propane super simple and faster since I don't have to deal with tearing up newspaper and pouring vegetable oil on it every time. Like I said, I'm lazy. :-)

UPDATE: Right after writing this review I've since bought a chimney and use it with the propane starter. The combination of the chimney and propane starter is a winner. Check out the comment thread for this review to see more discussion about it. It's awesome.

Update 2: Last night I ran out of propane (it lasted a little over 2 months now?) so I decided to try lighting the chimney with paper instead of replacing the propane just to compare the two methods of lighting it and see how much better the propane tank is. I took two pieces of newspaper, splashed some vegetable oil on them (I'll use olive oil next time since it's always sitting right next to my grill. LOL) and put it under the chimney. Within minutes that dang chimney was smoking like crazy and after 15 minutes it was an inferno. Just as good as using the propane tanks, but newspaper is free. :-) It was so simple and effective to use newspaper that I really don't see the reason to get the propane lighter now. Either way you light the chimney, it is soooo much better than the two trays they give you to light the charcoal. Just light it and forget it. No fussing with coals to make sure the outside coals get as hot as the inside coals.

4. The push button igniter was unreliable at first. Sometimes it would click and light the fire and other times not. Turns out that the cheap battery that comes with the grill should be thrown away immediately. I replaced it with a brand name battery (Energizer) and the button works every time now. Must be that the cheapo battery doesn't have a very good connector on the ends? Don't know.

Update: The push button is still unreliable. The new batteries seemed to help at first, but that was a fluke. It's back to its old ways again. I push in on the starter really hard sometimes to get it to spark. I'm tempted to call warranty service to see if they could send me a new one that is more reliable...

5. The clock that sits in that plastic holder keeps falling out. There is is VERY SMALL plastic tab inside the holder that is supposed to hold the timer in, but it was poorly designed and my timer is always falling on the ground. I finally just put it on top of the shelf and leave it there now. Different BBQ sites bash on it being a cheap $1 timer, but what do you need from a timer? It does the job and after all the times it has fallen out of the holder without breaking, it is actually pretty rugged. I like it.

6. There is a long hole on the backside of the grill that is used to hold the top grate while you mess with the charcoal. I've been putting my grate on the ground to get it out of the way until I saw a picture on the internet that showed how the grate handle fits into that hole in the back. Nice.

7. The side table is really convenient, but now that I'm cooking a lot I could use more counter space. I'm looking into a modification to make a small shelf above it to hold extra oven mitts, cooking spray, paper towel roll, thermometers and stuff that I need to have close by but I don't want them on the table when I'm moving hot food around and have to move quickly (I knock things on the ground a lot when I have something hot coming off the grill). It's amazing how much stuff I need to have on hand while I'm grlling and the table fills up fast. So a small second shelf would be really great.

8. When putting the grill together, everything was pretty simple and I finished in just under an hour. But one thing that totally confused me was how to attach the ash catcher to the bottom of the grill. The instructions show some type of 3D image with a partial cutout of how it fits on the grill, but I just couldn't visualize how it is supposed to stay under the grill and not fall off without being screwed in. There are three small hollow tubes under the grill and the diameter is the same size as the metal tabs. It looks like a perfect fit. So I tried to jam the metal tabs into the hollow tubes to make it stay. But that was a really bad idea and kind of screwed up the shape of the ash catcher. I finally figured out that you just need to bend the three tabs back a half an inch and then fit them along the side of each tube and the pressure against the tubes at the same time is enough to hold it in place. I build a lot of stuff from IKEA and can follow directions really well, but this one step took me a while to figure out.

9. The small propane tank does't come with the grill. Most people probably already know this, but I've never grilled before and I when I got the grill I was really excited to start cooking immediately (I worked from home that day so I would be there when the UPS driver arrived!). I would have bought a tank before the grill was delivered and instead I had to make another trip to Home Depot after assembling it. Also, I couldn't find a specification of the tank size connector to buy. I didn't want to buy one that doesn't fit and have to make another trip. Turns out that these small propane tanks are all the same standard size (at least they are in Home Depot) and it was no problem. Oh yeah I bought two tanks b/c they are pretty small and only cost a few dollars each. I expect that one day I'll want to fire up the grill with my friends around and find out that the tank is empty and have to go buy another in the middle of the party. Having an extra tank on hand means the party isn't spoiled. Like I said, this might be common sense to a lot of people, but this could be helpful info for people new to grilling like myself.

10. The screws that connect the thick wire that holds the grill lid in place while open uses pegs on the inside of the grill. Unfortunately, those little pegs are just big enough to get in the way of me putting the top grate on the grill when the coals are ready. I have to be careful to avoid the pegs and angle the grate to go under the pegs and then rest it on the grate ledges. If Weber would have used flush screws inside the grill then this wouldn't be a problem. There is probably something to do with the pegs giving support to the wire lid holder, but it still gets in my way when the coals are hot and I'm trying to quickly put the grate on the grill without getting burned.

UPDATE: Okay, I overstated the problem here. Just put the grate in at an angle and a little lower than the screws with some grill gloves on and it's not a big deal. I was trying to put the grate down flat on top of the grill and kept hitting the screws. Just go at an angle and it's no biggie.

11. I bought the black grill b/c reviews online said that the colors online don't match the actual product. But I just saw that a friend of mine bought the same grill and got it in blue. Blue looks great and is much better than black. I wish I would have gone with blue.

All in all this is a fantastic grill and I'm grilling with it all the time now. I love it and my friends are very impressed with it. But if anyone from Weber is reading this, you could definitely make some tweaks in the next model to make it better.

Good luck with your grilling!

P.S. Thanks for the Like votes! It's great to see that the review is helping people. Click the Like button and I'll keep adding updates to the review as I learn new tips. :-)

Best Deals for Weber Performer Platinum Charcoal Grill

Because I have moved a lot, I have probably gone through close to 8 Weber ONE-TOUCH Silver charcoal grills but have always been happy with them. Recently, I purchased my first house so i decided to go all out by ordering a Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker 22.5 and this Weber Performer Platinum. I must say, the Weber Performer has exceeded my expectations! Here are a few positives:

1. Never before have I had such easy coal ignition. This is enough reason to give praise to the Performer Platinum.

2. The table-top is spacious and is great for prepping or beer placement.

3. The storage space provides one convenient location for coals, woods, and other stuff.

Negatives:

1. Missing the beer refrigerator :)

If you can afford it, my recommendation would be to spend the extra money for the Platinum. Now that I have purchased this grill, there's no going back to the ONE-TOUCH. Hope this review helps.

Honest reviews on Weber Performer Platinum Charcoal Grill

I've always heard good things about the Weber brand, but this is my first. I'd been looking at this one for a while when I caught a review from America's Test Kitchen. Solid construction on Weber's first-rate name, this has a very sturdy work table, and the propane igniter for the charcoal is a great little bonus that I didn't think I'd use that much (I'm a big proponent of chimney starters), but use it all the time now. The thing I noticed almost immediately was the air flow control into the kettle. The lid seals magnificently, and the air flow regulators do a good job of opening things up or locking it down so tight the coals will extinguish before they turn to ash.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Weber Performer Platinum Charcoal Grill

I got this grill on Thursday night and found several parts missing. A quick call to Weber customer service fixed that they overnighted the missing parts at their expense. They did verify my purchase but the call was quick, painless and they registered my warranty while I was on the phone with them. This is my second performer and there are several improvements over my previous performer. The starter system is improved and there's a timer that comes with this model that is easy to use and has a big enough display that I don't need my glasses to read it. One difference I noticed right away is that this grill reaches higher temperatures faster than my previous Weber Performer in 30 minutes it hit 450 degrees using the charcoal holder this grill burns hotter than a lot of the competition, uses less charcoal and can be used for direct and indirect convection grilling. This is an outstanding piece of equipment it's well worth the money and you can't go wrong with this grill.

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