I've owned this grill for 1.5 years. Couldn't be happier.
Other than my portable Weber Q200 (by the way, also an excellent grill), this is the first "nice" grill I've owned. I grill a lot. I've owned 3 middle of the road grills (CharBroil, Brinkman, $200 to $225 at your local big box), each of them lasting (with really good maintenance/care) roughly 4 seasons.. before the internal components eventually begin to rust out and disintegrate. I finally grew tired of replacing rusted out cast iron burners and cheaply coated porcelain grates and poorly functioning igniters. Plus, the grills never really performed very well. They all cooked unevenly, were hard to light, didn't perform well on windy days etc..
After much research, I was down to BroilKing or Weber.
My major problem with Weber (other than paying for the name), is they put the burner control knobs ON TOP OF THE SIDE SHELF! What the heck Weber?! I USE the shelves for food, condiments, drinks, utensils etc.. Try balancing a tray of steaks, or burger patties or brats on top of 3 knobs! I see Weber's new models (2011), beginning with the mid-level Genesis (starting price $700) they figured it out, and moved the knobs back to the front panel where they belong. But.. $700 is the STARTING price (the cheaper Spirit still has the knobs on the shelf).
Anyway.. back to the fully loaded BroilKing Signet 90 at $530ish.
Exceptional performance! The 3 stainless steel tube burners will CRANK some serious heat. During warm up it's easy to peg the gauge at 700 plus
degrees. Of course 700+ is really too hot to cook (steak at 550, burgers 500, chicken 400). But the 700 ensures a phenomenal sear on a steak or burger (as you dial back the heat). Also the controls function really well. They operate smoothly, lots of little "click points" for infinite control.
The stainless steel burner for the rotisserie is PERFECT to put a beautiful carmel/mahogany sear on a bird or two (or roast). And the included rotisserie components (motor, rod, forks) are heavy duty and work like a charm. The cast aluminum cooking box also does a superb job holding in the heat while spinning some birds, or a nice roast. It's also good at holding a consistent low heat for a nice rack of smokey ribs.
The side burner is also actually functional! It puts out enough BTUs to actually do some real cooking, even in a stiff breeze.
I'm hoping for 8 to 10 years of happy grilling.
After 1.5 years, I'm thrilled with the purchase. Solid as a rock, exceptional value. Those canucks up north certainly got this one right.
UPDATE April 23, 2012
Approaching 2.5 years of extensive use, still thrilled with the quality of the build and performance.
For the money, it's gotta be the best grill on the market.
This update inspired by... Salmon, fresh from the garden asparagus & grilled ciabatta bread.. heaven!
Try this unbelievably simple Ciabatta recipe:
Cut the ciabatta in half (Sam's Club has great ciabatta), drizzle the cut side of each half (liberally) with olive oil, sprinkle with garlic powder (or spread freshly roasted) and pepper. Grill just like a steak but cut time in half.. if at 550, quarter turn at roughly 2min & 2min (press down for even char) and flip for another 2min or so... outstanding.
Perfect accompaniment to.. everything!
By the way, it stills pegs the gauge at 700+.
What a pleasure to have to "dial it back" to 550.
Update, April 24, 2013 It's been a great purchase Still Happy.
Just took it apart for a thorough Spring Cleaning components are all still in great condition, stainless steel tube burners all solid, still fires up with a quick push of the igniter and still pegs 700 degrees.
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Ok...it's not the *size* of a Weber Summit, but it does have the BTU per SQ inch ratio, a side burner, and a great rear rotisserie burner/kit. The Rotisserie kit is top-notch for it's size. The rear burner takes 5 seconds to install/remove, so you don't have to worry about it taking up space when you have a lot of burgers on the grill. Another way in which it compares to Weber is the warranty, and the Customer Support! Both are absolutely great. Upon arrival my box was a little dinged up, and the burner side panel condiment rack was slightly bent...and the plastic piece for the utensil hooks/handle was busted right off. I called Broil King up and they sent it out right away, no questions asked.
Assembly took about 2.5 hours from unboxing to firing it up for the burn-off. Diagrams were easy to follow, but be prepared if you are larger or have larger hands...some of the screws/nuts can be a little tricky to get to and tighten down. Once done, this thing is solid.
First firing-up results:
After 10 minutes it was hitting around 500 F...hot enough to start some good grilling
After 12 minutes it was about 625 F...now we're talking!
After 15 minutes the temp gauge couldn't register it...and it tops out at 700 F! If I had to guess, I'd say we were 750~800 F...dang that's hot! At this point the Flav-R-Wave vaporizers were a bright red ... wow.
I haven't had any real chance to get food going on this baby, but I can tell it's going to be much more consistent and have more even heating that my trusty old Char Broil Quickset (9 years old).
It's not the biggest kid on the playground, but it acts like it. If you feed 2~8 people, this grill will take good care of you and give you all the bells and whistles that a $1,200 Weber Summit has...and it will last for many years to come.
To those concerned about the '08 CG rating and subsequent voluntary recall Broil King is now including the baffles in all affected grills, which has proven to resolve the issue according to CG. Besides...who really cooks extremely fatty foods on a max temp setting (knowing that it is 700+ F) for any period of time over a few minutes. Anyway...you should NEVER leave a grill unattended...common sense people.
A great resource for all things grill/BBQ-related: bbqsource-forums DOT com
Want info on how my purchase experience was with Amazon, please visit here: bbqsource-forums DOT com / invboard / index.php?showtopic=8637 (or Google "bbqsource forum signet 90 nightops", should be the first link)
UPDATE:
I've now grilled about a dozen times on this baby, and man is it consistent across all burners! There is no discernible difference in temps, and I LOVE being able to truly do "indirect" cooking. I'm now getting comfortable enough with this grill to throw all my meats on at practically the same time and have it come out with great results. Everything gets a nice solid sear to it, and the grates...boy do they stay hot! I could never say that about my SS grates on my Char Broil. Can't wait to do rotisserie work...but that's going to have to wait for now. I never thought I would use the side burner so much!!! I find myself repeatedly sautéing onions/peppers/mushrooms to throw on steaks/burgers/etc. Now the wifey doesn't have to sweat that part...and we all know that the secret to a happy home is a happy wife, right?
All things said, I'm completely satisfied with this grill. Probably the best $400 I've spent in a while even after the aggravation that Amazon caused. Broil King's customer service has really taken care of the small hiccups. Considering this grill is basically a Genesis EP-320 WITH a rotisserie rack and cast-iron grates for approximately 1/2 the cost of the Genesis, this is a real bargain. I know the Weber folks are going to disagree on this one...but the only difference is (besides the looks) that the Genesis is 507sq in, and this is 400sq in. While this is true, the warming rack on the Broil King is almost twice the size of the Weber, which is really valuable to me, and the Broil King also has a better BTU/sq in ration (48,000/400sq in vs. 42,000/507sq in). This is going to equate to a grill that can burn significantly hotter, significantly quicker. For the $400 I'm saving (after the rotisserie kit), I might just spring for those Kobe ribeyes ... hehehe.
Best Deals for Broil King 986784 Signet 90 Liquid Propane Gas Grill with Side
First of all I really like this grill. It is well built, has folding shelves, (nice touch) and looks great.
I do have some quibbles however. I was considering taking two stars off for this, but decided the grill deserves 4 stars as it is a great value for the money once assembled.
First, the box that it comes shipped in is totally inadequate to protect it's weight during transit. The first one I received from Amazon was totally destroyed and had to be returned. The second one was delivered via common carrier and was in much better shape, but still had holes on the outside of the box and things were strewn all over inside. Fortunately, nothing was damaged this time.
Second the directions. They are terrible! You get no written instructions only pictures and they are cryptic at best. In fact the pictures show you putting the sides together with only 3 screws and bolts. (The problem is there are actually 8) Oh and wait until you try to put the nuts on the screws. They are in very difficult to get to places and I ended up having to use a needle nose pliers to hold the bolts just to reach the threads. This took me almost 45 minutes just to get these bolts on and I wasn't able to get them as tight as they should have been. (As it is almost impossible to get a wrench of any kind on the bolts) Everything else went together fairly easily until I couldn't figure out how the back rotisserie burner went on. The spring was off of it and we could not figure out how to attach it. The instructions didn't even show or mention a spring. We wasted almost 30 minutes until we finally figured out that the spring went on the venturi side of the burner and the other end pushed into two small holes on the left side of the grill. This could have all been avoided if the instructions would have just been clear. It didn't even show the spring part on the exploded parts list for the grill.
All told this grill took us 2 and 1/2 hours to put together. I'd estimate that we could have done it in less than half that time had the instructions been clearer and if they would have engineered the nuts and bolts to be easier to assemble. We still ended up having two extra nuts and bolts and have no idea if they are extra's or if we missed something somewhere.
We fired the grill up for the first time this evening and cooked some steaks. It did the job well. I'm hoping this grill will last. It has steel cooking grates which get very hot. The controls are very nice but we had trouble getting the side burner to ignite with the electronic ignition. (I ended up having to mess with the venturi and I finally got it to fire up) The rear rotisserie burner apparently does not ignite from the electronic ignition (even though it doesn't state this in the owner's manual) This isn't a big deal, but it would be nice if it pointed this out.
I really like how the propane tank sits hidden inside the lower shelves of the unit. The grill has a nice look to it with plenty of stainless steel on the front and sides. It looks like a quality grill once assembled even though it uses quite a few plastic parts. (At least plastic doesn't rust)
I would have rated this grill a solid 5 stars had it not been for the poor packaging and instructions.
Overall, I'd still recommend this grill as it is an excellent value for the money. If you do have it shipped, make sure it get's shipped via a trucking company and not by Fedex or UPS. It weighs well over 100 pounds and with the poor packaging, it will for sure get damaged in shipment if not carefully handled. Why the Company hasn't addressed the packaging by now is a mystery to me. Do they really think shipping out replacement parts to just about everyone is cheaper than packaging it better? I don't think so.
There are tons of reviews out there on these grills and most of the reviews I saw had damaged parts upon arrival. I applaud Amazon for changing carriers in shipping this grill to me. Using over the road trucking firms, (who are much more capable of handling large heavy items) saved my second grill from the damage it endured from UPS the first time around.
Thank you Amazon!
Honest reviews on Broil King 986784 Signet 90 Liquid Propane Gas Grill with Side
This review is for the : Broil King(Onward Mfg. Co.) Signet 90 LPG with rear rotisserie.
I want to start off by stating that, I rarely write reviews. But for this product I feel it is noteworthy.
First off; The shipping company was Homedirect, and everything arrived without even the slightest damage (which I was very concerned about, due to the large and heavy nature of the BBQ). We were very pleased with their handling of this item.
Secondly; The assembly was a breeze. I liked the use of combi-head phillips/square drive screws. If you have a #2 square drive bit and an electric adjustable torque drill/driver, it will be a breeze! Also a 7/16" open/box wrench and 7/16" socket, with ratchet etc., will ease in the assembly. Otherwise, a small Crescent(adjustable) wrench will suffice. The overall build quality seems pretty good, at this price range. The battery powered starter works well, although to light the rotisserie burner you will need to match light it(or some other flame source). Probably the only items I have issue with, are the burner control knobs. While they are nice and large, it seems as though the valve stems are a bit flimsy. So, be gentle( hence the 4 stars).
Next, is the initial burn off(first time fire up). There definitely were some gasses burning off of the BBQ( to be expected). Mostly from the lid(in between the stainless steel sheet-metal and the aluminum lid casting itself). It may be some residual oils, but it smelled like a hot paint. We've grilled on the BBQ three times, since the initial burn off, and I still notice a small amount of fuming emitting between the sheet-metal and the lid casting(although it is lessening with every use). Just to be clear; There are NO fumes emitting from within the cooking compartment! There are no adverse flavors being imparted to the food!
Now, down to what it's all about! Cooking! The BBQ pre-heats well within 10 minutes to 600°F! It also retains its heat very well.
The first items we cooked were some Cajun sausage links, from our local meat locker(butcher). Not a great test, but they cooked evenly and as one would expect. The next two items were cooked using the rotisserie unit.
We prepared a 4lb. beef roast, for Christmas dinner, and the rear rotisserie cooked this to a perfect med/rare in approx. 1 and 1/2 hours! Referring to the "Genius Griller's Handbook" that is provided with the BBQ grill, for some grilling techniques and times, it also provided us with much additional grilling info as well as recipes. Needless to say, Christmas dinner was made perfect with the excellent roast!
On New Years Eve we used the rotisserie again, to roast a 6lb. whole chicken in 1 and 3/4 hours. Again, the rotisserie unit performed flawlessly! The chicken was beautifully cooked all around, and remained very juicy! An excellent dinner to ring in the New Year!
We have yet to grill any steaks, chicken pieces, or veggies yet, but I can only assume that this grill will perform admirably. Also, we haven't used the side burner yet, but I did fire it up to make sure it worked. We are very pleased with this BBQ grill, thus far, and anticipate that we will get many years of use.
One last note; The company builds these grills in North America!
A Happy Griller.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Broil King 986784 Signet 90 Liquid Propane Gas Grill with Side
We were really nervous about this arriving undamaged after other reviewers experiences. (and not finding it locally without driving at least 2 hours) Whew! I don't know if Amazon changed their shippers, but it did arrive with only a few small dents and scrapes that did not affect the contents. Amazon sent it via the ABF company, by which it sat on a pallet and was moved as the sticker on the box requested by "mech lift".
It took me about 2 hours to assemble, with the instructions being totally by picture. (I suppose it saved them having to put it in several languages? )
We haven't used the grill yet, so I will add more later. Just wanted others to know it was possible for it to arrive in good condition! So far so good!!
