The Weber Spirit II arrived fully assembled and delivered by Lowe’s.
My new Weber Spirit II three burner grill has been delivered. I’ve never paid this much for a gas grill before, so I am hoping to get many years of use out of it.
The Lowes assembly and delivery service worked pretty well, although the delivery guys seemed a little hesitant when I asked them to take my old grill away (as advertised). They did end up taking it. The old grill left a trail of rusty metal in my yard that I had to clean up. The other issue is that they didn’t deliver the manual with the grill. I didn’t check while they were here, but I expected it to be inside on top of the grates. When I found that they didn’t bring a manual, we made a trip to Lowe’s and they had to pull one out of another grill.
I look forward to writing up a full review once I’ve had a chance to cook on the Weber Spirit II a few times!
After much research and deliberation, we’ve finally decided on a new gas grill. A new Weber Spirit II E-310 will be delivered by Lowe’s tomorrow.
The four year old Charbroil is on its last legs. The underside has completely rusted out and the grease pan has collapsed into the cabinet.
Good riddance, Charbroil! This Charbroil grill wasn’t built to last.
We narrowed down the choices to the Weber Genesis E-310 and the Weber Spirit II E-310 a few months ago. We were so locked in to those two models that we even picked up a cover on an Amazon Lightning Deal back in March. The cover was advertised to fit both the Genesis and Spirit models. The price was too good to pass up. The cover has just been setting aside waiting for us to pull the trigger on the grill.
We got a great price on this grill cover on an Amazon Lightning Deal.
The Genisis is definitely the premium model, but the Spirit II offers the best value. Based on my research, you can’t go wrong with either model. I can’t wait to cook on the new Weber this weekend!
I pulled this three pound tri-tip beef roast from Blonde Farm, LLC out of the freezer this morning. I’ve never had this cut before, but I understand it is pretty lean.
My plan is to let it thaw for another day, then rub it and smoke it. Based on my research, a tri-tip this size will take 4 hours to cook low and slow. This isn’t a tough cut like brisket, it’s more like steak. I will really only need to get it up to about 145 degrees. Whatever happens, I’ll share the results!
So originally, the plan was I was going to pick out a new dedicated smoker for Father’s Day. Unfortunately, we just realized that our gas grill is on its last legs. The priority now is to get a replacement grill first.
This is actually going to be a pretty easy decision. Sara and I are both tired of buying cheap gas grills that last three or four years max. We are going with a Weber. We’ve already narrowed it down to two Weber models. The Spirit II E-310 and the Genesis II E-310. Both are three burner models. The Genesis has a bit more cook area and some upgraded features. However, the Genesis also costs $350 more than the Spirit.
The smoker is going to wait until the end of summer. Hopefully I can find one on clearance as the big box stores start clearing their inventory.
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We are Roanoke, Virginia this weekend for a travel volleyball tournament. Word has it that the Team Mom has scheduled a team dinner at a local BBQ place called Smokey Bones. I’m stoked! Smokey Bones will likely be the very first BBQ restaurant we review on BBQYeti.com. Hopefully the first of many!
We’ve been traveling to a lot of volleyball tournaments over the last few weekends. That hasn’t left much time for smoking or grilling. However, the volleyball season is starting to wind down so I’m looking forward to some much needed BBQ time.
In the meantime, my search for a dedicated charcoal smoker continues. I’ve spent a lot of time researching and reviewing the Bronco Drum Smoker from Oklahoma Joe’s. This smoker really caught my eye at Lowes because of its unique profile. I like almost everything about the Bronco, but during my research I did learn that some early adopters are reporting a manufacturing defect. I will need to see how Oklahoma Joe’s responds to these reports before I consider buying a Bronco. You can read my detailed review of Oklahoma Joe’s Bronco Drum Smoker here.
The next smoker that I’m going to focus on is the Char-Griller AKORN 20-in Kamado grill. Right from the start, I’m not convinced the AKORN is is going to be a real option for me. The cook space just seems too limited. I know the Kamado style grills are super-popular and I want to know why.
There are a lot of options for charcoal smokers. Deciding on which one I want is going to be difficult!
I stopped in at Lowe’s yesterday to pick up a new ceiling fan and a light switch. You can tell the store is all geared up for spring. It is March and here in West Virginia we are bound to get a few 60°+ days very soon. That will trigger spring fever when everyone heads to the big box home improvement stores.
I also needed to also pick up some seed starting mix, so as I walked toward the lawn and garden section, the prominent display of grills and smokers caught my eye. I wandered over to the smokers “just to look”. My wife Sara was with me. Sara asked me if I wanted to get a new smoker. I told her my Weber equipped with a Smokenator has been working well for me. She hinted that maybe it’s time that I upgrade. Well okay, then!
I purchased the Smokenator 1000 in 2012 when I first became interested in smoking. For me, the Smokenator was the perfect solution for a relatively low cost way to get into smoking. Since that time, it has served me extremely well. I am a big fan of the product.
Justification for a new dedicated smoker
So why would I get a new dedicated smoker? Capacity and convenience. The two main issues I’ve noted over my years with the Smokenator are the limited amount charcoal you can load at a time and limited cook space that you have available.
The Smokenator isn’t going away though. I can still think of circumstances where a large dedicated smoker would be overkill. I’ll keep the Smokenator on hand for those smaller cooks.
The Plan
It sounds like the new smoker will end up being a Father’s day gift for me. That means I have a few months to figure out what I want to purchase. I’ve got my work cut out for me. There are so many styles of charcoal smokers available. I want to make an educated purchasing decision.
Over the coming weeks I will be documenting my smoker research here on BBQYeti.com. My hope is that others will find my research helpful in making their own purchasing decision on choosing a dedicated charcoal smoker.
