The Coolest Grill

 

One of my friends always has the coolest grill.  He routinely refreshes "the coolest grill" with top of the line Weber products.  Lucky for me, my wife is in the distribution chain of the hand-me-down models, and we received his very first coolest grill.  This model is a vintage Weber Genesis Gold that was purchased some time before I could legally drink bourbon.  Hint: tenure at my current job is 20 years and change.  Why is the grill on the deck instead of the curb?  Read on to find out.

The story starts in 2004 with my wife informing me of the arrival of the coolest grill (note: names have been changed to protect the innocent).

"Take a look at this grill we just got"
Where did that come from?
"Zane just got a new grill and gave his old one to Lonnie.  Lonnie just gave me Zane's old grill from last time."
Looks like a poke o'doody to me.
"Zane always buys really nice stuff.  I bet this grill is a good one."
That grill is older than Methuselah.

My grill was fairly new and working fine, so the coolest grill sat in the back yard for several months.  At my house, things like this usually get thrown away quickly.  However, my relationship would run much smoother if we just kept both grills and put the new junker on the back burner.

Early the next year, an act of vandalism rendered the non-cool grill inoperable, and the unit was sold in a giant yard sale.  On an evening when a steak dinner was planned, I took a look at the coolest grill to see about connecting a propane tank.  Grill technology must change over the years just like IT equipment.  The propane tank wouldn't screw on the regulator.  After a quick trip to Lowe's for a new regulator/hose assembly, the steaks were sizzling.  The Weber held a steady temperature and cooked the steaks evenly.  The steaks were, frankly, the best ones I'd ever cooked!



New regulator and hose for tank

The coolest grill started chugging away.  We were eating some of the best cooked food in the history of our  household, but the grill had some serious issues.  Do you remember me saying something about this grill falling apart?  When a grill starts to die, it's not exactly the end of the world.  The scenario is more like Steve Austin from the Six Million Dollar Man.  "Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology."

At first, cooking was fine if you didn't stray from the right side.  One of the burners on the left had a huge hole, which created a small blowtorch soon after the grill was lit.  The real problems began when another hole popped up on the right.  When you get to this point, either you get a newer model or start buying parts.  We didn't want the good food to stop, so I hopped in the car for a trip to Lowe's.  Usually, they've got everything you need at Lowe's, but this time the grill dude had to get on the computer and order me a set.  When he started asking about lengths and model numbers, he got a blank stare.  If you do this, make sure you measure parts, take some pictures on your smartphone, and write down model numbers.  On the second trip to Lowe's, all the questions were answered, parts were ordered, the Chase Visa took a $115 hit.  The coolest grill was down for about a week.

During the repair job, more problems came to the surface.  Lonnie had installed a custom grate (built from the side of an outdoor AC unit) to hold ceramic bricks just above the burners.  The grate had to be removed for the burner replacement.  Let's just say that the grate was in nearly the same shape as the burners.  After the burner replacement, I did my normal Google and bourbon meditation to do a little more research on grilling.  A couple of things came to light.  Number one, the coolest grill needed a new set of flavorizer bars.  These sit right above the burner (protecting them from grease) and more or less keep flames from directly hitting the food.  Number two, www.grillstuff.com is a great place to go for hard to find Weber parts.  They have a great selection of Weber parts and good pricing.  After another wait of about a week, the custom grate came out, the flavorizer bars were installed, and things hummed along for a while ....... well, until we stained the deck.

Flavorizer Bars

The coolest grill despised being moved, period.  Picking the grill up to move it into the yard and then back to the deck caused the legs to come totally apart.  Think something like broken legs stops me?  No way.    For about $20 and 3 hours of labor, brackets were bolted on the legs, and the entire frame got a nice coat of Rust-Oleum paint.  Weber uses some stout steel on the frame, and 2 drill bits broke in half while drilling holes for the brackets  Also, the wood from the grill got pressure washed and treated with the same stain as the deck.

Brackets on legs.  Drilling the
holes was the hard part.

This year, the cooking grid started developing more rust than was easily avoidable.  I have several grilling buddies on Facebook, so a poll was in order to pick the right material for the grids.  The choice was stainless steel, cast iron, and porcelain-enameled coated cast iron.  The last option is nearly maintenance free and has the added benefit of holding in heat, so Grillstuff got the business again.  Here's a neat article that explains the pro's and con's of the different types.



Brand new grill grids




After cooking on the grill for several years, I've got a few tips for the amateur griller:

1. The round thing with numbers on it, commonly called a thermometer, is a necessary part of grilling.  The temp I use most frequently is 450, which works great for chicken breasts and steaks up to 1" thick.  Let the grill heat up for a good 10 minutes and allow the temperature to stabilize before putting anything on.
2. Whatever you do, please, please, please don't mash hamburgers when you grill them.  The juice was designed to stay inside the hamburger (makes them juicy) and not catch your backyard on fire from a flaming grill.
3. Thaw meat and let it warm up at room temperature for 10-20 minutes before grilling.  That way, the food is cooked evenly, rather than burned on the outside and cold on the inside.  If you absolutely must cook food that's a little frozen, cut into smaller pieces before grilling.  The best case scenario is to purchase and cook food on the same day.
4. Quick recipes have 2 components, oil and spices.  After tip #3, coat your big steak with olive oil on both sides and sprinkle on the spice.  Our favorite is Montreal Steak by McCormick.
5. If you really want to get fancy with recipes and marinades, pick up a copy of Weber's Big Book of Grilling.  The best book for basic grilling (food times and temperatures) is Weber's Real Grilling.  The "Real Grilling" book has great guidelines for different meats and times for well done, medium, etc.  WARNING: these books can add to your waistline as well as cholesterol level if you're not careful.
6. If you choose not to read the books and want to slap on some thick BBQ sauce onto your hot dogs, wait until the food is nearly done.  That way you don't have burned sauce on top of raw meat.
7. Keep the lid down guys!!!  Keeping the lid up lets all the heat get away.  Not even expert grillmasters understand how to cook the good stuff with the grill top open. 
8. Keeping with #7, try to limit the number of flips.  The pro's will only do 1 flip.  I usually need 2 for steaks and 3 for chicken.
9. Let your food sit for 5 minutes before eating.  Food will continue to cook while it sits.
10. Buy some real grill tools for cooking instead of using a puny fork.  The food holds together better, and you don't get burned during a grease flare-up.
11. A cold beverage always makes the food turn out better.

Now haven't I spent more on parts than a new one would cost?  Sure, but you'll get no argument from me that this grill cooks better and will last longer than anything new on the market.  Maybe even Zane would agree.  Last time he was over, he looked at his old grill and said, "I really liked that old grill.  It was pretty cool."

Facts and Myths of HE Washing Machines

CLUNK!!!!!  

What in the world just happened in the laundry room?  The washing machine just ended in the middle of the cycle, and my quick diagnosis is that the transmission just took a direct hit from a hand grenade.  The machine is pretty old, so it's time to go shopping.  Little did I know that the world of laundry had changed drastically between 1996 and 2007. 

Last time this happened, the whole ordeal took less than 3 hours.  We just bought a fancier washing machine that had about 16 cycles.  It even had hand wash, which was pretty big stuff back in '96.  The price tag approached $500 for a super nice machine.  Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy as my son would say. 

This time, we hit the usual stores and took in all the details.  2007 was fairly early in the days of consumer grade HE frontloading machines, and my head started spinning from all the details.  Sales teams are all well versed in the gospel of HE: less water, less power, and less time doing it!!!  Oh, and spend at least twice as much.  Hmmmmm.  We opted for an offsite meeting at Applebee's to digest all this new info and make a decision.  Happy hour appetizers usually help out with this kind of thing.  Since both of us were pulling down a paycheck (yes, we were DINK's back then) , we decide to spend the bucks and take the HE plunge.  The model we picked was the Frigidaire Affinity series, which a good middle of the road brand.  If you've got more money, step up to a Bosch set.  They actually have suspension built in to make the spin cycle quieter.

After getting to know the new machines and doing research along the way, I've assembled the facts and myths of HE machines.

First the facts.

FACT #1:  Although it may be more aesthetically pleasing, a new dryer is not necessary with a new HE washer.  They don't make HE dryers, but a matching dryer is usually much larger than your run of the mill dryer.  We bought one, because we had the cash and it looked way cooler than my old one.

FACT #2:  A good deal of profit margin is built in, so be prepared to negotiate for the best deal.  We picked a locally owned store that gave us good pricing and some extras. 

FACT #3:  HE washers and dryers are built to sit on pedestals.  Very expensive pedestals (about $200 each).  In theory, you could set them on the floor, but the reality is that you need them.  Otherwise, you're crawling on the floor doing your laundry.  The store threw in one of these for free. 



Pedestals = very expensive storage drawers

FACT #4:  The units use less water.  According to the marketing material, a full load uses about 15 gallons, compared to 40 gallons for a conventional washer.  I had some trouble benchmarking the water usage, because my first son was born at about the same time.  Our water usage didn't seem to go up much, so the washer and baby must have cancelled each other out.

FACT #5: They will save you time and electricity.  IMHO, this is the greatest benefit of all.  The drum on the washer spins water out of the clothing at around 2,000 RPM's.  If you're sitting in our basement, the sound is similar to a helicopter landing on the roof.  Not a good idea to wash clothes while people are trying to sleep, but the clothes really do come out drier than conventional machines.  With the old setup, drying a normal load took at least 1 1/2 hours, and a big load of towels could take longer.  No joke, even  a huge load of towels takes no more than 45 minutes to wash and 50 minutes to dry.  Sound too good to be true?  Believe it.  Our record is 12 loads in a single day.  Since the dryer is a big consumer of electricity and runs about half as much as before, it's a no brainer that you're going to save power.

Now for the myths.

MYTH #1: HE detergent is needed.  Remember the tidbit of using less water?  Less water = less detergent, right?  Imagine my surprise when I found out that HE detergent is the same price for the same amount of loads.  The detergent makers say that HE detergent is specially formulated to clean better with less water and produces less suds.  Some units will even tell you that conventional powders will void your warranty.  WARNING! USE THIS INFORMATION AT YOUR OWN RISK.  What in the heck did laundromats use before HE detergents became available?  I found a post by a laundromat dude with the answer:  "We used less soap".  For a normal load, about 3 tablespoons of conventional powder (Tide Free) does the trick.  You'll need to adjust the amount based on load size, because the washer senses the size of the load and uses less water for a partial load.  A new box of Tide lasts us a long time, and I've been running the same stuff in our HE unit for years.


One time the dishwashing detergent came
with a scoop that was the perfect size!

MYTH #2: HE washers don't clean as well as traditional units.  Our 2 and 5 year old boys test this myth on a weekly basis.  For the little buddy clothing, we add Oxi Clean powder to the detergent tray, select an additional rinse cycle, and treat the tough spots with Oxi Clean spray.  Oxi Clean has powerful enzymes that do a great job of breaking down pretty much anything yucky in the laundry.  Be careful about getting Oxi Clean spray on your fingers.  The enzymes can also start breaking down the skin on your fingers like it did to me one time.  Be careful with the spray and wash hands right after use.  Note: the instructions say to add Oxi Clean powder directly to the drum of the washer, but the clothes seem to do better when adding the powder to the detergent tray.

Oxi Clean spray
takes out the tough
stains.

Oxi Clean Powder - Good Stuff!!

MYTH #3: Fill the scoop up with detergent.  No way!!!  I've noticed that most detergent makers put giant scoops in the box.  More is better right?  No, it just runs out quicker and makes detergent companies richer.  Read the instructions, and draw a line on the scoop with a sharpie.

Stock scoop from the Oxi Clean box.
  Believe it or not,that line I drew at the bottom
is the marker for a full load!

Our Frigidaire units have worked out great, and the best feature is the huge time savings.  If you've got the money to spend, HE is the way to go.