How do you feel about a 15 gallon tank of gasoline sitting in your car in the garage? 
I looooooove my egg.
I can (and have) cooked for 24 hours straight on one load of lump charcoal at 200F and I have cranked it up to over 1100F for a sear on a steak that will make the cook at Ruth’s Chris jealous.
As far as time goes, I can have my egg or my Weber performer charcoal grills up and running in about 15 minutes.
If you don’t go With the egg go Weber. I don’t know the gas models so you are on your own there, but for charcoal go with the Gold (ash catch can underneath) or the performer (built in table, ash catcher and gas igniter)
Also let me give a shout out for the Weber cook books. I’ve never had a bad recipe from one.
IMHO, if you’re just starting out on grilling and ya’ll don’t eat a lot of meat in general, go with a cheaper one at first. You may not enjoy the trouble and in case you decide “Oh Nevermind!!!” you won’t have blown too much money. (Your level of money, as everyone’s, is different.)
However, everyone here is correct. Propane is easier. Charcoal/wood has more flavor. Also, in my experience, the starter models are cheaper. If you aren’t going to make the Fred Flintstone brontosaurus ribs, you don’t need a ginormous grill.
(Personally a fan of Weber/charcoaltype grills, myself.)
Yes, charcoal is a hassle. But I love evry minute of it. testosterone practically oozes out of the pores of my skin when I like that fire. And wait for it to turn to just the right shade of amber to throw my hunks of dead animal on it.
If the above doesn’t speak to you. Go with propane.
You forgot to add, “girly man”.
Wholeheartedly agree. And it’s not charcoal briquets either, that’s just painted on abs. It’s real hardwood charcoal or wood. No substitutes.
I’ve only used charcoal grills, and for me, the smoky flavor is the main reason I use it. You don’t get that with a propane grill, right? Maybe someone can explain to me, what can a propane grill do that an oven/broiler can’t?
8 years ago I bought a Holland grill. This is by far the best grill I have ever owned and I would buy another. However, it comes with a lifetime warranty on the burners so I doubt there will ever be a reason.
This grill has a stainless steel tray between the burners and the food, and with the close of a valve, you can fill the tray with spiced water and have a steamer for crab legs etc. It is a “constant temperature” grill, and you cook your food based only on time. Start it, throw the meat on, close the lid and set a timer. Their motto is: “If you’re lookin’ you aint cookin’” (It’s actually printed on the grill). The idea is you only open the lid once for a meal (to turn meat over). We cook our holiday turkeys and hams on it, as well as the normal chicken, burgers, steaks, and potatoes. We cook out about 4 times/week year-round. The beauty of this grill is that stuff doesn’t burn readily. If you’re a little late getting the food off, it doesn’t get burned.
Most propane grills have a box or tray to place mesquite, hickory of other wood to add the smoke flavor. I’m pretty sure my Missus would object if I did that in the oven (and filled the house with smoke).
Charcoal tastes better, but with both of us working full time, there is no time to be messin with it! We have a huge propane grill with one burner that we just changed over to natural gas this past summer. No more expense of the damn propane tanks, or running out mid-grilling. We love it!!!
Just fine, thank yew. It’s not under pressure, and a leak would be noticeable. A pressurized propane tank of uncertain condition, not so much.
I have a small gas grill that was fairly cheap (apx $100) and lasted 3 or 4 years. It is a bit unusual, and I can’t find a pict. it is a round type and uses a parabolic reflector dish and what appears to be a stove burner instead of a BBQ style one. It heats up very fast and also uses very little fuel, I filled the tank 2x in that time including the original fill and I do a lot of grilling sometimes multiple times a day. Also the reflector and grill and grease catcher fits in the dishwasher so the whole thing can be cleaned easily.
I still have it and it’s going on a extra year, but a important part is broke, the cap on the reflector dish has detached at 2/3 points from the reflector (the cap covers the burner). So it’s just a standin till I get my new one.
With all it has going for it, low price, very fast heatup (I mean turn it on, get the meat out of the fridge, walk back to the grill and it’s already at 300F ready to cook and can go much higher), easy to clean, very low fuel usage, I would consider getting this one again.
On the down side if you go over 5 people you start running out of space and a larger grill would be preferred.
Here is a link I did find, it is the electric model, but if you scroll down you can see the gas though I don’t see it for sale:
Heat from below and cook via thermal radiation. Ovens don’t do that, nor do broilers.
In practical terms, a gas grill is fine for putting thing directly on hot grates and cooking quickly. Do you get the same amount of heat and the smokiness you do from a charcoal grill? No. But can you cook a pretty damn good steak/burger/chicken/whatever? Yup.
And you can get the smoke flavor on a gas grill by soaking some wood chips in water, sealing them in tinfoil with some holes poked in it, and putting them in/in the grill. Works pretty well.
Overall, I do think charcoal produces better food. But for many, the convenience of gas and the fact that it cooks almost as well is just fine.
The smokey flavor from grilling is not due entirely to wood or charcoal smoke. Much of the flavor comes from the smoke created from the burning of fat and juices that drip onto the hot burners below. Most newer gas grills include plates over the burners that catch drippings, expressly for the purpose of creating smoke to flavor the meat.
Charcoal is somewhat of a flavorless convenience, if you want real wood taste use real wood from the tree that you want to impart the flavor from, and you can buy lump charcoal which simplifies this a bit for a charcoal grill, but you can do with a gas grill too as they have wood chips of various types which can be cooked in a small tray to impart the smokiness and wood flavor.
One thing you don’t get from a oven/broiler that you get from gas grills is the smoke from the drippings.
We are a dual BBQ household, we have a gas grill and the BGE. Even though my husband is an avid griller it took almost a year before the Egg was used regularly, the convenience of the gas grill is hard to pass up some days. Now however the gas grill stays covered most of the time. He’s got the timing down for getting it lit and ready to go so it gets used for pretty much everything now. Using lump charcoal means that you can start, shut down and restart the same batch of charcoal multiple times so you’re not just throwing it away when you only need a quick cooking. One other warning about the Egg - it’s HEAVY. That’s great when you’re cooking in winter, the thick ceramic holds the heat remarkably well but it’s not good when you have to move it.
If you decide on the propane grill and have natural gas run to your house I strongly advise getting the natural gas conversion. Never running out of gas is an amazing thing (huge gas bills because someone left the grill on over the weekend is less so however)
Bought my Weber for about $450 14 years ago, based on insistent recommendations of others… could not comprehend the cost or justification at the time…
14 years later, I have replaced the grates 1x and the flavor bars 2x, and still have the original ignitor.
I do not think I have burned a single meal, and it is one of the best purchases I made as a home owner.
I got a Weber Q320 a few years back for under $400 and it’s been bulletproof.
Very compact with the fold down shelves and the built in light is handy.
I strongly prefer charcoal cooked meat - we have two regular Weber kettle style so we can do the corn on the cob while the steaks are searing.
The gas grill may be a little faster, but with a chimney to start the charcoal, the time difference is minimal.
When cooking vegatables (for me, at least) the difference in taste is much less noticable, so if you are primarily going to be doing veggies, gas may be sufficient.
(brussel sprouts on the grill (gas or charcoal) are superior to any other preperation method imho)
I prefer the classic Weber kettle charcoal grill. I just think the food tastes much better cooked over charcoal and I like the classic Weber design.
My head is spinning a bit. What are flavor bars? Google tells me they are the same as heat angles, and Wikipedia says heat angles are also called heat shields, and heat shields play the role that rocks use to, i.e., distributing the heat and keeping gunk from falling directly onto the burners. Is that all true? Do I not need to look for a gas grill with rocks in it, or are rocks still better?