Sunday, April 11, 2010

We're BBQ'ing Again!

What comes in a really big box and takes almost 1 ½ hours to assemble? Our new BBQ!!!

We have been looking at BBQ’S for over two weeks now and this is the one we both liked the most. It is a Coleman model and is mostly black. This is something that I really wanted because I found the stainless steel on the last beast to be a royal pain to keep sparkling clean and new looking. The price was right, too at just $499.00 but next week I‘ll receive a $100.00 back because they are going on sale. We’ll just have to bring in our receipt and they will (HOPEFULLY!) refund us the difference. This seems like an incredibly stupid system. Why not just give us the sale price to begin with? I guess the store is betting that some people may not bother to go back and get the money. NOT THE WITCH, though. We will definitely be going back to get our refund, the taxes, too!

After we got it all assembled (something that required at least an hour and a half and by the way it’s a good thing there is a engineer in the family to show Hubby what the instructions meant) we had hamburgers which were to die for. This BBQ will cook 25 of them according to the manufacturer, which seems to be some new kind of rating criteria. The store we bought from had all their BBQ’s rated by amburger capacity. Why hamburgers and not, say, chickens or maybe hot dogs? We cooked 9 burgers last night so that we could freeze some and there was room for lots more, but I don’t know if we could have put 16 more on the grill. This seems like kind of an arbitrary system to me.

Buying a new BBQ now means that you also have to buy a new propane tank to go with it. They have changed all the regulating valves over to a new system with a new thread pattern. Now the old tanks will not work and are obsolete. I guess that the landfill sites weren’t full enough. Is this just another consumer rip-off scheme to make you spend more money? I don’t know but now I have a tank to sell. Maybe they will exchange it for the new type.

Our new BBQ has a great feature to measure the propane left in the tank. The tank hangs off a hook inside the base of the BBQ. The hook is attached to a hydraulic sending unit which is then attached to a dial on the front of the BBQ. The weight of the tank shows whether it is full or empty. What a great idea!

So now, here’s a consumer tip for you. The store offered to assemble our new BBQ for us for a fee of $25.00. Hubby sneered and said that he would be building ours when we got it home. Let me tell you, BBQ s definitely take lots of time and tools to put together and the assembly results in lots of garbage to dispose of after wards. It may be worth the $25.00!
Packaging1

Packaging2

Packaging3

As for us, Hubby and I had a blast building it. Now we’ll just see how long this one lasts. I will be buying a cover for it sometime this week as I do think it will help stop the rust from starting. So far I’m very pleased. BBQ season has arrived!

I wish I could show Hubby's face because he was so perplexed at this point.

Here are our 9 burgers cooking. Does it look like there is enough space for 15 more?

4 comments:

Canadian Saver said...

Those burgers look great!

For sure I'd pay the $25... I have absolutely no clue where to start with those instructions.

You guys got a really nice BBQ :-)

Sisters of the Blog said...

Congratulations on your new BBQ!

I'm glad you and hubby were able to assemble it together. Early on in my marriage, assembling things as a joint project was very trying for the both of us.

We're much better now, and when we assembled our shed with nary a cross word, i wrote the manufacturer (Royal Outdoor Products) and thanked them for such clear directions.

I hope you have many great meals with your BBQ!

megan

The Witch said...

Were still learning how to operate it properly. Hubby doesn't think it is working to it's full potentially. :(
I hope I didn't buy a dud. I'm sure to keep everyone posted on it's daily use.
Thanks for the comments.

Nakamuras on Saipan said...

NICE....wow...what a grill! Just for "shits and grins" as we say I'll take a picture of our grill and post it...lol Yours is the cream of the crop-for sure! By the way...please post some more pictures of your area..(please) :)