Charcoal grill

[shaggy]

i have found some weber full 18 or 22's for around 100 bucks but if it is just gonna sit in the corner of my yard and never get used then i would prefer to keep the 100 in my jeans. the table top is a cheap way to test the waters i thought and i could use it if i needed it somewhere else

[T.G]

Originally Posted by shaggy

the table top is a cheap way to test the waters i thought and i could use it if i needed it somewhere else

That's just it, it's really not.

Cooking on those tabletops is nothing like the larger grills - they lack the control and the surface area to cook multiple things or adjust positions for heat distribution, they heat unevenly because of the short distance from the coals to the cooking grate, they also have a tendency to burn food because of that short distance between the heat source and the food, they don't hold much fuel so they can't run for long cooks without reloading, there isn't enough room in them for a decent indirect cook.

[OLS]

Originally Posted by shaggy

i have found some weber full 18 or 22's for around 100 bucks but if it is just gonna sit in the corner of my yard and never get used then i would prefer to keep the 100 in my jeans. the table top is a cheap way to test the waters i thought and i could use it if i needed it somewhere else

I see some bits and pieces in your logic that make me think maybe you ought not mess with it.
If you are going to test the waters and start with a grill too small to do half of what you want to
do on a good charcoal grill, you will end up with skewed results. I DO understand that
you have a gas grill to do the things your tiny charcoal grill CAN'T, and I also see that your phrase
was 'test the waters'. But a large scale Weber, while it may be 100 bucks, is a great and versatile
grill and SHOULDN'T sit in a corner of your yard unused. But would you just shun it in the end
anyway once you have to start buying charcoal, a starting chimney (fluid bad) and have to
clean up the ashes? If you are testing the waters with a tiny grill, I don't think you will learn
much more than whether or not you like messing with charcoal, not how great a good charcoal grill
can be.

I see Adam already basically said all this. He is right. This is really only a means to an end, and
that end being a decision based on all the wrong data. I have a three foot long Char-Griller unit
with no fire box, and yet I can still smoke meat REALLY successfully using indirect heat, plus I have
a charcoal tray that can go from 8-9 inches below the meat to touching the grate and blasting the
meat with heat. Super great unit. I would never use gas again. I hate it. If you use that Tiny Tim
beach grill, you will end up going back to gas out of necessity, not choice.

And you know, by the time I say all that, if I had NO grill, and you gave me your gas grill, I could STILL
do everything i wanted to on it, I would MAKE it smoke and MAKE it slow cook and MAKE it sear a steak.
But it would be a compromise, and also one that would have me hassling with LP gas bottles.