so, i never bought a gas grill. apparently no one sells used ones in the summer and the new ones are all so ridiculously expensive. can i just buy one of the super cheap ones (charcoal, i think i'm giving up on the gas idea) and be fine? i don't want to do anything fancy, just cook steaks and hamburgers without stinking up the house.
Sys, don't give up on gas.
Up until two yrs ago(my latest gas grill), I have always bought what ever gas grill was on sale at walmart for like $100, and I made a bunch of fantastic stuff on those. The main differences I notice between my Weber Genesis and those:
1. even heat. It is ridic how even the heat is across the entire grill on my Weber. The walmart ones always had hot and cold spots. That said, I used to use that to my advantage in that I would get certain things to a good sear and move them to the cooler spot to cook slower until finished or when cooking different things that like different heat(hamburgers and hotdogs for ex). Also, when cooking for others, the hot/cold spots give you a very easy way of cooking a group of items to different levels of done(med, med-rare, etc) when cooking for a group with differing tastes.
2. longevity. I have had my Weber for two years and it looks brand new. Usually by this time my walmart ones would have pretty serious signs of decay in the burner deflectors, grill, or burners. I used to go through walmarts every three years or so.
3. amount of attention I have to provide while grilling. I used to flip things on my walmart grills very often. like, very often to make sure they were where they were supposed to be and progressing how they were supposed to.
So, imo, you should be just fine with getting a cheap walmart gas grill as long as you don't mind baby sitting the grill often or throwing it out every three years or so, depending on how often you use it.
