# The great grilling debate--Gas or Charcoal?



## VictoriaP (Mar 1, 2009)

_I realize this topic should be as verboten to discuss in public as sex, religion, and politics due to the potentially extremely volatile nature of the discussion, but I'm really curious._ 

The argument started a few weeks ago as the weather improved. The cheapo gas grill that we've nursed along for the last couple of years needs too many parts to make yet another repair worthwhile. Having lived with the supreme convenience of gas since I first moved out on my own, to me this was a no brainer--buy another gas grill.

To my husband, this was also a no brainer--"Charcoal is the only way to go."

The subsequent sniping, cajoling, and outright attempted bribery on both sides lasted a month, until last night a compromise of sorts was reached. Exasperated at not being able to enjoy cooking outdoors in the only decent weather we may see all year, I bought one of each.

 Weber One Touch Silver 18.5"  Weber Q-100 Portable Gas Grill

Reasoning: DH does most grilling, while I handle all the marinating and all stove/oven dishes. If he's going to handle the cooking, then I might as well let him use what he wants. And hopefully I won't have to hear the moaning & groaning about how charcoal grilled food "just tastes better".

However....

I know full well that half the time, I'm going to hear something along the lines of, "I don't feel like waiting an hour to start cooking." LOL And there are days during the week when I start dinner before he gets home; frankly, I'm not dealing with charcoal, EVER. Why bother when I can light the gas and start cooking in about five minutes? Who needs all that mess or the wait? The gas grill I chose is compact enough to put away in one of the deck storage cabinets, and portable enough to just pull it out only when it's needed. I'm all about convenience in this case.

*So how do you handle this in your house? What's your personal preference and why? Favorite grill brands? Tips & tricks?
*

For the record--


I went with Webers this time because of their exceptional reputation for quality. I was astounded to read the reviews for the Q series grills especially; I'm so used to have to replace out a grill every few years, and there are people who've used these or other Webers for 10 years before having to replace them! Picked up the charcoal kettle today & put it together in about 10 minutes...now I'm off to go marinate some chicken. 

My mother in law is very pro charcoal--which blew my theory that women prefer the convenience of gas over the mess of charcoal. But the area she lives in limits charcoal use some days, and after a lifetime of Weber kettle grills, she finally got her first gas grill a few years ago. Now even she's not sure she would go back!


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Weber is the only acceptable grill, whether charcoal or gas.    Ours happens to be gas.  (It is way less messy.)

I'm only half funnin' about this; our friends have a Char Broil (gas) that they got to replace the Char Broil that stopped working after 2 seasons and it's still not right.  Our Weber is going on 14 years and all we've had to do is replace the bars and grates.  It lives outside -- and we use it -- year round and about half the time my husband forgets to put the cover back on so it's been in lots of weather.  The sparking starter even still works.  My dad's is a similar model and is even older.  He got his to replace his Weber charcoal weber that rusted through after 20 years or so.


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## Rasputina (May 6, 2009)

wood and charcoal purist here and we love our Big Green Egg. http://www.biggreenegg.com/


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## cheerio (May 16, 2009)

It depends on what is being cooked.

I can not do hot dogs on a charcoal grill


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

If "being green" is important to you, the propane gas grill would appear to be the best choice among gas, charcoal, or electric grills:


> ..."While more grills are fueled with liquefied petroleum gas, the majority of carbon dioxide emissions are from grills using charcoal briquettes, because the amount of carbon per Btu of gas is about one-third that of charcoal," West said.
> 
> Although electric grills emit no on-site carbon dioxide, West said they have the highest emissions per hour of all the grills when accounting for fossil fuel emissions from producing and transmitting electricity. A liquefied petroleum gas grill operated for an hour would emit 5.6 pounds of carbon dioxide while a charcoal grill would emit about 11 pounds. An electric grill would account for about 15 pounds of carbon dioxide.
> 
> West's calculations were based on the common charcoal typically sold at grocery and convenience stores, as opposed to charcoal that is made solely from wood. Common charcoal has a heating value of 9,700 Btu per pound while solid wood charcoal has a heating value of about 13,000 Btu per pound....


From: http://www.ornl.gov/info/press_releases/get_press_release.cfm?ReleaseNumber=mr20030703-00


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## Forster (Mar 9, 2009)

The only thing I use charcoals for is cooking with my dutch oven.

This is my setup for patio grilling/camping:











Got one of these griddles to go on it too. I can cook up a heck a breakfast for a pile of people out camping:


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## kevin63 (Feb 10, 2009)

I say the one that does most of the grilling should have what they want.  But you've seemed to solve both issues with both grills.  I have a large gas grill and a small one.  The small one can be a pain sometimes.  It's more difficult to grill on (for me anyway)  I think it gets too hot too fast and those smaller gas tanks don't last very long.  That's my only issue with the small one.


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## KindleMom (Dec 11, 2008)

When we built our house we had a gas line put in the back of the house for a grill.  It has worked out great because we never run out of gas!  It was a little tricky finding a grill that worked with natural gas, but we did - don't know the brand, but it's a good one.  It has a hot plate, work station and one shelf.

Everytime we go to someone else's  house and they are out of gas we just look at each other and are grateful we thought of getting the gas line put in.


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## Kind (Jan 28, 2009)

For consistency, Gas/Propane.  
For flavor, Charcoal!!!   

My Pick =


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## koolmnbv (Mar 25, 2009)

I don't do the grilling so I am not even sure what type of grill we have out there....thats a little sad. I should go out back and check it out just for my own curiosity now.


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## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

More and more of my friends have piped-in natural gas grills. I have a propane grill - can't beat it for convenience.

But I do love the smell of briquettes.

Amazon's best-selling grill is this propane one:



The next-most popular one is this charcoal grill. Pretty retro, isn't it? I had one of these in college.


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## bookfiend (Feb 22, 2009)

For his B-day this year Hubby got a Char-Griller Duo model # 5050. (couldn't find it on amazon to make link.) Got it at Lowe's, affordable. It is both, carcoal, and gas. so depending on the day and time restraints we can do both. Also got him the smoke box attachment, so the hunter can smoke fish, and other game. It is great for versatility. (wish I knew how to get picture to show you)



_[added link - Admin]_


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## Meredith Sinclair (May 21, 2009)

Harvey said:


> More and more of my friends have piped-in natural gas grills. I have a propane grill - can't beat it for convenience.
> 
> But I do love the smell of briquettes.
> 
> ...


We have the piped-in natural gas, but we also have one of those retro-dudes too!


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## VictoriaP (Mar 1, 2009)

Harvey said:


> More and more of my friends have piped-in natural gas grills. I have a propane grill - can't beat it for convenience.
> 
> But I do love the smell of briquettes.
> 
> ...


I have to laugh, because the two we bought are the smaller siblings of these two.  Guess I made some good choices!

I **might** someday upgrade to the larger propane Q-320, but realistically, it's just the two of us 99% of the time, and when there's more than that, it's usually only one other couple. So for now at least, it didn't make as much sense to go with a larger grill. The only disadvantage for us to what we bought is that it's tough to cook with indirect heat on the smaller sized, one burner model.

And my MOTHER had one of the "retro" models when I was a kid....I don't even want to think of how many years ago that was. LOL


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## bookfiend (Feb 22, 2009)

Thanks Harvey


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## MonaSW (Nov 16, 2008)

Harvey said:


> The next-most popular one is this charcoal grill. Pretty retro, isn't it? I had one of these in college.
> 
> 
> 
> Hasn't everyone had one of these at one time or another? LOL.


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## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

Come to think of it, I'm not sure that mine had wheels. I guess that innovation got introduced after the 80s.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I think they always had wheels, Harvey, you were supposed to pull the grill around and orient it to the prevailing breeze for best cooking.  My folks had one of the very first ones and it had wheels.

Of course, it's possible the wheels came off. . . . . .


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## louiseb (Mar 2, 2009)

I use natural charcoal in my Big Green Egg. 

http://www.biggreenegg.com/


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## Tip10 (Apr 16, 2009)

It depends -- I use both.
Gas for grilling and charcoal/wood for smoking.
I use a gas grill for everyday grilling I use gas.
My smoker is a horizontal smoker with a separate firebox.


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## Bren S. (May 10, 2009)

Gas grilling for me 
I prefer it to "dirty" charcoal lol


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## Sanveann (May 16, 2009)

I much prefer the flavor of food cooked on a charcoal grill, but we rarely have the time,or the inclination to clean up the mess! So we have a gas grill, and I love it, because grilling = someone else doing the cooking (namely, DH)!


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## geoffthomas (Feb 27, 2009)

Well I DO believe that there is a flavor that is imparted by charcoal fires.

And charcoal and most gas grills will add flavor by singing the meat with an open flame.

The Weber gas grill provides indirect cooking.
The flavor bars cover the burners (and therefore the flame).  So the food is never exposed to direct flame.
The striping on the food is caused by the heated grid. (mine being ceramic coated cast iron).
And the food is flavorized by the juices hitting the real-hot flavor bars which evaporate it.

I add mesquite chips to an aluminum foil "box" to add wood flavor to the cooking experience.

Just sayin.....


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## DawnOfChaos (Nov 12, 2008)

I'm too impatient when it comes to meaty goodness. Gas grill here.


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## Guest (Jun 19, 2009)

I much prefer charcoal.  We have a Weber Kettle grill like the one shown above. Love it.


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

We've always had gas grills.... I find it more convenient.


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## Rasputina (May 6, 2009)

louiseb said:


> I use natural charcoal in my Big Green Egg.
> 
> http://www.biggreenegg.com/


WOOT another person that knows the value of good bbq. The Egg is awesome isn't it. I've never had juicier meat than on the Egg. What size do you have? We have a large and I'd love to get a second one.


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## Rasputina (May 6, 2009)

NogDog said:


> If "being green" is important to you, the propane gas grill would appear to be the best choice among gas, charcoal, or electric grills:From: http://www.ornl.gov/info/press_releases/get_press_release.cfm?ReleaseNumber=mr20030703-00


Worrying about emissions from the bbq is very much down the bottom of my list. Proportionately it's a teeny tiny fraction of our total carbon footprint in industrialized nations.


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## louiseb (Mar 2, 2009)

Rasputina said:


> WOOT another person that knows the value of good bbq. The Egg is awesome isn't it. I've never had juicier meat than on the Egg. What size do you have? We have a large and I'd love to get a second one.


I have a medium, it's usually just me I am cooking for. I do love it. When I have company and I grill they go on and on about how wonderful the flavor is.


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## Rasputina (May 6, 2009)

louiseb said:


> I have a medium, it's usually just me I am cooking for. I do love it. When I have company and I grill they go on and on about how wonderful the flavor is.


We had a hard time deciding on a size. I'd still like to get a small to take camping. Other than the plate setter I think my favorite accessory is the cast iron grate. The meat is so incredible on the Egg, I'm sure that we have sold a few as have you. Like you said, one taste is all it takes. It does bake very nice bread and pizza too, we have the pizza stone. We haven't used our old bbq since we bought the egg we like it so much better, it's been abandoned in the yard. We used to use it's rotis pretty regularly but we don't need it anymore. We really should sell the thing.


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## Tip10 (Apr 16, 2009)

Rasputina said:


> Worrying about emissions from the bbq is very much down the bottom of my list. Proportionately it's a teeny tiny fraction of our total carbon footprint in industrialized nations.


Not to be rude about it but this is typical of the NIMBY attitude of many. Somewhat akin to Al Gore's "I but Carbon credits" cra.. err junkola -- okay, so he pays someone else NOT to pollute so he CAN. And somehow this is supposed to make it better.

Proportionally speaking the carbon footprint of my truck is a "teeny tiny fraction of our total carbon footprint in industrialized nations" -- as is my ENTIRE carbon footprint -- just as is yours and virtually any other individual's -- so therefore, we can keep on doing what we are without worrying about it -- right?

And I'm not meaning to throw stones at Rasputina (at her NO, at Gore YES) its just that her statement bothered me a bit.


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## Rasputina (May 6, 2009)

sorry it bothered you. But I'm not giving up my Egg. I prefer quality and taste over anything else.


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## Tip10 (Apr 16, 2009)

Oh NO -- I wasn't going there -- there's no way I'll give up my smoker either -- wasn't what I was driving at.

It was the proportionally small so we don't need to worry about it part.

I tend to agree, I think, with you -- when my smoker really makes a difference I'll consider it -- but there's a long long way to go in studying the issue before we really know if there is one.


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## geoffthomas (Feb 27, 2009)

Not wanting to hijack this thread......
Tip I agree with your sentiment.
If we could afford to (big if there) and we all put solar panels on our roofs and a wind turbine in our yards, we could turn off the electric company and even sell some back to them.  Then no one would have to burn fossil fuels for us.
But we can't afford it.
And while several 100's of millions of homes not using commercially produced energy would mean a lot, so would no more jet planes.  Or no more automobiles, or no more factories.
Now a lot of that can be changed.
And it can all start with just me no longer grilling meat indoors or out (after all the indoors smoke winds up outdoors eventually).  But not this grill and not this year.

Did that help/make sense/huh?


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

I have solar panels on my roof. And I'm grilling ribeyes tonight.


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## kevindorsey (Mar 4, 2009)

Charcoal all the way.  I would also recommend Natural Charcoal, it actually burns better and meat has a better taste.


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## Kind (Jan 28, 2009)

Natural Charcoal? Oh, isn't there charcoal that used to be wood and they turned it into charcoal or something? I get confused on that stuff.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Charcoal briquettes (the stuff probably most commonly sold) is made from sawdust and other residue/byproducts from sawmills and such along with some kind of binding agent. Lump charcoal is made directly from wood and does not require any binding agents. As such, the lump charcoal is "cleaner" (fewer petrol-chemicals and such) and is somewhat more efficient, too (more BTUs produced per unit weight burnt). Your so-called "natural" charcoals are therefore normally "lump" charcoal, and may be grown "organically", etc. In general lump charcoal will produce fewer combustion byproducts and burn more efficiently so that you don't need to use as much as you would with briquettes. If you use a "chimney starter" for your natural, lump coal, you can avoid using starter fluid and avoid that extra bit of pollution (plus the possibility that some of its chemicals will get into your food as well as your lungs).


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