BBQ ...and quality stainless??

Hello,

I am a pipeline welder of 26 years. I really haven't had much to do with stainless steel in my career. I want to buy a BBQ and have noticed in the past 3-5 yrs that there are some pretty nice stainless BBQ's out there for sale by Home Depot, Price Club etc... I also was told to watch what you buy as some of those pretty "stainless" BBQ's eventually start to rust! This brings about the question of good and bad quality stainless and knowing what to look for when buying a stainless BBQ.

Is there a non destructive test to do to check for good quality stainless? I don't imagine that Home depot would be happy to see me going at the side of a new bbq with an angle grinder to look at the sparks. I suppose a magnet would be one way. Any other checks a person could make to guarantee quality stainless before buying?

Has anyone bought a stainless BBQ that has started to show signs of rust that would care to comment??

Thanks...Jimi

Reply to
Jimi
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Stainless BBQs are a marketing gimmick. They only look nice in the store.

Quality of stainless steel is not the only issue. Cooking is done on low heat. To prevent flareups and burnt food, after you are finished cooking, you have remove the food turn the heat all the way up with the cover closed for about 15 minutes to raise the temperture to 600 degrees and burn the fat off for your next cook session. When you do that, the stainless steel cover discolors in spots from the heat, and the smoke comes out from all the cracks below and bakes on to the heated surfaces of the cover. That stuff is impossible to remove. Lets just say that the area in my shop that is covered in grinder dust has a better appearance than my stainless steel BBQ. I will never buy a stainless steel BBQ again.

Reply to
Speechless

Mine is just fine after two years of doing what you described. Yes, I have some smoke color on it in places, but no big deal.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus2833

The thing about stainless steel to me is the cleaning. I have a Vermont Castings bbq. It has stainless steel side tables, and a small amount of stainless steel on the rest of it.

It is a pure D pain to keep looking good. I would never want to own a stainless steel bbq, as I think it would be a constant effort to keep it looking good.

I really fell in love with a big stainless steel bbq one time. It was around $1,000. But, then, I needed a bbq for my vacation rental, and didn't want to spend that much. So, I went $400 for a Vermont Castings. I really like this grill, and the experience I have had keeping it looking presentable showed me that I would have to really work 10x more to keep 10x more SS looking sharp.

Megallurgically, rust depends on a lot of factors. It can come from the wrong ingredients in the alloy. It can come from having steel in contact with SS, and having the steel create a galvanic reaction that rusts the SS. It can come from low grades of SS, corrosion, food components, all sorts of things. Nothing lasts forever.

But you may be able to buy one that is guaranteed not to rust. Only problem is then you have to keep it looking sharp.

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

One thing I read was to try sticking a magnet to various parts of the BBQ, it should not stick. I assume this means that bad SS would still have some attraction, but maybe the people here can clarify that.

Re BBQs in general, I just bought a Jenn-Air SS BBQ "back yard SUV" at Lowes and I am returning it. It had a broken weld on the inside that is impossible to get at. The $500 to $1000 units you are talking about are not made that well, and thickness of the metal is about half that of the "real" SS barbeques like DCS and Thermador (which cost $3k).

My advice would be either spend bigger bucks on a quality brand that will provide parts in the future, or getter a Weber. It wont look as slick initially, but nobody complains about them on the cooking BBSs and they are sure to have parts in the future.

BTW, most of these SS cheapies are China imports. Even Jenn-Air is not the same as the real Jenn-Air. The name was bought by some company that cranks out BBQs under lots of different names..

Reply to
lens

I have had similar experience for 6 years, no rust but some smoke stains around the vents. Unit sits outside year round uncovered as we use it all year, no snow in my area. Perhaps the rust some reported was from use of steel wool to clean their SS BBQ. The rust was plain carbon steel from the steel wool.

You can buy what you can afford and enjoy it, or spend $3K and hate to get it dirty, or stick with charcoal. I prefer to enjoy what I can and not sweat it if a tool gets dirty from hard use. Glass is half full for me, not half empty. A little smoke >>

Reply to
Robert Ball

I agree 100%, plus, the smoke stains are mostly inside and barely any are outside (and those would be in the back). A SS BBQ is a great product to own. Mine cost about $1,300 at Sam's Club (they promptly fell in price after I bought one).

i
Reply to
Ignoramus27153

That always seemed the most likely explanation to me, too, but I once talked to a guy who swore the stainless Viking cooktop in his outdoor "kitchen" here in Florida had rusted to junk in less than a year. He was ten miles or more from the ocean, so it wasn't salt spray. I would have expected Viking to use pretty decent material, too.

Owen Davies

Reply to
Owen Davies

I'm planning to build one like this:

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You may find the rest of his web site interesting:
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Reply to
Speechless

Hi Jimi,

Try this link out for "Quality" BBQ's.

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Ok, so I am biased... I work for Sub Zero... Give me a day or two and I can tell you what SS we use.

Brian

Reply to
Bulletsnbrains

"Bulletsnbrains" wrote

I'll guess 304.

Reply to
Steve B

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