grills stoves and cookware

I ordered this grill once I saw the price drop to $$$$ with free shipping (and the bbq tools bonus). I purchased it mainly for tailgating since I have a nice Webber for home use.

Setup
The grill was VERY easy to set up initially (it comes assembled, except for the wheels which were easy to attach). The side trays (2 of them) slide on and off easily. The gas canister (not included) attaches in two simple steps.

Use
The grill goes up and down by use of a foot pedal. It doesn't go down as easy as it goes up, but this could be me getting use to it. You light the grill through the use of a "sparker" button. You can also light it with a match and an extension wand. The side trays also hold the tools that come included (tongs, spatula, and grill scraper). The grill portion is about 2/3 of the entire grill with the flat griddle taking up the final 1/3. Grease dips along a channel into a collection jug.

Cooler
The top slides off for access. There are cup holders in the top of the lid (not very useful though). There is a drain plus in the side at the bottom. The cooler kept ice for over 24 hours in 90 plus degree heat. It held a bottle of wine, six beers, two steaks, two medium tupperware containers, and six bottles of water - with space left over. There is a bottle opener on the side of the grill.

Clean up
The tools that come with the grill are plastic (because of the non-stick nature of the cooking surface). The grill top itself comes off and can be cleaned in the sink (the back of it is unfinnished so I would not put it in the DW). The grease jug cleans easily as well.

Downside
(1) In windy conditions (like a parking lot for tailgaiting) you could have a tough time lighting the grill. There are holes in the back of the grill itself, bring the wind in. I turned the grill out of the direct wind and it lit well.

(2) Heat - now this could be the temp gauge, but it never showed the grill getting hot enough to cook (it shows three levels - warming, cooking, and too hot). It was always on the high-end of warming. Now the food coooked fine (two thick steaks and some roast potatoes), and this could be me getting used to the grill, but I wanted to mention it.

(3) Weight of the grill. With a full cooler the grill is heavy. It has two side handles (and a pulling strap), but it was tough getting it in and out of the back of our minivan.

Overall - I love this grill. We went to the Springsteen concert the other night and had a half dozen people come up and ask us about it - someone thought it cost $$$$. The guys across from us had the same grill without the cooler and were jealous of the cooler.

I bought the fire and ice grill from amazon and had the same delay in shipping problems and damages that other people refered to, nothing I wasn't expecting. I also saw one at walmart that was dented during shipping. I'm sure I'll put a few dents in it myself, so who cares.

The cooler is top-notch! Unlike most coolers, if you want to get something out of it, you don't have to take everything off of the top because it slides back to open instead of tilting up. We brought the cooler to the beach because of the big tires and someone figured out how great a feature that is. They also thought it looked great!

My grill doesn't get that hot, I'm not sure if it is defective, but it is an issue. I'll recomend it still because no one else has really said anything about the heating and I think it is just mine.

We bought the grill for 128 dollars to take camping at Dave Matthews this summer. I logged on today and it's up to 150 now. Ouch! It's very worth it though. It's very classy and compact. I love the grilling size and I'm looking forward to having this baby at the concert.

Only downfall is the shipping. This isn't shipped UPS. It's shipped from some company called Eagle and they don't deliver on the weekends because their contract with Amazon doesn't let them. Most people work M-F and they only deliver M-F 8-5. Not everyone is available during that time. It took us two weeks to even get our grill because of this.

Other then that I'm thrilled and would suggest this grill to anyone.