Make your own, stack bricks into a larger design. If you needed a crappy electronic, and it being automated, buy it.
But couldn't you, build your dedicated brick structure, using what, a removable cast iron tray, for the charcoal, it also being your smoker that you light and control. Then buy additional rigging for your heated gas grid above it, and it would need just a few connections, the gas arms running across the brickwork with another connection to your propane tank under the cast iron tray or outside your brickwork structure, it needs a basic sparker to light the flame arms, and for your gas flow settings high to low. It completely housed in a larger durable weather proof cover. You could make a spit if you think big enough. What it wouldn't be is auto. But it all layered into your barbecue/grill.
Most people buy it, but I've seen quite a few bespoke ones, designed purposefully for restaurants, or engineered at home. There are the electric and gas ones. But sometimes traditional is the best with meats, it tends to be charcoal, or gas if you wanted it cooked quicker.
Who knows what you want, inside or outside. But there are also bespoke ones. They just cost far more.
Old methods, traditional smoking and charcoal pits work great.
But you can build something real nice. Using brickwork. Having a barbecue in a segment, and gas in another. Under a bigger cover of durable flame weathering sheet metal. Or you can combine previously a bit riskier. Not impossible. Materials aren't expensive. Probably less than those barbagrills, hell you get some nice ones. But they don't last like a dedicated purpose built brickwork station, forever. You could make it big enough housing a spit. Using a removable tray for charcoal, or wood, probably cast iron, but bricks also work, and then cleaning them out. Enclosed into brick with cover and obviously any gas and holding arms. Beautuful. Stuff on clearing is probably good for soil, instead of disposing.
Be just like the Wilds. Where they made a flame pit. Few sticks later and after the hunt. No you can make them really nice and quite cheap. Bespoke is quite the premium. But there are loads who offer it.
I was shocked that not all tools are stainless steel. All my kitchen appliances are. Wtf . You pay good money expecting tools to last forever and then they rust in a year.
I couldn't agree more. We went through this a couple times over the past 10 years and it was shocking to me that, as you spent more on a grill, rather than it going up in quality and/or functionality, instead you just got a bigger sized version of the exact same thing. There has been almost no innovation in gas grills over the past 20 years. The only innovative outdoor cooking changes in the past 10 years have been all the electric/temperature control Traeger pellet grills. The problem with these is that you may as well just buy a stove for the outdoors, because you have a damn electrical cord plugging into your grill, which, to me, completely defeats the purpose of having a grill to begin with, not to mention completely negates the prepper value of having a grill (in case the power goes out for a month or something). If you wanna buy a nice grill, go back to 2012 and buy a Weber. What they made back then was high quality and the price was about 30% lower, now a lot of the metal components have been replaced with plastic and there has been no new innovations, the frame feels more wobbly, and it is 50% more expensive.
I feel your pain, this is an industry ripe for innovation. Somebody (perhaps one of us) needs to invent some new form of gas grill that is very heavy duty, has better insulated properties, perhaps somewhere in between what you see with the standard gas grill and what you get with a big green egg, and with materials that are made to last and not be easily broken, but which are easy to clean.
DIY. Find a big 1/2 barrel (50L) beer keg. Used one. I think it will be less than $100 or even free. That kegs made from good thick austenite food grade stainless steel. Cut it as you need, add a legs and you will have eternal BBQ.
Also, you could use a drum from washing machine, but they made from thinner stainless steel.
Stainless steel looks like some banned material for making goods (especially cars, but it is separate story). Yes, it is more expensive, but it is not a problem if you want a really reliable outdoor thing.
Stainless steel could be easily cut with regular angle grinder with disk for stainless steel (most disks today stainless steel capable). Welding is same as regular steel, just use apropriate welding rods, or stainless steel wire for MIG. You could use regular CO2 for MIG welding if you have no argomix or argon. Seam will be slightly weaker, but more than enough for stove.
Stainless steel is very nice material to work with. Just remember that stainless steel hardens with slow cooling and softens with fast cooling, opposite to regular steel. So, drill, mill and turn with low RPM, otherwise it will be hardened and you will dull your tool.
Brick option is good, but you need stove bricks and figure out what clay/cement to use. I tested different mixtures gluing two bricks and trowing them to the fire and then to the water. Then tried to break the assembly and choose best one.
This time of year, people are always throwing away the shitty grills you don't like because they rust or the grates do. I always pick them for parts. I have lots of regulators, grates, handles, thermometers, knobs, burners, valves i've picked from busted grills on the curb. I have three grills I'm restoring or picking for parts on my patio, LOL.
Get creative and design and build your own grill. This is all assuming you have more than a small apartment patio to work with.
I feel your pain fren. Most consumer shit these days is meant to be disposable. The old saying rings true “if you want something done right you have to do it yourself.”
If you want it to last, and be easily repairable, you need to make it yourself. Personally I’ve wanted a grill built out of a cool car front end ever since I saw one in Gone in 60 Seconds, although I won’t be as foolish as the crew was and use actual rubber tires that melt from the heat. Solid metal wheel that can be painted and made to last, thanks.
Companies that focus on quality these days are as rare as rocking horse shit and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. Anything you make well will be churned out in a Chinese sweat shop for peanuts with hour brand misspelt on the chinesium parts.
be the change. build and sell the grill you want to buy in the world :) probably get some interesting branding mileage out of "Conspiracy Grills" or "Redpill Grills"
Get the Titanium 125 flux core welder from Harbor Freight for about $200 plus $100 for gloves, mask, gear, supplies for grand total of $300. Now you have a welder and safety gear and supplies to start metal fabrication.
If there's a metal scrapyard in your town, take a trip there saturday morning and see if they'll let you buy some stuff to build a grill with. They'll probably be happy to help you. Turn an old refrigerator into a smoker. or a 55 gallon drum.
Wow I saw this and thought...there's so much shit like this. For instance we were looking at new sinks and faucets because we're redoing our kitchen (cheaply) but we found American made cabinets that are all wood. Which is apparently extremely rare. For a decent price. Now here comes sinks...well they all have shitty reviews. So do the faucets. So we said fuck it and got what we liked. Everything is most likely bound to break or fuck up. It's such a joke. My husband and I actually always point out our really great buys. (Things that last and work very well) Some cheap headlamps (with the middle strap) that they stopped making, our shark vacuum, all of our Makita tools, and there's really a lot of other items too...but I can't think of them off the top of my head. When you start looking, you'll also realize 90% of things are made in China. 8% in other countries...and maybe 2% here. We always buy American where we can. Then we avoid China where we can too. Anywhere but China at this point. Typically the other countries still make better items overall from our experience. Also, if you've ever replaced an old item (say a ceiling fan) you can notice how well made things were in the past. They might be ugly and old, but they're built like fucking tanks. Every ceiling fan now is a flimsy piece of shit, no matter what you pay.
Also forgot to add ..grills are almost all shit. We found a relatively cheap one at Sam's club a few years back that does gas, charcoal, and has a smoker section and a sear spot. It was quite a deal for $350 and it's lasted us 4 years or so. It's rusty, but what grill isnt...Most "stainless" is not even legitimate stainless anymore. Everything rusts, nothing lasts. If it's magnetic, it's not legit for the most part.
Exactly why we built out a custom brick grill/oven. A great outdoor kitchen! Wood or lump charcoal burner.
Fire bricks, 500 degree÷ mortar, stainless grates, stainless rotisserie spit. A dream on the vision board come true. Powered by wood.
Make your own, stack bricks into a larger design. If you needed a crappy electronic, and it being automated, buy it.
But couldn't you, build your dedicated brick structure, using what, a removable cast iron tray, for the charcoal, it also being your smoker that you light and control. Then buy additional rigging for your heated gas grid above it, and it would need just a few connections, the gas arms running across the brickwork with another connection to your propane tank under the cast iron tray or outside your brickwork structure, it needs a basic sparker to light the flame arms, and for your gas flow settings high to low. It completely housed in a larger durable weather proof cover. You could make a spit if you think big enough. What it wouldn't be is auto. But it all layered into your barbecue/grill.
Most people buy it, but I've seen quite a few bespoke ones, designed purposefully for restaurants, or engineered at home. There are the electric and gas ones. But sometimes traditional is the best with meats, it tends to be charcoal, or gas if you wanted it cooked quicker.
Who knows what you want, inside or outside. But there are also bespoke ones. They just cost far more.
Old methods, traditional smoking and charcoal pits work great.
But you can build something real nice. Using brickwork. Having a barbecue in a segment, and gas in another. Under a bigger cover of durable flame weathering sheet metal. Or you can combine previously a bit riskier. Not impossible. Materials aren't expensive. Probably less than those barbagrills, hell you get some nice ones. But they don't last like a dedicated purpose built brickwork station, forever. You could make it big enough housing a spit. Using a removable tray for charcoal, or wood, probably cast iron, but bricks also work, and then cleaning them out. Enclosed into brick with cover and obviously any gas and holding arms. Beautuful. Stuff on clearing is probably good for soil, instead of disposing.
Be just like the Wilds. Where they made a flame pit. Few sticks later and after the hunt. No you can make them really nice and quite cheap. Bespoke is quite the premium. But there are loads who offer it.
I was shocked that not all tools are stainless steel. All my kitchen appliances are. Wtf . You pay good money expecting tools to last forever and then they rust in a year.
I know!! It is so frustrating! You have to spend as much time cleaning and preserving your tools as you do using them!
I wonder what people did in the old days??. They didn't always have petroleum based products.
I couldn't agree more. We went through this a couple times over the past 10 years and it was shocking to me that, as you spent more on a grill, rather than it going up in quality and/or functionality, instead you just got a bigger sized version of the exact same thing. There has been almost no innovation in gas grills over the past 20 years. The only innovative outdoor cooking changes in the past 10 years have been all the electric/temperature control Traeger pellet grills. The problem with these is that you may as well just buy a stove for the outdoors, because you have a damn electrical cord plugging into your grill, which, to me, completely defeats the purpose of having a grill to begin with, not to mention completely negates the prepper value of having a grill (in case the power goes out for a month or something). If you wanna buy a nice grill, go back to 2012 and buy a Weber. What they made back then was high quality and the price was about 30% lower, now a lot of the metal components have been replaced with plastic and there has been no new innovations, the frame feels more wobbly, and it is 50% more expensive.
I feel your pain, this is an industry ripe for innovation. Somebody (perhaps one of us) needs to invent some new form of gas grill that is very heavy duty, has better insulated properties, perhaps somewhere in between what you see with the standard gas grill and what you get with a big green egg, and with materials that are made to last and not be easily broken, but which are easy to clean.
Around here, everyone brags about the "big green egg" grills. They pay like $500 for them and brag about how hot they can get 'em.
You could design and market a premium grill that yuppy faggot hipsters will spend $500+ on to try to make up for their lack of masculinity.
I believe in just building your own grill or taking someone's old junker for parts and welding the rest of it.
That's a good idea honestly (building one).
DIY. Find a big 1/2 barrel (50L) beer keg. Used one. I think it will be less than $100 or even free. That kegs made from good thick austenite food grade stainless steel. Cut it as you need, add a legs and you will have eternal BBQ.
Also, you could use a drum from washing machine, but they made from thinner stainless steel.
Stainless steel looks like some banned material for making goods (especially cars, but it is separate story). Yes, it is more expensive, but it is not a problem if you want a really reliable outdoor thing.
Stainless steel could be easily cut with regular angle grinder with disk for stainless steel (most disks today stainless steel capable). Welding is same as regular steel, just use apropriate welding rods, or stainless steel wire for MIG. You could use regular CO2 for MIG welding if you have no argomix or argon. Seam will be slightly weaker, but more than enough for stove. Stainless steel is very nice material to work with. Just remember that stainless steel hardens with slow cooling and softens with fast cooling, opposite to regular steel. So, drill, mill and turn with low RPM, otherwise it will be hardened and you will dull your tool.
Brick option is good, but you need stove bricks and figure out what clay/cement to use. I tested different mixtures gluing two bricks and trowing them to the fire and then to the water. Then tried to break the assembly and choose best one.
I want to buy a welder and start making my own shit.
I also stockpiled a bunch of electronics to start designing my own circuit boards.
I want to get a 3D printer too.
Sorry OP, I didn't read your post yet. I will when I get more down time.
First thing I thought about was the word "Obsolescence." That subject is what your post is about.
I watched this video yesterday.
You're right about the ones at corporate hardware stores being junk. Maybe you can just build your own fire pit or grill?
Here's three designs. I like the concrete block one the best for ease, cost, functionality.
Build Your Own Backyard Concrete Block Grill: easy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsx7tXs3wW0
A DIY Backyard Grill Cart With Concrete Top (Sorta) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6bojlffP8g
Crafts With Cement - Outdoor Kitchen From Red Brick https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHx7bn9Bep4
This time of year, people are always throwing away the shitty grills you don't like because they rust or the grates do. I always pick them for parts. I have lots of regulators, grates, handles, thermometers, knobs, burners, valves i've picked from busted grills on the curb. I have three grills I'm restoring or picking for parts on my patio, LOL.
Get creative and design and build your own grill. This is all assuming you have more than a small apartment patio to work with.
I feel your pain fren. Most consumer shit these days is meant to be disposable. The old saying rings true “if you want something done right you have to do it yourself.” If you want it to last, and be easily repairable, you need to make it yourself. Personally I’ve wanted a grill built out of a cool car front end ever since I saw one in Gone in 60 Seconds, although I won’t be as foolish as the crew was and use actual rubber tires that melt from the heat. Solid metal wheel that can be painted and made to last, thanks. Companies that focus on quality these days are as rare as rocking horse shit and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. Anything you make well will be churned out in a Chinese sweat shop for peanuts with hour brand misspelt on the chinesium parts.
be the change. build and sell the grill you want to buy in the world :) probably get some interesting branding mileage out of "Conspiracy Grills" or "Redpill Grills"
Get a Napoleon Prestige Pro or Weber Summit.
ONE OF A KIND! BBQ Grill Made with a 55 Gallon Barrel | Full Build https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuUSM7YMZOc
Get the Titanium 125 flux core welder from Harbor Freight for about $200 plus $100 for gloves, mask, gear, supplies for grand total of $300. Now you have a welder and safety gear and supplies to start metal fabrication.
Titanium Flux 125 welder from Harbor Freight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EB2bMi2ndI
If there's a metal scrapyard in your town, take a trip there saturday morning and see if they'll let you buy some stuff to build a grill with. They'll probably be happy to help you. Turn an old refrigerator into a smoker. or a 55 gallon drum.
Tickle and Howard Build The Ultimate BBQ Grill | Moonshiners https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEdhvKzaxL0
Primo Oval XL kamado grill. Buy once. Cry once.
I do have to grind off and replace the lid seals every couple of years, but that's all the maintenance it gets. No cover.
You really seem to have struck a nerve on this forum.
So buy quality and take care of it
Wow I saw this and thought...there's so much shit like this. For instance we were looking at new sinks and faucets because we're redoing our kitchen (cheaply) but we found American made cabinets that are all wood. Which is apparently extremely rare. For a decent price. Now here comes sinks...well they all have shitty reviews. So do the faucets. So we said fuck it and got what we liked. Everything is most likely bound to break or fuck up. It's such a joke. My husband and I actually always point out our really great buys. (Things that last and work very well) Some cheap headlamps (with the middle strap) that they stopped making, our shark vacuum, all of our Makita tools, and there's really a lot of other items too...but I can't think of them off the top of my head. When you start looking, you'll also realize 90% of things are made in China. 8% in other countries...and maybe 2% here. We always buy American where we can. Then we avoid China where we can too. Anywhere but China at this point. Typically the other countries still make better items overall from our experience. Also, if you've ever replaced an old item (say a ceiling fan) you can notice how well made things were in the past. They might be ugly and old, but they're built like fucking tanks. Every ceiling fan now is a flimsy piece of shit, no matter what you pay.
Also forgot to add ..grills are almost all shit. We found a relatively cheap one at Sam's club a few years back that does gas, charcoal, and has a smoker section and a sear spot. It was quite a deal for $350 and it's lasted us 4 years or so. It's rusty, but what grill isnt...Most "stainless" is not even legitimate stainless anymore. Everything rusts, nothing lasts. If it's magnetic, it's not legit for the most part.