Q As I am a tight-arse I am considering buying one of the cheaper two burners on
the market. It is cute and red with a jarrah trolly, heats up to 45000 btu ratings, has a
cart iron grill and most importantly has volcanic coals for authentic bbq flavour.
However it only has a vitreous enamel hood, and a powder coated body. Is this going
to be a problem? The boy in the shop told me it would blister a crack in the heat - but
surely
isn’t a bbq intended to heated up? Is this boy just trying to make me buy a
more
expensive one or is this true? Please help me as I can understand spending $350
on my
bbq
but I can't justify $700-800 for something that I will use occasionally.
Laura
Fitzroy
Vic
A
Hi Laura. If the vitreous enamel hood starts cracking, I would
fling it back at the
retailer real quick. Vitreous enamel cracks when it's hit or dropped not when
its heated
(at least under normal conditions). The surface is subjected to very high heat when it is
bonded
to the metal. Boy is wrong.
The body is another thing. If you use the hood a fair bit, the powder coating
will blister
because
the heat is contained and reflected downwards. Boy is right.
Big secret sharing time Laura. The BBQ Blue personal gas barby has a painted
body
and a vitreous enamel hood. It's the world's ugliest barbecue - a Gauci - but it's also
built
like a brick dunny.
The guy who has been building them in Brisbane for more than 20 years only offers
a
choice of painted or stainless finishes. I touched up the paint for the first few years to
keep it looking nice (Mrs Blue says much the same about me in the early days of our
interminable marriage) but now I just wipe a bit of oil over the bare bits when I clean
the cooking surfaces. It shows every sign of lasting for another decade or two - but I
admit
it does live under cover.
Look, let's have a shallow moment here - it's cute, it's red and it's cheap.
You can
always touch up the paint with some potbelly stove paint. But I don't think it comes in
red,
only black - a possible problem.
If I was going to use the hood regularly for high temp roasting, I'd think twice.
But at
the price, you could keep it just for grilling and buy the best thing in the world for roasting
-
a Weber kettle (about $250 new/$100 second-hand) - and still be better off
financially.
Let me know how you get on.