Webers are everywhere, I have owned a couple through the years friends have owned them and they are fine grills for the price (the charcoal ones) But Webers you can buy everywhere, are far cheaper depending on the model, have tons more advertising so of course you are always going to have more people recommending something of which virtually everyone has or have owned. That's like saying on a post about Beer. 1 count the number of people that recommend Budweiser 2 count the number of people that recommend Deschutes Brewery, "The Abyss" Bud is one of the worst beers ever brewed, it is classic horse pee as far as beer goes. YET it sells more than any other American beer, nothing comes close because it is sold everywhere and puts out many millions in advertising. 1000s upon 1000s would recommend Budweiser as their beer of choice in this country. Now Deschutes Brewery The Abyss ale is one of the very best beers in the world, not just the USA. That would be my recommendation for the best beer. Now which one is truly "better"? Horse pee with millions in advertising that is available on every street corner in the country for cheap or truly one of the best beers in the world, only available from one place and only a couple months out of the year for $14 a 22oz bottle? If you only have say $150 for a grill then a good little Weber Kettle is by far the best choice. If you are talking about spending between $500-$1200 though? Any number of Kamado type grills be it the Big Green Egg, Primo, or the Vision are better BY FAR. Most of the Webers mentioned here I think are what, about $600-$900? The Vision I got from Costco was $570, less money, lifetime warranty, costco return policy, will BBQ, Grill, Sear, Smoker, Water Smoker, Pizza Oven, Wok, easy to start, very efficient use of charcoal, can maintain almost exact temps like you can on your indoor range from 200 up to 800+ degrees. So $570 Kamado or $600++ Weber Gas is a total no brainer as far as usability and value for the money. If Avid still prefers Gas no matter what then for the money the Solaire Infravection grills are far better than the Webers though cost a few hundred more, but what is an extra $200 when you are spending $1200 when you get a far better grill? Lower priced Weber Charcoal grills are hard to beat. If you are spending $900-$1500 then there are certainly better options for that price. and Charcoal beats the heck out of gas for absolutely everything except for ease of use.

I bought the Jenn Air 720-0061 LP from Lowes at least 12 or 13 years ago -- must have been around 2005(?) -- I remember that Lowes had a great promotion going on at the time. Anyway - I'm surprised to see the negative experiences reported here (not disputing them at all, just surprised). My own experience has been the opposite. I've had the grill outside in my backyard, and only bothered with the grill cover for part of the first winter. So this grill has lived outside in central NJ for about 13 years. It was excellent for the first few years, after which I noted that the max heat I could obtain seemed to be dropping a bit year by year. This grill actually became something of an fan item on BBQSOURCE-FORUMS.com 13 years ago: you can find threads I participated in back then under the username "Jon". In discussions with others that I "met" on the forum, I learned about proper care of the grill, and a few of us actually got into "modding" the grill as well. The grill itself was made by NexGrill. Maytag owns the Jenn-Air trademark, and licensed it for use with Lowes to promote this product line. (how's THAT for confused branding???). Many many stainless steel grills in the US are actually made by NexGrill or another one of a tiny handful of factories in China that specialize in these. Apparently, the company in the US that sources these from the Chinese factories can spec out the grade of parts used to manufacture their branded product. A lot of the "stainless steel" in products sold here are pretty low grade stainless. For whatever reason, though, it turns out that the Jenn-Air 720-0061 LP from Lowes was built with all high-grade stainless -- and there are no enameled parts. This grill, sitting outside in my yard for 13 years, uncovered, used hundreds of times, has zero rust on it -- none at all. Once I decided that it was worth trying to improve on the cooking temps I was getting with the several-year-old grill, I started by partially dismantling it, removing the stainless steel grids, the "flame tamers" (the deflectors that sit on top of the burners, but under the cooking grids), and the burners themselves -- which are made, btw, out of cast stainless steel. I found that the cooking grids are discolored, but show NO pitting, rust, etc. These are virtually like new with some scrubbing. I cleaned out the Venturi tubes that combine are and gas on its way to the burners: spiders tend to build webs in these, blocking air flow. Once I pulled out the 3 burners, I upended them and tapped them on a large rock: years worth of corroded metal powder came out -- this is natural build up over a period of years, and had also apparently been blocking air/gas flow. The flame tamers (thin steel sheet metal) are definitely corroded -- but usable for now (however, I address this further down in this note). Finally - I decided to try improving further on the max heat situation (you'll see this discussed on the BBQSOURCE-FORUMS in my thread(s) and others). Anyone who knows gas burners already knows this, but I learned that the maximum gas flow is limited by a tiny brass valve orifice: this is a small brass cylinder with a tiny hole in the middle, threaded to fit into the gas line. When you turn the knob on your grill (not the propane tank), the gas flows from the valve and then through the orifice before it can get to the burners. Turns out that if you're a bit handy, increasing the diameter of the orifice every so slightly (we're talking hundredths of an inch increase), enough extra gas flows to yield a significantly hotter flame. I searched the web and found that among all the replacement parts available for this grill, I was able to order 3 brand new brass orifices -- undrilled -- for about $2.50 each (these things are tiny -- about the size of a Tic-Tac). I drilled them out with a hand held drill to a slightly larger opening than the original and then put them and all the other parts back together. All in all, I spend about $7.50 on parts, and put in perhaps 3 hours of labor. In return, I had the original grill -- now several years old -- working better than new, achieving surface temperature of about 650 degrees F. Still all working just fine. I just did another search (Nov 2018) by grill model number, and found that I can STILL get replacement parts for the cooking grid (stainless steel or cast iron -- I prefer steel, but don't need to replace these at all yet), the flame tamers ($60 will get me three of these in stainless steel), and the burners themselves: about $75 each for an exact replacement of the original cast stainless steel items. If the igniters stop working, they can get replaced for $15 to $30 dollars. In essence, my 13 year old grill is still working well, and for perhaps $300 I can replace the burners and flame tamers - which are the ONLY parts showing signs of aging - and make this like new once again. A comparable grill, out of the same quality stainless, would cost far more than that. Admittedly, I'm handy, and like to fix things when I can rather than just trashing and replacing them. This may seem like a bit of a stretch to some readers, but nothing I did was especially difficult, and really wasn't very time consuming at all. Sure - a shiny new grill is always nice, but this one still looks excellent, and works just about like new, after 13 years, with only a small amount of maintenance effort needed. I might replace it -- but I'm wondering how much I'll have to spend to get something that works at least this well, and will last as long as this one has. - Jon

I think mine is about 8 or 9 years old. Earlier this year I went to use it for the first time and discovered that a mouse had built a nest right on top the burner, which trapped "moisture" against the tubes leading to the burner, and rusted them completely. Also the heat/drip shield had rusted loose, and the grates were not in very good shape. I ordered replacement parts for all three making sure to get stainless steel versions so these should last longer. I think the original grill was about $400, and the replacement parts were $150, so some argument could have been made to discard the old unit and get a better one. but I think this was a more economical and ecological solution. The company I ordered from was grill-parts.com and the parts arrived promptly and fit, and work better than the originals.

I've always found the Weber underpowered, especially for the price. You get good overall quality, but I think you're paying for the big brand name here. I was in the market two years ago and had my eyes on Lynx but the pricing is nearly as much as a Smart Car - well, maybe a slightly used one. ended up getting a Napoleon Prestige Pro 500 and am very happy with it at 1/3 the cost of the similar Lynx. Now I live by the ocean and need the 304 stainless, but you might want to take a look at the Napoleon Rogue 425, which comes with SS burners, their heavy SS cooking grids which are really easy to clean, an a nice infra red side burner which was a must have feature for me. They do make it for NG as well. Napoleon are made in Canada, not USA which I was looking to do, but the price jump to the Lynx was just too crazy.