I have a 7yo and me and the wife both work full time. I was a gas grill guy my whole life. Im about to build an ODK and got a primo to try out because i heard so much about them. I absolutely love it and so does the wife. With that said it takes a little more effort to get it going but what I do is make sure the grill is prepped before hand....clean and loaded. Then when I am going to grill I usually light the pit then prep the food...but the time the food is ready the grill is too. I do a lot of indirect heat then sear so I dont get the temps too high at first but it can if I need it too. I love the primo so much im going to have 2 in my odk vs a primo and a gasser. Now I will have more room for bigger bbqs...can have different temps for different style cooking...or indirect smoke on one full primo then sear on the other.

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 have cooked on all three and the TEK IR is the only gas grill that cooks as well as charcoal. It's advantages over charcoal are that it is quick to set up, easy to clean up and does an excellent job of creating the charcoal taste. As many here know, the flavor is created by the smoke from the fat striking the hot surface be it charcoal or something else. The higher the IR energy (from gas or charcoal) and the less the flame, the more smoke generated rather than being turned into additional flame. The TEK creates a great deal of smoke because the IR glass sits between the flame and the dripping grease. On older style IR burners there is still an open flame to ignite the grease drippings reducing the amount of smoke to add flavor. With charcoal, once the embers are glowing red, it is emitting a lot of IR and much less to no flame and hence produces a lot of smoke and flavor. I have owned the FireMagic and I would not purchase another. The burners are cast SS but they still do rust over time and the flavor grills wear out too. They are very hard to clean and the heat was not anywhere near as good as the advertisements. If you are the type that never clean a grill and don't mind a gritty looking grill it may not matter. I am the type that wants it to look clean and inviting each time and the self cleaning feature along with the dishwasher removal panels makes the TEK a breeze to clean and keep looking nice. For me that was worth a lot. The more conventional grills like the Firemagic, even with their ceramic infrared burner are not even a close match.

I kept my trusty Weber for about a year when I bough mine, and it quickly became a charcoal storage unit. Things that the egg-shaped cookers do "better" than a kettle or gas grill, are, in my biased opinion, and in no particular order: * High temperature sear -- I can easily get the coals to a yellow-orange temperature. It is hot enough that the stainless-steel grill "self cleans" and I get a beautifully marked and seared steak. * Capacity -- I can easily get a 25# turkey *and* four full slabs of ribs into mine (equivalent of a 22 1/2" Weber grill size) * Temperature control -- with the top and bottom dampers, I can much more easily control fire temperature than I ever could on a charcoal kettle. I can be at 700 deg (dome) temperature and shut it down to a 400 deg "dwell" in a minute or two -- basically puts the fire out and cooks using the heat stored in the dome (this also means that unused charcoal is not consumed) -- see warning below * Cook pizza -- Real pizza. 700 deg isn't at all hard to obtain and maintain. * No cover needed -- It's pool tile. Hose it off with the pressure sprayer from time to time. Disadvantages -- its harder to have a "hot" side and a "cold" side. It is clearly cooler around the edges when using it as a grill and I generally deal with it that way. WARNING -- Get yourself a good set of mitts and a ideally a fire-resistant apron, and always, always look away when opening any charcoal-fired cooker of any sort that has been "shut down" in this manner. The high temperatures that remain can "vaporize" all kinds of combustibles, that basically burst into flame when the oxygen rushes in when you open the top. Think turning on the gas in the oven and then tossing in a match. It has never happened to me, but I'd hate to find out that I lost the roll of the dice. Here is a link that might be useful: Cooker Flashback