The unit seems nice enough, especially for the sale price of $499. But, I look at what the grill has to offer and it's features, and I would be very hard pressed not to spend another $100 and go with the Members Mark from Sam's Club. Both the Kenmore grill that you are looking at and the one at Sam's are made by Grand Hall, so the quality is equal. The one at sears seems to have a few things I would not like. The plastic casters for one, they seem to remind me of cheap office furniture casters. Also, the grates are porcelin coated iron, the Members Mark is three seperate grates made of SS, so nothing to chip. The BTU's seem to be about the same for the side burner and rotisserie, but the entire grill is only 40K BTU's. That seems to me to leave only 18K for the three main burners, only 6K each! That seems alot less than the three 18K burners that the Members Mark offers totaling 54K just for the mains. If you really wanted to sear a steak nicely, I think the Kenmore might not do it very well. The included smoker box is nice, but that is an item you can pick up reasonably anywhere. I see a little SS on the lid, panel, and doors, but that seems to be about it. The Members Mark has SS hood, side shelves, side burner and practically everything you can see. The exceptions are a few items made from steel and the lid has cast alluminum ends similar to the Kenmore except they are not painted like the Kenmore seems to be. I do like the slide out tray for the lp bottle on the Kenmore better than the exposed one on the Members Mark, but that is probably a personal preference. The draw back is that you have less interior space underneath for storage of rotisserie, griddle, smoking chips, etc... In my honest opinion, it seems the Members Mark from Sams club is a much better value for only another $100. Even if you don't have a membership that's another $35. Still worth it! I am not trying to push the Members Mark (actually I own a Virco and love it), but for the difference in features and $$ I think the Members Mark is one hell of a grill for $599 if that is all you can spend. Now, of course, if you've got $799.........Well, the Virco can't be beat! (You Virco guys new that was coming) If you haven't seen the Members Mark from Sam's, I highly suggest you check it out. I have included a link below of Alek's site. A very happy MM owner who has an excellent site on this grill that is very informative. Good luck on your purchase. Oh, by the way, if you haven't seen pictures of the Virco, you can see those at MY web site! http://www.equinoxcs.com/Grillingweb/index.htm Here is a link that might be useful: Members Mark from Sams club

hiigl1: I ran across one of these two years ago when I had to go stove shopping and can confirm that Hollysprings is correct in saying that the Kenmore Elite and the Frigidaire are the same stove. (If you find the full model number of the Kenmore, the first three digits tell you that Sears had the stove made by Frigidaire/Electrolux.) I am curious why you want a 36" wide range. Are you maybe replacing an older (vintage) stove that was 36" (or maybe 40") wide? If so, this stove's tiny oven (3.7 cu. ft.) won't be unfamiliar to you and is likely to work significantly better. Maybe you want a slightly wider cooktop than you get with a standard 30" stove, can't fit a separate oven and cooktop, and don't care that the oven is so small? If you were hoping for a pro-style stove, you will be disappointed. Except for the stainless cladding, these are not pro-style stoves. There are other 36" ranges in the sub $2k price range but the makers, Summit and Premier, have a not-so-good reputations here. The word that comes to mind is cheap, in every sense of the term. If you really need a 36" range and don't care about the tiny oven, and aren't looking for multiple high-power burners, either Frigidaire and Kenmore would be okay. If you were looking for a "pro-style" stove, though, the small oven could be a serious drawback and you can get similar (and better) burners and a bigger and better oven in a standard 30" range such as the one that sssiwek describes. Oh, and one other thing. If you can work with a dual fuel range, Costco.com has been carrying 36" "Ancona" brand range since last fall for about $1800 delivered. It seems to be a counter-depth Euro-Style model (akin to Bertazonnis and Veronas and Ikea used to rebrand). Here is a link that might be useful: Ancona 36 This post was edited by JWVideo on Sat, May 31, 14 at 14:43

We went to a couple of barbeque places today and ending up buying the extra large Big Green Egg, and I think we will be very happy with it. Kevin thinks it will be great for parties, and now it will be even easier for us to cook for a crowd. Since we now have three charcoal grills, we can use separate grills for separate dishes which will make it easier for us to make multiple dishes at once, even if they require different temperatures. We also have the electric smoker, and I have to say that we get a more intense smoke flavor from that than we do from the charcoal - or at least it permeates the meat more. For smoking chilies, only the charcoal will do the job the way I want it. The BGE that we bought also has a pizza stone and can be used for grilling pizza - something that I've been wanting to do since first visiting the pizza making forum. We bought some outdoor lights for our pergola, and I think they will provide way more light than we required, but at least we can lower the wattage when we want to. I haven't bought anything for lighting the fountain yet because I want to have that installed by an electrician on an exterior wall of the house. I'm hoping to light much of the back yard that way and have it on a dimmer. I don't really want underwater lights in my fountain at this point but will talk with the electrician about that. I'm thinking that I will get my yard lit in stages and start off with getting some outdoor outlets installed at strategic points so that lights could be hooked up later. We went out for dinner this evening because I wanted sushi! We haven't assembled the Big Green Egg yet. Lars

Thanks for your reply. The burnt wire group was in the front of the machine, to the right of the lint filter casing. The vent is short to the outside and ridgid metal. There was a short length of flexible metal right behind the dryer to the in-wall vent, but it wasn't crimped and none of the vent piping had any significant amounts of lint. The dryer was new - we are the orignal owners; I don't know anything about a thermostat. Below the burnt fused wires there is a piece of white plastic that burned and fell off. There's lint all inside the casing of the machine - 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch? Thanks for your help.