I searched high and low for an
affordable grill that had an IR unit installed. Most of them are kinda pricey, however, many of the add-ons cost more than grills that already have them. But then - as often happens when something is 'meant to be' - I found this grill on clearance in November (2009?) for half off of the already deeply discounted price, so it was under $200 - right about $150 with tax if I remember right. I have used and abused it, the knobs are stripped so I have to use a wrench to adjust the gas flow, but I've got it all down to the point now where I rarely need to use a temperature device to monitor the roast. There are some super nice grills that are IR only, with IR burners on the bottom and the back, they don't have conventional gas burners, and maybe one day I'll find one of those at an affordable price. The biggest advantage that they have is that they work even in moderately high winds... But at this point I've got less than $400 in materials into the whole setup, plus a massive amount of time and effort, and I can bust out 12# batches about 20 minutes apart if I am working hard. [That doesn't happen much...
] I don't even look at Diedrichs anymore, so Mrs. BW is happy and pleasant. (But I would still jump at a Jabez Burns sample roaster if the price was right...)
When we made this most recent drum I had to cut a bit of the sheet metal on the sides of the grill so the rod would fit right, bringing the drum down a tad and back a bit to avoid the top/front of the cover... The ancient RK 5#er that I had previously used had plenty of clearance. I
thought I had measured it all properly six ways til Sunday, but when I went to install it the lid wouldn't close. Lesson here is to make a cardboard actual size model first if you are doing a custom size.
