I Love It!

I moved to a home with a deck, where I would not use charcoal, and I am too nervous about gas, natural or propane, to use it in more places than necessary. I wanted an electric grill, and was shocked to see that all the big stores here, from Fortunoff's to Home Depot, didn't stock electric grills - couple of the home stores had a George Foreman on a pole stand that I thought ridiculous.

I found this in the Grill Lover's catalogue. It came unassembled, and even though I generally have a knack for this sort of thing, this looked a bit confusing for me. My landscaper's brother put it together for me. He eventually had to cry "uncle" and submit to the indignity of consulting the directions!

The ceramic grill is very easy to maintain, food doesn't stick, and the domed lid allows you to make a variety of dishes one wouldn't associate with grilling. I made a turkey, spinach, shi take mushroom and sauteed onion meatloaf in this thing during a heat wave using heavy duty tin foil that was out of this world. The controller allows you to manage the heat from 100 to 700 degrees.

One drawback for me is the aluminum bowl-type lining. Food does accumulate on it, which provides seasoning and flavor, but it also can cause flareups. And if it gets a little too thick, it lowers the temperature of the grill. Cleaning it is a challenge, and I don't mean soap and water clean, just removing some of the layers. It looks like an inverted Jiffy Pop dome, but it is made of an aluminum a bit thicker than a disposable aluminum pan. I live in fear of puncturing it while cleaning it, because if that happens and it has to be replaced, I have to take the grill apart to do it. And how I'll ever get it back together, no one knows -- I have a different landscaper now. The drip cup always seem to miss the drippings -- the wire holder seems to have a mind of its own and never holds the shape I want it to. But even when the cup is empty, I have an oppossum that comes up every night to check it out.

I keep mine covered when not in use, with the controller stored inside the house -- this way, I am sure at 3 am that I did NOT leave the grill on before going to bed! I find it very easy to move, and it goes up and down my deck steps with ease when I store it in the garage for the winter.

About a month ago, the controller stopped working -- I was so upset,but while looking through the owner's manual, I saw that it was under warranty for three years. I had had mine just over two, but didn't have my receipt. So I called Grill Lover's to see if they could provide me with the information. I still can't get over how rude the woman was, she kept assuming she knew what I was going to say before I said it, cutting me off and blurting something out, and I had to say, no, that's not it...she really acted like I got her out of the tub, but she did give me the date of purchase. I called Char Broil and got someone who was charisma-free, but I got satisfaction -- they charged me $6.60 postage and handling and said it would take 7-10 business days, but within 3, I had my new controller. The literature that came with mine offered a full range of replacement parts.