Let Me Tell You About My Del Mar Grill

Moving half way across the country involved as much trauma as adventure. Landing close to one of the Great Lakes has had some rewards, one that includes my new grill.

Some things always get left behind, like my big, heavy, bulky, dirty propane grill. We didn’t even sell it at a garage sale, just gave it to the first person willing to take it off our hands. Some things need to be replaced as soon as possible. Living close to large lakes we decided to shop around (dream around) for a boat. While looking at boats, boat shows, we discovered my next grill.

My deck now sports a smaller propane grill, one that is strikingly shiny and hopefully easy to keep clean. (So far, so good.) Magma gas grills are apparently favorites of the boating community, but they also make a grill appropriate for home use.

I am now the proud owner of the Del Mar propane grill, model DM10-016LP. We purchased it through a boating show sale special at a nice price and decided to pick up a few accessories: a blue BBQ “poly-duck” cover, a wok, and a fish and veggie frill tray. I’m feeling fully prepared and equipped and ready to grill.

The Del Mar Residential Pedestal Grill
Although this doesn’t have wheels, it’s not too heavy to move around the deck. It’s sturdy and stable and doesn’t feel as though it could topple. The grill is a high quality stainless steel dome-shape. The grill’s surface area is 16 inches in diameter, easily enough space for a chicken or eight hamburgers. The exterior is a polished stainless steel while the interior is stainless steel (no need for it to be polished on the inside). It has a hinged lid and the dome’s design is supposed to help with heat distribution. The grill can be used as a stove.

Cooking on the Grill
If the dome’s design is supposed to provide a more efficient heat distribution, it appears to have succeeded. I’ve cooked hamburgers, steaks, chicken, and fish on the grill. I’ve cooked skewered meat/vegetable combinations, grilled vegetables, and have even tried cooking with a pan. It was an old pan and an experiment. The outsides weren’t even a little charred. The burner is round, rather than oblong, and it’s like cooking on a stove. There is a removable radiant plate inside the pan, this makes clean up easier. I can place smaller pots directly on the radiant plate’s tongs and adjust the heat as I would on my gas stove. If cooking in a larger pan, it’s easy to remove the radiant plate, invert it, and set my pot directly on the plate. The heat is readily distributed.

Little curious fingers live at my house and one of the desirable safety features for this grill was the hideaway control panel that hid the control knob and another panel that hid the fuel canister. This uses a one-pound disposable propane canister, although we can hook it up to a larger 20-pound propane tank. (The one-pound tank only lasts about 1 ½ hours.) We have a conversion hose for this purpose and use it for extended cooking. It has an easy single-knob igniter system. It’s instant. The panel hides the control knob when I’m not using it. The controls simply sink back into the pedestal and the panel hides everything from curious fingers and eyes.

Cleaning My New Grill
What a dreadful task, cleaning a grill, but this is so shiny I’m encouraged to keep it clean. Magma has made clean up fairly easy. The stainless steel bowl has a removable inner fire pan that can be lifted out. It doesn’t have briquettes in the way that create cleaning hassles. The grill plate actually fits into my dishwasher but it often needs a little scrubbing with a brass wire brush first. Stainless steel can rust, so I tend to heat it dry and not expose it to excess moisture. Additionally, I’m discovering that as I heat it the inside has been changing colors but so long as it’s clean that’s not a concern. I wash the outside with Ivory liquid, a soft cloth, and rinse with water. I like the polished steel look and will buff it slightly to maintain the shine. When it’s really dirty (chicken makes huge messes), I can use the cool temperature versions of Easy Off designed for stainless steel stoves.

In the Future
The owner’s manual is easy to read. The grill came fully assembled, but it was necessary to read about cleaning the grill, the panel, and some routine maintenance. A trouble-shooting guide offers suggestions (look for spiders if it’s not igniting). It includes a five- year external stainless steel warranty against corrosion and a one-year warranty on all other components. The manual offers the usual guidelines, a few simple recipes and cooking suggestions, full diagrams of the feature, and instructions on how to level the grill using the leveling pads.

Some Specs in Case You’re Curious
Grill surface is 16” diameter or 201 square inches
Burner Valve is 100% Brass
The lid and bowl are both double-lined stainless steel
Weight is 32 pounds
Grill’s base diameter is 18 ½ inches
Grill’s height is 41 inches
Cost ranges from $400 to $500 although my deal at the boat show was $350.
In case you’re really curious, I grill my beef kabobs marinated in red wine, garlic, oil, and soy sauce. It makes a huge mess but so far clean up has been simple (on a typical grill clean up scale this is a high 9 out of a 1 to 10 range).

Will It Last
We’re tough on grills, and even $500 grills last me less than four or five years. Perhaps it has been the salt in the air (just moved from New Jersey), perhaps it has been the unwillingness to clean it as much as necessary, or perhaps it’s the nature of grills. For whatever reason, I’ve made a mid-year resolution to keep this one clean and two months later it is almost spotless.

Will I Recommend This?
If your grilling needs are for larger groups, perhaps this won’t work. For a smaller family of four or five, I find that it satisfies my needs, and I enjoy having the ability to convert it to a stove when needed. For large parties, you might want a second one. You cannot take this grill onto a boat, they have a model appropriate for that purpose. Yes, my husband is still shopping for his boat and if he gets what he wants, there will be a similar grill on it. Although new to Del Mar's grills, we like the product and its quality, and when shopping for a second one (our future boat), I hope that we can find another deal. If not, I'm certain we would pay full price.