Overselling Searwood XL Grilling Ability?

[2Maybe4]

I've grilled a bit over the years, but not recently. I bought the Searwood because overall, it appeared high on the competition list. Searing and not needing a gas grill was a plus. Having a rotisserie option was also a plus.

So far, cooking just chicken breasts & hamburgers, we've been quite pleased. The smoke flavor was invitingly tasty. The first 10-15 minutes I used smokeboost. I then boosted the temp to 380 until the internal temps neared 150 & then went up to 550 for a few minutes on both sides.

As others have mentioned, I probably didn't get the sear of a gas or charcoal grill. But, because we have nothing to compare to searing-wise, we're quite happy with the texture and smokey tastiness of the results. I suppose not recognizing what's missing via the positiveness of the "searing" issue, is a plus for us.

After reading this post a few weeks ago, I did find some unused Weber cast iron grates on Ebay for more than 50% off & bought them. I did burn-them-in when I did so with the Searwood. Trying them should be interesting. But because we're happy with what we've put on the table so far, I not sure I will try the iron grates anytime soon.

 

[Cato]

I purchased an XL in November. I've confirmed with 3rd party ambient temp probes that it's getting up to 500+ degrees when set on manual LVL 10. When set that high, the firebox gets smoking hot, you can see it turn red.

However...I'm finding it's ability to grill lackluster. I tried to do burgers and brats on it just like I would my Genesis gas grill. Put them on, flip after 3-4 minutes, put cheese on the burgers, maybe flip the brats again to keep skin from burning, take off after a total of 8-10 minutes.

What I encountered in that experiment was two-fold:

1. The casing on the brats didn't really brown up. They got up to temp internally, but the casing chewy and, honestly, kind of gross. Definitely not what I'm used to or would ever want.
2. I got good grill marks and browning on one or two burgers in the upper right corner. Everything else was unbrowned.

I had to finish it all on the gas grill which worked for the burgers but the brats were ruined due to the way the casing got cooked.

I've tried to "grill" a few other things on this Searwood and, with the exception of some chicken breasts, I find it mostly worthless in terms of grilling/searing. I did a very large batch of kabobs and had a few turn out depending on location in the grill but it was mostly a futile effort. I was fighting a lack of grilling ability the whole time.

I did a decent amount of research, watched videos before buying, etc. I've seen some people say they got rid of their gas grill with this thing. I really don't see how that's possible unless their grill is operating different from mine or they just don't really care about grilling/searing and are content with "baked" food instead of grilled food. Given the number of reviews / comments from people who seem like they know what they are doing, the latter seems implausible.

It also seems implausible there is something wrong with this particular grill. The firebox stays red hot when I'm trying to grill, I don't see how it could get any hotter. Yet the radiant heat from the drip shield just isn't cutting it with the exception of 2-3 hot spots the grill has.

The only thing I can think of is that many of the reviews I watched when evaluating it's grilling ability were for the normal size, not the XL. Maybe the normal size does really work well as a grill and that message gets mixed in for both sizes when the XL isn't nearly as good. Especially when grilling something like kabobs or a large batch of burgers/brats where you are going to need to keep opening the lid. I just don't think there is enough BTUs there to keep the radient heat up enough to keep cooking with the lid open.

I'm still within the 100 day evaluation window and am leaning towards returning it. Am I missing something?

I have the smaller Searwood and it replaced my genesis grill and masterbuilt smoker. A combo machine always involves some compromises, so I was expecting given the large heat shield that grilling/searing might be affected.
I've found it's a great smoker, so absolutely love it for that. Indirect grilling first with reverse sear last, is new to me but it really suits the large heat shield design and my back right corner hot spot. It actually produces a more even doneness than direct on my gas grill.
Oh, I haven't tried open lid grilling with the 1-10 numbers. For grilling I set it to 450-500 and grill both sides in the center bottom rack, and then sear back right lid closed whole time. Pictured a tri tip roast cooked indirect then reverse seared.
All that being said, the OPs brats and my hot dogs, did not fare as well. Pretty sure that as mentioned cast iron grates should hold the heat and make a huge difference in grilling and searing. Home Depot has them in stock,cand they're on my to do list.

 

[Cato]

I purchased an XL in November. I've confirmed with 3rd party ambient temp probes that it's getting up to 500+ degrees when set on manual LVL 10. When set that high, the firebox gets smoking hot, you can see it turn red.

However...I'm finding it's ability to grill lackluster. I tried to do burgers and brats on it just like I would my Genesis gas grill. Put them on, flip after 3-4 minutes, put cheese on the burgers, maybe flip the brats again to keep skin from burning, take off after a total of 8-10 minutes.

What I encountered in that experiment was two-fold:

1. The casing on the brats didn't really brown up. They got up to temp internally, but the casing chewy and, honestly, kind of gross. Definitely not what I'm used to or would ever want.
2. I got good grill marks and browning on one or two burgers in the upper right corner. Everything else was unbrowned.

I had to finish it all on the gas grill which worked for the burgers but the brats were ruined due to the way the casing got cooked.

I've tried to "grill" a few other things on this Searwood and, with the exception of some chicken breasts, I find it mostly worthless in terms of grilling/searing. I did a very large batch of kabobs and had a few turn out depending on location in the grill but it was mostly a futile effort. I was fighting a lack of grilling ability the whole time.

I did a decent amount of research, watched videos before buying, etc. I've seen some people say they got rid of their gas grill with this thing. I really don't see how that's possible unless their grill is operating different from mine or they just don't really care about grilling/searing and are content with "baked" food instead of grilled food. Given the number of reviews / comments from people who seem like they know what they are doing, the latter seems implausible.

It also seems implausible there is something wrong with this particular grill. The firebox stays red hot when I'm trying to grill, I don't see how it could get any hotter. Yet the radiant heat from the drip shield just isn't cutting it with the exception of 2-3 hot spots the grill has.

The only thing I can think of is that many of the reviews I watched when evaluating it's grilling ability were for the normal size, not the XL. Maybe the normal size does really work well as a grill and that message gets mixed in for both sizes when the XL isn't nearly as good. Especially when grilling something like kabobs or a large batch of burgers/brats where you are going to need to keep opening the lid. I just don't think there is enough BTUs there to keep the radient heat up enough to keep cooking with the lid open.

I'm still within the 100 day evaluation window and am leaning towards returning it. Am I missing something?

Update- I ordered the cast iron grates for my Searwood 600. Amazon had them for $75, and I think they're going to help with heat distribution and particularly grilling/searing.

 

[Dann-O]

Have you considered ordering some Royal Oak Charcoal Pellets? I hear they burn hotter.

Yes! the charcoal pellets make all the difference! Much hotter and less smoke. I use them when I am hot-grilling or using the flat top. BTW- the cast iron flat top is awesome and we use it more often than the grates. Stir fry, fajitas....