What do you suggest?

[eelpout#1]

The wife just gave away my perfectly functioning grill to the in-laws. So now I get to buy myself a new grill. The question is: "What would you get for yourself assuming you like the convenience of gas, but still like to throw a couple racks of ribs on for a slow smoke?".

[BobT]

I just bought myself a father's day gift; a Performer from Weber. Uses gas ignition but operates on charcoal. Coals are ignited in less than 5 minutes and ready for cooking in about 15-20 minutes. Lots of neat features too.

My mother-in-law's grill rusted out and so I finally got my excuse. I've been putting off buying the grill for a couple years because ours was working fine.

[Skeeter21i]

Check out some of the wood pellet grills. I've had a Traeger pellet grill for four years now and wouldn't use anything else. It lights with a flip of a switch and can be set to low temps for smoking to higher temps for grilling. There are a few other brands out that are similar such as Green Mountain and Louisiana. Both work on the same theory with wood pellets in a hopper fed into the grill with an auger.

[Redlantern]

How much are you willing to spend?

I cook ribs on my grill pretty frequently. Just bought a smoker so that might change. A guy can make a grill work as a smoker by keeping it out of the wind and using a smoke box. Doesn't work as well as a smoker but it will give you decent results.

I prefer propane because I'm extremely lazy. So I bought a propane smoker.

I think the simpler you keep things the better. Never tried or even heard of this hopper fed, electric start, turbo charged, radioactive stuff the others are talking about. Might be good but I'm to lazy to change my ways.

[Big Dave2]

I cook exclusively on charcoal these days. I even gave away my gasser because I hadn't even started it up in 2 years. I have found that cooking with charcoals is just not that inconvenient once you get used to it and get a system down.

If you are still stuck on having a gas grill, I would get a char-griller with the gasser on one side and a charcoal grill on the other. You can even get an off-set firebox to attach to it so that you can do longer smokes.

[BLACKJACK]

I would buy two grills, one charcoal and one gas. A good sized Weber charcoal grill costs $90 and a cheap gas grill about $100. Thats the combo I have, I use the gas grill during the week, start it up and you're cooking in five minutes, on the weekend I start up the charcoal grill, which takes about 30-45 minutes to start, depending on the wind and weather. I also plan my menus accordingly, smaller quick cooking stuff like hamburgers, chicken breasts, pork steaks during the week and longer cooking bigger stuff like chickens, turkeys, roasts on the weekend.

Actually I have two Weber charcoal grills, one medium size and one big one. I use the smaller one if I can because it does a better job of saving the charcoal when you shut down the vents but its nice to have the big one when I do a big turkey. You can't go wrong with a Weber, I got both of them second hand about 10 years ago and they're still going strong. I'm kind of lusting after a new grill but they just won't wear out!!

[Kylersk]

Doesn'T fit the gasser part, but I absolutely love my Big Green Egg. It bakes, smokes and grills.

Starting is easy too, just need a little time. Add lump charcoal (if needed), put a paper towel that has some bacon grease on it in center and light the paper. Once done cooking, close top and bottom vent. That will extinguish the coals so you can reuse them.

Another reason I love it, it's much safer than a Weber to use on a deck. The ash stays in the bottom of egg and the vent has a small screen on it. After a few cooks and prior to lighting, scoop out the cold ash..

Actually, they sell wooden tables to use them on, but I built my own.

[BLACKJACK]

Doesn'T fit the gasser part, but I absolutely love my Big Green Egg. It bakes, smokes and grills.

Starting is easy too, just need a little time. Add lump charcoal (if needed), put a paper towel that has some bacon grease on it in center and light the paper. Once done cooking, close top and bottom vent. That will extinguish the coals so you can reuse them.

Another reason I love it, it's much safer than a Weber to use on a deck. The ash stays in the bottom of egg and the vent has a small screen on it. After a few cooks and prior to lighting, scoop out the cold ash..

Actually, they sell wooden tables to use them on, but I built my own.

Another reason to splurge on a Green Egg!!! I never use my Weber on my wooden deck just for that reason, to worried about burning the house down, I grill on my cement garage apron. Hard to spend that much money on the Green Egg though...