I love the propane start in my performer. Even if I am using one of my other grills, my chimney gets started on my perform with the gas assist.
Thoughts on getting a performer....Have you checked around on Craigslist and OfferUpNow? You can probable save $200-$300 if there are any listed in your area, leaving you money for accesories, and you will want some accesories whether you know it now or not.
Items you will need with your grill wheter you purchase it new or not. I'll try to list them in order from greatest to least needed/used:
1.
Chimney starter - If your get a performer with gas assist that comes with charcoal baskets, you don't have to have a chimney starter, but for the price and effectiveness of the chimney I would get one anyway. You absolutely can start your coals in the charcoal baskets placed over the gas assist. If you want to get into smoking (225-250 degrees) you might want to get a
compact chimney as well for lighting a smaller amount of coals. The chimney also give you the ability of starting more coals if you need them mid cook by either placing it on a patio or walkway or on the cooking grate of your gasser. With my performer I usually gun the gas assist for 3-4 minutes to get the chimney going then shut it off. with 3-4 minutes of usage each cook my propane lasts a really long time.
2.
Lighter cubes - if you don't get a grill with gas assisted start these inexpensive gems are easy to use, work well, and are a lot cleaner than using newspaper or paper towels to light your chimney.
3.
Charcoal baskets - let you easily setup zoned cooks where you have the coals on one side, in the middle, on the sides but not the middle. This is a basic must have and eventually will be replaced on some cooks by some pricier accesories (smoke-n-sear, vortex, smokenator, etc) should you choose to get into them.
4.
Wood chunks - even if you don't get into slow and low smoking right away, a chunks or two of wood for normal cooks is never a bad thing. Apple and Pecan lend themselves to almost everything and are more mild than some of the other options. I think most people here would agree these are the top 2 go to wood flavors, followed by hickory, mesquite, cherry and oak (in no particular order). I started off with wood chips, but quickly switched to chunks. I think the chunks work a lot better. Also, don't soak your wood, it causes it to burn less clean that dried wood.
5.
Multi-probe thermometer - Give you the ability to monitor the temp in the grill and the temp of the meat you are cooking. The performers and MT's do have thermos built into the lid, but they are usually off by about 25 degrees on the new grills. Not a big deal if you know it 25 cooler at the grate level, but being able to see the exact temp where your meat is sitting and inside of the meat is a good thing. There are lots of different models so you have a little bit of research you can do on these. I have the Maverick ET-733 and love it, the ET-732 is a favorite as well for many members here and a little cheaper.
I think I'll leave it with that. This is a good getting started list. Once you have these things and figure out if you are doing a lot of smoking, hot cooks, reverse sear, etc, then your wish list is going to go crazy with things like: rotisserie ring, smoke-n-sear, cold smoking tubes, vortex, ribolator, etc)
Topic: Need help deciding on first kettle purchase (Read 10967 times)