What's up all...
We finally received a delivery of the new stand alone flat-tops and I got my hands on one to assemble this morning. Unfortunately things didn't quite go according to plan as a couple of units including the one I opened was damaged in shipping. Nothing too crazy but the top lid and side shelves had some compression damage as well as the lower portion of the cook box assembly. Replacement parts are already on order but I at least slapped it together and snagged a few pics along the way.
First Impressions/Unboxing:
Like many other Weber enthusiasts I was salivating over the idea of a stand alone flat-top griddle for the back yard... but I'm not going to lie I was a little concerned when I saw the MSRP on the unit at $449 USD. As an old school Weber guy my knee jerk reaction was a little disappointment as I knew the grill was not going to be of the same build quality we've come to expect in the Genesis, or even Spirit model lines in the past based purely on price point alone. So how does it stack up???
I feel many legacy Weber fans who have grown up on the heavy duty builds of old are probably not going to be all that thrilled with this unit upon unboxing. The cookbox in particular is quite light and feels a bit tinny as its entirely made of bent panel stainless as opposed to a cast. It does however firm up once mounted and screwed into the stand. The side shelves are also quite light metal and do not exactly inspire a feeling of confidence - both were dented in shipping. Then there is the hard panel cover that sits over the griddle - this one is a big let down in my opinion. First off I totally understand that its meant to be a cap more than a useable lid, but it is VERY lightweight and I guarantee you people are going to dent and bend the shit outta these things. Even if it fell off the griddle to the ground I feel it would likely dent or bend to the point it would be noticeable or worse. (You can already see the two pinched corners where our demo was bent in shipping) - so there's that....
The manifold and valves they are using are also not the standard fare from other Weber grills. They are a bit more simple and have quite small pins off the valves that the control knobs mount onto. Built-in snap ignition is a nice feature so no batteries required or buttons to push. Warranty on the flat top is essentially 5 years on most parts in comparison to the 10+ years they on their gassers - so that should be some sort of indicator for longevity.
Now for the good part - The griddle itself!
The griddle is quite heavy, has no welded seams and is reinforced with heavy almost flavorizer bar-like pieces on the underside. You can tell they sunk most of the $ into the griddle and tried to cost save on other areas such as the cart etc as it's really very nice. Nice enough in fact that at the $449 price tag I still feel there is solid value in this grill if you accept it for what it is.
Functionality wise I've been hearing good things about the actual process of cooking on the unit but have yet to fire it up myself. Reports are that heat is quite even and it maintains a good temp.
In the end (at least in my humble opinion) it all comes down to having realistic expectations of what you're going to get for your money. If you want a grill that will last you 10+ years with no maintenance this is likely not the one for you. But if you want an affordable quality griddle that gets the job done (and has a Weber badge
) it could fit the bill nicely.
Finally I wanted to point out that these are extremely tightly packaged in the box, likely to save dimensional space for shipping, but that means significantly less internal padding etc. I open BBQ boxes daily and this one in particular has me concerned about holding up to an overseas voyage plus shipment to retailers. If you pick one up be sure to inspect the box closely at the store as 3 of the 4 units we received were damaged. Hopefully just a one-off scenario for our shipment, but I'll be curious to hear if others run into any troubles.
So there you have it. I hope to actually cook on one soon and will report back, but in the meantime here are the pics:
Cheers!
Topic: New Weber 28" Flat Top Griddle Unboxing and first impressions (Read 1143 times)