Weber 18501001 Summit Charcoal Grilling Center, Black

The media could not be loaded. This is Weber's entry into the Kamado style cooker arena and it delivers. I see reviews here complaining about its high price, and that you can do the same thing on a Performer. I had a performer and loved it. I still do, but it is outclassed here.The special part of this grill is the air-insulated kettle. The hot air from the coal area fills the area between the kettle walls making this great for holding heat no matter the ambient air temps outside.I've personally done a number of long/overnight cooks for brisket and pork butts. The longest cook was 16 hours long, all on the original load of coals.Compared to a ceramic Kamado, it's just as efficient and if you overshoot your target pit temp, it's much quicker to adjust. It won't crack like ceramic, and it's much much lighter. The coal grate can be low, allowing for use of the heat deflector plate for great indirect cooking, or it can be raised up to within about 4" of the cooking grate, allowing for regular kettle grilling and searing. This thing is also an excellent pizza oven if you have a good stone.Yeah, it's pricy for a Weber, but a ceramic Kamado with the table and accessories is about the same.If you're just a griller, go with the regular kettle, but if you like "low and slow" and easy to control temps for roasting and baking, you won't be disappointed. I have absolutely no regrets about my purchase.

This is a fantastic cooker! I had a Kamado Joe Classic II (also a great cooker) but wanted something bigger. I naturally looked at the Big Joe, but the side table, storage, weight, durability, and comparable price led me to this instead.It would've been nice to have grate grippers and a charcoal rake included, especially for the price. The cooking grate has handles, but the charcoal grate does not. The top vent could use a redesign to better stay in place when the lid is opened, but once it gets used a few times, it mostly stays.Weber sent a different hinge (or so they say it was different — looks the same to me) to address minor smoke leaking around the lid gasket, which seems to have worked.A full load of natural charcoal briquets is on hour 19 of a smoke test (no food) and still holding steady temps without intervention ... all during 35° - 50° outside temps and 10-20mph winds. It looks to have at least another six hours of briquets to go.All around a pleasure to use for smoking and grilling. Expensive, but worth it if you're into year-round outdoor cooking.

Mine just arrived on Friday morning. I was looking for a kamado style cooker and because my dogs are terrible beasts, my back yard is a disaster area of uneven ground and holes and bounding beasts leading me to believe a ceramic cooker would have a short life. I watched some videos and read some reviews and settled on the Weber Summit Charcoal.Two days in and two cooks later it's quite good.Putting it together was very simple. I used the Bilt app and it was very detailed and clear. Simple really. Yesterday I tried grilled pizza for the first time. It did a great job. Temp came up quickly and well. I spiked too high but was able to bring it down quickly. Very nice adaptive control for something on actual fire :). Pizza came out great.Today I did an 8-pound brisket flat. I didn't want to go with the whole brisket as I wanted to learn how well the thing held temp and how efficient it was. I used a bit of the Minion Method to fire it up and it held just under 225 for a few hours without me doing anything. I have a new thermometer I wanted to try out so I opened it up and stuck it in and measured the meat and the grate temp.I made a mistake here as the grate temp probe came up so slowly I thought there was a wide gap between the built in thermometer and the grate so I opened the vents. I realized quickly the probe just took a bit and I was running a bit high. But I was able to shut it off and control it again. I can say if you go beyond the "smoke" setting on the bottom you WILL go above the "smoke" temp you want. You REALLY have to keep the bottom vent just at the first setting revealing JUST the half moon on the cooker's bottom. That works excellent.In all, very pleased. Did a beer can chicken on day 3. Quite excellent. Temp was pretty solid at 400 making it pretty simple to cook without having to watch it constantly.This is an overpriced item or I'd have given it a full five starts. At $1500 this owns this market. At $2K it's a bit out of bounds without more items thrown in. Still, if you have it, get it, as it does nicely. I may update this after the winter in Minnesota to see how it handles low and slow in 10 below :).

The propane charcoal starting device needs to be re-engineered. The igniter on mine failed in less than two years. Recently, the propane regulator also failed a little after two years and the replacement igniter failed again. The location of the propane flame is too low and should be closer to where the charcoal is located. After 3 years of use substantial rust has formed on the leg areas. Finally, one of the grilling rods on the grill surface has separated from the rest of the grill due to a poor weld. Given all of these issues, The Summit Charcoal Grilling Center is greatly overpriced. DON'T BUY IT unless you are willing to accept all of the above problems and probably other long-term issues.