Smoker attachment for Weber: Is it worth it?

[Andreas]

I have just bought my first gas grill (A Weber Genesis Gold B) and I am
really excited about it. I saw in the Weber site that this grill has a
smoker attachement. It sells for 80 US (porcelain) and 85 US (stainless
steel). I have spent 680 US for the grill, cover and shipping so this
is not such a big add-on, but the question to the experts is:

Is the smoker attachment any good? I mean will it make a noticeable
difference taste-wise? I know that a gas grill is not really barbecue
but I already own 2 coal barbecues and an outside wood-burning oven (for
slow and long), and I would like to improve to the max the fast and
quick dinners on the gas grill.

Thanks
Andreas.

[jdoe]

I have/had one in my Genesis II. It does work quite well. Some caveats to
keep in mind. If you grill alot and cook alot of food at a time 2 major
issues come up. 1. Do not get the porcelin one they don't last well. They
burn through pretty rapidly as mine did (get the stainless) better bet. 2.
You do lose some space on your grill.
Other things to keep in mind. THe ashes fall through and sit on the
crossover burner and in the grease tray and become a real PIA to keep
cleaned out. Additionally you'll want to time things with it. Say you want
to grill steaks but you additionally want to grill some poratbello mushrooms
and asparagus don't use the smoker it will overpower the shrooms and
asparagus.
You may find as I have that a foil packet of chips or a "box type" smoker
accessory may work as well and maybe better along with cheaper.
Have fun with it they're good grills. Mine is on 10 years of VERY hard
use/abuse. I won't tell you it looks like new since it actually looks like
hell. It needs alot of work to put it back to 100% (new burner tubes,
valves, side tables, lower shelf, cart is rusting etc. so about $250 and
quite a bit of my time. So a new grill may be in my future and my eye has
been on an all stainless from Sams or new Genesis Gold C.
Larry
"Andreas" <kok...@attglobal.net> wrote in message
news:3EC35516...@attglobal.net...

[Bill]

jdoe wrote:

> You may find as I have that a foil packet of chips or a "box type" smoker
> accessory may work as well and maybe better along with cheaper.

I would have to agree. The Weber Summit grill that I have came with a smoker
attachment I have found you need to be very careful as the heat / oxygen
usuage from the propane flame will get the smoker box hot enough that it gives a
very acrid smoke due to incomplete combustion. I have found that leaving the
lid open on the smoke attachment fixes this problem so I may just need to
enlarge the holes on the side of it. I have not quite gotten up the never to
attack it with my drill yet.

Moral... at this point (without modifications) I get better smoke from the $3
cast iron smoke box that is on my old Weber at work than I do from the fancy
attachment that is in the Summit.