My recomendation is buy the biggest unit with the most amount of burners, (including the rear radient burner for the rotissery) you can afford. Ignore the side burners, I never use them. I prepare my sauces in the kitchen.Originally Posted by Mani
You want many burners so that you can configure for indirect heat. I often cook my steaks and chops starting over the inboard two burners, then switch to the outboard burners to finish the center of the meat. I've done roast this way too. I sear the outside of the roast, chops or steaks over direct heat to lock the juices in, then switch to indirect finish the center to the desired temp (going for medium rare on a thick cut for instance, or to not burn the chops while getting the center cooked to 180 degrees). If my grill is fully loaded with meat, then I simply turn the heat down to low to finish the steaks or chops.
Having lots of burners and grill real estate allows you to cook meat at high temp, while cooking vegtables at lower temps all at the same time. I often run out of grill space, which can be frustrating when you are trrying to prepare the whole meal on the grill, and have it all finish at the same time.
I love my rotissorri, and use it a lot. The best thing about the rotisorri is that you can leave it alone, it doesn't need constant babysitting like other grilling methods. This allows me to multi-task, and prepare other stuff int he kitchen. I broke my first motor on too large of a turkey, but found a super-sized motor (can turn 40#s of meat) on ebay stores that fit right on with only small modification. I use the rear radiant burner and run the outside burners on low when rotating meat. The outboard burners provide indirect heat, as the meat on the spit is not directly overhead (direct heat is too much for slow rotisery method, and i've caused big fires doing this, the drips in the drip pan catch fire, with horrible results ;o). This produces an oven temp of 350 degrees (I keep an oven thermometer inside to be sure of what's happening) Running the radiant burner alone nets about 250 degrees, but I never seem to have the time availible to cook that slowly. The low burners will do a nice job of smoking chunks and chips of hickory (I put the chips in a smoker box placed on the grate or the flavorizer bars if the grate is removed. The chunks I just put directly on the grate or flav bars) if I want to add some smoke to the flavor mix. I would love to have a separate smoker box burner like the fancy Webbers have, but it isn't absolutley needed, I get by without.
I don't own a Webber, but I sure drool over the big Webber Summit: http://weber.com/explore/Grill_detai...?glid=3&mid=20
My grill is a four burner stainless Nexgrill that I found used for $250. I have replaced the burners once now. This grill has proven to be very functional, and I use it two to three times a week year-round. I've had it over a year now, it seems to be holding up well enough. http://www.nexgrill.net/pdf/720-0025.pdf
My $0.02
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