My wife and I wanted a new grill for tailgating at Miami Dolphins games this year. I am somewhat of a home gourmet and I am extremely particular of my cooking accouterments. After reading countless reviews on many different sites we narrowed it down to the Weber Q and the Coleman Roadtrip LXE. We went to Outdoor World here in Fort Lauderdale and actually looked at both as they had floor models available. We chose the Roadtrip based on it's modular ease of set-up and take down (I've never seen anything easier), the high 20,000 BTU output and the dual burner set-up, none of which the Weber Q had unless you purchased the top of the line Weber which was more than double the price in order to get dual burners and the higher BTU's. The Weber Q stand seemed much flimsier also.
After deciding on this grill we ordered it from Amazon for $159.00 and we chose the free shipping as we were not in any hurry since football season pre-games don' start until August. Amazon had the lowest price we could find. We were surprised to see this grill show up on our door step just 4 days later when the free shipping option told us it would take almost 2 weeks.
I opened the box and set it up immediately and I was pleasantly surprised that it came out of the box nearly complete. Just put the wheels on, attach the handle and the regulator and you're good to go. About 15 minutes in all as compared to hours I have spent assemblying other new grills.
Next came the cook test and the clean up test. After reading other reviewers saying that they lined the inside with foil for easier cleanup, I thought this was a good idea and did the same. I laid foil across the entire insides and with a steak knife cut around the 2 burners and a hole so any drippings could fall into the drip pan. I have read that the instructions for some of these roadtrip grills say to place water in the bottom for easier clean-up. NOT this model. The instructions say nothing of the sort. From reading many reviews, I summize that is on the standard Roadtrip model Model No. 9941-768 not this LXE model so the foil is a good idea.
I chose a beautiful 28 day aged NY Stip steak and my wife a 2 1/2" barrel cut filet. I preheated the grill for 5 minutes with the lid open on medium, wiped one side of the grill with vegetable oil and the other side with Pam for grilling(handles higher heats). I wanted to see right from the beginning which worked better on these porcelain coated cast iron grills. I can tell you I saw absoultely no difference between the two and will continue to use the Pam.
This grill gets HOT! I have to say that I was concerned about the fact that these grill surfaces do have the center area as solid cast iron(no open grill) so no flame gets through over the top of the burners. My concern was no flame hitting the meat = less flavor. The purpose for this is so that grease does not fall directly onto the 2 burners themselves. Let me clarify, there is open grill area...just not directly over the burners. I can report that this concern turned out to be competely unfounded. I rubbed the steaks with olive oil and salt & peppered them and placed each one directly over each burner on the unopened flame area. From the very first second I knew that the searing was going to be awesome and it was. It sizzled like nothing I have ever heard before except on commercial kitchen grills. The grill marks were perfect, the taste and flavor was perfect. I can't say enough about this grill. So far I love it but what about clean up.
The grills cooled down very quickly. I soaked the two porcelain coated cast iron grills in soapy hot water in my kitchen sink over night, as they fit no problem. I honestly don't think I needed to because I ran my finger accoss to see how "baked" on the residue was. It semed to come off pretty easily but I was full on a 16 oz NY strip and several glasses of Cabernet so they could wait until morning. The next morning the grills cleaned up so easily with a soapy wet sponge and I removed the foil lining and wiped the whole inside down with a soapy wet sponge and wiped it out with a dry towel. There was no difference in ease of clean up between the vegetable oil side or the Pam side. Both were easy. The porcelain coated cast iron grills do not need "seasoning" as un-coated cast iron grills do and if something does get baked on you can use a brass grill brush to clean them. Just make sure the brush is brass. It's softer and won't damage the procelain coating.
Folks, forget about any of the horror stories you hear about this grill...it's awesome. It gets so hot you don't need to close the lid so don't let that be a deterrent unlesss you smoke your food. The only reason I give this grill a 4 and not a 5 is because of the fact you can't cook with the lid closed. Although I said don't let it be a deterrent, it would be nice to smoke food. Also worth noting is that this new version comes with two grill surfaces. The older version came with one grill and one griddle and you were forced to buy an additional grill surface. Also with this new version the grill does NOT come off of the stand to be placed on a table top and the lid does not come off. I have read the opposite from other reviewers. Perhaps those things were true with older models. I know this was a long review, but these were all things I was concerned about and that I read conflicting stories on. I hope my review is helpful to you! Coleman 9949-750 Road Trip Grill LXE
I am a died in the wool griller and Weber guy. We currently have three grills around the house; a horizontal smoker/charcoal grill, a Weber gas Silver C gas grill (10 years old, the best!!) and the Coleman Roadtrip. I bought this grill because I get stuck doing the cooking at other friends and relatives and always had to load up the Weber. This Roadtrip is the cat's meow for this type of grilling road show.
I was going to get a Weber Q but it doesn't have the cart, at least not at a sub $200 pricepoint. This grill does the job and then some. I used the grill five times in the last two weeks, trying different approaches and methods, and have come up with a few tips and tricks to make the grill work it's best. Please note that this grill is one of the best I have ever used and certainly better than the majority of gas grills I have used. It's no Weber, but then, it ain't 500 bucks either. So, on with the tips.
1. The burner has a "low" to "high" settings. The high settings are ONLY and I mean ONLY for using the burner attachment or griddle attachment. There is no need to use 20,000BTU's of heat on a grill this small. These guys that are melting handles and such are also ruining food with entirely too much heat. They ought to put this in the book, but they don't. So you read it hear first, been grilling for over 25 years, do NOT use the high setting for grilling...PERIOD! Think about it...my Weber, which is almost twice as big and has enough clearance built into the cover for a turkey or upright chicken, only has 40,000BTU. So 20,000 for a grill with a three inch clearance cover and burners less than an inch away from the food is way too much. NO HIGH!!! PERIOD...there, now I feel better.
2. Properly preheat the grill. Fire up the grill, set it to "MED", no higher (READ # 1!!!), close the cover, and let it run for 10 minutes. This will get the grates properly heated as well as everything else. This will allow for even heat for cooking.
NOTE: The cover for this grill (I am referring to the lid that covers the grill during cooking) is durable as long as you (say it with me, folks!) DON'T USE THE HIGH SETTING FOR GRILLING!! Now given that, even on the lowest of heat setting the lid will "warp" when heated. I would bet that even a good dose of sunlight would do this. It's no worries, but it does cause a potential issue. This happens to most grills but it's so little you never notice it. But on this grill, the lid lock pin slides down into a slot that only has about a 1/16" clearance. The cover then heats up, moving the lock very VERY slightly but just enough, causing the grill not to open easily because of the pin catching on the slot. TO avoid this, after unlocking and opening the grill cover, just turn the lever to the "lock" position prior to preheating. ADVANCED FIX: I think utilizing a bit of backyard engineering IE tinsnips to open up the slot for more clearance while still being able to lock the lid may do the trick. IN the interim, just flipping to lock will still allow the lid to close, but the lock pin won't slide into the slot. As far as the highly reported melting lid handle, I have made attempts to get the handle hot enough to melt with the grill on medium and have determined that it simply won't happen. No concern, as long as you FOLLOW RULE#1!!
3. Once preheated, do what you would do with a normal gas grill heat control utilizing the "Coleman Roadtrip Medium" setting as "HIGH." Most folks go to Medium on a gas grill, so that would be half way between MED and LOW on this grill. Make sense? Good. I usually cook a tick above halfway.
4. Now just use like a normal gas grill, keeping the cover closed at all times. I will state that even at these supposedly low heat settings, this grill does cook faster than my big Weber, so keep an eye out the first few times you use it.
5. Foil for cleanup of the drip pan? I don't like that idea. The shiny drip pan cleans up so easily it's not required. Also, there is a problem if the foil is wrinkled at all you won't have proper draining of the grease, resulting in flair up and fire. I use hot, soapy water and let the excess water go to the drip pan. It cleanse up very easily.
That's all I got. If you follow my rules, you will love this grill. - Propane Grill - Barbecue - Coleman - Roadtrip'
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