Originally posted by DAVIDMICHAEL:
well I added another weber product to my arsenal, didnt pay for it but won it in a 4-man scramble tourney and it was one of the prizes. Since I already have the silver model I thought I would compare the two side by side so I fired them both up with roughly 1/2-3/4 chimney of kingford each. I let about 50% of the coals in each chimney get lit before i dumped them into the grills, closed the lid and opened all vents 100%. I did this experiment at night(56f degrees outside 5-10mph wind) because i wanted to look into the grill through the top vent and observe the coals burning. After letting the grills burn about 25 min I decided to look into the vents to see how well the coals were glowing and noticed in the gold model the coals nearest to the side vents were glowing brighter than the center. In the silver center coals were slightly brighter than the outside. I stuck a thermometer into the top vent to get a reading and both grills maxed it out ( over 550 degrees) fairly quickly.
Well, they both get hot enough to do some serious tailgating but I was still curious which one actually burned better. So I closed the vents down and let em sit for a few hours and cool down. Took the lids off and checked out the remaining fuel and compared the two grills. I would say the silver model had a more even burn center to outside vs the gold. The gold model fuel nearest the side vents was completely ash and only the center coals remained. Both grills appear to have consumed about the same amount of fuel but the silver maybe a tad more. Both grills put the fire out well with vents closed.
I am aware of the airflow concerns with the platinum model , however with this particular size of grill I didnt really see anything that would show it would cause a problem. But I have come to this conclusion with only one session and will need to cook many steaks/burgers etc on this little thing just in case
Final thoughts: I absolutely love the carry handle/lid holder on the gold model! Makes it so much easier to transport and not having to set the lid down on the ground while tending the food. Obviously the vent below the fuel is proven to work probably the best but the side vents on the gold worked well too. WEBER just put the handle on the silver model and be done with it!
