Anybody have a TEC Infrared grill? I'm making a 15 year old dream come true...

[biomedtechguy]

I know that those who don't "get it" may never get it, but I'm the cook at home, lots of stuff, veggies included, that I like to grill. I had the closest thing to a real TEC grill that I could get, a Charbroil TEC grill, but it was only a shadow of the real thing.
ZERO hot air cooking, 100% infrared!
The Patio FR 2 burner TEC with the smoker roaster and pizza oven accessories...Man, I can't WAIT!

MADE IN THE USA!!

 

[Fran Blacker]

Keep me posted. Cleaning cooking grates I like Stainless steel wool, no worries about wires from brushes! Saw in newspaper guy was in hospital after swallowing brush wire.

 

[biomedtechguy]

@Fran Blacker
It's going to be GREAT! I spent the extra money and got the TEC grill cleaning tool. The teeth fit the grates. Besides, when you are finished grilling, turn it up to high, close the cover, and 10 minutes later everything is reduced to ASH.

 

[Budnicks]

Looks like a nice grill

go for it...

I'm an old school charcoal or woodchips or Weber Kettle guy
or an open BBQ, I'm still stuck in my youth & ways...

 

[biomedtechguy]

The Charbroil-TEC "knockoff" did a pretty good job while it lasted, and I got the burners replaced once under warranty.
The tech was licensed to Charbroil by TEC, but there's only a few ways to get a $3K grill down to $800, and materials when you are dealing with stainless steel is one way. So the burners and hardware that held them together didn't hold up to the intense heat that could be achieved. Now I don't think the Charbroil-TEC got to 900° like the TEC does, but it got really hot! Hardware failure in the burners, which are flat and have a hundred flame points, gets pretty damn dangerous when it starts falling apart. I got my Charbroil-TEC on clearance from Lowe's right after Hurricane Katrina, so I was happy to have it, and for $480 vs $799, it was a good deal. I guess between the original hdwe and the replacement hdwe I got about 6 years out of it. It's a damn shame that the cabinet, firebox, hood, and grilles are all heavy gauge, top quality stainless steel, because all of that "framework" would make one HECK of a platform to build a conventional gas grill upon. I'm telling you, the Charbroil-TEC grill has been uncovered in the weather in the swamp where I live for 15 years and looks practically brand new, no joke. If anyone wants to come to pick up my OLD Charbroil-TEC grill for free, about an hour north of New Orleans, PM me. It even has a side burner for a pot, and I have a rotisserie for it that hasn't ever been used....
Anyway, I was going to get the G-Sport TEC, but the sales guy told me about the Patio FR, and the difference between the two, at the KILLER price I negotiated made the Patio a better choice. Then I got to thinking with the flexibility of the burner to run as low as 200° or up to 900° and at the STOOPID discount I'm getting, I had to ask how much for the 2 burner unit, which is literally exactly twice the size. The one burner with all the add on accessories (smoker roaster, pizza oven, cover, cleaning tool) was around $3K, which is about $1K off retail but the 2 burner was $1,250 more, so I was doubling the size of the grill for ⅓ more than the amount I was going to spend.
paying retail

I guess I'll be posting some grilling videos on YouTube, and I'll have to link them in this thread...

One of the unique things I grill is fresh asparagus marinated in raspberry walnut balsamic vinaigrette...The only way I like asparagus is the little pieces in some sushi rolls, or a product sold at Sam's Club that is spicy garlic pickled teeny young baby asparagus. The stalks are really tiny, so they are tender and crunchy. Anyway, grilling them in that marinade, and the way the TEC grill works you pour a little marinade over the asparagus and it hit the IR glass and vaporizes, and that steam from the marinade goes right into the asparagus...MAN OH MAN!
It's the ULTIMATE grill for steaks, especially if you like them rare/med rare but with a nice, crunchy flavorful crust. At high heat, it sears meat like nothing else but some commercial cooking appliances. I am going to grill some fresh Gulf shrimp on one side, and oysters on the half shell-with a dab of fresh minced garlic, parmesan cheese, and a dot of Siriacha hot sauce, and on the other side some BEEF...Fish is easy to grill too, because of the 100% IR no hot air cooking, fish stays moist. I've been "grilling" Ahi tuna in a seasoned cast iron skillet that has raised "grill ridges" on the bottom of the skillet, which does a decent job, but the TEC lets me put wood chips in a vertical stacking "corral" across the front of the burner, so as I sear the outer 1/4" of the tuna steak, leaving the ⅔ of the middle red, I'll have smoke billowing over it. Maybe a dash of soy sauce on the burner to vaporize right up into the tuna...
Oh yeah...I am going to be watching for the delivery truck!

 

[biomedtechguy]

One more note: One of the ultimate challenges for a grill, especially if you like chicken leg quarters as much as we do, is grilling those fire hazards without burning down the neighborhood. Usually that requires cooking with indirect heat, there are practically NO grills you can cook leg quarters on right over the burners without an apocalyptic firestorm of Biblical proportions. Well because of the tiny bit of air gap between the grilling grates that sit on the one piece IR glass, and no direct connection to the flame and food, there isn't enough oxygen to perpetuate a flame, and the fat and juice hits the IR glass and "poof" vaporizes back up into the yardbird.
Pretty cool stuff!

 

[Budnicks]

I'm not knocking it, I'm sure it'll be a double or triple throw down GRILL
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can't call it a BBQ

One more note: One of the ultimate challenges for a grill, especially if you like chicken leg quarters as much as we do, is grilling those fire hazards without burning down the neighborhood. Usually that requires cooking with indirect heat, there are practically NO grills you can cook leg quarters on right over the burners without an apocalyptic firestorm of Biblical proportions. Well because of the tiny bit of air gap between the grilling grates that sit on the one piece IR glass, and no direct connection to the flame and food, there isn't enough oxygen to perpetuate a flame, and the fat and juice hits the IR glass and "poof" vaporizes back up into the yardbird.
Pretty cool stuff!

I do love me some BBQ'd 'yardbird', we do leg quarters a lot here too

Ribs baby, big ol' Spare Ribs BBQ'd over coals/mesquite

I pile the coals in the center & cook on the outsides of the BBQ grill
I have the Large Kettle BBQ Grill, it's like 35 years old now too
works pretty damn well, but you do need to watch it thou,
not walking away for more than a couple min.s or so...

I do BBQ'd Turkey in it too...
Just the opposite, I pile the coals about '50 only' all around the perimeter...
baste every so often, 3hrs or so for a 15 #-er at about 325-350
nice Bird, the coals (add as needed) are petered out about that time too

BBQ'd Beef or Pork are my favorites

nothing like a fresh caught mountain Rainbow or Brook Trout,
over some coals on the Weber BBQ

 

[Photon440]

The Charbroil-TEC "knockoff" did a pretty good job while it lasted, and I got the burners replaced once under warranty.
The tech was licensed to Charbroil by TEC, but there's only a few ways to get a $3K grill down to $800, and materials when you are dealing with stainless steel is one way. So the burners and hardware that held them together didn't hold up to the intense heat that could be achieved. Now I don't think the Charbroil-TEC got to 900° like the TEC does, but it got really hot! Hardware failure in the burners, which are flat and have a hundred flame points, gets pretty damn dangerous when it starts falling apart. I got my Charbroil-TEC on clearance from Lowe's right after Hurricane Katrina, so I was happy to have it, and for $480 vs $799, it was a good deal. I guess between the original hdwe and the replacement hdwe I got about 6 years out of it. It's a damn shame that the cabinet, firebox, hood, and grilles are all heavy gauge, top quality stainless steel, because all of that "framework" would make one HECK of a platform to build a conventional gas grill upon. I'm telling you, the Charbroil-TEC grill has been uncovered in the weather in the swamp where I live for 15 years and looks practically brand new, no joke. If anyone wants to come to pick up my OLD Charbroil-TEC grill for free, about an hour north of New Orleans, PM me. It even has a side burner for a pot, and I have a rotisserie for it that hasn't ever been used....
Anyway, I was going to get the G-Sport TEC, but the sales guy told me about the Patio FR, and the difference between the two, at the KILLER price I negotiated made the Patio a better choice. Then I got to thinking with the flexibility of the burner to run as low as 200° or up to 900° and at the STOOPID discount I'm getting, I had to ask how much for the 2 burner unit, which is literally exactly twice the size. The one burner with all the add on accessories (smoker roaster, pizza oven, cover, cleaning tool) was around $3K, which is about $1K off retail but the 2 burner was $1,250 more, so I was doubling the size of the grill for ⅓ more than the amount I was going to spend.
paying retail

I guess I'll be posting some grilling videos on YouTube, and I'll have to link them in this thread...

One of the unique things I grill is fresh asparagus marinated in raspberry walnut balsamic vinaigrette...The only way I like asparagus is the little pieces in some sushi rolls, or a product sold at Sam's Club that is spicy garlic pickled teeny young baby asparagus. The stalks are really tiny, so they are tender and crunchy. Anyway, grilling them in that marinade, and the way the TEC grill works you pour a little marinade over the asparagus and it hit the IR glass and vaporizes, and that steam from the marinade goes right into the asparagus...MAN OH MAN!
It's the ULTIMATE grill for steaks, especially if you like them rare/med rare but with a nice, crunchy flavorful crust. At high heat, it sears meat like nothing else but some commercial cooking appliances. I am going to grill some fresh Gulf shrimp on one side, and oysters on the half shell-with a dab of fresh minced garlic, parmesan cheese, and a dot of Siriacha hot sauce, and on the other side some BEEF...Fish is easy to grill too, because of the 100% IR no hot air cooking, fish stays moist. I've been "grilling" Ahi tuna in a seasoned cast iron skillet that has raised "grill ridges" on the bottom of the skillet, which does a decent job, but the TEC lets me put wood chips in a vertical stacking "corral" across the front of the burner, so as I sear the outer 1/4" of the tuna steak, leaving the ⅔ of the middle red, I'll have smoke billowing over it. Maybe a dash of soy sauce on the burner to vaporize right up into the tuna...
Oh yeah...I am going to be watching for the delivery truck!

Yep, I know what you're saying. I have one of the Charbroil grills, and the stainless shell looks great. The burners are falling apart and the stainless grills disintegrated after three years.

 

[biomedtechguy]

the stainless shell looks great

Too bad it's not big enough to make a COVID-19/nuclear radiation fallout shelter from...lol.

 

[biomedtechguy]

GRILL...can't call it a BBQ

There is a difference, BUT because of the W-I-D-E heat range available with the TEC IR grill, you can do BOTH:
“When you barbecue you are cooking with a slow circumvented unit of hot air with the lid closed. Grilling is done with the lid up and you’re cooking with direct heat on the bottom, instead of all around the source. “You grill a steak and you barbecue a pork butt”
So with the smoker roaster accessory, there's a pan that goes on the bottom, that hovers right over the grill grates, and then the slotted unit that the meat being
BAR-B-QUED sits on, and the wood chip corral that runs across the front part of the glass plates/grill grates. So the 200° low temperature heat smokes the chips and cooks the meat LOW&SLOW indirectly...THE definition of "Bar-B-Que"

 

[NSS Guy]

One more note: One of the ultimate challenges for a grill, especially if you like chicken leg quarters as much as we do, is grilling those fire hazards without burning down the neighborhood. Usually that requires cooking with indirect heat, there are practically NO grills you can cook leg quarters on right over the burners without an apocalyptic firestorm of Biblical proportions.

I soak them in a brine solution and grill them on a weber gas grill, no flare ups. The brine seems to reduce the amount of fat dripping onto the hot burners. fwiw

 

[biomedtechguy]

So...after a delivery debacle with
UPS Freightdivision
(not regular package division) that made me choose to go pickup my 300 pound grill in person (because they LIED about trying to call me for Friday delivery as scheduled, and I would have been held hostage, again, on Monday) and a trip to 2 grocery stores a couple of days ago for Grill/Barbecue specific meat, fish, and fresh vegetables, today was the big first day with my TEC infrared grill.

First I washed the stainless steel grill grates and a few of the accessories that food contacts. Then I sprayed those parts with cooking oil, and fired up the grill, and let all of the oiled parts season, similar to a cast iron skillet. It's a good trick, helps the first food on a new grill taste better, aids longevity and probably helps keep food from sticking as much.
Here's the 2 deep, dark red glass plates that provide the infrared heat, and one of the burners, one on each side under the glass plates. All metal, including the cabinet, is heavy gauge stainless steel, and the entire grill is MADE IN AMERICA!

First up, another "new grill trick" is to cook something with some fat in it that's not real pricey, so I threw a pack of chicken apple sausage on:

Next up, on the right, fresh salmon, skin on, that I have had marinating since yesterday in a lemon pepper marinade, and on the left, boneless skinless chicken thighs that I marinated in a mango/orange/apple/pineapple etc 100% juice blend:

Last up for today was fresh Brussels sprouts cut in half on the left, using the smoker roaster floating grill w/pan under it that sits on the grill grates and holds the raspberry walnut vinaigrette and fresh ground peppercorn marinade. On the right, directly on the grill grates, are fresh asparagus that I marinated in the same Ken's raspberry walnut vinaigrette. You can pour some of the marinade liquid for whatever you are cooking directly onto the food and the IR glass, and it steams and smokes it right back up into the food:

After I finished grilling, I closed the cover and cranked both burners up to high. The grill gets to over 900+ degrees and turns all of the debris, juices, residual marinade etc to ASH.
I really enjoyed it, the food came out great, my wife is happy because she can take this bounty to work to eat, and I still have 2 ears of fresh corn, 2 BIG portabella mushroom caps marinating in Dale's low sodium sauce, and a whole big pack of baby back pork ribs left. I think I'm just going to grill the mushroom caps and corn tomorrow because they can't wait, and I'll get to the ribs when the current grilled goodies run out.
I'm going to slow smoke the ribs when that time comes.
For me, this was a fun, satisfying break from all of the gloom and worry from the COVID-19 pandemic drama and stress from chasing info on SBA policies and paperwork for my business that I still have some of to do.

 

[khryslerkid]

 

[Fran Blacker]

So...after a delivery debacle with
UPS Freightdivision
(not regular package division) that made me choose to go pickup my 300 pound grill in person (because they LIED about trying to call me for Friday delivery as scheduled, and I would have been held hostage, again, on Monday) and a trip to 2 grocery stores a couple of days ago for Grill/Barbecue specific meat, fish, and fresh vegetables, today was the big first day with my TEC infrared grill.

First I washed the stainless steel grill grates and a few of the accessories that food contacts. Then I sprayed those parts with cooking oil, and fired up the grill, and let all of the oiled parts season, similar to a cast iron skillet. It's a good trick, helps the first food on a new grill taste better, aids longevity and probably helps keep food from sticking as much.
Here's the 2 deep, dark red glass plates that provide the infrared heat, and one of the burners, one on each side under the glass plates. All metal, including the cabinet, is heavy gauge stainless steel, and the entire grill is MADE IN AMERICA!
View attachment 931816
View attachment 931817
First up, another "new grill trick" is to cook something with some fat in it that's not real pricey, so I threw a pack of chicken apple sausage on:
View attachment 931814
Next up, on the right, fresh salmon, skin on, that I have had marinating since yesterday in a lemon pepper marinade, and on the left, boneless skinless chicken thighs that I marinated in a mango/orange/apple/pineapple etc 100% juice blend:View attachment 931823
Last up for today was fresh Brussels sprouts cut in half on the left, using the smoker roaster floating grill w/pan under it that sits on the grill grates and holds the raspberry walnut vinaigrette and fresh ground peppercorn marinade. On the right, directly on the grill grates, are fresh asparagus that I marinated in the same Ken's raspberry walnut vinaigrette. You can pour some of the marinade liquid for whatever you are cooking directly onto the food and the IR glass, and it steams and smokes it right back up into the food:
View attachment 931828
After I finished grilling, I closed the cover and cranked both burners up to high. The grill gets to over 900+ degrees and turns all of the debris, juices, residual marinade etc to ASH.
I really enjoyed it, the food came out great, my wife is happy because she can take this bounty to work to eat, and I still have 2 ears of fresh corn, 2 BIG portabella mushroom caps marinating in Dale's low sodium sauce, and a whole big pack of baby back pork ribs left. I think I'm just going to grill the mushroom caps and corn tomorrow because they can't wait, and I'll get to the ribs when the current grilled goodies run out.
I'm going to slow smoke the ribs when that time comes.
For me, this was a fun, satisfying break from all of the gloom and worry from the COVID-19 pandemic drama and stress from chasing info on SBA policies and paperwork for my business that I still have some of to do.

As close as I'll to that grill is if I remove the glass from my stove and cut it to fit my grill.

 

[biomedtechguy]

As close as I'll to that grill is if I remove the glass from my stove and cut it to fit my grill.

Well Fran,
August 29, 2005 Katrina made landfall. I had just started my 2nd year of my (mostly) one man Audio/Video Home Theater business. I started down that road after some major life changing events, and then started working for the largest locally owned Appliance and Electronics retailer in New Orleans. As time passed, and employers changed, I gravitated to my interests, strengths, and I got quite a lot of experience along the way. By mid 2004, it was time, having been the "go to guru" for cutting edge audio and video technology and being able to relate the value of that to a kaleidoscope of clients, to make the sale, and having also been involved in hands on installation of all of those products for about 7 years, I jumped out on my own. So back to Katrina, and the point of the story. I found that a grill would be a great cooking utensil, taking the heat of cooking outside, because our power was out, and I didn't know that in another 2 weeks I would have bought, installed, and wired up and plumbed in the gas line (one of the few utilities working) to a 18KW Generac whole home generator.
So I bought a $799 TEC-Charbroil grill on clearance at Lowe's. Last one, pretty much anywhere, and it was very nice, for a while. What it did that left a long term, deeply embedded impression on me was it introduced me to TEC, the company that licensed a "piece" of their InfraRed cooking technology to Charbroil. I looked at the TEC grills and laughed, laughed because I couldn't imagine what a $3,000 grill was like, or what spending $3K on a grill was like. Now I did personally design, purchase the equipment, the theater themed lighted "Now Playing" marquee, and other things that filled the former family room add on the previous homeowner had, that became MY theater room! After so many years of doing that for others, I had my OWN theater room, and it as well as one I did for a client were published in a magazine!

So even though a $3K grill sounded ridiculous, my own theater room was a long awaited necessity, and boy howdy when I got it, I did it up RIGHT.
So the TEC-Charbroil was just a hint of how awesome the TEC technology was, but the quality of the parts just wasn't there. The stainless steel cabinet will outlast me, but the burners have been replaced twice, because you can't replicate a $3K grill for $800 without saving cost somewhere. It was good while it lasted.
So I've mentioned how nice it would be to have a TEC (100% real deal TEC) grill especially for sone of our favorite food, and especially my wife's favorite.
Well it took 15 years, and the combination of the desire to have that level of grill, getting a killer deal, having a practical use for it, and the ability to pay for it, thanks mostly to my wife.
I see it as a great way to be creative, relax, further develop my cooking skills in that arena, pride of ownership (the one I got is usually $5,200 just for the grill, not including all the add ons I got, and I got everything for $4,250) and contribute to the household duties, although I do 95% of the cooking anyway.
My wife thinks she got "a deal" because of all the food I'm going to grill, smoke, and barbecue that all she has to do is eat, so she looks at as a "win" for her...

 

[Fran Blacker]

Don't know how much I spent on grills in 30 years. Think it would be more than halfway there. Don't grill 4 months a year. Wife's from Croatia grillin' not her cuisine of choice.

 

[biomedtechguy]

Today it was 2 large portobello mushroom caps and 2 ears of corn w/husks.
No pic of caps, I ate the thicker of the 2 and all but the carbon black Vulcanized edge of the thinner one, but not pretty. Learning curve present on heat control.
HOWEVER...
The corn came out GREAT!