Thanks rwalters. Haha, no problem I understand life gets in the way.
Those steaks look acceptable to me. It would be interesting if you have an IR gun to shoot the four corners and center temp on those grill grates to see how even the heat is when using the open flame zone thingy.

Thanks rwalters. Haha, no problem I understand life gets in the way.
Those steaks look acceptable to me. It would be interesting if you have an IR gun to shoot the four corners and center temp on those grill grates to see how even the heat is when using the open flame zone thingy.

I do have an IR gun and will take the temps on Wednesday when I have it fired up for burgers. Will post the temps of the sear grate surface when using the FZT (Flame Zone Thingy)

There is a pic of a steak in this thread that was done on the sear grate without any seasoning on it and before I started the grill on fire so I only got to get marks on the one side.

https://pelletfan.com/index.php?topic=1888.0

I saw that Bar-B-Lew, I appreciate your pics and thoughts on both grills as well. I know you had to abort that cook.

Are any of these pics with the new style funnel flame zone and sear grates?

I no longer have access to Performance Tests or Photos...I do distinctly remember the 2011 Performance Test of the 2 Star and I know in the high heat test it was over 500°...Not sure how much, but it was a few over!

Are any of these pics with the new style funnel flame zone and sear grates?

Other than the chicken pic in the first post, not sure. I have the new FZ, and I’ll continue to post pics as I use the new sear grates. As mentioned, the chicken in the 1st post was cooked on the sear grates with the new FZ at 425°.

I no longer have access to Performance Tests or Photos...I do distinctly remember the 2011 Performance Test of the 2 Star and I know in the high heat test it was over 500°...Not sure how much, but it was a few over!

540 according to performance test and 643 when you took out the drip pan

Wonder why I took the grease tray out?  I was not drinking at that time, so that could not be a reason...

Wonder why I took the grease tray out?  I was not drinking at that time, so that could not be a reason...

I no longer have access to Performance Tests or Photos...I do distinctly remember the 2011 Performance Test of the 2 Star and I know in the high heat test it was over 500°...Not sure how much, but it was a few over!

540 according to performance test and 643 when you took out the drip pan

Drip pan out, or Flame Zone covers off?

Might have been flame zone covers off.  Initially, there was issued with foiling the drip pan and poking holes in the foil.  After removing the foil, the temp got into the 500's.  Then, I think the covers came off.  I was tired when I read the post last night.

It has been so long I do not remember all the details of it.  And I bet I did have it foiled to try and keep it somewhat clean.  I could see that really effecting performance!

Waiting for rwalters to do some more direct cooking!
So does the MAK only go to 425 degrees? I thought it had a high setting? If so, have you tried that with the new grill grates? I know your all about the sear so I guess I'm a little surprised you haven't gone all out with new grates. Looking forward to more cooks as I'm interested in getting a 2 star. When funds allow of course. So really interested in what it can do.

Did a tri tip tonight... reverse seared. For all but steak, I am finding 425-450° to be plenty hot for searing. With the MAK running at 450/direct heat, I clocked the sear grates surface temp at 570°. I have no doubt they’d hover around 625-650° at the grate with the MAK running on the ‘Grill’ setting.

It was getting dark outside, but here is a pic after a 4 min/side sear following the low n slow portion of the cook.

I am very pleased with the performance of the sear grates so far

I am not sure if you "seared" it any more than that it wouldn't start to burn and dry the meat....Looks great from here.

That looks plenty good to me!