Hi folks,

Thinking of picking up a Bullseye, and I'd like to hear from folks who have used them what they think of them for grilling? with Grill Grates how hot can you get the grates? Is it fairly even heat?

I've got a Cookshack FEC-100 for my smoking duties, so this would be relegated to mostly high heat.

Thoughts?

Thanks

I like mine a lot for grilling.  I don't use grill grates, so I can't give you any info on that.  Just be aware that the Bullseyes aren't built like their other smokers.  They feel like a bit of a cheap unit, but if you don't have a problem with that, then you won't be disappointed.  I have had the temps up to 700 degrees at the grate on some cooks, so grilling is not an issue.

There are quite a few bullseye discussions on here, but the long and short of may opinion is I got one for free and got rid of it for not really doing anything well. I know at least one other PF'er bought one and sold theirs as well. I do not endorse it. I used a cast iron insert in a weber gourmet system and you could get sear marks on one side but it did not recover fast enough to sear the other side. It is still a convection and so you lose a lot of heat opening the lid. Not like a charcoal or gasser that has that direct heat source.

There are quite a few bullseye discussions on here, but the long and short of may opinion is I got one for free and got rid of it for not really doing anything well. I know at least one other PF'er bought one and sold theirs as well. I do not endorse it. I used a cast iron insert in a weber gourmet system and you could get sear marks on one side but it did not recover fast enough to sear the other side. It is still a convection and so you lose a lot of heat opening the lid. Not like a charcoal or gasser that has that direct heat source.

I don't use it this way, but you can pull out the heat diffuser and grill directly over the fire if you want to.  I've had very good results with it as strictly a hot and fast griller.  My only complaint with the unit has been the quality of construction, not the quality of the cooking I've gotten from it.

I bought a Bullseye hoping that, when grilling, we would discover that we like the "great wood-fired flavor, without the extensive work required on charcoal grills" that REC TEC advertises.  After two cooks, grilling hamburgers and pork chops, we couldn't detect the alleged "great wood-fired flavor."  I started a thread asking, "Do any of you Bullseye users detect it when grilling?  If so, what's your grilling technique?"  There haven't been any answers.

It's definitely more convenient than charcoal but I didn't notice any benefit to burning the pellets rather than gas.

I sold it for half of what I paid for it.

I bought a Bullseye hoping that, when grilling, we would discover that we like the "great wood-fired flavor, without the extensive work required on charcoal grills" that REC TEC advertises.  After two cooks, grilling hamburgers and pork chops, we couldn't detect the alleged "great wood-fired flavor."  I started a thread asking, "Do any of you Bullseye users detect it when grilling?  If so, what's your grilling technique?"  There haven't been any answers.

It's definitely more convenient than charcoal but I didn't notice any benefit to burning the pellets rather than gas.

I sold it for half of what I paid for it.

For me, I get more flavor than I did on my gasser, but less than on my Weber.  I feel that the compromise is worth it for the ease of use over my Weber.  I've gotten lazy in my old age.  Besides, if I ever want that charcoal flavor, I can just drop a weber charcoal grate in it, and viola, I have a charcoal grill.