You won't regret it. I bought my first 2 star in 2011 and my second one in 2020. Only upgraded because they offered $1000 off the second one if I sent the first back to them. The new models have much more even heat distribution than the old ones and the dual flame zone is great. Old ones only had 1/2 flame zone. Enjoy!  I hated to get the all stainless dirty! 

The all SS will make me clean it more which will be a good thing.    The flame zone was not the convincer to me on this one...I have a grill for that...it was the no rust and "smokier" reviews compared to Yoder...as I thought of the rust, the GMG does have some after 8 years but only surface...just didn't want to spend thousands and deal with that. 

Thank you for the lovely compliment. I truly believe most of the thanks goes to the members who have all been so respectful of each other.

Well..I went and did it...Mak 2 all Stainless Steel...

Congratulations on the new pit.  I'm certainly not an expert or even knowledgable about all pits; there may be one or two that might be an equal or even better, but I've not run across any.

You won't regret it. I bought my first 2 star in 2011 and my second one in 2020. Only upgraded because they offered $1000 off the second one if I sent the first back to them. The new models have much more even heat distribution than the old ones and the dual flame zone is great. Old ones only had 1/2 flame zone. Enjoy!  I hated to get the all stainless dirty! 

Well..I went and did it...Mak 2 all Stainless Steel...Thanks for the input everyone.    Hope it does take too long to get it delivered to the East Coast.

I look forward to this.  My 10 year old GMG just died.  After a couple times of taking it apart and trying to get everything well lubed, I have come to the conclusion that sooner or later fans and auger motors just wear out.  I will follow this performance test, maybe a Weber is in my future if it goes well!

Not in line with the upcoming Weber test.  Could't notice fans & motors wear out... I have written about the following in the past. These motors almost always have no lube

 applied to the armature/bearing areas resulting in no starts to slow starts that are more pronounced in cold temperatures. It is rellativy easy to lubricate these points using

 a needle oiler or a toothpick so as to the small amount of oil to these areas. A synthetic engine oil such as 5w/30 works very well & lasts for years. Conventional oil will

work & won't last as long.  No need to buy oil. There is always @ least several drops of oil left in "emptied"oil bottles found @ auto parts stores, Auto repair shops etc .

Yeh, just looked at Safeway, apparently it hasn't made it to the west coast yet.

I am on west coast. My Safeway doesn't have it, but my Lucky's does.

Thanks, I will look for some Monday night after the meeting!  I bet it would be great on a dog and a pastrami sandwich!

I am starting to make plans for the Gargantuan Big Mac. Has anyone attempted to recreate the "special" sauce? The easiest thing to do would be to just use 1000 Island dressing, but I think I will try a couple different recipes to see what I can come up with.

This is going to be my round. They are both supposed to be based on the actual ingredients of Mac Sauce by someone in the know:

Recipe 1 Big Mac Sauce
1 cup Mayo
¼ cup Sweet Relish
1 tsp. white vinegar
1 teaspoon Onion Powder,
1 tsp garlic powder,
1 ¼ tsp Paprika
1/8 tsp white pepper
2 TBSP Dusseldorf Ground Mustard

Recipe 2 Mac Sauce
½ cup Mayo
2 TBS Sweet Relish
½ Tbsp white vinegar
½ teaspoon Onion Powder, garlic powder, Paprika
½ TBSP Yellow Mustard



This is the latest plan for building the burger:

Bottom Bun: 20" Pizza with pickles and onion
10 lb. Burger
3 lb. Slice of American Cheese
Special Sauce
2.5 lbs. Bacon
Lettuce
Top Bun: 20" Pizza with Pepperoni and tomato

Repeat and stack on top.

Digging through the archives there, Paul.

Yes, but not aimlessly.  I maintain a list of recipes that I want to try.  Sometimes, one that I especially like will get transferred to the Best Recipes list.