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Anyone seen/have a Spark Grill?
Posted on 12/1/20 at 8:58 am
Posted on 12/1/20 at 8:58 am
4
Posted on 12/1/20 at 9:27 am to fastedLSU
There was a thread on it some months back. It is a good looking grill and the concept is cool but I would only be interested if it was proven that regular charcoal could be used with similar results.
Posted on 12/1/20 at 9:30 am to USEyourCURDS
Everything I’ve read says to only use regular bricks in a pinch. The grill can only regulate temp/time property using their Briqs. The proprietary fuel is definitely a con.
This post was edited on 12/1/20 at 12:21 pm
Posted on 12/1/20 at 10:53 am to fastedLSU
cool concept, but i can't stand proprietary shite
Posted on 12/1/20 at 11:29 am to fastedLSU
I don't trust their fuel source
Posted on 12/4/20 at 10:44 am to fastedLSU
DISCLAIMER: I work at Spark.
I've used regular charcoal in mine about 20 times and it works very well.
You have to start it like you would regular charcoal with a chimney or a starter (I like tumbleweeds), but from there regular charcoal works about 95% as well as the Spark briqs - you still set temp with a dial, fans regulate temp for you, does a very good job of hitting and maintaining a temp.
I haven't cooked with the speciality high heat pizza briq enough to compare, but my guess is that there's a difference there, since the pizza briq hits 900 and my regular charcoal hits about 750f, which still makes very, very good thin crust pizza.
The best comparison I can make is with my green egg - still holds low temps, still hits very high temps, still has cast iron grates, but it's much, much easier to start quickly and hit precise temps, so I end up using it way more than I ever did my egg. It's also easier to clean, but that's more of a nice-to-have than a critical benefit for me.
Again, disclaimer, I work at Spark. Call/email and ask for John Rote if anyone wants to talk more or get more details.
Disclaimer #2 - Coming totally clean here, I'm more of a general SEC fan than just an LSU fan, but I've got money on the line tomorrow and I met Orgeron at a bar where my brother worked once and he was awesome. An LSU buddy stumbled across this thread so I thought I'd weigh in.
I've used regular charcoal in mine about 20 times and it works very well.
You have to start it like you would regular charcoal with a chimney or a starter (I like tumbleweeds), but from there regular charcoal works about 95% as well as the Spark briqs - you still set temp with a dial, fans regulate temp for you, does a very good job of hitting and maintaining a temp.
I haven't cooked with the speciality high heat pizza briq enough to compare, but my guess is that there's a difference there, since the pizza briq hits 900 and my regular charcoal hits about 750f, which still makes very, very good thin crust pizza.
The best comparison I can make is with my green egg - still holds low temps, still hits very high temps, still has cast iron grates, but it's much, much easier to start quickly and hit precise temps, so I end up using it way more than I ever did my egg. It's also easier to clean, but that's more of a nice-to-have than a critical benefit for me.
Again, disclaimer, I work at Spark. Call/email and ask for John Rote if anyone wants to talk more or get more details.
Disclaimer #2 - Coming totally clean here, I'm more of a general SEC fan than just an LSU fan, but I've got money on the line tomorrow and I met Orgeron at a bar where my brother worked once and he was awesome. An LSU buddy stumbled across this thread so I thought I'd weigh in.
Posted on 12/4/20 at 11:06 am to johnrote
John Rote - thanks for the input.
I started a thread on this earlier this year, when the first advertisements started coming out - preproduction.
Interesting concept. The fuel source still concerns me. When using charcoal, it seems like it would be like a charcoal grill with a built-in temp controller. I'm surprised that more grill makers don't do this - build in the temp control unit to their charcoal grills to give it the ease of use of the pellet grill with the flexibility of a charcoal grill. You can use it if you need it.
I think the bricks are expensive. I think I saw they were around 5 bucks apiece. Can you reuse them? What about low and slow cooks. Do you have one that will last 10-12 hours? Can you add wood chips/chunks?
Inquiring minds want to know.
BTW: I like the looks of it and I like the concept - I have a kettle with a temp control unit on it.
I started a thread on this earlier this year, when the first advertisements started coming out - preproduction.
Interesting concept. The fuel source still concerns me. When using charcoal, it seems like it would be like a charcoal grill with a built-in temp controller. I'm surprised that more grill makers don't do this - build in the temp control unit to their charcoal grills to give it the ease of use of the pellet grill with the flexibility of a charcoal grill. You can use it if you need it.
I think the bricks are expensive. I think I saw they were around 5 bucks apiece. Can you reuse them? What about low and slow cooks. Do you have one that will last 10-12 hours? Can you add wood chips/chunks?
Inquiring minds want to know.
BTW: I like the looks of it and I like the concept - I have a kettle with a temp control unit on it.
Posted on 12/4/20 at 1:18 pm to Jax-Tiger
Yeah, the Briqs are about $5 each. It's a little more expensive than hardwood lump if you break down the cost per cook across a bag, but when I did the math it wasn't too much more. You can't re-use them, but we'll end up having a couple sizes for quick weeknight cooks vs longer weekend sessions.
Not a problem to add wood chips. Some of the guys put them directly on top of the briq, others in a pan/cup if they want to keep them soaked. I soak mine ahead of time, and then put them on the side of the briq/charcoal right before I add meat.
Stay tuned on the smoking Briq. It's definitely solid for an 8h smoke, but tbd if it'll hit 10-12h or not.
I've done long 12h+ smokes on mine with regular charcoal twice, and in both cases I added a couple extra charcoal chunks part of the way through the cook, to be safe. I might have gotten by without it, but I wanted to be safe so topped off partway through the cook. Didn't have any noticeable temp spike when I did that, I'm guessing bc the grill kept me regulated and likely dropped the airflow a little at that time.
Not a problem to add wood chips. Some of the guys put them directly on top of the briq, others in a pan/cup if they want to keep them soaked. I soak mine ahead of time, and then put them on the side of the briq/charcoal right before I add meat.
Stay tuned on the smoking Briq. It's definitely solid for an 8h smoke, but tbd if it'll hit 10-12h or not.
I've done long 12h+ smokes on mine with regular charcoal twice, and in both cases I added a couple extra charcoal chunks part of the way through the cook, to be safe. I might have gotten by without it, but I wanted to be safe so topped off partway through the cook. Didn't have any noticeable temp spike when I did that, I'm guessing bc the grill kept me regulated and likely dropped the airflow a little at that time.
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