Lifestyle BBQ vs Webber summit

[gasp]

I have been reading the forum posts and a couple of your Gurus recommended the Lifestyle BBQ's as being good quality. I am comparing them to the equivalent sized Webber Summits.

Both seem to be very top of the line BBQ's.
I am somewhat close to the coast and a decent NE and some surf will see the sea salt heading my way.

I am also trying to decide between the 4 burners or the larger 5 burner BBQ's. I will initially be using Bottled gas until I renovate the house in 6-9 months time and get Natural Gas plumbed in.

I will be using it a lot. As in most meals that I cook. Most of the time it will just be the wife and myself. But a couple of times a month it will be cooking for the extended family meals where we have 8 minimum, then the odd larger get together with a few mates (usually about 10-12 people every so often). I tend to like to have more Grill than flat plate.

My BBQ'ing style tends to be more on the large thick and juicy steaks than on the cook a chicken in the BBQ. Thats not to say I will not be roasting the odd Joint. I am looking forward to trying the rotissory cooking as well. Its just that 90% of the time it will be Steaks and fish and seafood on the grill.

So with all of that information can some of you help me to decide between these two companies and between the 4 or 5 burner.

I am prepared to drop some serious money on this to get good quality and get things right the first time.

Thanks.

PS: I dont really care about side wok burners

[Captain Cook]

Gasp
The weber Summit will handle the salt environment, there is a limited lifetime guarantee on the Summit if you do get rust they will replace the parts (not the flavouriser bars or grill but they are SS so it shouldn't happen.

The summit will cook for 12 no trouble at all and can cook for 20 with a bit of planning. As you will be cooking most of the time for 2, this I think will be a better size.
The Weber Technician can convert your Summit to NG for about 200 - 250 including parts. He is a certified Gas guy so you will have it done properly.

All I can say is you lucky bugger, Cooking on the Summit as all the owners here can attest to is a dream. You won't regret your purchase either way.

Cheers

[gasp]

Gasp
The weber Summit will handle the salt environment, there is a limited lifetime guarantee on the Summit if you do get rust they will replace the parts (not the flavouriser bars or grill but they are SS so it shouldn't happen.

The summit will cook for 12 no trouble at all and can cook for 20 with a bit of planning. As you will be cooking most of the time for 2, this I think will be a better size.
The Weber Technician can convert your Summit to NG for about 200 - 250 including parts. He is a certified Gas guy so you will have it done properly.

All I can say is you lucky bugger, Cooking on the Summit as all the owners here can attest to is a dream. You won't regret your purchase either way.

Cheers

So you'd recommend the 4 burner rather than a 5 burner because most of the time I am just BBQing with the Missus.
I know I cant manage to cook for 20 on smaller BBQ, probably cant do it on a 5 burner either really. But I only have 20 over a couple of times a year. More often larger groups of between 8-12 is the normal Barbie on the weekends.

Anyone know about the technical differences or pros and cons between the Lifestyle Seaview BBQ 4 burner and the Summit 420?

[Captain Cook]

The only con with the Summit E420 is that it does not have the Rear Rotis burner or smoker box like the Summit E450
If I was gong to spend the money I would get the E450.
Cooking for 20 on it is no problem on it, as it just needs a little planning like you would on a 5 burner.
I can cook for 10 on my Weber Baby Q and that is about 1/4 - 1/3 of the size of the E450
I can't comment on the Lifestyle as I haven't cooked on it but from all reports it is a good quality BBQ I think that this will come down to which is easier to keep clean and maintain.
I lover the black porcelain enamel finish as it is easy to keep clean and looks spectacular.
One of the big pluses with the Weber is the flavourizer bar system it allows for the fat to run of into the driptray and the juices to boil off giving that superb BBQ flavour. The fat does not collect in valleys near the burners and start smoking/burning giving the meat a burnt fat taste.

Cheers

[gasp]

The black porcelain does look good.

I liked the idea of the fat all running away to be collected in the trip tray, but was warned off it. Probably just salesman talk though.
You say the fat does not collect in the valleys near the burners, so does the fat collect in the valleys away from the burners? ie: Am I going to have to dismantle the Grill, flavourizers, Buners to clean things up under there, or am I simply going to remove the little drip tray collector?

Thanks.

[Captain Cook]

The black porcelain does look good.

I liked the idea of the fat all running away to be collected in the trip tray, but was warned off it. Probably just salesman talk though.
You say the fat does not collect in the valleys near the burners, so does the fat collect in the valleys away from the burners? ie: Am I going to have to dismantle the Grill, flavourizers, Buners to clean things up under there, or am I simply going to remove the little drip tray collector?

Thanks.

No the fat drips down into a removable sloping pan under the burners and then into a removable and disposable foil drip tray. cleaning is therefore very simple.

I guess that the salesman was only trying to sell what he had and had no experience with high quality products.

You very rarely get flare-ups with Weber grills because of the patented flavourizer bar system. Other manufacturers are now bringing out similar systems to weber without actually copying it which shows how good it is. Unfortunately many of them have valleys as part of their flame tamer system that capture the fat and consequently have flare-ups.

Cheers

[gasp]

The black porcelain does look good.

I liked the idea of the fat all running away to be collected in the trip tray, but was warned off it. Probably just salesman talk though.
You say the fat does not collect in the valleys near the burners, so does the fat collect in the valleys away from the burners? ie: Am I going to have to dismantle the Grill, flavourizers, Buners to clean things up under there, or am I simply going to remove the little drip tray collector?

Thanks.

No the fat drips down into a removable sloping pan under the burners and then into a removable and disposable foil drip tray. cleaning is therefore very simple.

Cheers

Ahh! I misunderstood what you meant by the valleys near the burners. I hadnt thought about the fat collecting on the flavourisers themselves. I think the salesman was talking about the fat collecting along the sloping pan under the burners rather than all of it going all the way down to the disposable foil drip tray.