British BBQ Society Forums

BigM wrote:updated my first post

EDIT ONE thing the Guy on Ebay put his price up 200 TO 529 the Bargin has gone

Well that didn't take long, well done to you for grabbing it at the bargain price. BGE have put their prices up too, almost £445 more for the XL bundle now!!

Summer time Prices just like summer holidays prices cash in on prime times
then cut for off season prices. but over 400 increase they dont elp there cause
i think BGE is trying to get theres in restaurants rather than with people like u and me.

those prices are back to outrageous, just up from horrendous.

They've had some great free publicity courtesy of Great British Menu

I still think deals may be had if you ring up or negotiate with your local dealer, if you have one near you. In a way it's a bit like a car I guess, you pay the premium for a top quality product, the higher price helps to keep it more exclusive and aspirational.

JEC wrote:I still think deals may be had if you ring up or negotiate with your local dealer, if you have one near you.

Be interesting to see / try, but the reason I looked at alternatives was not down to the money, but because BGE would not negotiate at all.

JEC wrote:In a way it's a bit like a car I guess, you pay the premium for a top quality product, the higher price helps to keep it more exclusive and aspirational.

That is for sure - plus offering a 'better than most' customer service level & longer guarantee costs them money.

I just think they're over priced to be honest. I don't doubt they're great kit, but once you get to that kind of crash you're not far off getting a serious pit.

I'd rather spend a little more and ship in a BWS or similar, ok doesn't give me the hot and fast but I've got a perfectly good kettle for that and as I do more low and slow I'd rather go for something that does that amazingly well.

To be fair Steve I feel for the money they offer quite good value, as it's one BBQ that will do everything very well so if I was only going to have one BBQ I'd have a ceramic, although it would be a Primo as you can split the fire box and it does a few other cool things.

Very fair point Ed, although I agree with you on the Primo point. I just feel for what you get, some of the ceramics are over priced.

If its important for you to have just one BBQ to do hot and low temp cooking, then they will fit the bill and they do both well. However if it were me, I'd go for a GMG, Mak or Yoder pellet pooper if I wanted something that could go to temperature extremes.

But for me I'd rather run a 26" Weber Kettle and a 22" WSM for much less cash and much more capacity. Or run a BWS clone like Neil's and a kettle for similar cash.

To be fair, I think the KJ and Monoliths present reasonable value for money and knowing Andy, I'm sure a good deal could be got on a Primo too. I'm not saying I won't buy one at some point either, so please don't think I'm slating them, it's not like I haven't bought over priced kit before, I do run an exclusively Mac household after all

Unsurprisingly Steve I disagree, Obviously I'm with Ed, it is the one cooker that will do everything very well, splitting the firebox on the XL isn't so important as its easier to manage the fire or simply just push all of the coals to one side but that kind of goes against the ceramic cooking method. It's a different cooking process to that of a kettle which a lot of people struggle to change too in the beginning, you control the cook by temperature rather than coal position, once you've mastered that bit excellent results will follow. Now don't get me wrong I like Weber charcoal products and really like the Backwoods, hell if I ever decide to compete I will finish my build of a clone, for me however I would rather buy the best product that does everything rather than just one thing and matches my cooking habits, it's a bit of a contradiction to say that you wouldn't buy the ceramic due to the price but would buy the BWS which many people agree is totally over priced. The important thing here is value for money is relative to the person buying the product and here on a forum where opinion is king it's the different opinions that make this a more interesting place, if we all had the same opinion this would end up being the UK version of the virtual weber bulletin board

I'll leave my thoughts on the pellet grills for another day