I am a died in the wool griller and Weber guy. We currently have three grills around the house; a horizontal smoker/charcoal grill, a Weber gas Silver C gas grill (10 years old, the best!!) and the Coleman Roadtrip. I bought this grill because I get stuck doing the cooking at other friends and relatives and always had to load up the Weber. This Roadtrip is the cat's meow for this type of grilling road show.
I was going to get a Weber Q but it doesn't have the cart, at least not at a sub $200 pricepoint. This grill does the job and then some. I used the grill five times in the last two weeks, trying different approaches and methods, and have come up with a few tips and tricks to make the grill work it's best. Please note that this grill is one of the best I have ever used and certainly better than the majority of gas grills I have used. It's no Weber, but then, it ain't 500 bucks either. So, on with the tips.
1. The burner has a "low" to "high" settings. The high settings are ONLY and I mean ONLY for using the burner attachment or griddle attachment. There is no need to use 20,000BTU's of heat on a grill this small. These guys that are melting handles and such are also ruining food with entirely too much heat. They ought to put this in the book, but they don't. So you read it hear first, been grilling for over 25 years, do NOT use the high setting for grilling...PERIOD! Think about it...my Weber, which is almost twice as big and has enough clearance built into the cover for a turkey or upright chicken, only has 40,000BTU. So 20,000 for a grill with a three inch clearance cover and burners less than an inch away from the food is way too much. NO HIGH!!! PERIOD...there, now I feel better.
2. Properly preheat the grill. Fire up the grill, set it to "MED", no higher (READ # 1!!!), close the cover, and let it run for 10 minutes. This will get the grates properly heated as well as everything else. This will allow for even heat for cooking.
NOTE: The cover for this grill (I am referring to the lid that covers the grill during cooking) is durable as long as you (say it with me, folks!) DON'T USE THE HIGH SETTING FOR GRILLING!! Now given that, even on the lowest of heat setting the lid will "warp" when heated. I would bet that even a good dose of sunlight would do this. It's no worries, but it does cause a potential issue. This happens to most grills but it's so little you never notice it. But on this grill, the lid lock pin slides down into a slot that only has about a 1/16" clearance. The cover then heats up, moving the lock very VERY slightly but just enough, causing the grill not to open easily because of the pin catching on the slot. TO avoid this, after unlocking and opening the grill cover, just turn the lever to the "lock" position prior to preheating. ADVANCED FIX: I think utilizing a bit of backyard engineering IE tinsnips to open up the slot for more clearance while still being able to lock the lid may do the trick. IN the interim, just flipping to lock will still allow the lid to close, but the lock pin won't slide into the slot. As far as the highly reported melting lid handle, I have made attempts to get the handle hot enough to melt with the grill on medium and have determined that it simply won't happen. No concern, as long as you FOLLOW RULE#1!!
3. Once preheated, do what you would do with a normal gas grill heat control utilizing the "Coleman Roadtrip Medium" setting as "HIGH." Most folks go to Medium on a gas grill, so that would be half way between MED and LOW on this grill. Make sense? Good. I usually cook a tick above halfway.
4. Now just use like a normal gas grill, keeping the cover closed at all times. I will state that even at these supposedly low heat settings, this grill does cook faster than my big Weber, so keep an eye out the first few times you use it.
5. Foil for cleanup of the drip pan? I don't like that idea. The shiny drip pan cleans up so easily it's not required. Also, there is a problem if the foil is wrinkled at all you won't have proper draining of the grease, resulting in flair up and fire. I use hot, soapy water and let the excess water go to the drip pan. It cleanse up very easily.
That's all I got. If you follow my rules, you will love this grill.