I love mine, I'm planning to be buried with it. I got the original Braten 1000. I use the thing 3-4 times a week. When I first got it I used every night. I've gone through other store bought ones. This thng is built like a tank. I tell people who first see it that this thing came from a grill that had a one nighter with an old coal boiler. The thing was born in Illinois, was raised on corn wiskey and is looking for a fight.
I first seen it on the food network with Bobby Flay cooking on it. The searing is the best. It's made for cooking over whole logs. Which is the only thing I cook over now. The cooking grate raises for dialing in the searing heat and it makes it really easy for maintaining the fire. The fire box does really good. The top loading door makes it easy to maintain the fire box fire. It's not baffled so there's a hot spot near the firebox. But I make use of it for finishing ribs or cooking some hot wings. You'll never get me sold on anything else. I don't have the space nor the money to have four different grills. It's just the perfect all around grill/bbq. It ends up being the talk after the dinner.