I'm thinking about picking up a Broil King Baron 500 Pellet Grill. Should a grab the Asurion 4 year warranty too?

[psychobrew]

As the title states. I do have back issues so having someone come out to fix any issues for me would be a huge plus. I'm just not sure how easy Asurion is to deal with.

As far as the grilol itself goes, I found a good deal on it, it has most of the features I want (just not the direct grill sear mode), and it's not made in China.

 

[jcam222]

I can say that for me anything that costs quite a bit and relies on electronics merits buying the extended warranty.

 

[bill1]

I know nothing about Broil King but make sure you read the fine print of what you get in the warranty. They may not come out to your house to fix things?

 

[psychobrew]

I know nothing about Broil King but make sure you read the fine print of what you get in the warranty. They may not come out to your house to fix things?

They warranty claims they come out but I decided against the warranty in the end. I originally ordered it at an amazing price but I forgot to buy it through Amazon Smile so I cancelled it to re-order through Smile instead (I wanted to give a few dollars to a charity). Unfortunately, they had raised the price a good bit between when I added the product to my cart and when I cancelled it so I didn't re-order it at first, but I did keep checking the price and finally re-ordered it somewhere between the original price and the price it was raised to. I decided I can just pay a neighbor to fix it if something goes wrong so I saved the difference by not buying the warranty when I ordered it the second time. Still an amazing deal and I can't wait to get it.

And best of all, It's not made in China.

 

[psychobrew]

So it seems this grill is actually made in China and Broil King is hiding the information from consumers. Not a happy camper right now.

 

[bill1]

Psychobrew, have you already ordered it?

It could be somewhere in between. I think the pellet feed mechanism and all that's involved with that probably is imported from China. But BK uses thick steel for the grill itself. It may be more economical to use North American labor rather than importing something heavy and bulky stuff. As far as the total labor hours in the unit, the majority of it may be North American.

Few technological high-priced products are FULLY made in USA. E.g. modern cars are truly international. The reality is that most Toyotas are more "American" as far as labor content goes than most Chevy's.

 

[psychobrew]

Psychobrew, have you already ordered it?

It could be somewhere in between. I think the pellet feed mechanism and all that's involved with that probably is imported from China. But BK uses thick steel for the grill itself. It may be more economical to use North American labor rather than importing something heavy and bulky stuff. As far as the total labor hours in the unit, the majority of it may be North American.

Few technological high-priced products are FULLY made in USA. E.g. modern cars are truly international. The reality is that most Toyotas are more "American" as far as labor content goes than most Chevy's.

It came in on Monday, and it says made in China on the box. Live and learn. I'm mostly trying avoid products that are made in China.

 

[bill1]

I'm sure you've noticed their web page has a prominent logo with USA and Canadian flags saying Made in North America no less than 3 times. I think you'd be justified in saying the Chinese origin was mis-represented, the product is not as described, and request a refund and return shipping.

 

[psychobrew]

I'm sure you've noticed their web page has a prominent logo with USA and Canadian flags saying Made in North America no less than 3 times. I think you'd be justified in saying the Chinese origin was mis-represented, the product is not as described, and request a refund and return shipping.

I ended up keeping it. Even Recteq is made in China now and didn't see any other options in the $1,000 range.

 

[rprice54]

I ended up keeping it. Even Recteq is made in China now and didn't see any other options in the $1,000 range.

Have you had any issues with yours? Mine doesn’t get close to the displayed temp. If I want to cook chicken at 375 I have to set it to 500. Replaced the controller and temp probe without improvement. I got the deal on Amazon too but now I’m regretting it.

 

[jimmyjamjimbo]

I was fooled too!

I bought a Broil King charcoal grill and was disapointed to find out that it was not made in the USA or Canada.
Once it was delivered, I saw "Made in China" on the box.
It is model # 948050

Very misleading of Broil King. They need to be more transparent on their site and specifically list country of origin or at least specify which grills are in fact made in USA/Canada.

How are you getting along with yours, psychobrew? Im still undecided wheter to return or keep it.

 

[psychobrew]

Have you had any issues with yours? Mine doesn’t get close to the displayed temp. If I want to cook chicken at 375 I have to set it to 500. Replaced the controller and temp probe without improvement. I got the deal on Amazon too but now I’m regretting it.

Sorry for the delayed reply. The probe on the grill acts like it's in the wrong place. It's accurate when the grill is just getting started (the grill temp shows the ambient temp), but it seems to be reporting about 40 degrees higher than what it should be after it's been going for a while. I'm going to have to stick a probe on the grate itself to measure it more accurately (I just stuck a probe through the rotisserie slot to measure before). I will say although the flavor is outstanding, food actually cools down when you set it to the smoke setting which is supposed to be 225 degrees F.

 

[psychobrew]

I was fooled too!

I bought a Broil King charcoal grill and was disapointed to find out that it was not made in the USA or Canada.
Once it was delivered, I saw "Made in China" on the box.
It is model # 948050

Very misleading of Broil King. They need to be more transparent on their site and specifically list country of origin or at least specify which grills are in fact made in USA/Canada.

How are you getting along with yours, psychobrew? Im still undecided wheter to return or keep it.

I have mixed feelings. There are issues with temp measurement but it produces great flavor -- far better flavor than other pellet grills I've tried (which have mostly been cheap grills with the old style pellet management so perhaps it's just the PID.

 

[rprice54]

I have mixed feelings. There are issues with temp measurement but it produces great flavor -- far better flavor than other pellet grills I've tried (which have mostly been cheap grills with the old style pellet management so perhaps it's just the PID.

I drilled a hole and installed a thermometer in the lid and use that to measure temps- which renders the WiFi part of the grill worthless- the temps it‘s reporting are wrong and I can’t make adjustments either through the app…

I came up with a table. If I want 225 I have to set it to 270. If I want 375 I have to set it to 525, etc. It gets hot enough to grill food so there’s that, but pretty frustrated with it in general. I can’t tell a difference in taste from the Traeger 22Pro that it replaced. It has much worse hot spotting than the Traeger did. I could cover the Traeger with burgers and walk away and they all cooked at the same rate. On this one I’m constantly re-arranging trying to compensate for the hot spots.

I guess I didn’t really consider that it’s a Gen 1 product from BK, we are basically beta testers.

 

[bill1]

...I guess I didn’t really consider that it’s a Gen 1 product from BK, we are basically beta testers.

There's a lot of truth to that. I bought both a vertical and a horizontal (standard grill) pellet machine from masterbuilt. The mechanical feed auger is identical in both and the controls and human interface work identically. But the horizontal is a Model ...1000B (although it was sold as a 1000S) and the vertical a Model ...330S. The temp stability on the S is much better than the B so I suspect software changes are what the B & S suffixes reflect. (Can anyone confirm?)

My point is, this is a competitive field...vendors know they have to respond to customer complaints and continuously improve if they're going to stay in business. Certainly don't take this as an endorsement, but a high-volume manufacturer like Pit Boss is probably able to turn around product updates/fixes/improvements faster than low volume (more expensive) vendors. (Now is when the RecTec fans will tell me they got it right from the start! )

 

[psychobrew]

I did some testing last night. The temperature at the grill grate is consistently 60-70 degrees lower than what the controller box is displaying for the grill. Broil King is replacing the controller, controller box, and grill probe. Of course, I have to provide the labor free of charge and figure out how to do the actual replacement.

 

[psychobrew]

I drilled a hole and installed a thermometer in the lid and use that to measure temps- which renders the WiFi part of the grill worthless- the temps it‘s reporting are wrong and I can’t make adjustments either through the app…

I came up with a table. If I want 225 I have to set it to 270. If I want 375 I have to set it to 525, etc. It gets hot enough to grill food so there’s that, but pretty frustrated with it in general. I can’t tell a difference in taste from the Traeger 22Pro that it replaced. It has much worse hot spotting than the Traeger did. I could cover the Traeger with burgers and walk away and they all cooked at the same rate. On this one I’m constantly re-arranging trying to compensate for the hot spots.

I guess I didn’t really consider that it’s a Gen 1 product from BK, we are basically beta testers.

The problem with adjusting temps that way is the grill won't go in to smoking mode when you want smoking temperatures. If you want to cold smoke, it's fine though.

 

[rprice54]

I did some testing last night. The tempature at the grill grate is consistantly 60-70 degrees higher than what the controller box is displaying for the grill. Broil King is replacing the controller, controller box, and grill probe. Of course, I have to provide the labor free of charge and figure out how to do the actual replacement.

Measured at the middle of the grill, the actual temp was below the displayed temp. If set to 225 the actual temp was 200. From there, for every 50 degrees I raised it with the controller the actual grill temp only went up 20 degrees. Very linear- which convinces me it’s how the controller is programmed. The right side of the grill is much hotter than the middle but it never gets close to the set temp either. But the difference in temps grows as you move up, so it's not even like I can just say it's always 75 degrees off. It's over 100 degrees off at higher temps.

When BK was responding to my emails, and I actually had a phone call with a product manager, he acknowledged it was an issue with the math they used to take information from the temp probe and convert that to a displayed temp. I got the impression they are using the math from the regals and applying it to the Baron, which is less insulated, thinner walled, and smaller.

I have replaced the probe and controller and got the exact same temp curves, which is why I figured it was in the programming.

 

[psychobrew]

That’s funny because mine is the opposite. Measured at the middle of the grill, the actual temp was below the displayed temp. If set to 225 the actual temp was 200. From there, for every 50 degrees I raised it with the controller the actual grill temp only went up 20 degrees. Very linear- which convinces me it’s how the controller is programmed. The right side of the grill is much hotter than the middle but it never gets close to the set temp either.

When BK was responding to my emails, and I actually had a phone call with a product manager, he acknowledged it was an issue with the math they used to take information from the temp probe and convert that to a displayed temp. I got the impression they are using the math from the regals and applying it to the Baron, which is less insulated, thinner walled, and smaller.

But yours is hotter which doesn’t fit my theory… I have replaced the probe and controller and got the exact same temp curves, which is why I figured it was in the programming.

I made an error in my post. It has since been corrected. Temps at then grill grate are *lower* by 60-70 degrees at the smoke setting.

If it was a programming issue and they know about it, why are they sending out new controllers?

 

[rprice54]

Because I think the standard customer service answer is to throw parts at it until you go away or you're outside the return window.

I had a chance to speak with a product developer, the regional rep was able to get me in touch with that team- and we actually spoke on the phone. They seemed very interested, at first, in finding a solution but now I haven't heard back from them in months, they ignore my emails.

I did try to return mine to Amazon but since I didn't have the packaging it was going to cost me a fair amount to package and ship back. Instead they gave me a partial credit back to keep the defective grill, so at the end of the day I don't have much in it. I'd rather have a grill that just works as intended though.