Charbroil TEC Grill Did Have A Grease Flareup
Grilled on May 23rd, 2007 in GrillsOne of the selling points of the Charbroil TEC grill was the fact that you wouldn’t have any grease flareups on the TEC… according to their Technology Fact Sheet:
Surface:
The radiant glass surface allow a wide range of cooking options.
- Self-cleaning cook surface protects the burner and eliminates messy clean up
- Cookware can be placed on glass panels or grates
- The stainless-steel cooking grates rest on top of layer of high-temp glass
- Oxygen-free cooking zone
- No grease flare-ups or charring
The first time I fired up the grill, I threw on a pair of ribeye steaks from Costco I had hanging out in the fridge waiting for a party. I grilled them about six minutes on each side and in the final minute of the second side, there was a grease flareup. In fact, since it was basically done cooking anyway, I took off the steaks, turned off the heat and propane, and left it to burn itself out. I checked on it five minutes later and the grease was still burning… I’m not sure what can be done to “prevent” a grease flareup and I’m pretty sure that I installed it correctly (You just put the plate on!), so I would say you can cross that one off the feature list. I had a flare up the first time I used it.
Hi, read your post and thought I should acknowlege it and share what information I have after some experiences with the TEC Char-Broil grill too. I write the blog and newsletter, http://www.SizzleOnTheGrill.com for Char-Broil and have been cooking with the TEC grill since late December. Here’s what I know - Engineers at TEC invented and patented the first honeycomb-looking, ceramic infrared burner quite some time ago. That patent has expired and that’s why you see so many of those burners in grills today. So, this is the next-generation infrared burner and it really is a big improvement. Now, I’m going to sound like an engineer here, so bear with me, but this burner system is designed so that the grate rests directly on the glass, blocking any air-flow, and creating an oxygen-free zone. And as every good scout knows, fire won’t burn without oxygen, thus no flare-ups. Now, just between you and me, mine has flared-up a few times as well.
There are a couple of scenarios that can affect this -
1) Since grilling enthusiasts will grill in just about any kind of weather - if the wind is blowing, the wind can force air between the grates and voila - flare up.
2) If the grates are not sitting flush upon the glass (For instance ff there is build-up on the glass from cooking) even a minute amount of space will allow in air that could result in flare up.
3) If the food being cooked has an extraordinary amount of fat or oil that drains or melts off – the excess can accumulate faster than the TEC burner will cook it off the glass and it could run to the edge of the glass, ignite and cause a flare up
That said, under most fair weather backyard grilling conditions you are significantly less likely to get a flare-up with this burner than if cooking over an open flame or a ceramic infrared burner.”
I would also suggest you check out what ‘a few other folks (all of whom are smarter than me) have said about this new burner being pretty innovative and see a few of the awards TEC has won. http://www.tecinfrared.com/awards-and-testimonials.php‘
And of course…you can always check out my web site http://www.SizzleOnTheGril.com …thanks for allowing me to share this information.
Happy Grilling! - CB