Not being a doubting thomas, I’m honestly curious - Aside from the great name and it being a highly engineered new toy, what is the draw of this for all of you? The portability?
I’m trying to imagine where this fits in most people’s backyard/ home appliance repertoire. It’s like a small salamander or upside down infrared grill.
If you want a crust on your protein and by using this, you obviously aren’t bothered with what wood or charcoal bring to the party, why not use cast iron or a stone/steel on your existing grill? My NG Weber gets to 750 or 780, and if I put a steel or cast iron pan on it, my guess is that I get a crust on a steak as fast or faster than “Beefer” does. If anyone cares to answer - I appreciate it. Maybe I missed something.
In my case it is the perfect device for my weekend-summer-house near Berlin. I arrive Friday around 7pm and want a short preparation time for dinner. The device is ready in 5min and the food is ready in 5min (including rest period). In addition perfect for 2 people.
Martin, thanks for sharing. Your use case makes sense. And the rapid startup time does seem to be a benefit.
Chris, I have the same questions as you. Outside of some niche applications or shooting for “cool points” what does this do that I can’t already reasonably do with other tools?
Not sure there’s a ‘need’ for it. That said I LOVE the name and the build quality looks great. I could see it having a home in my “dream kitchen”, right next to the tandoor 
.
The key for me is cool down time. If I bring it to a tailgate and fire it up, let’s say I can shut it down at most an hour before we have to go into the game, more likely 45 minutes. Will it cool down fast enough that I can load it into my car at the end of packing up. With a Weber Kettle, we dump the coals, pour water we bring with us on the hot coals, and the kettle is cool in 5 minutes.
Top pic is the best I could clean the pan. Steaks before and after, one picture cooking the steaks.
first time tonight. Cooked 2 eight ounce Flannery filets and a 20 oz Lobel NY strip. Probably too much meat for the 11 by 6 inch surface area. Going to have to work on distance from the heat source. I was too close so it burned a little. Took longer than 4 minutes, about 8.
Tasted great.
Difficulty is cleaning. Took 30 minutes of scrubbing the various trays that had drippings cemented to them. Real pain.
Steaks look amazing!
I guess popping the parts in the dish washer doesn’t work.
the stuff left on the grill parts was melted on and would have laughed at a dishwasher. It took work and steel wool to clean.
Alan- just give up and call it a patina
exactly. I now know why the videos show the drip pan far below the steaks—to avoid the drippings welding themselves irrevocably to the steel.
I had an issue with “patina” like that and I solved it with a gasoline powered pressure washer. Lye (Easy Off) also works well to prime it for the power washer if it has gone from patina to good old fashioned thick gunk.
Easy Off! I used Simple Green but Easy Off would be better.
Alan,
That does change the situation.
Is it possible to wrap the drip pan with foil or fill it with salt to make the clean up easier?
aluminum foil?
yes.
Alan - How long did it take to cool? That’s my big issue if I bring it in my car for a tailgate and have to pack it up before going into the game.
Probably less than 30 minutes. The bottom stayed cool. You could likely put it in a metal pan right away using oven mitts.
8 minutes for all 3 steaks? not too shabby! looks good too.
Got me the little one. My only thing is where should I store it, outside or inside.
I would recommend to add butter, thyme, garlic to to the tray while resting the meat. Bottom line, you will have a great sauce and the butter will absorb meat liquid.