Lotus Grill

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Lotus Grill

Postby thelawnet » 27 May 2013, 23:45

Not convinced by this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoSJtmCPWls

Annoying lift music, the sausages look raw in the middle, the steak is burned and raw in the middle, the burgers are probably raw in the middle too, everything is burned.

They also promote it for use inside your home, which seems like a bad idea too.
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Re: Lotus Grill

Postby keith157 » 28 May 2013, 05:22

The end caption confirms its an Aussie product, everythings a race with them. Yes I agree the "snags" & burger look less than appetising and to be honest I'm not going to sort through my coin collection to find an Aussie coin ;)
By indoors they probably mean one of those "garden rooms" i.e. a yard with an awning. For quickness & portability I'll stick with my SoH clone.
Nice spot though
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Re: Lotus Grill

Postby sesames » 23 Apr 2014, 11:39

Just to clarify I have a Chargriller Akorn Kamado and a pit controller and i love this set up but its only worth uncovering and firing up if i have at least 6 people over.
If it just the wife and kid seems a lot of effort to sear some steaks.
Also it's not like i can throw a kamado into the back of the car and take it to picnics.

The short version:
I bought one of theses grills and it is pretty good for high heat grilling.
It's suitable for a small bbq dinner for 4 and family picnic/camping.
Used it over easter for a light bbq lunch for 6 adults and 4 children.
We cooked 4 burgers and buns, 6 sausages, reheated half a roast duck, a small pork belly, 4 sweet corns and 2 sweet potatoes.
From unpacking the grill, cooking, eating and repacking eveything took about 90 minutes.


The long version.
I was looking for a small, portable, easy set up bbq for small dinners and when we go on picnics and camping holidays.
Initially I looked at the weber smokey joe and i was tempted to get that so i could make a mini wsm but then realised that if i really wanted to smoke something i would pretty much always use the kamado.

I then looked at mini gas bbqs, the bodum gas frykat looked interesting but none of the mini gas bbq have enough BTU's.

Then I came across the Cata Cook Air
http://www.cook-air.com/
AmazingRibs.com has a pretty good review of it and it looked perfect! 1100F, 5 minute start up.
Meathead' review says it's good for Sous vide searing too, perfect for me!
http://amazingribs.com/bbq_equipment_re ... ning-grill
only problem is its not available here :(
I could have shipped it in but decided to check if there was an equivalent version in the UK.

I looked at the Cobb and son of hibachi but then I found the lotus grill
Amazon is about £129
http://www.amazon.co.uk/LOTUSGRILL-Barb ... PXNZ8DKT9J
looks pretty good but was a lot more expensive than a smokey joe.
In the "what other people looked at section" there was this wedermann No.1 grill that was nearly half the price at £75
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Table-Grill-No- ... HN2MB982Z6

I googled the german website
http://www.wedermann-grill-vertrieb.com/
turned out the design is actually german and that the wedermann No1 grill is functionally the same as the Lotus grill
but at half the price.
Admittedly the lotus grill looks nicer but I am not going to throw an extra £60 at a paint job.

I checked on ebay and there's one for £70 with an extra charcoal container from seller racersparadise_de
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360875674939? ... 1439.l2649
SOLD!
it arrived in 3 days from germany.
The box is labelled Najico.VN

check out the website and then you realise that the lotusgrill and the wedermann are both made by Najico in Vietnam
http://najico.com.vn/user/index.php?mod ... anguage=en
http://najico.com.vn/user/index.php?mod ... anguage=en

So I think both are identical except for external design.


To get started you need 4 AA batteries to run the inbuilt fan, a splash of bioethanol fuel/gel (B&Q £5/1L) to start up the fire and 150g of broken lumpwood charcoal (not briquettes) the kind you get at the petrol station that we would normally curse as useless junk.

The grill requires no assembly, just unpack put batteries in, add bioethanol, light it and add the charcoal container.
The manual says that you can start cooking at 4 minutes and at 4 minutes the coals are glowing white but if they are really being honest it will take 8-10 minutes to be at max temperature.
This also works well as a charcoal fire starter for my kamado.
Just get the coals hot and tip the lot into the kamado.

Size wise you can fit maybe 8 burgers in one go. The heat is mostly around the centre as such you have to keep moving stuff around.
The airflow knob is pretty good at controlling the heat. The charcaol container has a lid and that means that no oil will drop on to the hot coals so you will not get any flare ups. The outer bowl is cool to the touch even when the fan is at full blast.
It's advertised as smokeless bbq and it is smokeless from the coals but the grease burning on the grill will smoke, you can't avoid that.

One container of charcoal should last 60 minutes.
Adding additional coals is possible but requries removing the cooking grate, the charcoal box cover and adding more coals using tongs.

Clean up is pretty easy, take off the grate wipe it down, take out the charcoal container and pour water over it to cool it down and wipe down the fire box. All parts fit into a dish washer.

The biggest problem with the wedermann and lotus grill is that they do not come with a lid.
If it had a lid it would cook more evenly and the coals would probably last a lot longer.
The lotus grill does have a lid avaiable but it is £50??!! wtf?!
http://www.cuckooland.com/dnc/cuckoolan ... wgodtUgAjw

Lotusgrill £129 + Lid £50 = £180 for a mini bbq?? no thanks

I went down to asda and bought a £10 portable kettle bbq
http://direct.asda.com/george/george-ho ... lt,pd.html
and the lid fits perfectly!
The grate is the same size too so you have a spare and the grate lifter included works for the wedermann grate too.


This weekend I will give this set up a proper run through and see how hot it can get and how low and slow it can go.
Will post some pictures too.
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Re: Lotus Grill

Postby Jaunty » 07 Apr 2016, 03:15

Thanks for your review. Just got a Lotus Grill as a birthday present (have a selection of gas and charcoal Webers and some smokers already). Looks cool but a lid would be handy - your £10 bbq tip is still available for £10 so much appreciated!

Are you still using the Lotus version you have? Any tips?

Cheers

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Re: Lotus Grill

Postby essexsmoker » 07 Apr 2016, 19:32

Have to say as a quick thing it looks quite good. Lid would be good.
Is there much bbq flavour?
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