Posts Tagged ‘kuuma barbecue’

I love stainless steel appliances. My dream is to have a log cabin in the woods (serviced, of course!) and all stainless steel appliances.  I love the look of them, and think it would be awesome to have a stainless steel fridge and gas stove.  C. also likes stainless steel too which is a bonus. So about five weeks ago, when we saw the Kuuma Stainless Steel “Stow N’ Go” barbecue, we both knew we wanted it, even if just for its looks.

So, we bought it. We’ve been using a Lodge Sportsman’s Grill which is cast iron for sometime and I really like it, but a gas barbecue offers some conveniences that a charcoal grill does not.  Such as less waiting times – and on our schedule, it can be a pain at times to wait for the charcoal to be ready before cooking on it.

Often referred to as a barbecue for marine use because of its stainless steel construction, the model we purchased, 83790, has  about 160 square inches of cooking space – not huge – but enough to do a few steaks or pork chops, or enough burgers for C., David, and I. It’s design is very handy for small spaces and its legs fold away for storage.

The manufacturer also says that it will put out 13,000 BTU’s of heat.

When we picked it up and brought it back to the trailer, one of the awesome things about the Kuuma was that it needed no assembly whatsoever. All we did was pull it out of the box and hook up the propane tank. The hose from the regulator to the tank was not included with the barbecue, so you would need to have one before you can start cooking.

The stainless steel does look beautiful too! But how does it cook?

Well, there are a couple of disadvantages with this barbecue. First, there is a warning that the lid should not be closed when it is on high. Actually, you might not want to close it on the medium setting either.  In our first evening with the barbecue, we decided to cook up a couple of steaks, and C. and I both like ours done medium to medium-well done.  The heat was on medium, and I closed the lid. After a few minutes, I went to open the lid, but it had seized! I had to use a screw driver in between the lid and the base in order to apply some leverage to get the lid open. The heat had sized up the screws and nuts that the lid is attached with and turn on to be opened and closed.

I have not yet tried to loosen the screws as they seem to use a TORX type of head, which I don’t have here at the trailer. And ever since that first cooking, the lid is very stiff to open and close.

The next issue with this barbecue is that even though it seems there is flame evenly distributed from the left to the right side, the heat on the right side seems quite a bit lower than on the left.  Steaks and chops that are on the extreme right hand side of the grill need to be moved toward the center after the other steaks and chops have finished cooking.

Still, even with the above issues, it cooks food, and the food tastes great. Obviously as with any barbecue that is propane, you don’t get the flavours that charcoal can impart to cooking food.  But with its small size which makes it easy to stow and store, the Kuuma is a beautiful cooking machine when you need something small and that should last a very long time because it is 100% stainless steel.

The price we picked up the Kuuma Stow N’ Go 83790 was $119.00 Canadian.