The gas grill I have now was left by the previous owner of the house. It's basically a huge grill, way larger than I would ever need, and because of that it of course sucks up the propane like a thirsty camel in the desert. As an added bonus, upon moving in and first opening the grill, there was the lovely surprise of an entire family of rats living literally inside the grill, with them scattering in terror upon lifting the lid. I had been wondering where that strange odor was coming from and...well...er...
In any event, the grill got cleaned, etc., and I've been using it off and on ever since. For such a large grill, something that is built in to some concrete and tile and was probably fairly expensive, it's bloody awful. In fact, it works way worse than any of the Weber's I've owned and I can only chalk it up to the enormous size of it. It's one of those things where nothing ever cooks even close to evenly on the thing, almost to a maddening degree. It also takes forever for it reach its ideal temperature.
I've taken to cooking pizzas on the grill, though, and it's become a favorite thing of mine. For whatever reason, though, this particular day about 2 months ago the grill wouldn't light. This was a first. Now, I've always gone against the grain and lit the grill with the lid down. I know, I know...they say DON'T do this. Yeah, whatever, pish tosh. So, again, I'm clicking the igniter and nothing's happening. I was a bit tired that day so I kind of had a lapse in judgement, where I silently thought to myself, hey, did I forget to open the propane spigot? Weird.
Well, no sooner had I convinced myself that might be the case, after a little bit of time, I decided to push the igniter again. It was like in slow motion...where as my finger was slowly pushing the trigger, my brain was saying "...but you did turn the gas on...and it's been pouring into the lid for the past 45 sec...". And that's when I had fully pushed the igniter.
WHOOOSH!!! No kidding, the lid literally flew open like Arnold Schwarznegger had pulled it with all his might, and also all the smaller doors in the back and front blew out equally loudly. For a moment, I thought I was in "Christmas Vacation", when the uncle lights his stogey at the Christmas tree and burns both his coat and his toupee. The kaboom noise was beyond belief, especially since all the doors are pretty heavy, and I stood there and let out a very loud "Aaaaaahhhhh!"
My first thought was...am I on fire?! Nope, I seemed okay. Did I lose any limbs?! Nope, they're all there. Actually, I think I'm alright. What about the house?! Is IT on fire?! Nope, it's okay. In fact, the only damage seemed to be the doors and the lid blowing up with such tremendous force. Wow. Let's just say I was extremely lucky for once. I also looked around sheepishly. Had any of my neighbors seen me do this? Nope, I don't think. Nice.
After collecting myself, I continued on and placed the cooking stone on the grill, and so on, although slightly shaking still. I felt like a total idiot. What was I thinking?! Geez.
And so, yes, apparently all those warnings about the gas grills, propane, gas, etc., is real. It's no joke so take it seriously. Meanwhile, I still light the grill with the lid closed...I'm just more careful now. Some people never learn ;)
