Hmmm.... IMHO I believe that the Weber is the hands down choice. Find
someone with a 5 year old weber and ask them if they'd buy it again. Now
ask someone with a 5 year old Vermont Castings. YOu can't cause they didn't
exist. And they won't exist in another five years. A weber will let you
buy replacement parts forever. AN important feature in a $500 grill.

Regarding the Cast Iron - not for me personnaly. i bought stainless and
love it.

P
"Jason" > wrote in message
m...
>
> "Paul" > wrote in message
> ...
> > We're looking for a propane grill in the $500 to $600 range.
> >
> > We've seen the Vermont Castings at Home Depot and that was our initial
> > choice, either the $400 three burner model or the $600 four burner
> > model.
> >
> > After reading everything here, and the FAQ, we looked at the Weber line
> > up this morning. We liked the Weber Genesis Gold B for $549. Stainless
> > steel grates and flavorizer bars. 36,000 BTUs, three burners.
>
> I'd advise you to not get the model with stainless steel (SS) cooking
> grates. You want the Weber with porcelain coated cast iron (PCI) grates
for
> the far greater searing ability. The SS grates will last longer but many
of
> us paid $50 to upgrade to the PCI grates. Home Depot now carries the
Webers
> with PCI grates and also sellsd the grates by themselves. Anyone who says
> the SS grates sear well hasn't tried the PCI grates since it's a night and
> day difference.
>
>