Summer is always a great time for family gatherings and eating out. And amongst many recreational activities outdoors, barbecuing has always been in the list of top ten activities in most American families’ life. Charcoal grill smoking or gas grilling are the most popular options these days to sit down with your loved ones and enjoy those succinctly cooked BBQ steaks.

With recent innovation in technology, we find ourselves with choices of infrared and even electric grills that can handle outdoor cooking. Yet, for those savvy barbecue lovers, charcoal smokers still remain as the most sought after techniques to achieve juicy smoked meat without losing flavors that is normally associated with hot gas or electric grilling.

The Truth about Charcoal Grills

But have you ever wondered how charcoal smoking might affect your health in the long term? This is perhaps a very basic and logical question to ask for most shoppers when first deciding on the type of BBQ grill to buy, yet only a few are aware of it.

Many studies on carbon monoxide – the poisonous chemical released in the smoke when burning charcoal fuel, like wood, coals or briquettes, has mentioned many bad health effects of using charcoal for cooking food.

A publication on CNN stated a case where CDC estimated the number of non-fire-related carbon monoxide poisonings had caused in between 15,000 to 40,000 emergency hospital visits each year across the United States.

However, some barbecue addicts say that charcoal smoking is only truly bad for you health if it is overused or when meat is overcooked and get burned partly. Nonetheless, they all have to agree to some extend that some parts of the meat does actually get poisoned because of the smoke which is used to cook the meat itself.

Another article about charcoal barbeque grills danger, also said that the long term risk is cancer. It was backed by an example of studies conducted by scientists from Rice University in 2003, which had proven that the percentage of people who died because of cancer was particular high in Houston – where the most popular family activity during summer seasons where charcoal smoking.

What to Do if You Get Ill?

If you already own one of the charcoal smoker grills, and wonder whether you should just abandon it for the sake of health, and opt in for electric or gas grilling instead, here are some signs of carbon sickness: its starts with light headache, if untreated, the pain will build up and cause nausea. After repeated exposure to toxic smoke, the sick person might even feel some confusion, dizziness and loss of good concentration. If you have ever felt sick that way while preparing those deliciously flavorful smoked dishes, it is highly recommended that you seek out medical help from doctors right away, and possibly stop charcoal grilling or smoking during treatment period.

So the choice is really up to you, whether charcoal grilling is an ‘yes’ or ‘no’. While everyone has to agree that grilling with charcoal can prove to be the most rewarding cooking and eating experience, its long term side effects on your health can not be neglected and ignored for granted, especially if you smoke barbecue meat and vegetables on regular basis.

Barbecue Grill 3

Enjoy year round barbeque cooking with the Sanyo indoor barbeque grill. An extra large 200 square inch non-stick grill surface has ample space for families or parties and is easy to clean. The powerful 1300 Watt heating element is built into the bottom of the grill surface to evenly distribute the heat for maximum cooking results. Heat can be controlled with the adjustable temperature control with indicator light. Filling the drip pan with water provides virtually smoke-free cooking and catches excess fat for healthy cooking. Cool-touch handles and base insure safety near the cooking surface. Dishwasher safe drip pan. Bilingual instruction manual and recipe guide included.

Barbecue Grill 3 Pic

Barbecue Grill 3 Photo

Barbecue Grill 3 Image

Barbecue Grill 3 Picture

Most helpful customer reviews

377 of 381 people found the following review helpful.
Great grill, great price
By Betty Jack
This is one appliance that lives up to every one of the manufacturer’s claims. I follow directions and spray the grill surface with cooking spray and put half a cup of water in the pan below, and the grill really is, as advertised, smokeless and extremely easy to clean. I like the adjustable grill temperature, a feature I’m not used to since my faithful antique Farberware, now deceased, had only two settings, namely “plugged in and on” or “unplugged and off”. The Sanyo cooks everying in half the time the old grill did, and without cabinet-endangering flareups. I particularly like the enormous cooking surface since I’m regularly cooking for 5 adults and a child and with this grill I can cook for all of us at once. The dimensions make it easy to store if you set it vertically rather than horizontally. The appliance is so low in height that I set mine on a silicone countertop protector, but I’m not sure this is really necessary. My only complaint is that there is no surrounding rim to keep your hamburgers from sliding right off the grill when you try to flip them over, but using a second spatula as a backstop solves that problem. This grill is a terrific bargain even at the suggested retail price; at the current Amazon price it’s even more terrific.

143 of 148 people found the following review helpful.
try this
By tvguyer
I read the review about how long it takes to preheat this grill, well being a full time chef (aa culinary arts) and over 20 years in the industry, I have used many different types of grills, and in most cases when I needed it to heat up quickly we would just place a sheet pan over it and it decreased the startup time significantly. Well I found a aluminum baking pan which fit this grill perfectly, the metal does not come in contact with the plastic base, and it took only 4 minutes to reach the high setting. I used a litte non stick spray and placed 2, 1 inch thick lamb chops on it and it seared them perfectly and quickly, placed the cover (pan) back over them, waited about 3 minutes, turned them over, and grilled another 2 minutes and they were well done. Totoal time grill was on 10 minutes. Now lamb is about the greasiest meat and I did get a little smoke, but that was only when the searing was taking place, and with the cover very little splatter also. I think if they could the would make a cover for this unit, but it would probably not pass U.L. standards? Not sure but if you are using this grill as with other appliances you must keep a close eye on them. I got this item next day with amazon prime total was only 34 bucks. Great deal and product.

208 of 219 people found the following review helpful.
Cooks good food, but not smokeless
By Gadgester
All considered, I decided to give this Sanyo indoor grill a 5-star rating. It’s probably more like 4.5 stars, but Amazon doesn’t allow that. I’ll explain.

On the plus side, I really like the simplicity of this grill. It’s also light-weight, registering a little under seven pounds, which means it’s easy to move around – no breaking your back! It’s also quite easy to clean: just soapy warm water and dry! The grill consists of three pieces: a metal grill, a sheet metal oil drip pan, and a plastic base. The base does feel a little insubstantial, but the whole thing, put together, is quite sturdy. The 200 in^2 cooking surface is good for a family of up to four.

I also loved the price: I never imagined I could have a quality indoor grill for such a low price. (Thanks to Amazon, too?) This is probably what tilted me to the five-star rating. The grill, made in China, is of pretty good build quality, and looks like it’ll last a long time. The price and value just can’t be beat.

Above all, the grill really gives you delicious BBQ food! I’ve grilled steaks, pork chops, burgers, franks, chicken breasts, chicken legs, chicken wings, vegetables, and more, and *each and every time* the food came out absolutely delicious. For example, I bought 2 pounds of semi-boneless rib steaks at Shaw’s for ten bucks. I sprayed the grill with some oil spray, pre-heat the grill to 350 F degrees (which took about 20 minutes), and then grilled the steaks (together with a couple burger patties and some green peppers) for about 15 or 16 minutes to well-done. Then my family enjoyed a delicious steak meal. Not counting the cost of the grill itself, but including electricity (the grill is rated at 1300W), the whole meal came to less than $15 for four full-sized adults! Imagine if we had eaten out at a steakhouse; the last time I went to a steakhouse in Manhattan, I had to shell out over $80 per person, with no appetitizer ordered and only tap water! In fact, I found my own grilled steaks (served with Diet Coke bought on sale) even better. Even if the Sanyo had gone meet its makers after this one meal, I’d have more than broken even on the meal, compared to any restaurant that serves steaks.

So I’m really thrilled about the value and the quality of the food.

Now, why not a full-hearted five stars? Well, because this is a low-cost product, there are a couple items that I dislike. One, the thermostat is a joke; it has temperature ranges like “200-250″ and “300-425″ but doesn’t give you exact markers, so you have to guess where to turn the knob to in order to preheat to 325. Not a big deal after a few tries, and I seem to get it right (more or less) each time even though I’d never operated a grill, indoor or outdoor, before. Two, cooking time is not short, period. Preheating to 300 takes about 15 minutes and to 425 takes over 20 minutes. Cooking itself takes between 10 and 20 minutes depending on what you cook and the meat’s thickness. Also, the cooking time seems to vary with room temperature.

Three, more important, this grill is not completely smokeless. The oil spray will give out the most smoke, although it hasn’t set off our smoke alarm yet. (I keep the doors and kitchen windows open when cooking.) In fact, I don’t think any open grill can give you smokeless cooking. As long as you have oil heated to over 300 degrees, you will get smoke. Please keep this in mind if you live in a meticulously maintained house and cannot stand any grill smoke.

But all in all, I love this grill. I’d gladly buy another one any time. While grilled meat may not be healthy, this grill cooks yummy BBQ meat and veggies and saves me tons of money. I recommend this grill.

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