Consumer Reports Intermittent Test Failures

  Posted on September 2, 2009

I am a fan of Consumer Reports.  Not because I take their word on every purchase, but because they are a great starting point for research before buying a big ticket item.  I guess this is the nerd in me, but I pay more attention to the details in their tests than I do the actual recommendations.  This article discusses their challenge in repeating failures on some of their tests as well as the lengths they go to in trying to reproduce the failures.

The most interesting example for us grillers in the test they performed last year on the Broil King Signet 90.  They were doing a flare up test that they perform on all of the grills they test (those poor, beautiful ribeyes!).  Most high end grills will flare up, but then the flame goes away.  The Broil King actually kept burning long enough to MELT THE FIREBOX.  Subsequent tests on other Signet 90’s produced intermitten results, but they were able to get some fireboxes to crack and others to deform. As an0ther example of how thorough their testing is, the actually tested the replacement kit Broil King sent as part of the recall and found that they could STILL deform the firebox with the new kit in place.

I don’t know about you, but this is a good example of a grill I would stay away from, based on Consumer Report’s testing.  Yeah, there’s a lemon in every bunch, but intermitten molten metal is enough to ruin an otherwise fine day of grilling!  As an aside, how cool would it be to be a tester at Consumer Reports??