BBQ Grills & Smokers

Sunbeam GrillMaster

The year was 1997, and I had just moved to Seattle, Washington from San Francisco, California for work.

The very first grill that I ever had was a Sunbeam GrillMaster that ran on propane.  The grill was actually given to me by the brother-in-law of an old girlfriend of mine.  The reason he gave it to me was that he and his family were moving back to Germany, and they couldn't take it with them, so he passed it on to me.

At the time, I was just getting into cooking, so it was exciting to have an option to the conventional electric stove / oven to cook food with.

I brought the grill back to my studio apartment that overlooked Puget Sound and dug into what was to become my new hobby.  Over the next five years, I would move the grill as I relocated around the city.  After my studio apartment lease expired, I moved into a house rental on Lake Union for a year.  After the house rental lease expired, I moved to a condo complex on the north end of Lake Sammammish near Marymoor Park and lived there for the next three years.

The grill had a dual-venturi bar burner with 2 control knobs (left & right) with a 11"x22" rock grate that sat just above the burner assembly.  The rock grate held a number of ceramic briquettes that provided even heat distribution and prevented flare ups.  

During my ownership of the grill, I replaced the burner assembly once went through a couple of bags of the ceramic briquettes.  On one occasion, I opted for lava rocks, but quickly went back to the briquettes as I felt that they performed better.

I used the grill on a regular basis to cook for myself and my friends.  I spent a great deal of time researching and learning new recipes while watching Food Network TV and reading cookbooks on grilling and BBQ.

Sadly, I had to pass the grill on to my upstairs neighbor when I left Seattle in 2003, but for the period of time that I owned it, I used it routinely to grill salmon, shrimp, steaks, and chicken.  

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures, but two of the more memorable Sunbeam cooks that stand out in my mind:

1. Bear Meat:  A friend of mine had come across some ground bear meat and gave me some, so I could try out bear burgers.
2. Venison / Deer Meat:  A neighbor at the condo complex brought over some deer steaks one evening that were very tasty.

As I was writing this, I was sad to find out that Sunbeam stopped making GrillMaster grills in March of 2003.

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