Doug Dornbos
Found some matches.
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2014
- Location
- Traverse City, MI
Warning: Don't try any of my ideas on your own grill. These ideas are dangerous and most certainly will result in you getting permanently injured or killed. If you do try any of these yourself, you do so at your own risk and it most certainly isn't my fault so don't try to say it is. I'm also not a Holland Grill employee so don't try to make it their fault either. None of this is gospel and shouldn't be taken as such.
Although currently I use a Weber Baby-Q for most of my daily grilling, I have most of my grilling experience (hundreds if not thousands of hours) using a Holland Grill. One of the things I wanted to do with the Holland is vary it's temperature both on a use by use basis and to set it somewhat permanently either hotter or cooler. Although the Holland is designed to achieve 400ºF in normal use, I can tell you from personal experience that in stock condition it will not even come close to 400 on a 12ºF day with a stiff breeze.
First of all, the Holland website has pretty good instructions for adjusting the air shutter on the front of the burner so I won't cover that here.
One thing you'll notice about the Holland is that it is slightly warmer around every edge where the convection currents come up from under the drip pan but the hottest spot is along the back edge and typically in the left rear corner. This is because the air that is leaving out the chimneys is pulling air into the grill as it leaves and the place that most of it comes in is around the burner assembly on the front of the grill. This air has momentum and since it is coming into the front of the grill, it has the tendency to continue the direction it is already going which is towards the back of the grill so more of comes up along the back edge. You can see where Holland tried to counteract this by putting a 90º downward bend on their back edge of their deflection plate so the air would have an obstacle to overcome as it tries to just shoot up the back opening. I'm thinking it's a little hotter in the left rear because the bottom trough of the drip pan slants upwards to the left and that makes the heat want to rise towards the left. Just guessing on that part. Nonetheless, you can use this to your advantage for instance if you want one steak to get more done than others but in the same amount of time you can put it in the back left. When I don't want any difference between front and back, I purposely make my grill off level by placing a 3/4” board under the front wheels so the grill tips back just a little. That seems to make just enough more air flow to the front gap that it evens it out perfect. I'm thinking that most people never notice the front to back heat difference to begin with.
For lower temperature barbecuing, Holland did make a two-position valve for a now discontinued model but I have found it to be unnecessary. I just turn the valve down a little bit to lower the temperature. There is a limit however and the issue seems to be that the burner does not remain stable at an ultra-low flame. So if I turn it down I make sure I look at the flame to verify that it is stable and going to stay lit. This is trickier in a breeze and I have been in situations where I moved my grill, first just to have the back against the breeze, and then when that wasn't calm enough, behind a windbreak, just to keep the burner from being blown out.
Holland claimed at one time that they got more requests to have a lower heat setting than a higher one but where I live (up north) that isn't the case. There are many ways to make the Holland grill hotter, here are the ones I have tried:
1. Using an adjustable regulator. You can find these sometimes on used propane grills but I'm lucky enough to have had my original Holland from back in the day come with one. They usually have a blue cap that unscrews and there is an adjustment under that. I personally wouldn't set one of these without a manometer but that's just me. I'm sure someone on the internet is showing how to make a real cheap manometer out of some plastic tubing and a yardstick but you still need a way to tee into the gas line to get your readings. I keep a regulator that is set a little hotter than stock but I haven't used it in years because there is an easier way. For the people on NG, sometimes they have regulators too but it gets a little dicier doing gas line work on the gas company's line.
2. Using a bigger orifice. Orifices mostly come in wire gauge sizes which means that the bigger the number the smaller the hole. You can find the right size for your grill on Holland's website. I tried putting in bigger than stock orifices and sure enough, my grill got hotter. I have an extra orifice both one and two sizes bigger than stock if I want them but again, I haven't used them in years. My problem with the big orifice is that I'd put them in in the winter but then in the summer my grill would be way too hot. Holland has a real attractive benefit with their no flare-up guarantee but, as you can imagine, that goes right out the window when your grill is modified with a humongous orifice.
3. Plugging up the chimneys. Yup, I've done it but this is a way trickier deal that you would think. If you plug up your chimneys too much, the burner can actually use up all the oxygen in the grill and then put itself out. No more flame but a grill full of unburned but perfectly mixed propane and air. If you lose track of the realities of this, the results can be devastating. Without getting into too many details, I know someone who had their chimneys plugged up with wadded up balls of aluminum foil and when their wife went to look at how the food was coming along and realized the grill was no longer lit, she without hesitation just went and relit it ... right along with 15 minutes worth of unburned propane that had filled the grill. Needless to say, she will remember that day for the rest of her life. What I've done that worked pretty good for me is to get a couple of juice cans with one end cut out and put a couple of can opener little triangle openings in the other end and put these on the chimneys. What makes it a real pain is that they usually fall off when I open the grill. And they also get rusty after it rains. I've also wrapped aluminum foil around the chimney but leave a little opening. I can wrap them so that they stay on when I open the lid but they do look stupid just like rabbit ears do when you wrap them in foil. I have always been going to make a pair of butterfly valves in the chimneys but Mr. Procrastination plus a multitude of projects that I've already started but haven't finished yet have prevented me from doing it.
4. My favorite way to make my Holland run a little hotter is I had a sheet of stainless steel cut so that I can push it into my lid and it naturally snaps in place in there. It goes almost all the way to the top but leaves a little room for air to go around it to get out the chimneys. When I had it cut I forgot I needed a hole in it for the thermometer so I ground a hole in it which is substantially larger than I would have had put in it at the sheet metal shop but that turned out OK because it is quite easy to get in and out like this. It's worth about 75º. I think it achieves this by slowing down the flow of air through the grill and insulating the lid with an extra layer of stainless. I pretty much leave it in my grill lid year around unless it's really hot out and I'm doing something slow. The only issue I've ever had with it is that it limits the size of turkey I can grill.
There was a general lack of this discussion online but a lot a people whining about their Holland not getting hot enough. Hope this provides some insight. I'll try to get some pictures posted of my lid mod for those interested.
Happy grilling.
Doug
Although currently I use a Weber Baby-Q for most of my daily grilling, I have most of my grilling experience (hundreds if not thousands of hours) using a Holland Grill. One of the things I wanted to do with the Holland is vary it's temperature both on a use by use basis and to set it somewhat permanently either hotter or cooler. Although the Holland is designed to achieve 400ºF in normal use, I can tell you from personal experience that in stock condition it will not even come close to 400 on a 12ºF day with a stiff breeze.
First of all, the Holland website has pretty good instructions for adjusting the air shutter on the front of the burner so I won't cover that here.
One thing you'll notice about the Holland is that it is slightly warmer around every edge where the convection currents come up from under the drip pan but the hottest spot is along the back edge and typically in the left rear corner. This is because the air that is leaving out the chimneys is pulling air into the grill as it leaves and the place that most of it comes in is around the burner assembly on the front of the grill. This air has momentum and since it is coming into the front of the grill, it has the tendency to continue the direction it is already going which is towards the back of the grill so more of comes up along the back edge. You can see where Holland tried to counteract this by putting a 90º downward bend on their back edge of their deflection plate so the air would have an obstacle to overcome as it tries to just shoot up the back opening. I'm thinking it's a little hotter in the left rear because the bottom trough of the drip pan slants upwards to the left and that makes the heat want to rise towards the left. Just guessing on that part. Nonetheless, you can use this to your advantage for instance if you want one steak to get more done than others but in the same amount of time you can put it in the back left. When I don't want any difference between front and back, I purposely make my grill off level by placing a 3/4” board under the front wheels so the grill tips back just a little. That seems to make just enough more air flow to the front gap that it evens it out perfect. I'm thinking that most people never notice the front to back heat difference to begin with.
For lower temperature barbecuing, Holland did make a two-position valve for a now discontinued model but I have found it to be unnecessary. I just turn the valve down a little bit to lower the temperature. There is a limit however and the issue seems to be that the burner does not remain stable at an ultra-low flame. So if I turn it down I make sure I look at the flame to verify that it is stable and going to stay lit. This is trickier in a breeze and I have been in situations where I moved my grill, first just to have the back against the breeze, and then when that wasn't calm enough, behind a windbreak, just to keep the burner from being blown out.
Holland claimed at one time that they got more requests to have a lower heat setting than a higher one but where I live (up north) that isn't the case. There are many ways to make the Holland grill hotter, here are the ones I have tried:
1. Using an adjustable regulator. You can find these sometimes on used propane grills but I'm lucky enough to have had my original Holland from back in the day come with one. They usually have a blue cap that unscrews and there is an adjustment under that. I personally wouldn't set one of these without a manometer but that's just me. I'm sure someone on the internet is showing how to make a real cheap manometer out of some plastic tubing and a yardstick but you still need a way to tee into the gas line to get your readings. I keep a regulator that is set a little hotter than stock but I haven't used it in years because there is an easier way. For the people on NG, sometimes they have regulators too but it gets a little dicier doing gas line work on the gas company's line.
2. Using a bigger orifice. Orifices mostly come in wire gauge sizes which means that the bigger the number the smaller the hole. You can find the right size for your grill on Holland's website. I tried putting in bigger than stock orifices and sure enough, my grill got hotter. I have an extra orifice both one and two sizes bigger than stock if I want them but again, I haven't used them in years. My problem with the big orifice is that I'd put them in in the winter but then in the summer my grill would be way too hot. Holland has a real attractive benefit with their no flare-up guarantee but, as you can imagine, that goes right out the window when your grill is modified with a humongous orifice.
3. Plugging up the chimneys. Yup, I've done it but this is a way trickier deal that you would think. If you plug up your chimneys too much, the burner can actually use up all the oxygen in the grill and then put itself out. No more flame but a grill full of unburned but perfectly mixed propane and air. If you lose track of the realities of this, the results can be devastating. Without getting into too many details, I know someone who had their chimneys plugged up with wadded up balls of aluminum foil and when their wife went to look at how the food was coming along and realized the grill was no longer lit, she without hesitation just went and relit it ... right along with 15 minutes worth of unburned propane that had filled the grill. Needless to say, she will remember that day for the rest of her life. What I've done that worked pretty good for me is to get a couple of juice cans with one end cut out and put a couple of can opener little triangle openings in the other end and put these on the chimneys. What makes it a real pain is that they usually fall off when I open the grill. And they also get rusty after it rains. I've also wrapped aluminum foil around the chimney but leave a little opening. I can wrap them so that they stay on when I open the lid but they do look stupid just like rabbit ears do when you wrap them in foil. I have always been going to make a pair of butterfly valves in the chimneys but Mr. Procrastination plus a multitude of projects that I've already started but haven't finished yet have prevented me from doing it.
4. My favorite way to make my Holland run a little hotter is I had a sheet of stainless steel cut so that I can push it into my lid and it naturally snaps in place in there. It goes almost all the way to the top but leaves a little room for air to go around it to get out the chimneys. When I had it cut I forgot I needed a hole in it for the thermometer so I ground a hole in it which is substantially larger than I would have had put in it at the sheet metal shop but that turned out OK because it is quite easy to get in and out like this. It's worth about 75º. I think it achieves this by slowing down the flow of air through the grill and insulating the lid with an extra layer of stainless. I pretty much leave it in my grill lid year around unless it's really hot out and I'm doing something slow. The only issue I've ever had with it is that it limits the size of turkey I can grill.
There was a general lack of this discussion online but a lot a people whining about their Holland not getting hot enough. Hope this provides some insight. I'll try to get some pictures posted of my lid mod for those interested.
Happy grilling.
Doug
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