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Vermont Castings, what are they doing to your good name?

There was a time when the name Vermont Castings was synonymous with, Made in America, and good quality, and while I believe that may still be true to a degree with their wood and gas stoves, this model is a lemon.

The CFM corporate suits who control Vermont Castings must have decided to exploit the Vermont Castings good name, held a gun to their head and said “it will be called the VC Signature Series, even though you only make a few parts for it. They then started flogging them to the Home Depot’s and other mass merchandiser’s of the world. Incidentally, there is no difference (really) between the ones on Home Depot’s floor and the ones on CFM/Vermont Castings website. I was just looking at one this past week at my local Home Depot and it had very minor differences. A friend of mine has the little three burner model sold by Home Depot for around $350.00 and it seems to be a pretty good deal, for the price. It isn’t stainless and has none of the lights, but it cooks well.

The truth is, Vermont Castings name is prominently displayed on the hood but the only parts Vermont make are the Cast Iron end caps for the hood and the grates. The rest is being assembled in Canada, at a factory scheduled to be closed in 2007 and production of these grills will be relocated to either Mexico, China or Indianna. I wonder whether they will choose the 50 cent labor in China, the $2.50 labor in Mexico or the $20.00 labor in Indianna?

If you want the biggest, prettiest barbecue on the block this may be the one for you. A new Vermont Castings “Signature Series” VCS5007 is without a doubt, pretty to look at, with that sparkling brushed stainless steel cabinetry and enameled, cast iron end caps, adding a high class look and plenty of weight to the hood. It’s a big one too, at 69″ long, four feet tall and two feet deep, with 600 square inches of grill space. There endeth the benefits. This is the grill for guys who want to impress their friends and neighbors. It screams,… ” I am so successful I can throw my money away on only the best looking and the biggest.” Personally, I like to balance all of that with functionality and durability.

One of their advertisements asks the question, “ARE YOU IN LOVE WITH THE GRILL NEXT DOOR? It’s a cute kind of take off on the age old myth about men loving the girl next door. The answer is the same to both questions, if you are looking over the fence, from a distance, you might be envious, if you are a total weirdo, you might even have loving feelings for a pretty grill, unless you already owned the VCS5007, just made for guys with serious feelings of inadequacy. However, the closer you get to this stainless steel boat, the more you might see it better resembles an anchor. Just as you might see the girl next door’s matted hair and smell her bad breath as you approached her.

Suffice to say, after you’ve used it for an entire season, you’ll want to keep that big black cover on it and you’ll start making excuses for not wanting to have neighbors and friends over for barbecues. You’ll get tired, very quickly of their snickers behind your back as they compare the values they got for hundreds of dollars less.

Even more embarrassing is the fact that although their advertisements say, “The VCS grill line is exclusively available through authorized CFM Specialty Home Products dealers”, an almost identical model can be had at Home Depot for hundreds of dollars less.

Sadder still is the simple fact that the shine off your new acquisition will fade in your proud eyes much faster than you had anticipated. Those fancy little plastic pop up battery operated lights you were so proud to show off will blink out one night, never to light again. The wiring fried and or the cheap controls corroded. One of mine broke at the knob as I was gingerly attempting to assemble it with a natural gas conversion kit. So what,… you already had a patio light and didn’t need those cheap gizmo’s, the batteries were always draining away at the worst time too. That battery operated, plastic and rubber, push button “Never-fail” electronic ignition system isn’t really missed after awhile either, a long lighter works just as well. Plan on keeping one nearby and the instructions that come with the grill go into great detail on how to light it with a long lighter. I wonder why they needed that with a “Never-Fail” ignition system? They actually call the plastic/rubber, battery operated igniter system “The Never-Fail” ignition system. Who are they trying to kid? You of course.

While the cart is entirely constructed out of 304 stainless (a cheaper grade of stainless) some of the fasteners in this little sugar coated lemon drop, are not, so those brown stains running down the side of your dream grill should match the tear tracks on your cheeks as you recall writing that large check for, “the last grill you would ever have to buy.”

A poor seal between the stainles steel hood and the cast iron end caps provides a very decorative series of soot streaks from the edges and across the face of your once shiney stainless hood.

What were you thinking? You have a lifetime warranty! No worries and no problem, the manufacturer sends out a replacement base/burner compartment, to replace your rusted or warped one and a bag of stainless steel nuts and bolts to replace your rusted plain steel nuts and bolts with. Now you simply have to wait until none of your neighbors are watching while you completely strip down this gargantuan grill to the deck and rebuild it, under the cover of darkness. Sorry, labor is not included in the warranty. I hope you’re mechanically minded and good with tools. This authorized V.C. Dealer or Home Depot doesn’t do service, only sales, something they forgot to mention at the time of sale.

Hopefully, if you were buying a propane model you bought additional tanks, at 62,000 Btu’s through the main burners, a 20,000 Btu rotissierre burner, plus a 15,000 Btu side burner, one tank may last for two or three barbecue dinners. Nothing like running out of gas with guests watching on. This baby sucks gas back like there’s no tomorrow. Trying to run both main burners and side burner on full may even exceed your LP tanks flow capacity rate.

If you went for the more expensive natural gas model and hooked it up to your house, I hope you have enough supply pressure. This starship runs off line pressure and needs to see a 1/4 lb., (7″ w.c.) supply pressure, any less and it runs much cooler. “Rare” may end up being the only way your steaks will come off this grill. Don’t worry, rare is good and if it’s fish, remind your guests that sushi is raw too. Even at the full recommended gas supply pressure, this oversized beast has difficulty generating an oven temperature of 400 F on a hot summer day.

The cast iron porcelain coated cooking grates are billed as not allowing meat to stick to them, I must be buying sticky meat. The so-called calibrated temperature gauge filled up with moisture almost the first time I used it.

Take heart, you still have that cute little side burner that you never could figure out what to do with it. At least it still looks good, because you’ve never used it.

The black plastic knobs still look good, as do the plastic chrome bezels they sit into, okay so one will crack over the winter and the chrome paint has a tendancy to flake, but surely Vermont will honor the warranty on that too? Those “Heavy Duty Casters” seem to be holding up, even though they too are made of plastic and one falls off every time I try to move the grill. So many plastic and rubber parts added to such an expensive grill?

If you choose to buy the Vermont Castings VCS5007 check for matching accessories sold by Home Depot for their versions including the cover and you could save a small fortune. Have a look at the Home Depot models and see if you can really tell the difference? Bear in mind, if you buy this product at Home Depot you’re on your own with warranty issues. Home Depot are notorious for referring you back to the manufacturer and in case you didn’t read this whole review, make no mistake, you will have warranty issues.

There are now hundreds of grill manufacturers and models on the market competing for your money, take care to avoid those manufacturers (and there are many of them) who subcontracted the fabrication and assembly to China. While the Vermont Castings Grill is still manufactured in North America, (for now) many components are from China. I say this, not because I’m anti-Chinese, but because the quality issue becomes greater and getting issues resolved becomes more complicated. There are still some great North American manufacturers out there and I hope Vermont Castings does something to regain their position in that area.

Good companies like Vermont Castings built their names slowly and painfully over decades by laboring to pursue quality, supporting their products and their brand recognition grew out of that labor. Success followed naturally. CFM took control of Vermont Castings in the 90’s and ever since they have used and abused that success by stamping the Vermont Castings brand name on inferior products in pursuit of the almighty dollar. It should make someone in upper management ashamed of themselves, but it won’t.

I have one last bit of advice, I seriously doubt that many “normal” people ever truly have a need for a 600 square inch grill. When you’re shopping for a grill, don’t get carried away with the bigger is better notion. Unless you’re regularly inviting over a little league team for hamburgers and hot dogs, get a grill that is solid, backed by a good company and has been in business for awhile.

Price is as relative to quality as your realistic needs are to size.

This only goes to show that even someone from the gas industry can be taken in by a well established brand name, a glossy brochure and impulse purchasing.

Be safe.

The Gasman

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