best thing I ever done is go to a pellet grill
Had (still have but never use) a cheap gas grill. Also have (and occasionally use) a Weber kettle, and it's nice for certain foods. I like to grill fish, and charcoal just does it better, but the problem is you cannot control the heat very well.
On both the charcoal grill AND the pellet grill, I invested in GrillGrates. Game changer!
I grill about 3 to 4 days a week year round, unless it's hailing or tornado-ing. That's about the only time I do not use the grill(s).
pellet grill has been awesome. Bag of pellets lasts me weeks, up to a month. I am not grilling for 10 people, just me and the cat eats some of the scraps if there's anything left over-very rare. GF eats with me when she's here (travels a lot). 3 or 4 days a week. This summer, every day of the week with the rare exception that I just didn't feel like it, usually on a Sunday (day of rest).
The pellets make the food taste completely different than gas or even charcoal. I have not done a lot of fish with the pellet grill. Have done scallops, and that was very good. Shrimp too. Did some crappie a while back but used the "blend" pellets and it wasn't great, it was very good but just not great. I use the charcoal grill for crappie (on the halfshell) as well as walleye when I can find it, snapper, catfish, and mackerel-when I can find that. 99% of the time crappie because I have a freezer full of them. Steaks? Here's you a cheap recipe. Grab any cheap steak. Pull it outta the fridge, put you some steak rub on it whatever your favorite flavor (I like RecTec's heffer dust). Preheat the pellet grill to 225. Throw your steaks on the grill until the internal temp is about 120. Pull them off the grill at 120-ish, put them in the house. Now, turn the grill up to the highest heat you can get, on mine about 600. While it's preheating, douse the steaks with a little bit of olive oil and in my case heffer dust (just a little rub/seasoning). When the grill's hot, throw your steaks on the GrillGrate a couple minutes, flip, pull 'em off when they are about 145 or so depending on how well done you like them. 145 is about my preference. Let them sit a minute on the plate before cutting into them. I use the blended pellets from the local store but hickory is very good too. Fruitwood pellets give it a hint of a sweeter test if you like that, I presonally do not (on steaks). If you do it right, you will not touch any steak seasoning...no A-1, Heinz 57, nothing...you don't need it, the steaks are delicious.
Similarly baked potatoes. Easiest thing you can grill. Poke a bunch of holes in the taters, coat 'em in salt & pepper (and I like to use a little garlic salt too), then coat with olive oil. Throw them on the grill using blended pellets, about 2 hours at 225 degrees. There is no better way to eat baked potatoes that I know of. Super easy, cheap, and absolutely delicious. I have done them at work for the guys in the shop and they all rave about grilled baked potatoes. Now that y'all know how to do it, get busy. I tried it on the gas grill. Nope. Real bland, kinda taste the fuel, etc. Not a fan.
I have/bought a rec tec grill, and one of the many features it has is wifi connectivity and an app. You use your phone to turn the grill on. Sometimes I'll start it before I pull up the driveway (I keep it ready) and while it's preheating I'm prepping the food. Shrimp fish steaks burgers whatever. Secondly it holds temperature within 5 degrees which neither of our other pellet grills will do (one is a traeger and the other is a member's mark). They both will stay within 20 degrees and that's about all they'll do. With it holding temp like that, you can really pay more attention to what's actually going on. Meat thermometers are a nice thing to have too, makes it a lot easier to get the steaks (or whatever) at the right amount of "doneness" as my girlfriend says.
Honestly I think I like the pellet grill so much I may buy another one for my dad & mom. They like to grill but they hate running out of gas, they hate the taste of the fuel, don't have time for charcoal (plus you go through quite a bit of it), and the one time they came over to the house for some grilled steaks, they absolutely loved the taste...and dad is VERY picky about his steaks (used to work at a very high end steakhouse). Just need the funds to buy 'em one. They are expensive, but well worth it the cost in my opinion.
Grill Grates also go on the charcoal grill, makes a huge difference. I use them both ways, smooth side up and ribbed side up. Ribs up for steaks, pork, dogs, etc. Smooth side up for shrimps, crawfish, scallops, that kinda thing. Have even used the pellet grill, with grill grates smooth side up, to cook a pizza...again...game changer! Taters just go on the regular grates, no advantage to the other grate for those. With steaks and pork chops in particular, ribbed side up, you get absolutely perfect grill marks every time. Plus it just cooks a little better.
