Maintenance is easy. In fact, if the grill is emptied thoroughly, the ash catcher can be used to hold the rinse water if you are unable to clean it outside (you do have to empty it often). I have, in fact, cleaned this grill in my kitchen, with out much of a mess. It really hasn't been any more difficult then cleaning a regular oven.

Cooking is very even, the swing-outs on the grid make adding charcoal easy during indirect cooking. I purchased a set of rails to hold the charcoal to each side. I insert my drip pan in the middle, and then put more charcoal as needed in the grill without disturbing the food by opening up the swing-outs in the grate to add charcoal. This is a very handy feature. For direct cooking, you just place the charcoal over the bottom grid as per instructions.

The manual contains several useful recipies to get you familiar with this cooking device. I highly recommend reading it, and following its instructions. The Weber One-Touch Gold 18-1/2" is a worthwhile purchase if you are cooking for one or two people, and will more then pay for its self as compared to eating brats at the hot dog stand. Buy this grill, and you'll eat T-bones and baked potatoes for FAR less then at a steak house, for a very long time!

The shape of the kettle and lid distributes heat evenly across the cooking surface. The heat can be easily controlled using the vents to allow more or less airflow. Easy to assemble. Cleanup is quick. The simplicity of the design means there is little that can break or go wrong with it.

Obviously the engineers at Weber put a lot of thought into how people will use the product and came up with a truly elegant design. Brilliant!