Cheap versus Expensive Grills

What's wrong with my $149 special, and Why Do "Premium Grills" COST So Much?

What We Cover Here:

Grill Materials, Construction & Durability: What more money is going to get you in a grill.
Types of Grilling & Grill Performance: How often do you cook, and what do you cook?

Grill Materials, Construction & Durability

There really ARE differences, and here's what they are.

Metal purity and gauge: inexpensive grills typically have a thin gauge ("thickness") of aluminum, galvanized steel or stainless steel for their head, body, burners, and grids.

On the other hand, the more expensive the grill, say... moving from an inexpensive Vermont Castings (inexpensive but not cheap) grill to a Ducane or Coleman (inexpensive to medium) to a Broilmaster or EasyChef (medium) to a TEC or DCS (lower-end expensive) to a Fire Magic or Lynx (high-end expensive) usually means a thicker gauge and a purer or harder and more durable quality of steel, iron or brass, that have less impurities.

How does gauge, purity and construction affect your grilling?

Inexpensive grills tend not to get as hot, and do not stay as hot, since their thinner, less pure, or cheaper metal panels and/or castings do not retain heat well to start with, and lose it more rapidly than a heavier-gauged construction.

Also, when your grill is made of components that generate more heat and contain it better, your grill will have more even heating. This avoids cold spots or the unpleasant need to cook in a certain way on part of the grill and another way on another part, to suit the heat distribution.
Burners made of high quality, high purity cast brass or high quality stainless steel have greatly superior durability, resist corrosion, and provide a smoother, hotter, fuller and more consistent flame bed for your grill. Cheap grills' burners being thinner (tube-style) or made of cheaper metals like cast iron (both tube and cast styles) tend to be less efficient, can corrode more easily and rapidly, or fail over time from the grilling process (heating & cooling).
Even with "stainless steel" grills, the inexpensive no-name grills you find at your local Home Depot, Lowes, Sam's Club, Costco, etc. are made from less pure, thinner Asian stainless steel that does not heat or retain heat as well, and can often gain an unsightly discoloration over time. The construction is also not as polished, and you may have problems with weakening joins or screws, misaligned panels, and warping or heat fatigue over time.

It seems simple to say that a cheap grill isn't going to be as well constructed as a more expensive, or just plain expensive, grill. However, if you spend $149-249 every 3 years for a new grill, versus spending $500-1000 or more for a more expensive and more durably-constructed grill that will last at least 10 years (some Broilmaster and TEC grills have been grilling for 15 years or more), it will pay for itself not only in construction and durability, but in the ability to get hot and stay hot, allowing you to cook better, faster.

Types of Grilling & Grill Performance:

How often do you cook, and what do you cook?

As we mentioned above, an inexpensive grill does not get as hot nor stay as hot.

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