How to Buy a Gas Grill

Backyard chefs love the even temperatures and fast cooking possible with a propane-fueled barbeque. With grilled steak, barbequed chicken, or even more exotic dishes like grilled garden veggies or the Thanksgiving turkey... every meal can be a celebration! We stock grills of all sizes and capabilities. Buy one today and have a cook-out tonight! If you have a grill that needs some attention, check with us first. We stock all the parts you'll need to give your barbeque a "spring tune-up."

Here is a primer on how to think about purchasing a gas grill.

First, you need to decide how you like to cook on a gas grill. Do you like putting your meat on the grill and walking away until it is done, or do you like cooking things fast and hot? Do you cook directly over the flame, or indirectly?

Once you have figured out what you want out of a grill, you're ready to go shopping. A lot of publications out there say to set your price point and then shop. That is not the way you should do it. First of all, you may not have any idea what grills cost these days. Second, you get what you pay for. As Benjamin Franklin used to say, "The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten." If you follow these guidelines, you will make a more educated decision in buying your next gas grill.

Let me walk you through a typical grill purchase. A person goes into a mass merchant store and looks at a huge grill that has big warming racks, high BTU's, and a list of many other impressive features. The merchant is trying to impress people with this list, and the basics that are required for a great grilling experience are passed over. Sufficiently impressed, our weekend warrior purchases the grill. She gets it in a box, takes it home, and spends most of the day on Saturday cursing and putting it together. Then she fires it up to cook... all of the sudden the grill looks like it is on fire! Startled, she dumps most of her beer on the grill, trying to douse the flames. Frantically trying to save the food, she tries to turn the heat down, only to realize there's really not any heat control. So, all of the food has to go on those large warming racks. A year later, she has to spend $70.00 to $90.00 dollars to replace the parts that went bad on a $200.00 grill. The average mass merchant grill needs new parts every 14 months. So in three years, $400 to $600.00 dollars have been spent on a grill that never satisfied the customer in the first place. She could have spent just a little more in the beginning and been much happier.

To avoid the same old traps, a gas grill buyer needs to look for the following:

1. Make sure the manufacturer has a good warranty. This should keep you from having to spend money on parts that shouldn't have broken in the first place.
2. Make sure that the burner is sized proportionally to the grill. A lot of grill manufacturers place a little burner in a large, impressive-looking casting — that means lots of hot and cold spots.
3. Check out the flame taming devices and make sure they cover the entire burner. The salt and grease from food causes most of the damage to grills. The more exposed the burner is, the faster it wears out. Always make sure the flame tamer is directly over your gas grill burner - not to the side like some grills do. They put lava rocks to the side of the burner, and it defeats the purpose. To get maximum vaporization, you must have a good, even heat.
4. Stay away from lava rocks. They are irregularly shaped, and do not hold heat evenly. That's why most grills with lava rocks are a flare-up nightmare.
5. Consumer Reports. Don't believe everything you read in the Consumer Reports. Although it is great for cars, they only grade mass merchant specialty products. Step up a hundred bucks or so and "buy your last grill first," as John Ducane says (Ducane Gas Grill Company).

If this has not helped, or if you would like to know more, please call us at 607-387-8881 - We'll be happy to help you out! Thanks and have a grilly good day.

Once you've purchased your grill, here are some handy tips to keep it in tip-top shape:

1. Meat grids. Whether they are made from stainless, porcelain coated or cast iron, most will work well as long as you know how to clean them properly. For example, most mass merchant gas grills with porcelein coated meat grids tell you brush your grids off when hot. This is wrong. Porcelain is at its most fragile state when hot. Brushing it at that time will cause it to chip. Once chipped, it will rust extremely fast - and most grills only have a one-year warranty.
2. Temperature. If you like steaks, the grill needs to reach at least 600 degrees. You need to get that steak on and off the grill as soon as possible so it does not dry out.

This tip was adapted from Mike Hackley, CEO, The Grill Store & More. You can find out more about The Grill Store & More from their website.