Whether you’re a grill master looking to make an upgrade or you’re a beginner, 10 News is working for you to help you narrow down the choices.
The basic options are gas and charcoal grills.
Paul Hope, home and appliances reporter for Consumer Reports, said gas grills are the most popular, they’re easy to use because it’s similar to a gas stove, it’s the most available and most recipes are written for them.
On the other hand, a charcoal grill gives you more control; if you want something hotter you just add more coals it’s just more labor if you compare it to a gas grill.
Hope suggests you know what you’ll use your grill for. If you plan on entertaining a lot of people with hot dogs and burgers he recommends a gas grill.
For a slow smoked brisket or coal-fired, you might want to look at a Kamado grill, it’s a type of charcoal grill. Kamado grills can have a steady, low temperature for a long time and can go to about 1,000°F for searing.
“A gas grill will give you nice grill marks, chars and sear, where a charcoal grill gives you a level of flavor beyond that as does a Kamado grill and then pellet grills are really cooking with these compressed pellets with wood saw dust,” said Hope.
He said a pellet grill is for someone who is familiar with a gas grill but a Kamado grill might be too intimidating.
Finding the grill you want at a decent price shouldn’t be difficult either now that the grilling season isn’t restricted to summer anymore. Hope said many big named stores have grills in stock all-year-long.
“In the past you were able to get a better deal by waiting until the cool weather months sometimes you still can but we are actually happy to say you can find grill deals through the year. Often we’ll see retailers discount grills for Memorial Day or even Fourth of July,” said Hope.
Here are Consumer Reports recommendations for the four types of grills:
- Gas grill: Weber Genesis II E-310 which costs about $780
- Charcoal grill: Dyna-Glo X-Large Heavy Duty Charcoal Grill which costs around $220
- Kamado grill: Vision Kamado Professional which costs about $990
- Pellet grill: Traeger Ironwood 650 which costs about $1,200