I've read that 430 will corrode over time, whereas 304 basically won't. If I'm spending this much, I basically want a guarantee that I won't have to buy another grill for at least 10-15 years -- that's why the ones with the higher grade steel and 25 year warranty were appealing.

I agree that for true barbecue you need to use a smoker, and I'm not deluding myself into thinking the smoker boxes that you can use with some gas grills are going to do the job. However, my typical use case for my grill is throwing some steaks, burgers, hot dogs, and veggies on and wanting results in 10-15 minutes instead of 12 hours.

My current grill handles this job fine, but it's old and rusty and falling apart. I have to keep it outside year round since we don't have any extra room in the garage, though I do keep it covered. My hope is that I can spend a bit more now and not have to send one off to the landfill in 3-5 years.

I'm pretty sure everyone here is talking about gas-fired grills and not charcoal, but it's worth pointing out that no steel will stand up to ash and moisture, as that generates potassium hydroxide, which is very caustic.

This actually explains quite a lot... I'd never read that before, even with all the grill research I've done over the years. Good to know. Another reason for regular cleaning/maintenance.

I switched from gas back to charcoal and have been delighted with the "Big Green Egg" ceramic grill. I also switched to "lump" charcoal rather than briquettes and that has made a huge difference.

It's slightly less convenient than gas, but the food tastes better, it can be used at high temperature or as a low-temperature smoker, and they have extraordinary temperature control.

Jim

Big Green Egg is on my wish list for those two reasons. High heat and low heat smoking with amazing insulation for temperature control. Great build quality from the units I've inspected in show rooms.

I built my own smoker. I use a PID controller that I put together for cooking en sous-vide to control the temperature.

Here's a gallery of the build

I've made some amazing pulled pork on it. It was a lot cheaper than purchasing a BGE. It probably doesn't work quite as well, but I'm okay with that.

What I'd really like to do is make a sous-vide controller!!! How did yours turn out? Would you share the details?

Also... are you aware of the ridiculously expensive cookbook called "Modernist Cuisine - The Art and Science of Cooking"? In this book, the authors dispel the "plateau" myths about pork shoulder BBQ. As anyone who understands some thermodynamics probably suspected, the majority of the "plateau" is due to dehydration, not collagen formation. The authors recommend a combination of smoking with sous-vide for the best possible pork shoulder. First sous-vide at 160F until the meat is in equilibrium (probably two days for a large shoulder). Then, smoke for approximately 2-3 hours. Apparently, additional smoking did not have an affect.

Pretty cool idea that I'd like to try!

I've never seen anyone using a sous-vide on BBQ Pit Masters...

I'm waiting for it to become available at my local library.

Are you aware that the author is Nathan Myhrvold, of Microsoft (and, later, patent troll) fame?

Reason enough to avoid the book at any price.

What a lovely, knee-jerk response. The guy may be a douche when it comes to patent trollery, and I do hate Microsoft, but he's an accomplished chef, and he put together a world-class team of people to assist with the book. I'd love to have the set just for the photography it contains.

Sorry, we all have to draw the line somewhere.

In regards to patents and douchery, "Don't hate the player, hate the game" is a poor excuse - everyone has a choice whether or not to play.

So, it's four years later than I was hoping, but I finally ordered an infrared grill that fits what I was looking for at a decent price point.

I went with the Saber SS-500. Saber is apparently a company that was spun-off from Char-Broil a couple years ago to sell their higher-end infrared grills, and I'm pretty impressed with the specs and reviews I've read so far.

The main selling points for me compared to other ones I looked at in previous years are the use of 304 stainless steel for almost the entire grill (including the cart) and the availability of a cheap and easy-to-install natural gas conversion kit. The one negative from one of the reviews is that the cart surfaces are a bit thin, but it's more important to me that they're rust-resistant than heavy-duty anyway.

I was a bit wary of going with a company that's only been around a couple of years, but the warranty seems pretty solid (limited lifetime on the steel, 10 years on most of the rest of it) and based on the comments here, it seems like some of the higher-end grills are just

Anyway, I'm pretty sure it's the best I'm going to find for $1400, so I gave it a shot. I'll try to post an update here with my impressions once I give it a test drive.

Very nice looking grill! I'm pretty jealous. The best we're able to do is try cleaning up the grill the previous homeowner left for some reason I'm going to toss the grill plates and flavorizer bars, scrub down every surface, and replace those parts. Hopefully it'll turn out ok.

Yeah, I squeezed an extra few years out of the life of our grill by giving it a good, thorough cleaning and adjusting my expectations for preheating and cooking times. It's now at the point where I'd have to start replacing parts, so I'm glad I found something that seems like it'll last without breaking the bank. (Not that $1400 for a gas grill is anything to sneeze at, but the market a few years ago looked like I was going to have to shell out twice that to get an infrared grill with all-stainless construction.)

May I benefit from your research and ask you what the deal is with this infrared cooking?

Sure. The main advantage I'm looking forward to is less drying out of meats and vegetables. Standard gas grills cook with hot air convection, which can take moisture away from your food. Using infrared radiation to directly cook the food means less dry air taking away the food's moisture, and because the flame is protected by the emitter plate (made of stainless steel on the Saber grills, though some units use ceramic tile) there are supposedly no flare-ups.

They're also supposed to preheat much faster, get to higher temperatures, and be more fuel efficient -- though I'm sure Saber's claim of 30% more efficient is overstated marketingspeak.

Ah, that makes some sense. I personally dislike when the flames get to the food, so that's appealing.

I do have an infrared cooking device. I have that CharBroil oil-less turkey fryer, and it seems to follow the same principals. A ring of flame basically heats up an inner metal tube where you place the basket holding your turkey. I was very surprised how well it worked, and it made a juicy bird with crispy skin. I might have to look at some infrared grills when/if this second-hand one craps out. Thanks for sharing the info!


On a completely different note: I went to a burger place recently that did everything wrong. It had an open kitchen so I could see the guy at the burger station. He was working on about 5 burgers, and I swear that each one got flipped at least 20 times, and he used his spatula to squeeze every last drop of juice out of the patties. He seemed to purposefully get the flames as high as possible, completely enveloping the burgers for extended periods of time.

I turned and walked out before ordering anything.

Suggestions? Try grilling some forum spam on it... this post isn't so palatable.