Barbecue grill manufacturers aren’t going to make a gas grill or charcoal grill that doesn’t have good curb appeal. Why would they when that’s pretty much all they have aside from the cheap price of bbq grill? While the exterior appeal is on track, you should open the lid and take a look at the most important parts, such as the cooking grates, the burners, the device that sits between the burner and the cooking grates, and what material the inside of the barbecue is made of. Most gas grills, even cheap ones, will have a decent set of cooking grates made of stainless steel or cast iron, but try to stay away from porcelain grills because the porcelain coating will eventually wear down and rust.

Cast iron grates require a little more maintenance, like seasoning and keeping them oiled, but they hold heat and brown meat better than any other grate. Stainless steel is the easiest to maintain and will still make good seam marks. The burners are the most important part of a barbecue, so take a magnet to see if the burners are made of steel. If a magnet sticks to the burner, don’t expect it to last more than one season because they will rust quickly from heat, salts, and grease. Some cast iron burners are fine if they are made of quality iron, but the burner ports will still need to be cleaned from time to time because cast iron rusts and the port does not allow gas to pass through, resulting in a lower temperature and hot spots in the grill area. Stainless steel tube style burners are used on most manufactured barbecue grills and if made from high quality 304 stainless steel they will last 5-7 years depending on how often you cook outdoors. Best is a cast stainless steel burner found on Fire Magic Grills and a few other brands.

Cast stainless steel will never rust and heat, salts and grease won’t affect performance. The device between the burner and cooking grates, sometimes called a rock rack, lava coals, flame tamer, flavor rack, heat diffuser, etc., will see the most wear because it gets a lot of heat from the burners below and salts and grease drip from the food above. If this device is made of porcelain-lined steel, don’t expect it to last more than a year at best. Look for a high-quality, thick stainless steel product that has at least a 2-year warranty. Getting back to the curb appeal, if you see an all-stainless steel gas grill, that doesn’t mean the inside of the grill is stainless. Most of the cheap stainless steel models will have a porcelain coated steel liner inside the barbecue and will only last about a year and then they will rust. That will leave you with a nice looking grill on the outside and not so functional on the inside.

Being in the barbecue industry for many years, I have carried a number of brands of barbecue grills, including inexpensive grills with great curb appeal. Now I only have brands that are made in the USA and I will be able to get parts and parts that are under warranty when the time comes. There’s no worse feeling when a customer comes back to buy parts for his cheap grill that he bought just a year ago and I find out that the manufacturer no longer offers those parts. So the question is, is it the cost or the price? If it’s cost, you’ll pay more for the cheap barbecue grill over time because you’ll have to replace parts or the entire unit annually. If it’s the initial price of a high-quality, expensive gas grill that you don’t like, you should keep in mind that it will only have a single price and you won’t have to spend money every year to maintain it. And the most important thing for me is to keep the same grill for years because I already know how to cook.