Infrared Grill Information

Infrared Grill Advantages

There are three key reasons why infrared gas grills are superior to other forms of grilling:

Tastes Better

Simply put, cooking on an infrared grill can make your food taste better.  It starts with the high temperatures that infrared gas grills can achieve.  High heat allows for a better sear, locking in juices and flavors.  Infrared burners also are easily adjusted and have a very uniform temperature distributution, ensuring that your meat is cooked uniformly and to your liking.  Finally, the design of most infrared grills allows for drippings to be instantly vaporized before a flare-up occurs, creating a smokey flavor.

Less Time

Let's face it... prep time is no fun.  Using an infrared grill can dramatically reduce the time it takes to get your meal ready, so you spend more time eating and less time cooking.  It starts with a rapid warm up.  The high output of an infrared grill quickly preheats your cooking surface.  The hightened heat levels also allow cooking times to be much shorter.  Finally, cleanup on most infrared grills is a breeze... simply set them to "clean", and in a few minutes any extra drippings will be reduced to ash!

Saves Money?!

Believe it or not, using an infrared grill can actually be cheaper than a conventional charcoal or gas grill. The biggest savings is in reducing the amount of fuel required.  Since the grills pre-heat and cook much faster, the grill is using fuel for a much shorter amount of time.  Easy cleanup and effecient burner design means that your grill might last longer as well.  So while you may end up paying a bit more upfront for a new infrared grill, it could end up saving you money in the long run.  How's that for an excuse to get a new grill!

Infrared Grill Technology

The origional infrared gas burners were actually invented to help dry paint!  Someone realized that the benefits of infrared could be applied to gas grills, and the infrared gas grill was born.

Initially, infrared grills were very expensive ($5,000+), but like any new technology, prices decresed over time.  In the year 2000, key patents related to infrared grill technology expired, and the market began to blossom.  You can now buy a very nice infrared grill for about $400 from manufacturers such as Solaire and Char-Broil.

The core piece of technology in an infrared grill is a special infrared gas burner, that converts propane or natural gas into infrared radiation.  The heat these burners generate is several hundred degrees hotter than your typical gas grill, provinding many of the benefits mentioned above.

The only real downside to infrared grills is that some models are not capable of burning as cool as traditional gas grills... a problem if you want to BBQ "low and slow".  For this reason, some manufacturers provide both traditional and infrared grill burners.  This combinations gives you the best of both worlds!

What infrared gas burner is best?

There are a wide variety of different infrared gas burners on the market today. The most common type is the ceramic block. This looks like a rectangular, white ceramic block with a number of small holes. The biggest advantage of this design is that they are inexpensive. The disadvantage is that they are prone to breakage (shattering) and are very difficult to clean. You will usually find this infrared grill burner for rotisserie burners or in grills with a combination of traditional gas and infrared gas burners.

Char Broil has two different burner deisgns, both utilizing metallic burner tubes with differ emitter covers. These infrared gas burners are much more durable, and somewhat cleanable. They are an excellent balance between price and quality in an infrared gas burner.

TEC grills have a unique glass-covered infrared gas burner. This design makes the burners extremely easy to clean. While generally reliable, they are a bit more fragile than the Char Broil design. TEC grills are high end designs that come with a premium price.

Exploring the Site

To learn more about infrared grills, including infrared grill reviews on top models, review the links to the right.