Gas grills - Safety counts
CR - Most of the grills we tested for this gas grills
review turned out juicy steaks and moist, tender chicken and
fish. But not all the news is good. One grill was dangerous and
we judged it Not Acceptable.
The $650 Broil King Signet 90 is the first gas grill to receive
that judgment since 1986. The firebox melted on two of the three
grills we tested. The third grill's firebox had started to crack
and become deformed when the test ended. For more details, see
Broil King Signet 90 Not Acceptable.
The Broil King underscores the importance of considering safety
when shopping for and using a grill. Plenty of grills in our
Ratings (available to subscribers) combine safety with top-notch
cooking and stylish looks.
Stainless steel continues to be popular, but its rising cost is
forcing manufacturers to look for alternatives. Porcelain-coated
steel is durable and won't rust, as long as it doesn't chip.
Porcelain is easier to maintain and available in a variety of
colors to jazz up your patio or yard.
For this gas grills review, our experts spent months searing
steaks, grilling chicken, and cooking salmon on 37 grills. We
found that a premium price doesn't guarantee a better grill. A
$200 midsized model outperformed grills costing hundreds more.
And an $800 grill topped our Ratings (available to subscribers)
of large grills, ahead of models costing $1,750 and $3,200.
Here's what else we found:
A truce in the Btu war. Manufacturers once touted the grills'
British thermal units per hour (Btu/hr.) output, but our tests
repeatedly found that more Btu don't guarantee faster heating or
better cooking. Many grill makers have turned to infrared
technology to create buzz. But infrared is just another way of
saying indirect heat, and when it comes to grills, there are
several ways to generate it. We tested grills that have a
ceramic burner or a combination of plates and grates. A third
type, radiant cavities, are U-shape troughs that heat the
grates. None of these infrared technologies was better than the
other in our gas grills review, nor did infrared outperform
regular grilling.
Other cookers were so-so. In addition to grills, we tested the
$139 Orion Cooker and the $129 Char-Broil Big Easy Oil-less
Turkey Fryer. Both can be used to cook whole chickens, turkeys,
or roasts, freeing space on the grill for steaks, burgers, and
other smaller items. The charcoal-fueled Orion uses convection,
steam, and smoke, if desired. We compared a whole chicken, a
turkey, a pork roast, and prime rib cooked in the Orion with
ones cooked on a gas grill, using a rotisserie. The Orion was in
our gas grills review almost always faster than the grill, and
meats were juicy and tender but not as crisp or juicy as ones
cooked on a grill. And cleanup was messier and took longer.
Propane fuels Char-Broil's Big Easy Oil-less Turkey Fryer, which
uses infrared heat to cook. We cooked a turkey in the Big Easy
and in an electric turkey fryer. The electric fryer was faster
and the turkey was moister than the one done in the Big Easy gas
grills review. Pork roasts, chickens, and prime rib cooked in
the Big Easy were nicely browned but drier than those cooked on
a gas grill.
Source:
ConsumerReports.org.
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