Outdoor Kitchens Guide

No matter how many accessories you add to your outdoor kitchen, the pride of the area will probably turn out to be the grill. You might have an outdoor bar at or near your kitchen, and everyone will be watching the big game on the television you have mounted nearby. And you may have everything from a kegerator to the highest level of exotic granite available. But, when it all comes down to showing it off, the thing that gets the most attention will more than likely be the built in gas grill.

Long before you got to the point of being able to have an outdoor kitchen to brag about, you had to go through the outdoor kitchen design and planning process. During this process you no doubt agonized over how large of a grill you could fit in your space. And once you had determined the size of the grill you had to decide which options you needed in that grill like rotisserie, lights, smoker, etc. And finally, once you knew the size and functionality of the grill you needed, you had to sort through all the brands of built in grills that are available in order to find the one that would eventually be the centerpiece of your new outdoor kitchen.

Gee, having just reread the first portion of this article I find myself thinking that it sounds like a lot of work. Well, it IS a lot of work! But it is work that is well worth the effort because if you do it right, you end up with something that is the envy of all your friends and neighbors. So when it comes to the grill, just which one is right for you? Well as I said, we have some work to do before we can know that, but there are some pretty simple steps you can go through that will bring you to a logical conclusion.

First, how big of a grill should you put into the outdoor kitchen? This is not just as simple as determining the largest grill that will fit. Quality built in grills are not cheap. You want a grill that will comfortably handle the your needs, but you don’t want to waste space and money on some monstrosity that is severe overkill. Most grill manufacturers offer a few different sizes of grills built in. The standard size is in the 27 inch to 30 inch range.

One thing to keep in mind when talking about grill sizes is the fact that all manufacturers do not measure them equally. Let’s look at a brand like Pro Fire. A 27″ Pro Fire grill is 27″ from the very outside of the frame from one end to the other. The actual cut out required for this grill to slide into the counter top is approx 25″, and the cooking surface is approx 23″ wide. Compare that to a Kitchen Aid 27″ built in grill. The Kitchen Aid grill requires a cut out of approx 27.5″, and measures just under 30″ from one side of the frame to the other. the actual cooking surface is 27″ wide. the Kitchen Aid grill is a true 27″ grill if you are thinking of size in terms of cooking area.That is just a comparison between two brands out of the many available, but you get the idea. The point is to know what it means when someone says “30 inch grill”. Sometimes it means a measurement of the cooking area and sometimes it does not. The other measurement, and one that does not get mentioned enough, is the front to back depth of the grill. Again, there is a difference between cooking surface and overall dimensions so it is important to learn which brands are measuring in which way. In the example above, the Pro Fire grill is less than 20 inches from front to back while the Kitchen Aid grill is over 22 inches. You can begin to see how the differences in these measurements can really add when figuring the overall cooking area of the grill. Between the two grills mentioned in this comparison, the Kitchen Aid 27″ grill clearly offers a lot more cooking surface area than the Pro Fire 27″ grill. It pays to know the difference.

In the example above I was speaking only about a size comparison and not at all about quality. The range of quality in built in grills is very wide, and so it makes sense that the price range is very wide as well. To continue with the example given above on the size comparison, those same two grills are very far apart in price and overall quality. Just to be clear, all the grill I am talking about here are stainless steel built in grills. In terms of quality, we are talking about grills that are made of the same basic material, but when placed side by side have a very different feel and look. Different grills are made with different gauges of stainless steel. Some are made with a double layered hood, some are a single layer of stainless. The difference cannot really be seen, but it can definitely be felt. If you have a chance to actually see and feel the grills you are considering you will see what I am talking about. If you choose to go with a Viking outdoor kitchen, meaning one equipped with all Viking appliances, you better take a close look at your budget! This brand is among the best you can buy in terms of quality, but it is also at the very top of the outdoor built in grills price range.

In addition to the overall structure, the internal parts can be very different from brand to brand. Most brands offer stainless steel burners. You should not consider a grill that is not made with stainless steel burners unless they come with a lifetime warranty, and even then you have to think about whether you want to go through the warranty hassles every couple of years. The level of grill we are talking about is a product you should be using and enjoying for many years. But at the same time, it is an outside appliance and it will get wet. Over time that moisture will take a toll on any sub caliber parts. If the burners are not stainless steel, they will eventually fail and rust. Other than the burners, the only other real concern internally are the grates. In quality built in outdoor kitchen grills, these are almost always made from stainless steel. but, there are varying levels of quality when it comes to the welding and manufacturing of these grates. Some brands of grill actually contain instructions to not let the heat get too high or the grates may warp. I have seen this happen in certain brands and I stay away from those now. You want a grill that has the ability to get extremely hot if you need it to, not one that is made with parts that cannot stand heat.  Ceramic coated grates are also available but my suggestion is to stay away from them. They offer some benefits during actual cooking, but the ceramic can chip and cause other issues over time. There are not a lot of moving parts inside these grills, so if you have quality burners and grates then the operation of the grill should be good for a long time to come.

OK, let’s get into prices of built in grills. Well, before we can really do that we have to know what features we want in the grill. Is a rotisserie important to you? How about lights, or a smoker box? These are all things that each person has to answer for themselves. The only thing I would suggest you do get is the rotisserie. Many people get them and then never use them, but a lot of people do not get the rotisserie and then wish they had. In the overall scheme of the grill and its price, the rotisserie does not had enough money to really worry about. Just get it and try it and you might find you use it all the time!

Once you know which features you want in the grill, you can begin to do some comparison price shopping. If I stick with the example of the Pro Fire vs the Kitchen Aid, you will begin to get a feel for the great variances in built in grills and their quality and price levels. Pro Fire makes a couple of different versions of their 27″ grill, but to make it a fair comparison I am using their base grill with rotisserie with the only Kitchen Aid 27″ grill with rotisserie. the Pro Fire can be had for somewhere in the $1500-$1800 range and full retail is around $2300, while the Kitchen Aid is priced in the same range. These two grills are not even close in terms of quality, with the Kitchen Aid coming in way ahead by that measurement. Considering that, why would anyone choose the Pro Fire grill? It is smaller, lighter weight in all areas, and does not come with lights. This should be a no brainer. The reason some contractors or distributors may suggest the Pro Fire is because they can get it cheaper than they can get the Kitchen Aid grill. In other words they have more profit in the Pro Fire than the Kitchen Aid. it really is as simple as that and that is why you, the homeowner, has to do some homework and not rely on any one contractor or appliance distributor to do it for you.

Now let’s take the pricing issue one step further. Even though the Kitchen Aid grill is a good deal when compared against the Pro Fire grill, there are other brands of built in grills that are even better deals while having not only equal, but superior quality. Enter Fire Magic. Fire Magic grills are made in the United States and is the longest running brand of grill you will find, having been in business for over 90 years. They measure their grills based on true cooking surface measurements, so you know what you are getting in terms of size. You can get a 30″ Fire Magic grill with a rotisserie for less than $3000, although it retails for around $3500. Fire Magic grills come standard with cast stainless burners. they are the only grill made that can stake that claim. In this writers opinion, this is the best deal you can get when it comes to built in grills. It is possible to spend up to $5 thousand on a 30″ grill if you really want to. But you will be hard pressed to show the benefits of doing so, unless you count having a name like Viking as being worth an extra couple of thousand dollars. Viking grills are very good grills, but they do not have much, if any advantage in quality over something like a Fire Magic.

The most important thing about choosing your built in grill is to take it one step at a time. Understand what size grill different outdoor kitchens can fit, then think through the various options you need in the grill. After that it is a matter of doing your homework on the different brands of grills and understanding what you get for their price. Ask your contractor to show you some of his completed work that includes the brands of grill he is suggesting you purchase. If he cannot or will not do this, take that as a red flag and move on. If you handle this project the right way, before you know it you will have your guests parading around your outdoor kitchen while you proudly show off it’s centerpiece; your new built in grill.