Many people get unduly confused when they start looking at outdoor kitchens. One of the big questions they ask is, how is an outdoor kitchen grill different from other grills? The answer is, the grill itself is really no different at all. If you think about it, most grills we have come attached to carts that may or may not be on wheels to make it easier to move them around. Picture the same grill, but with no cart, or legs, and you have a grill that can be used as an outdoor kitchen grill.
That is probably oversimplifying things, but that is the general idea as to what these grills are. The thing that complicates things is the fact that you have made a decision to add an outdoor kitchen to your home, and that means you are looking to upgrade. In most cases, that same old grill from your local home improvement store will simply not do when it comes to an outdoor kitchen gas grill. Some people choose things like electric grills, but most people who build an outdoor kitchen want to go with a stainless steel bbq, and these are more expensive than those cheaper grills we tend to purchase and use until they start to fall apart from rust.
An outdoor kitchen can cost you anywhere from a few thousand all the way up to $30 thousand dollars. The grill is typically the center of attraction when it comes to the outdoor kitchen and grill, so it does not seem to make any sense at all to go cheap when you are making a major upgrade to the outside of your home. In the vast majority of cases, you get what you pay for when it comes to grills.
If you spend money on a quality built in grill, you will be able to use that grill for many years. This is important when dealing with a built in grill, because your cabinetry will be made to fit a specific grill. if that grill is not of high enough quality to last more than a couple of years, you could be facing having to renovate your cabinetry to fit a new grill. This is because different brands of grills are different sizes, even if they are referred to as the same size. For example, a 27″ Kitchen Aid built in grill is not the same width or depth as other brands, like Fire Magic grills. On top of that, every couple of years manufacturers upgrade their lines of grills and in many cases they make changes to the footprint of the grills. In other words, you may not be able to find the same grill to replace your old one. If that happens, modifications to your cabinetry will be needed to fit another grill.
Having said all of that, if you purchase a quality grill from a good brand and that grill is made from 304 stainless steel, you will not have to worry about anything for a long time. Your grill will last as is for many years, and even then the only thing you might end up replacing is the internal burners. Do not underestimate the huge difference between a regular old grill and a quality built in grill. They are simply not the same thing.