I too need to buy a new grill. I am replacing my old Weber. First I thought that I would buy a Weber Genesis, but I really want a larger grilling surface--especially if I'm going to spend so much money. The grate is 25" x 19" on the Genesis and the price is about $800 to $850 depending on which options you choose. It has 3 burners. One appliance store is getting a "close out" shipment of Ducane 5400 Stainless LP Gas Grills. This has 5 burners compared with 3 on Genesis. It also has a larger grilling surface (620 sq." vs approx. 500 sq.") I don't have the exact grate dimensions, but let's estimate for now that it is about 31 sq." x 20 sq."). Is this a smart purchase or some ploy by the salesman to dump inventory? (He does have the Weber too.) Also, I liked the specs on a Charmglow (Charglow?) model #720-0578 that I saw at Home Depot this morning. It has five 10,000 BTU burners and the grate measures approx. 33 sq." x 20 sq.". The grate is porcelain-coated cast iron on this one vs. stainless on the other two. Price is $500. To get the larger grate on a weber grill the price jumps to $1,800 or so, which is out of my price range. Any wisdom/experience/opinions to share?

I have a BBQ Galore turbo grill that I've been unsatisfied with for a long long time. It has 1 hot spot on the entire grill and the rest of the areas don't get heat. The flames light on each of the 4 burners, but only the first will get hot. And when I mean hot, I mean my grill will pin the temp at 600 with that one burner on. I've had a BBQ galore service tech tell me thats just the way it is. I've tried to switch the burners around, but nothing. Any experiences out there? Any way to fix that and have nice even heat on the grill?

I hope responding on Sunday is not too late! I was cooking in the woods all weekend on cast iron and dutches. I have a Napolean 450RBI and absolutely love it. It has the infrared burner that is great for steaks and hamburgers. My is stainless steel with the cover. But the 450RBI is over $1200.00 dollars. So I'm not sure it fits your budget. You only mention your price restrictions but not your requirements for a grill. Do you want electronic ignition for lighting? Do you want stainless steel or regular metal finish? Do you want cast iron grates? How many are you cooking for? Enjoy the journey. eal51 in western CT

I bought a Napoleon up405 grill recently and was not impressed. I bought it sight unseen from arizona grills. It came in a sealed box that showed no signs of being previusly opened. The top had a minor gouge in the finish, I might not have noticed this except they circled it with a white marker and marked it "MD" . One of the so called solid surface side shelves had a big chunk broken out of it. The way everything was packaged this had to have happened before it was placed in the outer box. Solid surface does not mean solid surface like your kitchen counter. It means an 1/8" thick hollow piece of molded plastic. Kind of cheesy looking. The sear plates would not fit into the base without some serious force. I had to grind some notches to clear the ribs in the casting. The ignitor has a small blade type electrical connection, The wire from the grill end of the ignitor had a round connector. (Radio shack fixed that). The handle is held on with #10 carbon steel screws. The warming basket hangers were also #10 carbon steel as were some of the base mounting screws that projected into the firebox. I replaced all of these with 1/4" stainless. I would not expect any small carbon steel parts projecting into the firebox to last more than a year. The plumbing included a 3/8" copper tube with 6 right angle bends. Copper gas lines are not allowed in many areas, 3/8" line is kind of small for 45,000 btu and all the bends just make it worse. I used 3" length of SS tube and crossed over to 1/2" SS flex line. The frame that the firebox sits in is powder coated carbon steel. I have some doubts about how long that will last in the gulf coast climate. The cooking grates are stamped stainless steel. Some people may like them. They seem to have more contact area with the food and are harder to clean than round rods. The burners are heavy SS tube and work fine. The sear plates seem to cause more flareups than the ceramic bricks I used to have. The aluminum casings are flawless. hinge pins are SS shoulder bolts, very sturdy. I E-mailed Napoleon with this list of gripes but didn't get a reply. I expected better for the money. One of the problems with buying sight unseen over the internet.