Pellet grills make for a great compromise - push button ease of use, very accurate temp control and good wood flavor with no gas or chemical flavoring. Traeger - The original and still a good value. Not as good as a MAK or Twin Eagles but a lot less expensive. Memphis - Stay away. Some years ago they were the best available but they've had very significant reliability issues the past few years. MAK - Generally considered the best with the demise of Memphis. Similar high price as Memphis. Doesn't get as hot as Memphis but provides better smoke and most importantly is reliable. Very popular with serious BBQ folks. Twin Eagles - Generally good but a few people have had issues so doesn't appear as reliable as MAK but much more reliable than Memphis. Both grilling and smoking are decent. More aesthetically appealing to many people than MAK.

Denaliman I do not have the IR burner. This grill gets real hot and cannot image needing higher heat. The temperature readout regularly shows 750-800 degrees, but feels even higher. Cooking to fast is more of a problem than not having enough heat. I have never cooked on an IR burner so cannot comment on that aspect. My burners are easily removed so if you want an IR burner later it would take 5 minutes to replace. You remove the grates, flavor grids, and burners to clean. The grill heats up fast and when the cast burners get hot that stay hot. I really can't imagine needing more heat. With 96,000 btu's from 3 burners on high that is a lot of heat. My old Weber had 3 burners which I believe were 12,000 btus's each and it cooked fine. What you will find is that you turn the burners down after searing and cook on medium high. When you open the hood on a warm day you will not believe the heat that comes out. The 790 has the right amount of grilling area. You can really cook a lot of food on it. With the zone panels in place the temperature can be varied from burner to burner. One word of caution is the grill is really heavy. It moves easily on the wheels, but mine was a tailgate delivery so had to unpack and get it into place. If buying from a store they will set it up for you if not you must do a little assembly. My wife thought I was crazy to spend so much on a grill, but 4 years later she admits it was a worthwhile purchase.

Some of the higher end built-in grills do require electrical connections for the ignition and lights (both to light the grilling surface and backlit knobs). A few of the brands we carry are like this. Kind of piggybacking off K&D's exhaustive and awesome list, a couple thoughts: - while I get the convenience of a permanent natural gas hookup, you get more BTUs from propane. As someone who only has a gas grill because some nights charcoal is too much effort, more BTUs is a better cooking experience. - I can't remember whether it's a code or a manufacturer requirement, but the standard we go by is a minimum of (2) 20 sq inch vents for the BBQ enclosure. You used to have to have them on opposite sides, but now you can have them on perpendicular sides. When placing them just remember that propane is heavier than air, natural gas is lighter than air. As far as buying ones from Home Depot and installing, I'm not totally sure what you mean. For a built-in grill you want one that is sold as a grill head. The ones that are freestanding (ie, the row of grills on wheels in front of the store), you can't just cut the legs off and use it as a grill head. You can still build your kitchen around a freestanding grill. Here's an article on how we did that several years ago for a client: https://www.revolutionarygardens.com/can-i-use-my-freestanding-grill-as-a-built-in-grill/

We have a modern house with an outdoor kitchen. One part of the L is counter space with pull-out trash and fridge under the counter space. Bar seating on the other side of this section. The other section of the L has a large grill and a sink beside it. It's a single bowl sink. I would highly recommend the sink and wished we would have also installed a garbage disposal and a spray arm faucet. Because it is outside, I use the sink to clean the surrounding area. An area for handwashing, as others have noted, is also a huge benefit. No, to the 2 tier counter. That is a dated look.