If you get an indoor grill you'll need to get a powerful vent hood - it's not the dirty grill that will be your problem but the smoke that it generates. A number of people on this forum have been happy with indoor grills but those have been gas grills that are part of a rangetop. I don't recall reading anything about how indoor electric grills perform. By the way, the grills usually have a cover so even if they get dirty, you can cover them over when not in use.

Thanks, weissman. I was going to get a 42" hood over the 36" cooktop. I know that I will have to increase the width, depth, and CFM of the hood if I do add the indoor grill. I don't mind doing that, although I think, aesthetically, my kitchen might look better with just the 42" rather than a much larger hood... too much exposed metal in that area.

You're right, I don't know anyone at all w/ an electric grill. Both my mom and sister have the gas grills that are part of their rangetop. Since I only have electric as an option indoors, maybe it's a sign that I should forego the indoor grill, and only BBQ when the weather is decent enough to use the outdoor grill (which will be propane gas)... although in the Northeast, that's probably less than half the year!

Grilling fish, vegies, even bread is great. Grilling marinated meat is not

What about putting a grill plate over the induction cooktop -- would that be equivalent to an indoor electric grill? Or is that not possible on an induction?

For those of you who have one, just what does it take to clean an indoor electric grill anyways? (Just how PITA is it?)

We do not have an indoor grill. But we do have a LeCreuset grill pan, the size about 11 by 11 inches.We use it almost exclusively to grill steaks. First we heat it over a medium gas flame for 6 minutes. Then we grill one or two steaks, depending on thickness from 2 to 6 minutes per side. We use no grease in the pan, but we do rub a little olive oil on the steaks before grilling.

The result is steaks done the way we like with good grill marks on them.

For clean up, we wipe the pan first with a paper towel. Then we scrub it with table salt -- yes, table salt. Then we rinse it and dry it. Just a minor PITA.

If you like to do a lot of grilling, you can get a large grill pan that covers 2 burners, so you can cook up a storm. I think the grill pan alternative is a lot cheaper than a dedicated indoor grill. so you might want to consider it.

Ridged grill pans are a good option with induction. And, there is always the George Foreman. I still use my small one from time to time-- I set it on a cookie sheet on top of my range and turn on my ventilation hood. If I were setting it on top of an induction unit I would probably put it on a cutting board.

I use a ridged grill pan on my gas stove and it creates considerable mess, particularly when grilling marinated meats, as guadalupe pointed out.

Even with the vent hood on full blast, there are splatters everywhere. I think you probably would end up doing a lot of cleaning with an indoor grill.

Would one of those spatter screens with the fine mesh help with the grill pans?

I don't really get the separate grill unit unless it's the full on indoor barbecue that Dlspellman mentioned. Some of the top of the line gas rangetops/ranges have 1800W electric grills in them. Those are supposed to work very well (though hard to clean) because they get to an extremely high heat. The Gaggenau units are the most similar. I'm not usually a watt counter, but I wonder if the difference between 1800 and 1500 makes a big difference--it sounds to me like it might be the difference between really great (but hard to clean) and just okay (but hard to clean). Since you can get a 1500 W portable electric grill for a lot less, and not have to dedicate counter space for it, or have separate ventilation, etc., I don't really get it. Hm... I don't know if the portables have the lava rocks and drip tray. Those features might make it worthwhile. But you could put a small piece of thin plywood under the portable, and use it on top of your induction unit, under the hood. (I use a grill plate, which is like a grill pan, without the pan part.)

I'm putting in a 15" gas unit with my 24" induction unit. Probably from similar motivations to yours. In fact, one of the reasons for the gas (which is also good during a blackout) is to roast eggplants and peppers, etc., on, since I'm not a cook outdoors person, and don't have a barbecue. I have other uses for gas as well, of course, but that was the emotional "can't give up flames" thing for me. The biggest thing that made me actually go for it, and self-import the smaller induction unit I wanted, was the blackout thing, however.

Thanks, everyone!

Hi everyone! The question that eleeny posted two years ago is very similar to my dilema. We were also considering putting in a Gaggenau indoor grill beside our four burner induction heat. However, the width of all these cook surfaces is a bit wider than would be ideal for available space and overhead ventilation. If you are still on this forum eleeny can you tell us how you solved your dilema? I like the idea suggested by plllog of using a separate portable unit. Does anyone else have experience with using a good quality indoor portable bbq? Do indoor units have lava rocks? Our winters are long around here, and it is dark for much of the year so it is hard to use our bbq from the beginning of Nov through to March. I would love to find a substitute way of grilling indoors that tastes as good as using an outdoor gas bbq without an enormous hassle of cleaning (I also worry about huge splatters). Is there an appliance that does a good job or am I dreaming? Thanks!

Carol