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

Hey guys, IÂm a newbie to grilling so please help me out here. I just moved into downtown Chicago and IÂm looking for a small propane grill for my balcony up to about $350. One of the most important things to me is that a grill heat up really, really fast and have a fast pre-heat time. Taking this into consideration, these are my two questions: 1) Is there a type/brand of grill that heats up the fastest? IÂve heard the infrareds take longer than a normal gas grill to heat up, is that true? I understand that porcelain coated cast iron grates heat up the fastest. 2) The 3 models that I have been looking at are the Charbroil Red-Patio 2 burner 463250210 (infrared), Brinkmann 4 burner 810-8411-5, and Ducane Affinity 3100 3 burner. Of those 3 which do you think would be the best and heat up the fastest? Please feel free to suggest others. Thank you

I am also considering a grill pan or double burner grill. (I'm using gas but all four burners are differnt) America's test Kitchen rated grill pans, and found non-stick aluminum to give best results. You might want to check this out. Also I have seen closely related "panini pans" which have a press included. Has any one used one of these for anything like bacon, sausages, etc?

If it has a roaring kind of noise, it's probably flashback. Normally gas is injected in a jet of gas through an orifice into the burner, and the jet of gas sucks air in with the gas through an air shutter. The gas goes through the burner and burns on the surface of the burner. If the gas and air are improperly adjusted, the gas/air combination burns too slowly to get to the top of the burner, and the flame flashes back to burn inside the burner, typically causing a roaring noise. You should have it inspected by a competent repairman who can identify and correct the problem.