Infrared Grills: At A Glance
In an infrared grill, a ceramic top is installed as the cooking surface. While the basic fuel source for infrared grill and conventional gas grill is the same, the difference between them lies in the heat usage for cooking. In a gas grill, the cooking surface of the grill is heated by a direct flame whereas in an infrared grill, the fuel source heats up the infrared element, which in turn transfers infrared radiation for cooking food. In simpler terms, other grills use hot air directly or indirectly to cook food, whereas infrared grills use infrared radiation to heat and cook the food directly. But it is important to understand infrared grilling pros and cons before purchasing the grills.
Is Infrared Cooking Healthy
Its true that infrared heat is a type of radiation, and there are some that claim that this infrared heat penetrates and agitates food molecules within your food
However, infrared grills simply do not have enough power to alter or denature the protein on foods, thus we can confirm that infrared grills are perfectly safe to cook with and will not endanger your health.
It is generally the oil that you put on the food to cook it that most strongly affects how healthy or unhealthy the food that you grill is for you.
What Does Char Broil Tru Infrared Grill Mean
A tru infrared grill converts the hot air generated in traditional gas grills into infrared heat. The heat is distributed evenly over the entire grillsurface and flare ups are prevented from happening entirely.
To me, this means that the meats I grill will get a nice sear, which as a chef is very important. Check out these grill marks from the first time we used it:
Heres what I said about this grill right after we first used it almost six years ago:
There are so many things we love about the new Char-Broil grill. The first thing I noticed are the porcelain-coated grates which are great for preventing your food from sticking.
Next was the side burner which makes it so nice to just heat up a side dish or quickly reduce a sauce. Its also dual fuel enabled, which means you can connect to natural gas at home. We havent done that yet but were definitely going to try it.
But its the Tru-InfraredCooking System that really separates this grill from any others Ive cooked on. It allows your food to cook evenly with no flare-ups. The night before our barbecue, my parents grilled some steaks. They both raved that they were the best theyd ever had on a grill and neither could believe how evenly they cooked.
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Features To Consider While Choosing An Infrared Grill
While infrared technology has become more easily-reached than it has ever been, you must keep in mind that all infrared grills arent created equal. While each grill we listed in this guide is worth purchasing, based on your own unique needs and requirements, some models may be more suitable for you than others.
The 5 Best Infrared Grill Reviews 2021 Top Picks By Chef
Are you in search of the best infrared grill for your outdoor parties? So you are interested in making your pool party bbq meat into a steak-house level tasty, crispy, and searing of meat. Best infrared grills are best known for searing meat. Grilling meat at homes would not have been easy if grills were not invented in the first place. And with so many types that are included in bbq.
Infrared bbq grills are the best versatile, convenient way to make your bbqs right at your home. They use infrared technology to prepare the best food. These grills do not use flames, grates, charcoal, or electricity altogether. Now, if you dont have the time to properly go for the good-old-fashioned bbq at your home due to the shortage of time.
Capacity:
The capacity for this Char-Broil Deepa Big has the installed capacity of 25 lbs that can be used for roasting. Further, there is a vast space of 180 sq. in. area for all the grilling purposes. This kind of space is perfect for preparing steaks, burgers, patties, and chopped ribs for all the family and friends.
Temperature:
The temperature controls for this Char-Broil infrared grill are from 9,000 18, 000 BTU . This amount of temperature is perfect for preparing a sound quality and taste of food for the partying season or even if you wanted to prepare the meal and enjoy it all by yourself.
Design:
Food Prepared:
Additional Features:
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How To Maintain Your Infrared Grill
- Like traditional charcoal and gas grills, your infrared appliance has to be preheated before grilling. It makes sure that the unit will be expanded and sterilized. And your food wont stick to the unit when cooking. On average, it takes around five minutes for the grill to be heated.
- You need to reduce the temperature when preparing vegetables and protein foods. Typically, infrared grills usually offer high temperature all through the grilling process. So, basically, cooking on infrared grills takes a shorter time when compared to cooking on traditional gas and charcoal grills.
- Except you are very familiar with the grilling time on an IR grill, we recommend equipping your grill with a thermometer to ensure precise internal temperature.
- We recommend you to use the grill at the maximum temperature level. You should decrease around thirty percent of the set temperature when cooking steaks. Meanwhile, your foods arent affected when you raise the temperature.
Hybrid Infrared Gas Grills: Get The Best Of Both Worlds
In the past few years many advances have been made in the infrared gas grill industry. One of the most interesting has been the creation of hybrid infrared gas grills. hese gas grills offer a combination of traditional convection burners and an infrared burner zone, which allows you to grill all of your favorite foods that require lower temperatures over the convection burners while searing steaks over intense infrared heat from your sear zone. This also allows for the quick transition of your food after searing to a lower temperature to continue grilling. Shop the three most common types of hybrid gas grill configurations below.
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Best Infrared Grill Buying Guide:
An infrared grill is not a product that you can buy frequently. The grills can be purchased once, so before buying or making any decision, give a look at our detailed buying guide. It will help you in purchasing the best infrared grill for your home. It is not rocket science you just have to pay attention to the following important factors. You can further read about different grills here: Pellet grill vs Gas Grill.
Heating ability:
This is the most prominent and crucial aspect that needs to be addressed in the first place. Whenever you go out to make the purchase of your infrared grills. Heating the food evenly throughout the process of bbq is the finest of all the other attributes that one grill possesses. Additionally, there are many grills in the market, which hold bad reviews when it comes to heating the food properly and evenly, so that you need to consider.
Size:
The first and foremost factor is size or capacity. Some have a small family, and some have a large size, depending on how many people you have to serve. Moreover, if you have a small family, then you need the small size infrared grill that comes with a limited grilling surface. You dont need to spend the extra money on the large grill that is not for you.
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Moreover, it is considered a powerful infrared grill and cooks the food quickly, and provides better-tasting food for you and your family.
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Camplux Propane Infrared Steak Grill
Outdoor barbecues always give enthusiasm and happiness to the people. Complex griller is the best infrared grill for all outdoor barbecue enthusiastic. The complex is a brand that is dedicated to providing you an easy and efficient outdoor lifestyle. The key elements of complex products are energy, probability, and innovation. They are constantly expanding their product range to keep them on quality. They constantly come up with innovative products to make your life easier.
The motto of the brand is to enjoy the outdoor life! This griller is a fast and efficient outdoor portable infrared gas grill. It comes with a vertical cooking facility, which is made of stainless steel. Even though it provides single burner propane gas, it evenly distributes the heat while grilling. It is the best infrared grill let us discuss some of its best features.
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Blazing Bull 1500f Portable Infrared Grill Stainless Steel
- Infrared heaters stay at a constant temperature of 446°F delivering heat evenly throughout the whole grill, without the cold spots or flare-ups. All smoke is decreased permitting you to grill inside all year round without the odor of smoke polluting your house.
- Below the heating components is an always trendy drip tray, even when petroleum, grease & fat drip it down does not hit on a HOT surface which would normally make it splatters make & odor this along using our Advanced Infrared Technology provides healthy delicious grilled meals each time without the smoke.
- With lightning-fast heating, this portable infrared grill provides the best temperature for grilling meat, fish, poultry, veggies, and much more. Food is cooked using a genuine char-grilled texture and BBQ grill marks. Delivers Evenly Grilled, Tasty Results while staying Tender on the interior, sealing in Flavor and Moisture. A Big Bonus is that you can even grill directly from frozen.
- The Large nonstick cooking surface can match 4 big steaks, 6 hamburgers, or 2 chicken fillets. Enjoy perfect grilling without charcoal or propane tanks, simply plugin and get started grilling your favorite food. Enjoy the outside BBQ grilled flavor inside.
Warranties For Triumph And Travelq Grills
Napoleon warrants that these grills will remain free of defects in both material and workmanship from the time you purchase the unit for the following periods:
Aluminum castings / Stainless steel base
10 years
5 years of full coverage
Stainless steel tube burners
5 years of full coverage
Stainless steel sear plates
5 years of full coverage
Porcelain-enameled cast-iron cooking grids
5 years of full coverage
Ceramic infrared burners
5 years of full coverage
All other parts
2 years
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Inventor Of The Infrared Grill
He is CEO and chairman of Thermal Engineering Corporation in Columbia, South Carolina.
The infrared grill has become a household term and has changed the world of grilling, but not many people have heard of its inventor, Bill Best. He is CEO and chairman of Thermal Engineering Corporation in Columbia, South Carolina. He first came up for the idea of the infrared grill when he was working on his doctorate at the University of South Carolina. He was up late at night developing a flame arrester for rocket guidance systems when he noticed that the ceramic plate on the arrester would turn bright red and emit high levels of radiant heat, also known as infrared.
This gave him the idea to develop an infrared ceramic burner, which he patented in 1961. He initially marketed it as a commercial burner for use in making radial tires and paint-curing systems. It wasn’t until the early 1980s that Bill incorporated one of his ceramic infrared burners into a food grill.
Whether out of boredom or a stroke of genius, one night he decided to take some scrap metal from his plant and one of the ceramic burners to build a grill. He took it home to cook some food and discovered that not only did it cook food quicker, it also didn’t dry out food as much as traditional grills. This was the beginning of TEC Infrared Grills.
What Happens If Something Goes Wrong With My New Napoleon Grill And I Need It Serviced
Youre in luck! Napoleon has a service number you can contact in the event that you need assistance and possibly servicing of your grill. You can reach them at 1-866-820-8686.
Its important that you dont attempt to repair any major issues yourself. Napoleons grills have excellent warranties , so you dont want to do anything that could risk voiding your warranty.
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Pros Of Infrared Grilling
As the market demand for infrared grills is on the rise, most manufacturers incorporate an infrared grilling feature in the traditional gas grill. The benefits of infrared grilling are as follows.
- Uniform heating surface: In infrared grilling, the heating mechanism is configured below the ceramic tile, which help in uniform distribution of heat.
- Less time for ignition: As infrared radiation is used to heat the food directly, the preheating time for infrared grilling is much lesser in comparison to other grill types.
- High temperature option: A major advantage of infrared grilling is the high temperature setting option, which can be as high as 700 °F. Hence, it is preferred for recipes that require elevated temperature for cooking.
- Energy efficiency: Less ignition time and faster cooking are the proofs for energy efficiency of infrared grilling over other options of grilling.
- Tasty and juicy food: Since infrared grilling requires less time for ignition and cooking, it aids in retaining the nutrients and fluid content of the food items. Many people opine that food cooked by means of infrared grilling are tastier than other ways of cooking.
Infrared Grills Pros And Cons All You Need To Know
Infrared grilling is a relatively new cooking technique where instead of a burner or charcoal cooks the food, a heating element radiates heat at very high temperatures.
True, infrared grills can use either gas or charcoal as fuel, but because of their different style of cooking , they fall into their own category.
Just like every type of grill, even this one has its own benefits and disadvantages.
One major benefit of having an infrared grill is its high efficiency.
Ironically, this benefit impacts its major disadvantage the price.
Of course, just because they are expensive that doesnt mean they are not worth it.
You need to consider all of the infrared grills pros and cons before making your final decision.
The truth is whole and not just a piece here and there.
Whether youre searching for your first grill or looking to pimp your backyard with another one, infrared grills are worth considering.
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Takes Less Time To Cook
Another advantage of faster cooking is that it means less stress for you. Whereas using a gas grill may require you to stand for a longer time to monitor the food, you dont have to do the same for an infrared grill. Quicker cooking times make sure you serve perfectly cooked meats without spending hours grilling the food.
Best And Worst Infrared Gas Grill Designs
To give you an idea of whats out there and what the various designs cost, Ill cover a few of the more popular ones, in a wide range of prices so you really get a sense of context. Most folks have a sense of the difference between a Viking range and a Kenmore whereas the difference between a Char-Broil and a TEC might not be so clear to most folks.
Weve all seen the Char-Broil brand wherever we see grills and yet TEC is not a brand many folks have heard of. Indeed most folks equate Char-Broils TRU infrared with the technology itself. So lets do a comparison and cover some things to watch out for when shopping for an infrared gas grill.
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Frequent Question: Do Infrared Grills Taste The Same
On the other hand, infrared grills directly heat the meat through the heated ceramic plates, trapping the fluids inside and resulting in a juicier steak. And since gas grills are more prone to flare-ups, charring or burning can easily happen with heating, which will give the food a bitter taste.
Whats The Best Way To Protect My Napoleon Grill
The great thing about their grills is that they are rated for the outside elements. You shouldnt have to worry too much about rain or snow damaging your Napoleon grill. These things really are made with the highest quality in mind.
With that being said, its always a good idea to cover your grill, regardless of the brand, when youre not using it for an extended period of time. A good grill cover will do wonders in prolonging the life of your grill.
Heres an interesting tidbit that might give you some added peace of mind. Napoleon is a Canadian company, so they know a thing or two about harsh elements. They specifically created their grills to withstand Canadian winters. If that doesnt speak to the quality of their grills, were not sure what will.
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Best Infrared Grill Types
Ceramic Infrared Burner System
This grill with the infrared burner is capable of radiating heat in the range of 600 to 1000F and is considered best for searing meat. However, it is only good for that! It also is prone to flare-ups because the meat is in very close contact with the heat source.
Heat Emitter System
Infrared BBQs are cheaper comparatively because the heat is produced from a stainless steel tube burner, which gets transferred to the food by a stainless steel panel. The only downside of this is that is capable of generating heat in the range of 300 and 650 F only.
TEC Systems
TEC is the pioneer of infrared grilling technology, and they are by far the best-infrared grill. There are two variations in this type of grill. The first one is Stainless Steel IR burner that is equipped with a radiant glass panel and can produce up to 850 F even heat.
The second model is a Stainless Steel Conversion burner with a radiant glass panel that is slightly better engineered and can create heat in the range of 200 to 900F. They are often considered the best-infrared grill 2021.
Hybrid Grills
The hybrid grill with the infrared burner is what we call the best of both worlds. They come in various configurations notable among them is the sear station side burner where the infrared burner is located on the grill outside and helps in searing the meat initially before being cooked on a conventional gas grill.
