Your Guide to Buying a Grill

Anyone with a decent backyard patio space will want to get as much usage out of it as possible. One great way to entertain on your patio is to buy a grill. Grills allow you to cook food outdoors, and they lend a unique quality and flavor to meats and vegetables. However, there are many different types of grills on the market, so it’s important for you to think carefully about what you want in a grill before you buy one.

Type of Power Source

Grills can come in gas (propane), electric, charcoal, or wood pellet styles. Gas grills require you to purchase tanks of propane, which must be used and stored with care away from a heat source. 

Propane grills are easy to clean and odorless with a quick warm-up time, but they can get quite hot very quickly and grease can build up.

Electric grills require a plug into your home’s power source that in turn powers a heating element within them for cooking foods. If you have a very small space, an electric grill can be a good compromise, although it will not get to very high temperatures.

Charcoal grills are the classic grill style, with briquettes of charcoal lit on fire to produce a hot flame under the grilling surface. These grills are very affordable and reach high cooking temperatures, with the added benefit of imparting a delicious smoky flavor to cooked foods. However, charcoal takes a long time to heat up and cleaning them can be a challenge.

Wood-pellet grills are a hybrid between gas and charcoal, using a convection system to cook food at even temperatures. Wood pellets produce an aromatic smoke that also makes your food taste better.

Size of Grill

How large a grill you get will depend upon how much space you have available, as well as how much food you need to cook at once. The area that the grill occupies can be a large or small footprint, and while bigger grills will offer you more cooking area, they can take up a lot of space and consume fuel very quickly. Sometimes, it may be preferable to get a smaller grill and simply use the space efficiently.

Features

Grills may also offer a range of different features that can help you with cooking various types of food, in addition to improving food safety and quality. Some grills have side burners that don’t require direct heat, which is great for grilling vegetables. Others offer a rotisserie that can evenly cook whole birds and other large pieces of meat that need to be rotated to cook evenly. A thermometer can help you to monitor the grill’s internal temperature.

Come see us at our location in Timmins, ON, to check out our selection of new and used grills for sale. J&B Cycle & Marine serves all of our Ontario customers.