Often, when searching for a grill people realize that they did not consider all of the available features, and probably have never even known they existed. It can get almost confusing when one tries to tackle all of the available grill features and determine what features you want. You should become familiar with most grills features and ask questions about them. This way you will be able to make a smart purchase decision and get what is most suitable for you.
First, you should understand how the cooking power is measured and expressed. Cooking power in grill terms is the BTU. A higher BTU means a higher cooking power, and vice versa. An ample enough of cooking power, or BTU's is a minimum of 100BTU's per square inch of cooking space surface area the grill has.
Second, you must decide on the type of cooking surface that you will need. How much space you need is a big factor for this. Besides surface area you will have to consider the surface type. There are many surface types available from ribbed, bbq type surface, flat, non-stick, rotisserie, wok, and interchangeable.
Another vital component of the grill you will need to assess before purchasing is the grills fuel type or source. One of the most popular grills is charcoal, but remember that they have to be cleaned much more often, you need to buy charcoal and lighter fluid, and are usually a pain to get lit up. There are very many different sizes and shapes available for charcoal grills, and they also range hugely in costs, from some for under all the way up into the ,000's.
In contrast to charcoal grills, propane grills and natural gas grills are less hassle and generally easy to maintain. Another advantage of these gas grills is that they can cook faster than charcoal grills as well. However, propane or gas grills are larger on average than charcoal grills therefore you will need a little more space for them.
Another type of fuel source you might want to consider if flavor is top priority is a smoker. Smokers are similar in shape to charcoal grills, usually rounded at the top. These types of grills use wood burning and provide a convection of smoke around the food, which is then added as flavor into the food. Smokers also take longer to cook than both charcoal and gas grills, because it takes more time to get the wood burning and smoking at cooking temperatures, and slow cooking is the idea behind smoking in order to get the smoke flavor in the food.
Other bbq accessories you may want to add to your arsenal are digital meat thermometers. Meat thermometers can come into a lot of use when cooking. Also, there are temperature gauges that you can add to your grill in order to have an accurate reading of the internal temperature. Another great accessory you can add to your grill, a gas or propane one, is a fuel measurement gauge to show you exactly how much gas is left. Lastly, consider a grilling cooking tools set, which includes things like tongs, spatula, fork, and other handy tools for the bbq connoisseur in you.
