Possibly replacing built in (drop in) outdoor grill

[jimcav]

Looking for advice here. 5 yrs ago we bought our house and it came with a natural gas built in grill in a nice outdoor counter with seating area etc.

The grill itself is a drop in style stainless steel 6 burner "Grand Turbo" model by BBQsGalore. It has always been the most uneven heating grill I've ever used, with the rear of the grill inanely hot, and the front barely cooking. It has weird ceramic plated with small homes under the grill bars and has lots of flare ups. IF the main grill itself can be replaced, it is a 35" wide unit. IF it is a total one-piece unit with the surrounding stainless and side burner, that whole thing is 52" wide.

I rarely BBQ for more than 8-10 people, so I've managed around the uneven hot spots etc.

It is getting worse because the burners themselves are rusting and gas is unevenly coming out the little ports along the length of the burners (very little up front, more to the rear).

Parts are still made, but the stainless burners are about $100 each, so that is $600, plus the as yet unknown hassle of trying to remove the old rusted ones etc.

However, I had no idea what the replacement cost was on a built in. I don't want to spend $3k+. Does anyone have good experience with another brand? Amazon sells Lion and Bull and Blaze. Expensive but not crazy expensive.

We mainly do burgers and chicken, but I do large tri tip and other stuff at times. We do want to stick with the current built-in layout and natural gas.

Appreciate any advice on decent grills!

[Spaghetti Legs]

I've had a Lion 5 burner for about 6-7 years and I've been happy with it. It's natural gas and freestanding. At the time I wanted a top end grill but wasn't ready to drop the cash like you would on a Napoleon. The Lions had similar specs and were about 20-30% less that I recall.

It definitely runs hotter on the back side but I've never used a grill that didn't. Heats evenly left to right. I am not OCD about cleaning and maintenance and over the years it will at times be hesitant to light, especially cold weather. I use it a lot, all year round. FYI, if you go with this brand, I'd skip the ceramic inserts that are supposed to spread the heat more evenly. They basically served as grease catchers and just caught on fire all the time.

I have a friend who got a Lion drop in a couple of years ago. I'll check with him and see how he likes it.

[jimcav]

I've had a Lion 5 burner for about 6-7 years and I've been happy with it. FYI, if you go with this brand, I'd skip the ceramic inserts that are supposed to spread the heat more evenly. They basically served as grease catchers and just caught on fire all the time.

I have a friend who got a Lion drop in a couple of years ago. I'll check with him and see how he likes it.

Appreciate that--the ceramic insert thing tracks with my experience with this one. I've had lots of grills over the years (usually inexpensive mobile Weber) and this thing is insanely uneven in temp--seeing the impact of the rust on the gas flow explains it, but it has been that way since we moved in 5 yrs ago. Per my next door neighbor they re-did the backyard between 2006-10 so I hesitate to just replace it with new parts as the until apparently was over $3k new (from google searching) and didn't last that long