BBQ Grills: cast iron, porcelain, or stainless steel?

[J-Wo]

In my quest for a new BBQ I've discovered that grills come in all sorts of flavours. The Broil-Mates at Home Depot come in porcelain, the Broil-Kings come in cast iron, and Home Hardware sells BK's with stainless steel grills. So what's the difference? Which last longer, cook better (i.e. food doesn't stick), clean better, etc etc?

[craftsman]

If you take a quick look at the pricing of grills, you will find that the order that you put the 3 choices in is also the order of the pricing...

I've found that the stainless steel ones are generally the cheapest and generally chromed but almost everything sticks.... In addition, they are a little hard to keep clean.

The porcelain ones are better and are generally the middle of the road units. They don't stick as much and the dark surface hides the dirt...

The cast iron is like the cast iron frying pans - if used correctly, they are great. You will need to use the proper procedure to season the grills and keep the from rusting... But you will find that they work very well - good grilling action and not much sticks.

[BartBandy]

Let me be subtle.

STAINLESS STEEL

Porcelain coatings crack and rust. Ugly and a PITA.

Cast iron holds heat better for steaks and other high temp foods, but you have to treat them, or they rust beautifully.

Stainless is just less maintenance. You spend more time grilling and less time cleaning and prepping.

The BKs with stainless grilles are nice units for the price. Good choice over the Made in China grills you usually see in big box stores. BKs are also hot grills - the propane models get over 700F (great for steaks), though controlling them at low temps can be tricky.

I've found that the stainless steel ones are generally the cheapest and generally chromed but almost everything sticks.... In addition, they are a little hard to keep clean.

Real stainless bar grilles are actually the most expensive. Anything coated is steel - not stainless steel. My Napoleon has 1/4" diameter stainless steel, and the Weber Summit I just bought my dad uses whopping 3/8" stainless bars for the grilles. These are $1500 and up grills. Only the top line Broil Kings get stainless bar grilles.

[roz111d]

i have a 1 yr. old weber cast iron and it works well. you have to remember that the big restaurants are using cast iron. it was recommended by the home depot sales guy over the weber stainless steel (and is cheaper by at least $100).

i know somebody who has a stainless steel bbq and they are having a hard time cleaning it.

[BartBandy]

i have a 1 yr. old weber cast iron and it works well. you have to remember that the big restaurants are using cast iron. it was recommended by the home depot sales guy over the weber stainless steel (and is cheaper by at least $100).

i know somebody who has a stainless steel bbq and they are having a hard time cleaning it.

Stainless is a snap to clean compared to cast iron. Go look in a real BBQ store - all the high end stuff have stainless cooking surfaces.

Again, cast iron is great for retaining heat and making pretty grill marks on food, and rust isn't much of an issue inside restaurants. I like cast iron - it's better than plain steel or porcelain coated. But for an outdoor BBQ, for most people, stainless is the better material for the cooking surfaces. It just depends if you want to spend that much.

[LarryLat]

Cast iron is a very good value for the money. A stainless steel grill will be several times more expensive than a cast iron grill with the same heat retention characteristics. If you can afford stainless steel then go for it. However, a thinner-type stainless steel grill that doesn't hold heat as much as a simple cast iron grill certainly will not be a better choice. This is because the thin grill won't char the meat, and instead meat will just stick to it.

Cast iron grill will not rust if you use it periodically (like once every few weeks). Just don't clean it with cleaners, a $1 wire brush and BBQ heat will do all the necessary cleaning and disinfection.

My $300 cast-aluminum/cast-iron Canadian-made propane Fiesta BBQ works just fine. A step up from it would have to be a charcoal BBQ.

[BartBandy]

In my quest for a new BBQ I've discovered that grills come in all sorts of flavours. The Broil-Mates at Home Depot come in porcelain, the Broil-Kings come in cast iron, and Home Hardware sells BK's with stainless steel grills. So what's the difference? Which last longer, cook better (i.e. food doesn't stick), clean better, etc etc?

I didn't notice this when I read the post initially, but the big box stores have BBQs built to a price point. Home Hardware seems to be positioning themselves as a high end BBQ store. They sell top-line Napoleon and BK grills, without the minor changes made for big box versions.

That's why you'll see almost identical BBQs with slightly different specs and different prices between the stores.

Cast iron is a very good value for the money. A stainless steel grill will be several times more expensive than a cast iron grill with the same heat retention characteristics. If you can afford stainless steel then go for it. However, a thinner-type stainless steel grill that doesn't hold heat as much as a simple cast iron grill certainly will not be a better choice. This is because the thin grill won't char the meat, and instead meat will just stick to it.

Cast iron grill will not rust if you use it periodically (like once every few weeks). Just don't clean it with cleaners, a $1 wire brush and BBQ heat will do all the necessary cleaning and disinfection.

All true. I think the 1/4" bar on my Napoleon is the minimum acceptable stainless steel grille size. The 3/8" on the Weber Summit is fantastic, but the grates are insanely heavy.

[pluto]

I bought an extra cast iron grill for my Weber and I swap it in when I'm cooking steaks. Sears the food beautifully, seals in the juices. Otherwise I use the stainless steel grills it came with and they are great as long as you aren't obsessed with getting them back to that factory-fresh shine all the time. Plus with the split grill I can have the cast iron on one side for the steaks and the SS on the other for the veggies - very handy.

I use one of those pump oil sprayers to keep all my grilling surfaces nicely lubricated to avoid sticking and other issues.

Overall I think you can't go wrong with a Weber, my dad and I have the exact same one and it's fantastic.

[plymouthhater]

Here's my 2 cents worth:

I have 2 BBQ's. My winter beater is an old Westbend from 22 yrs ago. It came with cast iron grills. They are still in great shape after 22 yrs of use. I have replaced the burner probably a half a dozen times and the grate that keeps the ceramic briquettes above the burner - but those cast iron cooking grates refuse to die

My other BBQ is a Napoleon (I scooped it at a yard sale a few years ago when it was 4 yrs old or so for $200). It has porcelain coated grills. I had to replace them this year as they were chipped and were rusting badly. BTW in case anybody is curious - a full set (3) OEM replacement porcelain grills for my Napoleon (purchased from Napoleon in Barrie On) was $45.

The cast iron grills hold the heat better, distribute it more evenly and produce a more visually pleasing steak. I find the trick to keeping them from rusting is to never clean them following cooking, but rather leave the grease on them till the next cooking session and then heat the grill to about 500F to burn off the old grease before cooking.

The porcelain grills are easier to clean, but easy to chip. Once chipped, rust sets in almost immediately. They don't seem to hold the heat as well as the cast iron ones either.

[joeym]

if youre after low maintenance, go for the sstainless steel grills.