First off I want to say that Amazon was apparently listening to all the reviews regarding shipping damage on Broil King Grills. My grill arrived by shipping company on a pallet and there was barely a scuff on the box. No shipping damage whatsoever. Good going Amazon.
As for complaints about building difficulty, this grill is no more difficult to put together than other similar items. You will benefit by looking at all the directions first before beginning. That said, there are some tight spots with the screwdriver but overall it went together smoothly in about 2 hours (30 minutes of which was my fault for not looking closely enough at the instructions). Once together it is a solidly built grill and far studier than the most of the offerings at the big box stores. Build quality seems on par with the Weber Genesis and Summit but maybe not quite that heavy of a lid. This is probably because the Broil King is cast aluminum.
All burners light immediately and each burner has its own ignition so they can be lit independently of each other. The cast iron grates are heavy and seem solidly made. First grilling was steaks and they came out great. The grill gets HOT for a good sear on the steaks which is exactly what I was looking for. It gets hotter than any other grill I've used so this will take some getting used to but its great. Shrimp kabobs grilled nicely the next night at lower temperature. The control of the flame on each burner is great so far too. The included rotisserie burner and kit is a nice addition. Looking forward to firing that up soon. All in all I am very happy with this and look forward to a long time with it. Hard to go wrong at this price for what you get (the Weber Summit with rotisserie is in the neighborhood of $1200) This grill is built well, sears steaks like a champ and looks good doing it.
Do note however, that the cover paired with this on Amazon is too small. Get the large instead.
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I learned a lesson about spending this kind of money on a sight unseen. I made my decision based upon the available literature and professional ratings. For the price I paid, the fire box and everything in it is easily on par with the finest Webers. However, the sheet metal pieces that are used to construct the base are flimsy and thin much like the structures you built using Erector Set toys as a kid. The base wobbles when the wheels are locked, and it flexes a bit more than it probably should on uneven surfaces, so the doors tend to get misaligned, leading to difficulty in mounting them to the frame upon installation or opening and closing them once assembled. So be sure to assemble and operate this grill on a perfectly level surface. I experienced some of the same issues with attaching the side burner and shelf to the firebox that others had. The holes line up inconsistently and required another person to apply pressure to the shelves as I screwed them to the firebox.
Overall, this is one of the best grills out there. It ignites, heats and cooks better than anything I have owned so far. The downside is what you don't get for the money spent, in terms of its overall construction and fit and finish. At this price point, I would expect halogen lamps in the firebox and a propane cylinder trolley that makes replacing the cylinder less hectic often found on less expensive grills. I would expect higher grade sheet metal for use in the base to eliminate its wobble. It should look and feel like a brick outhouse in my opinion. Finally, I would also expect higher grade burner knobs, more on par with the Webers.
Broil King included a universal rotisserie kit and a lifetime warranty on the burners. That makes up for some of the features this grill lacks in this price range. Plus, it is Made in the USA.
It seems that Broil King focused and excelled at everything "under the hood" in designing this grill, but fell a little short on convenience features. I feel like I bought a Ferrari that has no stereo or power windows. My rating is 5 Stars for everying in the firebox, shelves, and side burner, 3 stars for the base, fit/finish and features. Overall, I give it 4 Stars.
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I had a Webber Genesis for 10+ years. Great grill, but it did have a few little design flaws. When the time came for a new grill, I was just going to buy another Webber. But then I started researching and shopping (webber, napolean, broil king, etc.). Boy am I happy with this Broil King! It has to be the best made grill in the world. The grilling/heat control is unrivalled. The overall construction of the grill and materials used are excellent. Now it did take me quite a while to put the grill together. Take your time. Materials used are all excellent. Most important for me; the engineering behind the valves, dual burner tubes, the mid layer flavorizer plates, and the cooking surface are excellent. I have used the rotisserie; it is ridiculously easy, and impressed the heck out of my hard core grilling buddies, all of whom have Webbers. I grill 3-4 nights per week, and I know my fire. I am 100% thrilled with this Regal 490 Pro!
UPDATE: It has been about 15 months since I put this Broil King into action, and I am still so impressed! As mentioned, I grill a LOT. Except for the fact that the inside is filthy, the exterior still looks brand new. No signs of rust, pitting, fading, etc. The ignitor stopped working, but other than that, every part of the grill still operates and feels brand new. It is so well engineered and thought out. One of my buds bought a new Genesis a couple weeks before I got the King, and his cheaper parts are already falling off. Of particular note, the included rotisserie works great, and is so easy to use. I have found that the cook book underestimates cook times, so leave yourself an extra hour or so for larger cuts. There are few things better than a large pork shoulder that has been spinning on my rotisserie for about 4 hours. So after 4 seasons of use, still an awesome grill. I could not be happier!
Honest reviews on Broil King 976584 Regal 490 PRO Liquid Propane Gas Grill with Side
I was a Weber owner for 15 years but I always wanted a grill with real searing power, which Webers aren't really designed for. (they have a tendency to bake the meat, not sear it) I'm talking about getting to 800 degrees and being able to really flame broil a steak the way a good steakhouse would.
I researched this a bit and I think it boils down to this -to get a real searing grill you can spend thousands of dollars or you can buy a Broil King. The Broil Kings are not beautifully styled and the build quality is not great, but your first steak on this kind of a grill is a revelation. The grill will get fully hot in about 5-8 minutes -and I mean 850 degrees hot.
The strength of the Broil King design is the venturi tube burners -which give good even (powerful!) flame and the flame broiling system. As the fat drips off your meat, flames will jump and sear that meat, but you never get an out of control inferno. Your meat cooks super fast but as long as you pay attention you can get exactly the degree of crust/browning/blackening that you want.
Our Weber gas grills were convenient, durable and well designed -but could never give results anything like a good hot charcoal fire. The Broil King can.
Pros: Tremendous power, great performance. Especially compared with newer model webers, which have very limiting flow restrictor that limit their power for searing.
Cons: I think this grill is expensive given the mediocre build quality and bland styling. Everything is cheap sheet metal, though the burner controls are nice. Grill grate is cast iron but not the heaviest gauge; ours has warped slightly. Also, the piezo starter button stopped working after a few weeks. My son fixed it by dislodging it from the body of the grill. It hangs down by the wires but it works now when we squeeze it with a sideways angle and it works. But I happily put up with the cons because I am tasting grilled meat that is the equal of the very best steakhouses.
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Amazon did a great job shipping this grill. My beef (pun intended) is with the grill company. This grill gets to over 600 degrees when heating up with cover closed in about 15 minutes for searing steaks, which I like to do, and it cooks OK after that. Haven't used the rotisserie yet, but there's a couple of things that should be mentioned to be aware of. It wasn't covered in the rain the other night and the built-in thermometer in the lid developed moisture inside the glass, maybe the moisture will dry out eventually, and if it's kept covered in the future water won't get in againwe'll see. But the assembly of this grill really pissed me offand it didn't have to be that way if the company really cared. The assembly instructions were just pictoral images which is fine but there was one step that called for 6 screws and the illustration only showed where 4 of them wentmaking you wonder where the other 2 go. I inadvertently found out where they go on my own upon re-assembling the unit because of the more serious fault I will now describe. The holes don't line up well enough to get an acceptable fit when putting the three sides of the cabinet together and attaching the top grill section. I had to ask a friend to help hold and push the pieces together with me so the holes would line up to get the screws in. It took like ten minutes of pushing really hard to finaly get it, it wasn't easy! And the problem after that, the reason why I de-assembled and re-assembled still persisted, which is the left door was crookedthe space between the two doors was not equal. Because the left door was angled counter clockwise the space between the two doors at the top was greater than the space at the bottom. Looks like s--t. Also the tolerance was so tight when putting the two doors on, the stainless steel bottom frame was badly gouged by the bottom door pins. The instructions tell you to insert the upper door pins first into the top part of the frame and then insert the bottom ones, but it can't be done without gouging the hell out of both sides of the bottom frame. I am very capable of following instructions and assembling any grill and no one should have to go through this after spending $800. So yes, I'm annoyed.
