The Complete Grill & Outdoor Cooking Guide

Start With How You Actually Cook, Not What Looks Impressive

Grill shopping goes wrong in a predictable way. Someone buys for the Fourth of July version of themselves — twenty guests, four racks of ribs, an all-day smoke — and then uses the thing on Tuesday nights for four chicken breasts, forever. The oversized grill takes longer to preheat, burns more fuel, and never sees three quarters of its grate.

Answer these honestly before you look at a single model:

• How many people do you cook for on a normal weeknight? Not on a holiday.
• How many times a week between May and October? Twice a week justifies far more grill than twice a month.
• Do you want to smoke, or do you want dinner in twenty minutes? These pull in opposite directions.
• Will you grill in January? Plenty of Michigan households do, and it changes what you should buy and where you should put it.
• Where will it live? A grill on a wood deck under a low soffit has different requirements than one on an open concrete patio.

Gas, Charcoal, Pellet and Electric

Propane Gas Grills

The default for a reason: ready in ten to fifteen minutes, precise heat control, easy cleanup, and a tank you can swap at any gas station. A 20-pound tank gives roughly 18–20 hours of cooking on a mid-size grill.

• Best for: Weeknight cooking, families, anyone who values speed and control
• Pros: Fast, controllable, clean, works in cold weather, easy to add a side burner or rotisserie
• Cons: Less smoke flavor, tanks run out mid-cook, more parts to fail
• Price range: $250–$2,500+

Natural Gas Grills

The same machine plumbed to your house line. You never run out of fuel and the running cost is lower, but you are permanently tethered to one spot and installation requires a plumber. Worth it if you grill year-round and are not moving.

Charcoal Grills

Higher peak temperature, real smoke flavor, and mechanically almost nothing to break. In exchange you spend twenty to thirty minutes on startup, manage heat with vents rather than a knob, and deal with ash.

• Best for: Flavor-first cooks, weekend grilling, searing steaks hot
• Pros: Best flavor, highest heat, cheapest to buy, nearly indestructible
• Cons: Slow start, learning curve, ash disposal, harder in wind and cold
• Price range: $80–$800

Pellet Grills

An auger feeds compressed hardwood pellets into a fire pot, and a controller holds a set temperature like an oven. You get genuine wood smoke with thermostatic convenience. Superb at low-and-slow smoking, historically weaker at high-heat searing, though many current models add a sear zone.

• Best for: Smoking briskets and ribs, set-and-forget cooking, people who want an outdoor oven
• Pros: Real wood flavor, precise temperature, excellent for long cooks, versatile enough to bake on
• Cons: Needs a 120V outlet, pellets must be kept bone dry, augers and fans can fail, weaker searing
• Price range: $400–$2,000

Electric Grills

Often the only option a condo or apartment allows. Modern models cook well enough, and they are the right call when open flame is prohibited. Check the rules where you live before assuming anything — many Michigan multi-family buildings prohibit charcoal and propane on balconies entirely.

Flat-Top Griddles and Kamados

Two categories worth knowing about before you default to a standard grill.

Flat-top griddles are a solid steel cooking surface over gas burners. They do everything a grate cannot: smash burgers, breakfast for a crowd, fried rice, fajitas, anything small enough to fall through grates. They have become the fastest-growing category in outdoor cooking, and for families with kids they often get used more than a conventional grill. The trade-off is no grill marks, no fat drip-through, and a surface that needs seasoning and rust prevention exactly like a cast iron pan.

Kamado grills are thick ceramic eggs that hold heat with remarkable efficiency. They sear at 700°F and hold 225°F for eighteen hours on a single load of lump charcoal, which makes them the most versatile single device you can buy. They are also heavy, expensive, slow to change temperature, and genuinely fragile if dropped or if a wet ceramic body is heated too fast in freezing weather.

Sizing a Grill Properly

Cooking area is measured in square inches. Manufacturers often add warming racks into a headline "total cooking area" number, so look for primary cooking area instead.

One rule matters more than the size chart: you need at least two independently controlled burners so you can build a hot zone and a cool zone. Two-zone cooking is what lets you sear a steak and then finish it without burning it, and it is the single technique that most improves grilling results. A four-burner grill you can only run all-on is worse than a three-burner you can split.

The BTU Myth

BTUs measure fuel consumption per hour, not cooking performance. A grill that burns more gas is not hotter — it may simply be leakier, thinner, or worse at retaining heat. Two grills at 30,000 BTU can differ by 150°F at the grate.

The useful metric is BTU per square inch of primary cooking area, and a well-built grill lands somewhere around 75–100. Below 60 you may struggle to sear; far above 110 usually signals a thin, poorly insulated body that is dumping heat as fast as it makes it. Heavy cast iron or thick stainless grates, a well-fitting lid, and a firebox with some mass matter far more than the headline number on the box.

What Separates a Three-Year Grill From a Fifteen-Year Grill

Grills fail from the inside out, and always in the same places. Check these five things and you can predict a grill’s lifespan better than any brand reputation:

1. Burner material. Stainless steel burners last five to ten years; cast brass longer; aluminized steel two to four. Burners are the single most common failure point, so check that replacements are available and priced sanely.
2. Grate material. Porcelain-coated cast iron holds heat best and gives the best sear marks — chip the coating and it rusts. Solid stainless is more forgiving and nearly permanent. Thin porcelain-coated steel rod is the budget option and the first thing to go.
3. Firebox thickness and grade. 304 stainless resists corrosion far better than 430; cast aluminum bodies never rust at all and are excellent in our climate. Thin sheet steel with paint is a three-season proposition.
4. Heat distribution. Flavorizer bars, tents, or heat plates over the burners spread heat and vaporize drippings. A grill with nothing between burner and grate cooks in stripes and flares constantly.
5. Cart, casters and lid hinge. The parts nobody inspects and everybody curses later. Wobble the assembled unit in the store; if the cart flexes, it will be worse after two winters.

Features Worth Paying For

• A real lid thermometer mounted at grate level, or an aftermarket probe thermometer. Dome temperature and grate temperature differ by a lot.
• Side burner. Genuinely useful for sauces, corn, or anything that keeps you from running inside.
• Sear station or infrared burner. Worth it if you cook steaks often; irrelevant otherwise.
• Rotisserie kit. Underused and outstanding for whole chickens and pork loin.
• Grease management with a removable tray you can actually reach. A poorly designed grease path is a fire waiting to happen.
• Enclosed cart to store a propane tank out of weather and sun.

Skip: app connectivity you will use twice, LED knob lighting, and "total cooking area" numbers padded by warming racks.

Placement, Clearances and Safety

• Keep the grill at least 10 feet from the house, deck railings, and any overhang. Never operate one in a garage, under a low soffit, or on a covered porch with a combustible ceiling.
• Level, non-combustible surface. On a wood deck, use a grill mat. Sparks and grease both find their way down.
• Leak-test the propane connection every spring with soapy water on the hose and fittings. Bubbles mean stop.
• Store propane tanks outdoors and upright, never in a garage or basement, and never in direct sun above about 120°F.
• Open the lid before lighting. Gas pools in a closed chamber and lights all at once.
• Never leave a lit grill unattended, and keep a fire extinguisher rated for grease within reach. Water makes a grease fire worse.
• Let charcoal ash cool for 48 hours before disposal, and put it in a metal container. Ash that looks dead has started plenty of fires.

Fire Pits and Outdoor Heat

A fire pit extends the Michigan patio season by roughly two months on each end, which is a real return on a modest purchase. Three categories:

• Wood-burning: Cheapest, best ambience, real smoke and real ash. Check your municipality’s open-burning rules — many Southeast Michigan communities regulate recreational fires by size, fuel, and distance from structures.
• Propane fire tables: Instant on and off, no smoke, doubles as a table. Uses a 20-pound tank hidden in the base. The pragmatic choice for a deck.
• Natural gas: Permanent, no tanks, needs a gas line run.

Whatever the type: 10 feet minimum from structures and fences, nothing overhead, a non-combustible base, and no accelerants ever. Patio heaters and chimineas follow the same rules. Our outdoor patio guide covers furniture layout, materials and seasonal care around all of this.

Accessories That Actually Get Used

1. An instant-read thermometer. The highest-value $20 in outdoor cooking. Doneness is a temperature, not a color.
2. A sturdy grill brush or scraper. Inspect bristle brushes regularly and replace them at the first sign of shedding — loose wire bristles are a genuine hazard. Coil-style and wooden scrapers avoid the problem entirely.
3. A fitted cover. The cheapest lifespan extension you can buy in a climate with real winters.
4. Chimney starter for charcoal. Faster and better than lighter fluid, which flavors the food.
5. Long tongs and a wide spatula. Sixteen inches, not kitchen length.
6. A cast iron pan or grill basket for vegetables and anything that would fall through.
7. A second propane tank. Running out mid-cook happens exactly once before you buy the spare.

Winterizing a Grill in Michigan

You have two options and both are legitimate.

If you grill through winter — and gas grills work fine down into the teens — move it somewhere sheltered from wind but still fully outdoors, plan on longer preheats and roughly 30–50% more fuel, and keep a path shoveled so you are not standing in a drift. Keep the tank outdoors; cold reduces vapor pressure but does not stop it.

If you store it, do it properly in the fall:

1. Burn off the grates on high for fifteen minutes, then brush them clean.
2. Empty and wash the grease tray. Old grease attracts rodents all winter.
3. Wipe the interior, remove ash from charcoal units completely, and vacuum the firebox.
4. Coat cast iron grates lightly with cooking oil to prevent rust.
5. Disconnect the propane tank, cap the fitting, and store the tank upright outdoors — never in the garage or basement.
6. Cover the grill with a breathable fitted cover, not a plastic tarp, which traps condensation and causes the rust it was meant to prevent.
7. Store pellets in a sealed container indoors. Pellets absorb humidity, swell, and jam augers.

Buying Checklist

1. Decide fuel type based on how you cook on a normal weeknight
2. Target 400–500 square inches of primary cooking area for a family of four
3. Confirm at least two independently controlled burners for two-zone cooking
4. Check burner material and confirm replacement parts are available
5. Prefer 304 stainless or cast aluminum over painted steel in our climate
6. Verify heat plates or flavorizer bars sit between burner and grate
7. Measure the patio or deck spot including 10 feet of clearance
8. Confirm the assembled grill fits through your gate and around the house
9. Budget for a cover, an instant-read thermometer and a spare tank
10. Read the warranty by component — firebox, burners and grates usually differ

Frequently Asked Questions