Broilmaster Grills


 

Jon Tofte

TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
A few times the name Broilmaster has been brought up (and I confused it with Broil King). I finally did a little reading and see that this is a very interesting grill. Based on Larry Michael's comments, a pretty powerful and well made grill. He is a former owner.

Of note to me is that this grill is actually STILL MADE IN THE USA, in Belleville, IL. Uses cast aluminum firebox and lid and high grade stainless for many parts.

What it has going against it is the "librarian syndrome". Take a stunningly attractive woman and pull her hair back, use clothes that completely hide her figure and make her look as plain as possible and you have the best kept secret who most guys would never notice working in the library. (This is just a cliche and not a slam on librarians!) Anyway, this grill is definitely not one that you would take a second look at. In fact, it looks frighteningly a lot like those old junker gas grills from the 1970's. However, Larry says they are not to be underestimated.

Does anyone else here have experience with them? Is there really a stunner underneath that plane Jane hood?

There is one listed not too far from me that claims a lot of new parts. That actually seems a little odd given their reputation for lasting a lifetime. It is in Boca Raton where there is a lot of money, so perhaps the owner just replaced things rather than clean them. $500 asking price is out of my price range, especially for an experiment, but other than the control panel it certainly looks nice:

https://offerup.com/item/detail/471272982/?ref=Search

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What do you guys think of these grills?
 
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The grill dealer nearby where we recently purchased our Napoleon carries these. They are high-end but, as you mentioned, pretty plain-jane. No frills. Sales guy there seemed to steer me away from these unless I was looking for one to be permanently pedestal mounted, which I wasn't.
 
Not sure why he would steer you except if permanently mounted. They do have a cart or pedestal or even a built in design. The only thing they don't have I find disappointing is they lack a rotisserie burner. The other is these are just "straight up" grills. There is no grand illusion that they can double as your kitchen oven or range. They're sold strictly as a grill. They can (with their unique fold out extending upper shelf) do a surprising amount of food. But again they don't have the versatility of say an older style Genesis. Thanks to having 3 burners. But they are tanks, they get frightfully hot and have a really good temperature range for low and slow or screaming hot. Also with the waterfall design grates you can set up different "zones". But again they do lack some versatility. If they had a 3rd burner design or heck even just a rotisserie burner option (like the old style very similar Ducane) they could be so much more
 
I've seen these at a local grill store. I really didn't pay to much attention because like Larry said not versatile enough for my needs at the time and it looked like they beat it with an ugly stick. No roti, two burners and fence post ugly was a show stopper.
Ended up getting a Ducane three burner with N/S burners and a infrared back burner for the roti, that was a mistake also. It was a well built grill but to protect the burner valves the burner tubes didn't have any flames for the first 1/3 of the grate making the cooking surface pretty small and it was about the same size as the Genesis 1000.
Made me a firm believer in the E/W burners.
 
Our local grill center carries broilmaster, broil king, and weber. I've talked to them several times. They have told me they think broilmaster is best in terms of quality then weber then broil king. Interestingly I was told they don't sell nearly as many broilmaster as weber and broil king grills due to their kind of plain appearance.
 
Not sure why he would steer you except if permanently mounted. They do have a cart or pedestal or even a built in design. The only thing they don't have I find disappointing is they lack a rotisserie burner. The other is these are just "straight up" grills. There is no grand illusion that they can double as your kitchen oven or range. They're sold strictly as a grill. They can (with their unique fold out extending upper shelf) do a surprising amount of food. But again they don't have the versatility of say an older style Genesis. Thanks to having 3 burners. But they are tanks, they get frightfully hot and have a really good temperature range for low and slow or screaming hot. Also with the waterfall design grates you can set up different "zones". But again they do lack some versatility. If they had a 3rd burner design or heck even just a rotisserie burner option (like the old style very similar Ducane) they could be so much more

I assume that he steered me away for the reasons you've listed. You get much more grill with the Weber or Napoleon but if you want it mounted in the ground it's the way to go.
 
Our local grill center carries broilmaster, broil king, and weber. I've talked to them several times. They have told me they think broilmaster is best in terms of quality then weber then broil king. Interestingly I was told they don't sell nearly as many broilmaster as weber and broil king grills due to their kind of plain appearance.

That’s pretty interesting. I saw a lonesome, single small Broil King grill at our local Lowe’s. $399. I did think it compared favorably or at least comparably with the new Spirit II grills they had by the scores for a hundred bucks more. I like that Broil King is US and Canadian manufacture. I plan to start a thread on Broil Kings sometime soon.

The Broil Kings seem like they are much closer to Weber in build quality than say Charbroil or Nexgrill. Not super stylish, but way more eye appealing than Broilmaster. Still, I am going to stay on the lookout for a Broilmaster that maybe someone will inherit and sell cheap because it doesn’t look like anything. I would love to try one out even if I just used it a few times and flipped it.

I haven’t seen a Napoleon, but these appear aimed at the next step up from Weber while trying to avoid the stratospheric price and exclusivity of Wolf or Viking. Weber definitely has lots of competition!
 
I agree the Broil king grills definitely look like a step up from the standard big box char broils and nexgrills.

I did see a char broil the other day that was interesting. It was all 400 series stainless. Cheaper grade stainless for sure but even the firebox was stainless. It seemed much sturdier and more well built than most grills of that brand. No way to know for sure but it looks like it would last a number of years. Problem is that cheap grade stainless looks really bad pretty quickly on the exterior parts like the hood and side shelves.

Napoleon grills are interesting. I've looked at a few. They look well made. Those wavy grates strike me as really gimmicky though. And they have to be harder to clean.
 
I haven’t seen a Napoleon, but these appear aimed at the next step up from Weber while trying to avoid the stratospheric price and exclusivity of Wolf or Viking. Weber definitely has lots of competition!

We just took delivery last week of a Napoleon Prestige 500 last week (4 days before finding that Summit Gold on the curb:(). It's a very nice grill. Sales guys tells me that they sell Napoleons 7:1 over the Webers now due to some of the quality issues with the newer ones discussed on this forum. The Summit with same features was more $$. Napoleon has a great warranty (original owner only). So We'll have her for awhile.
 
One thing about the BK product they are truly US made (in Indiana) they even have their own metal stamping, forming and finishing "in house". now of course all that is lost if the finishing and quality of base material is not up to par
 
LMichaels unfortunately all the broil king grills I've looked at are cheaper 400 series magnetic stainless on ALL the stainless parts. Even the higher end ones. That's really a shame because the grills look very well made otherwise.

I'm just not a fan of 400 series stainless for the exterior parts on grills at all. I had a char broil like that once and it was a disaster. Granted the BK are way above that in quality but IMO that wouldn't matter much in the long run because of the inferior materials.
 
There are many different grades of 400 SS. So really while your concern may be valid with some very low end products 400 series does not necessarily mean inferior
 
Hmmm. You might be right but I'll still trust the higher grade stainless for that application.
 
I would rather buy an American Made product than Chinese and keep Americans working instead of people there. IMO a well made product even using slightly lesser grade material is still better than a poorly made product with slightly better material. Also there are magnetic grades of SS that are superior to non magnetic. So it's not the only gauge of quality
 
I agree regarding American made being preferable if everything else is equal. But the guys at my local "grill center" think 300 non magnetic SS is superior in an application like grills. I'll trust and go with that until I see positive evidence that it is just as good.
 
I would rather buy an American Made product than Chinese and keep Americans working instead of people there. IMO a well made product even using slightly lesser grade material is still better than a poorly made product with slightly better material. Also there are magnetic grades of SS that are superior to non magnetic. So it's not the only gauge of quality

If you are consistent with this very justifiable logic, don’t you think should be looking at Primo kamado style grills instead of the China-made Sam’s grill? I am not saying the Sam’s one is bad or that the Primo is better made. But Primo is US made and an acknowledged high quality kamado cooker.
 
To a point yes. However if I know full well what I am buying never made any aspersions to being "American" I don't mind. I.e. I own Japanese made Toyota's, I have a Korean made LG range and Samsung washer, Samsung TV's, LG phones, and many times buy tools from China (Harbor) Freight.
I go for the quality/value quotient when I buy something. When I bought my NEW Weber grills I didn't buy them BECAUSE they were made in USA. Frankly I never looked. I bought them because they offered (at the time) the highest value quotient of price to quality I could find (whether I bought Chinese, German, US made whatever). Don't know a better way to describe it. The fact that Weber was a home town made in the midwest product was a bonus not a "must".
My trouble with them is they turned their backs on the very values and customers that made them a great name. That value quotient is gone now. I hope I have made sense. As for 300 series steel there are various grades of it also as there are various grades of 400 series. Non magnetic does NOT = quality automatically and magnetic does NOT = cheap. There is so much more science in it than that simplistic view point. Of course a dealer is going to extol a virtue that they can make you "see" but again it's just a marketing tool. Beside what good does a SS hood or side tray do when the inside i.e. a grease tray, a fire box etc is made cheaply and rots away only to find out you cannot get a replacement for said parts? Again it makes the X00 stainless superfluous and cosmetic only. Kinda like lipstick on a pig.
 
Yes the whole 300 vs 400 stainless IS mostly cosmetic. 400 stainless rarely rusts all the way through. So it's very functional. I'm not saying a grill built from it is worthless. But the experience of myself and many on here is that in a few years the stainless pieces make the grill look like it came from a junkyard. Still a functional grill But not what most of us want.

Maybe the magnetic SS Broil king uses is fine? But I would want some evidence of that first.

I would still buy broil king before all big box mass produced grills.
 
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Yes the whole 300 vs 400 stainless IS mostly cosmetic. 400 stainless rarely rusts all the way through. So it's very functional. I'm not saying a grill built from it is worthless. But the experience of myself and many on here is that in a few years the stainless pieces make the grill look like it came from a junkyard. Still a functional grill But not what most of us want.

Can you maybe find an article or two stating that 400 series SS can be as good for exterior applications like grills? Or some other evidence? Because there's plenty of information out there stating the opposite. And I would be willing to bet the experts at most grill specialty stores would say the same. The ones in my area sell broil king. What possible reason would they have for saying the magnetic grade stainless on BK grills is inferior?

I would still buy broil king before most big box mass produced grills.

OK, to clarify, are we talking about Broil KING (for sale sometimes at Lowes with a variety of models)? Or, are we talking about BroilMASTER (basically one plane-Jane grill body but with allegedly high quality US construction)?

I would expect that the Broil King grills are mostly 400 series like Weber. They seem to be aiming for the same market niche with products offering somewhat similar attributes. They face the same price pressures as Weber, although at least they still do the overall manufacturing here in North America.

I would NOT expect that from Broilmaster who is selling a homely grill for a lot of money but justifying it based on a reputation for durability and very high quality. That, and they are apparently completely made in the USA...
 
Jon I'm talking about Broil king. They sell at Lowes but also at many grill specialty stores. I've only seen broil master at my local grill specialty store. The specialty store in my area sells broil king, broil master, and weber.

Both are made in the USA. Broil master grills are more expensive.

It is the broil king grills that make extensive use of magnetic SS.
 

 

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