Choosing the right grill for you

NEW YORK (WABC) -- You can burn up some big bucks on a new gas grill, but do you have to in order to get a grill that delivers delicious results?

"Everybody loves a barbecue." That's the slogan for Gina Hegarty's catering company.

"It just reminds you of your childhood and it just reminds you of being together, and parties and fun," Gina Hegarty said.

Gina's company cooks on gas grills.

Consumer Reports has tested nearly a hundred gas grills. They range in price from 100 dollars all the way up to 25-hundred. And with some you need to factor in plenty of space. This 12-hundred dollar grill is almost seven feet long!

Testers grill a number of foods to see how well each grill performs. Steaks are cooked to assess if flare-up is a problem.

"To see how evenly a grill cooks at lower temperatures, testers grill salmon steaks as well as chicken breasts. Now both those foods can easily dry out if grill gets too hot," Dan DiClerico said.

And then there are tests that involve no food at all. Thermocouples measure how evenly a grill distributes heat across the surface of the grates. A thermal image shows even heating across one grill, but not so much on another.

Several high-priced grills were top performers, but Consumer Reports found plenty to recommend that cost a lot less. Among them this 200-dollar Char-Broil Classic from the Home Depot.

"It rated excellent for low- temperature cooking and grilled up a very good steak, too, " DiClerico said.

It can handle whatever menu you've got planned in case you don't have someone like Gina who brings the barbeque to you.

Consumer Reports found another great buy. It costs a little more than the CharBroil Classic. It's a 250-dollar Brinkmann grill sold at Walmart. It's model number 810-2545.

For more information, please visit http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/home-garden/lawn-garden/gas-grills/gas-grill-price-and-shop/gas-grill.htm

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