Is a $12,000 Infrared Grill Worth It? We Put One to the Test.
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Close your eyes and imagine your dream outdoor kitchen. The centerpiece is almost always a gleaming stainless-steel gas grill. High-end gas grills aren’t new, but as a grill reviewer, theZwilling Flammkraft Model Dcaught my attention at a trade show a few years back because it cooks using infrared (more on that below), not with an open-flame gas burner like the grills you’re used to.
But the Flammkraft starts at $12,000 — 12 times the price of our pick for thebest gas grill overall, the Weber Genesis EX-325W, which is not exactly an entry-level grill itself. So I wanted to see if the Flammkraft — built in Germany, and the Porsche to the Weber’s Subaru — is really worth the splurge or if you’d be happier saving a bunch of cash and sticking with the Weber Genesis, or trying out an even cheaper grill if you want to test out the new infrared tech without the sticker shock.
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Zwilling’s high-end infrared grill promises to transform the outdoor-cooking experience with new technology and the fit and finish of a sports car. It’s a fantastic grill — but is it worth it, for the price of a used car?
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Weber Genesis EX‑325W Smart Gas Grill
There isn’t much you can’t cook on our favoritetraditional gas grill, with its familiar handling and time-tested convenience features. Is sticking with the affordable, tried-and-true Weber the best way to go for great grilling results?
Whatisthe Zwilling Flammkraft — and is an infrared grill really different?
The Flammkraft is a gas grill in that it runs on propane or natural gas like the grills you’re used to, but it doesn’t cook your food in the same way.
A traditional gas grill burns fuel in burner tubes, creating an open flame that heats the air around the food, which in turn cooks the food itself (the process is known as convection).
An infrared grill instead burns fuel using many smaller, more efficient burners to heat a solid element — a metal, ceramic, or glass plate called an emitter — which in turn transfers heat energy directly to the food on the grill. Think of each infrared element as an upside-down salamander or broiler. The energy transfer is direct enough that you can do things like boil water in a saucepan directly over the burner — something that would be a big challenge for a gas grill, which would have to heat up the air around the pan to do that.
An infrared grill can reach cooking temperature faster, can get hotter, and since it doesn’t put a lot of its heat energy into the air, it lets you avoid drying out your food the way a gas grill can.
According to Greg Blonder, scientific adviser atamazingribs.com, the higher temperatures achieved by infrared grills — despite using the same fuel as conventional gas grills — comes down to how it manages the flow of oxygen. “When you have a little propane bar in your grill, the oxygen just feeds in from the sides in a very small number of places, and the fire just doesn’t oxygenate the fuel very efficiently,” he says. “But when you’ve got this hexagonal head, there’s oxygen everywhere, so it’s burning under ideal conditions.”
But what do these differences really mean in practice? And what do you really get for 12 times the price of our favorite gas grill?
Power and precision
What stands out most about the Flammkraft is how quickly it comes up to temperature, especially compared with a traditional gas grill that needs time to heat dense cast-iron grates. If you’re used to firing up your gas or charcoal grill and then going off to prep while it comes up to temperature, you’ll need to change your approach — you turn on the knob and within a minute, you can toss the food on. You can be finished cooking on the Flammkraft well before a conventional grill is fully preheated.
But speed aside, the Flammkraft’s layout changes the way you’ll look at cooking on a grill. The Flammkraft has three 16,000 BTU burners, with roughly one-third of the cooking area dedicated to a rectangular sear burner on the left. The remaining space is split between two burners that are set horizontally beneath the grill, farther from the cooking surface, one close to the user and one along the back wall — leaving a gap in the middle.
Testing the Flammkraft’s heat output with slices of bread, the power of the sear burner is apparent in the way it scorches the toast in an X-shaped pattern on the left of the grill. To the right, the hot and cool zones are also evident; rather than moving food further from the burners, or disabling one burner to create a cool zone, you can offload anything that’s cooking too quickly to the cooler center.
The Weber, on the other hand, doesn’t get as hot as the Flammkraft but distributes heat more evenly across the grill surface — which may not give you the stovelike control of the Zwilling but works just fine when you’re piling on dozens of burgers or hot dogs to feed a crowd of guests.
It’s also easier and more forgiving to tackle tasks like grilling pizza on the Weber. If you run it as a two-zone cooker, you can slide a pizza off to the cooler side while cranking a burner on the right and closing the lid to create an ovenlike environment to melt the cheese and finish the top of the pie.
Fit, finish, and curb appeal: Do you want a Porsche or a Subaru?
The Model D doesn’t look like an ordinary grill. With a boxy stainless-steel top and a painted steel base (that comes in your choice of seven colors) it’s clearly meant to be the centerpiece of an outdoor kitchen. A substantial oak handle breaks up all that metal and adds a warm touch.
The grill ships mostly assembled, needing only a few minutes of setup — mainly unwrapping the grates and fitting the drip-tray system. Inside, most of the components are stainless steel, and the removable parts are dishwasher-safe. The base functions like a large pull-out drawer, released by pressing the upper corners on either side to disengage a pair of magnetic catches.
Once set up, the reasons behind the industrial design choices become clear: I’ve used a lot of entry-level and mid-priced grills over the years, and the carts often feel a bit janky. SoI notice — and appreciate — when there’s minimal mechanical slop. On the Flammkraft, nothing rattles or shifts in an obvious way. The grates drop in with just enough clearance to make installation easy, but once they’re in place they don’t slide up or down an inch when you’re moving food around. The lid lifts easily, though it is dual-walled and insulated to help with heat retention.
The Weber Genesis EX-325W is a steady, reliable three-burner grill, and the familiar design combines Weber’s familiar porcelain-enameled steel lid with stainless-steel accents, plus side shelves and an enclosed storage cabinet. The lid isn’t insulated, but it’s light and easy to lift.
While the Flammkraft arrives concierge-assembled, Weber leaves a lot of the work to you: Assembly takes about 2 1/2 hours when working alone, and it can feel like half that time is spent unpacking the parts. The instructions are generally straightforward, though some of the line drawings for the cart assembly can be difficult to interpret. I occasionally relied on digital instructions using theBilt appto pinch and zoom for a closer look at some confusing part placements.
The Flammkraft Model D is visually stunning, and it’s the kind of grill that becomes a conversation piece. Friends and family will inevitably ask what it is while you’re flipping burgers. By comparison, everyone’s seen a Weber, even a high-end Genesis. No one’s going to ask what it is or how it works. It’s familiar, approachable, and like your grandparents’ all-metal, 300-pound refrigerator, it just works.
Is infrared grilling worth it? And are there less-expensive options?
No backyard cookneedsa grill that costs as much as a used Honda Civic. While infrared burners offer some distinct advantages over traditional gas-burner tubes, both can cook the same food — the infrared grill just does it faster. The Weber hits high enough temperatures and offers enough flexibility that you’ll get great results — and you’ll spend a 12th of the money.
Infrared cooking is impressive, but right now it comes at a premium, especially if you want to step up to a dedicated all-infrared grill like the Zwilling. That said, if you’re curious about the technology, you can even get cheaper grills that incorporate infrared elements from brands like Napoleon and Rogue.
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With one of these less-expensive grills, you’ll gain many of infrared’s benefits without committing to the cost and compromises of a fully infrared design. That way, you can take advantage of some of the Zwilling’s infrared tricks (like simmering sauces) while avoiding the high cost of entry. And while, like a practical Subaru, they might not inspire envy among your guests like a Porsche parked in your driveway might, these grills will get the job done every time.
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