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[BigDave83]

The propane dealer I use had a grill demonstration last night. They also started selling GMG grills in the last year or so. They gave one to one of the local restaurants that also has a food truck. He was the one doing the demo and cooking. His trailer was there and people were lined up to buy food from it.

 I went to look at how the Saber grills cooked, I had looked at them one time I was there and kind of liked them.

After seeing what he cooked and how they worked, and speaking with another couple of people there that owned them, I had a good feeling. But after I left on my way home I got to thinking. The infrared cooking is nice no flare ups or hot spots for the most part. Here is where I am now. How is this cooking really much different than cooking on my blackstone griddle. Other than a few factors that could easily be fixed on the griddle, they seem to be about the same.

 The infrared like the griddle has no flame access to what you are cooking. My mind tells me that part of the grilling whether gas, charcoal, wood, is the extra flavors you get when the juice and grease drip on to the hot spots and burn up. Yes this causes flare ups but also imparts flavor. Or am I wrong?

 The grill can get to hotter temps than the griddle. Problem that could be solved on the griddle to a point.

The grill will give grill marks, it also channels the juice/grease away from what you are cooking instead of it cooking in that grease and juice. Again could be addressed on the griddle with the addition of a simple regular grill rack or even a set of grill grates laid on the flat surface. My blackstone has a built in lid so I could lower it to help hold heat in.

So give me some thoughts on my thinking if will. close to 2K for the Saber VS just going with what I have. The thing the grill has over the griddle is you can put a rotisserie in it.

 I have a gas grill already not a great one. I may be good with just ordering Grill Grates for on it.

 

[Canadian John]

 If you want to expand and diversify your cookin corral, go for it.  At some point you might find you favour one or perhaps two cookers. The rest become collectables. It's a personal choice.

 As far as cooking goes, I think the novelty could wear off.  We tend to return to tried and true.  However, human curiosity drives to want to do better even if we can't.

  Want or need?

[02ebz06]

My mind tells me that part of the grilling whether gas, charcoal, wood, is the extra flavors you get when the juice and grease drip on to the hot spots and burn up. Yes this causes flare ups but also imparts flavor. Or am I wrong?

I don't know if that is true or not, but I've seen manufacturer ads touting that it does.

[Brushpopper]

I have thought the on the same lines before with a gas grill.  I have a cheap charcoal grill. a Blackstone and of course my Maverick 850.  Grill grates on the flat top would be neat but I finally decided the grill marks don't add any flavor and once the meat is cut up in no longer looks fancy.  Plus our daughter is going off to college in August so our needs are going to be much lower.  I suggest you study on it a while and see what folks who know more than me have to say. 

[pmillen]

The infrared cooking is nice no flare ups or hot spots for the most part.

I gather that this grill is 100% infrared.  (I couldn't tell from their web site.)

I had an IR grill for a time.  It was a mass-produced brand still being sold in most of the big box stores.  It was difficult for me to cook on it because the IR always ran wide open at the same high temperature, making it impossible to throttle the heat back.  I did my best to convert it to a "regular" gas grill but that effort also wasn't to my liking.

Other members on the forum this brand sponsored loved their IR appliances, even those who had the same model I had.  So the shortcomings may have been mine and not the grill's.

Nevertheless, I wouldn't buy a grill again without a 30-day return interval or the ability to cook quite a lot on it for the store's demonstrations.  (The most successful grill stores in my home town do demonstration cooks every Saturday.)

[pmillen]

My mind tells me that part of the grilling whether gas, charcoal, wood, is the extra flavors you get when the juice and grease drip on to the hot spots and burn up. Yes this causes flare ups but also imparts flavor. Or am I wrong?

I think you're correct.  But the Saber probably has some sort of infrared radiation emitter below the food.  It's usually a burner with hundreds of tiny gas flames or a very hot sheet of metal.  Whichever it is, the dripping grease will vaporize and roll back up as flavoring smoke, just like charcoal.

EDIT:  BTW, IMO the IR generated by the hundreds of tiny gas flames is the best IR solution and has merit for certain applications like searing and rotissering.

[pmillen]

Grill grates on the flat top would be neat but I finally decided the grill marks don't add any flavor and once the meat is cut up in no longer looks fancy.

I agree 100%.  I'm not a GrillGrate^® fan.  They make dark grill marks before the remainder of the meat browns (Maillard reaction), but the marks aren't usually browned, they're burned-in, and burned meat is bitter.  So you end up with "fancy" marks that provide no additional quality flavor and the remainder of the meat is plain.

[hughver]

My 5 burner Char-Broil is all inferred and I agree with Paul, throttling it back is a challenge. I use it mostly for high temperature applications, i.e. a 1 1/2-2" steak cooked 4-5 minutes on each side or searing.

[BigDave83]

I only remember charbroil and the first IR grill which had a large tub looking thing under the cooking racks to separate the fire from the food. I looked at them online and now they seem to have the same set up that Saber uses. Emitters under the cooking grate. Both have SS tube burners.

I remember the first time I looked at a TEC they had the grid burners, like the wall hanging propane heater.

I did a little more looking today at some things online. It seems like the SS is backed up by regular steel and it rusts very badly, and according to some very quickly. Granted that could have some to do with where the people live.

below should be a picture of the Saber grate assembly it is 2 piece like the charbroil.

The GF thinks I am crazy wanting to spend that on a grill. The one you have works good. So I will tell her she is right and maybe give a pass on the Saber. My thoughts after seeing it and thinking about it compared to the blackstone, I thought I was simplifying it to much and missing something.

[hokiepop]

I owned a Saber grill but gave it to my son a couple of years ago.   I bought it because I was tired of flare-ups on my old gas Weber.  The saber was great for cooking steaks but that was the only thing it cooked well.  Never had a flare up on the saber but I found it impossible to get the cooking temperature on the grates below 600.  It was a gas miser as well, used very little propane but its limited temperature range (hot to hotter) convinced me to buy  my first pellet grill, a Kuma.   Haven't looked back though I sold my Kuma and bought a Memphis Elite when a local dealer  was giving it away for $ 1,900.

The saber  did have some rust issues even though I kept it covered and lived 60 miles from the nearest saltwater.   My son still uses the saber for cooking steaks.

[BigDave83]

I owned a Saber grill but gave it to my son a couple of years ago.   I bought it because I was tired of flare-ups on my old gas Weber.  The saber was great for cooking steaks but that was the only thing it cooked well.  Never had a flare up on the saber but I found it impossible to get the cooking temperature on the grates below 600.  It was a gas miser as well, used very little propane but its limited temperature range (hot to hotter) convinced me to buy  my first pellet grill, a Kuma.   Haven't looked back though I sold my Kuma and bought a Memphis Elite when a local dealer  was giving it away for $ 1,900.

The saber  did have some rust issues even though I kept it covered and lived 60 miles from the nearest saltwater.   My son still uses the saber for cooking steaks.

I read about someone that hated the temp gauges at grate level. Said they always ran 600, but they tested temps up further in the cooking chamber and said they were 400 area.

I had asked the guy the first time I looked at them about those thermometers, he told me how great they were, I said with them being close the fire will they not always run very hot. He told me no. I did see the other night at the demo the guy using it had the left and center burner on one looked to be medium and the center was on low. Both were in the 5-600 range while the right one was at 0.

[Bentley]

So an infrared grill is a 2 step process.  The gas flame is directed to an infrared element which in turn, radiates heat?  So the IR elements is able to generate a higher heat then just the gas flame?  I do not seem to understand the technology.

[BigDave83]

So an infrared grill is a 2 step process.  The gas flame is directed to an infrared element which in turn, radiates heat?  So the IR elements is able to generate a higher heat then just the gas flame?  I do not seem to understand the technology.

I am not sure how much hotter it is, more it would be hotter because the heat is trapped. The plates shown above have the holes under the mountains of the grate from what I had seen. the valleys just collected the juice or burned them. There is not element in the Saber or the Charbroil, both look like plain SS tube burners found in most grills today. I have never actually searched for what Infrared cooking actually is. To me the full grid type burners like on the side searing stations or the rotisserie burners would be more of an Infrared burner. But what do I know.

[pmillen]

So an infrared grill is a 2 step process.  The gas flame is directed to an infrared element which in turn, radiates heat?  So the IR elements is able to generate a higher heat then just the gas flame?  I do not seem to understand the technology.

A gas flame below your steak relies on the flame heating the air and the air heating the steak.  Air is a darn poor heat conductor.

But if you put a ceramic plate or something similar between the flame and the steak as an infrared heat radiator, the flame will heat the IR radiator and the IR energy waves will heat the steak and not the air in between.  IR energy heat is like light that you cannot see, it's a longer wave length than the longest you can see, which is red light.  So anything of a longer wavelength than red is infrared.  The IR heat is hotter than the heated air produced by the same flame because there's no loss of efficiency by using air as the transfer medium.

[Bar-B-Lew]

I'm pretty sure I am buying a stainless steel Weber Genesis II today.  Not sure yet if I am buying the 3 or 4 burner.  I want a rotisserie too but not sure if I will get it today or later.

I'm getting the all stainless so I can keep it outside all year long.  It will be nice to have to make something on the grill in the winter and not have to wait on a pellet grill to start up or wet pellets.  In a way, I miss the ease of a gas grill.  I will wholeheartedly admit that I like the flavor of a pellet grill much better than propane grills.  I used to have a Weber Summit and a Weber Spirit.  Sold both of them.  One before I moved, and one about 3 years ago.  I should have kept it.