I love my DACOR but you will need to make sure you can buy a conversion kit to go from LPT to NG as the parts are different. If I recall you can get carts that the units fit on before you build them in. The DACOR was teh recommendation of the appliance salesman when I built the house. It has been in use with no issues since April 2007.

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

The hood is a Viking with a custom chimney and the drawers/doors are OCI. OCI also makes grills but I do not know about them.

http://www.ociproducts.com/

Here is a link that might be useful: Dacor Grills

There are many good ones out there, DCS, Lynx, Capital, Fire magic, TEC...... Does best mean best for $1500 or best for $5000 plus?

I've got a Fire Magic, and it's been out in the elements for nearly five years and still looks and works as good as it did when it was first installed. It's all stainless steel (grates are cast iron), so there isn't much that can go wrong. Same is true for any of the others.

Of course, all of these grills are terribly overpriced. Once the whole outdoor kitchen stuff took off, so did the cost of these grills. With the economy in bad shape, I've seen huge discounts on them so shop around on-line.

If you were to give your budget, you may get a better response.

I used this site for information on grills when I made my purchase. Derrick is very informed and has tested hundreds of grills.

http://bbq.about.com/

and here is a link to what he is listing as the top 10 grill inserts:

http://bbq.about.com/od/customgrills/tp/aatp061405.htm

I've had a Weber Summit D6 out in the elements without a cover for about 5 years and it still looks great. The most important thing is to make sure that it is ALL 304 Stainless. Some of those big box grills are not 304 stainless and they will rust.

I was looking to spend between $1000-$2000... Not interested in name, only quality unit, even cooking, safe design for grease. My current cheap grill had the burners too close to the grease tray that also did not drain properly... I cleaned it almost every other use, but it still caught fire.

chulaman, that looks great!. I assume the hood and stainless backing allow the grill to be used under roof and against the house? I am not sure if I could get away with that in my town... I think it has to be x ft from house and not under roof.

After 1 grill fire, I am designing my new grill/island far from any combustible structures...

I have seen some that have cast iron grates, ceramic grates and stainless steel grates... what is best to cook on? Do grills not have the lava rocks any more? I thought they were helpful in keeping the heat more even.

Jscozz,

The stainless backing was for code compliance as "non combustible" and there is also a spacing between the grill and backing, as well as min/max distance to the hood that had to be maintained. I do not know where you live but most codes follow a national standard. It was much easier to plan as i did this when the house was built.

At that price range I think I would lean towards the Weber Summit S-460 ($2,300) and Weber Summit S-660 ($2,900). They are both under $3,000 retail, and likely can be had at a further discount in the coming months as the retailers try to clear inventory at the end of the season.

Built in ... I don't need no stinking built in ...