Most gas and charcoal grills are bought through a major chain retailer. Home Depot is one of the biggest sellers of gas grills. This year Home Depot has expanded some of its store brands, but mostly played it safe and stuck to the same products they had last year. If you choose to shop at Home Depot for your outdoor cooking equipment remember one rule, know before you go. Knowing what you are looking at before you get the sales pitch is the secret to eliminating buyer's remorse.
Home Depot will be carrying three major brand names and two store brands this year. Weber, Char-Broil, and Vermont Castings will be sharing the floor with Charmglow and Ducane. Charmglow is a registered trademark of Home Depot (they bought the name a few years back) and Ducane is licensed from Weber for exclusive use on Home Depot's Chinese made stainless steel grills.
The biggest change for Home Depot is the expansion of the Charmglow line. Returning this year are the two smallest units, the Brinkmann made Charmglow 45,000 BTU and the Nexgrill made Charmglow 36,000 BTU. Added to it are a 4-Burner and a 5-Burner units. Home Depot will also be offering through special order a built in island 4-burner Charmglow unit. These new additions are built by Nexgrill. All of these units rely heavily on 400 series stainless steel and poor construction quality, but with starting price around $300 USD it's hard to argue with the price.
The Ducane line of stainless steel grills will continue unchanged for 2006. These two grills have proven very popular in their price range ($699 USD and $899 USD). A better quality than the Charmglow units, these grills are made from 304 stainless steel and while they use thin gauge metal they are better constructed. The thing to remember about these grills is that while you do get support from Weber (Ducane's parent company) they are not built by Ducane or Weber.
Both the Charmglow and Ducane grills are priced to appear better than the name brand grills on the showroom floor. This is done to steer you away from grills like Weber towards their store brands. Home Depot makes a better profit on their own brands than on the name brand units.
As for Charcoal grills, Home Depot will carry the full line (through special order) of Weber kettle grills. They also will be stocking the popular Char-Griller grill/smoker. You should also be able to find the Orion Cooker. This is a unit stainless steel charcoal fired roaster that is perfect for slow roasting chicken or ribs. Also look for the Char-Broil Santa Fe grill. This is a pretty nice unit for the price. What it lacks in quality it makes up for in versatility.
