Brinkmann Elite Stainless Steel 4-Burner Model# 810-3660-S

Being able to list features has become a the major method for mass market retailers to sell grills. This grill's big feature is its sear burner. To put this sear burner in, Brinkmann took out two 10,000 BTU, standard burners and replaced them with a single, U-shaped dual control 20,000 BTU burner. Over the top of it, they put a different style porcelain coated cast iron cooking grate to give the illusion a separate space. This is an illusion and nothing more. Other than this, the Elite is a big grill, 5 feet across with 650 square inches of cooking space. This is more space than most of us will ever need.

The Brinkmann Elite at Home Depot is a large grill. Measuring more than five feet across and with 650 square inches of primary grilling space, this is a monster of a grill. For this size, however, this grill isn't all that powerful. If you fire up the "sear" burner you can pump out 60,000 BTUs which will get the grill hot enough and burn through a lot of fuel. It won't get the grill very hot and the sear burner has no more power than the rest of the grill. It also heats unevenly, leaving you hot and cold spots across the grilling surface.

As for the construction, it is typically of Brinkmann. This grill is too large and too loaded with features at this price (around $300USD) to have quality components or to last very long. Look for rust early and be prepared to replace it in a few years.

The "sear" burners are the real gimmick here. Brinkmann has replaced two of the 10,000 BTU main burners with a single, dual control 20,000 BTU burner. This lets them advertise a large and powerful searing section without actually delivering.

Another listed feature of this grill is the LED lit control knobs for the sear burner. These little lights are powered by little batteries inside the knobs. These are not the kind of batteries that you will probably be able to find in your local grocery store and when the they die you have to remove the knobs, find the replacement batteries (which you can mail order from Brinkmann). My question is, who is actually going to take the time and spend the money to replace a battery for something you really don't need? This is another example of a Brinkmann "feature" that is utterly useless.