Consumer Reports: Best gas grills for your money

CLEVELAND - You can burn up some big bucks on a new gas grill. But do you have to order in to get a grill that delivers delicious results?

Consumer Reports tested nearly a hundred gas grills that range in price from $100 all the way up to $2,500. With some you need to factor in plenty of space. One grill Consumer Reports tested is 7 feet long!

Testers grill a number of foods to see how well each grill performs. Steaks are cooked to assess if flare-up is a problem. To see how evenly a grill cooks at lower temperatures, testers grill salmon steaks as well as chicken breasts. Both those foods can easily dry out if grill gets too hot.

And then there are tests that involve no food at all. Consumer Reports uses special thermocouples to measure how evenly a grill distributes heat across the surface of the grates. Some grill much more evenly than others.

Several high-priced grills were top performers, but Consumer Reports found plenty to recommend that cost a lot less. Among them the $200 Char-Broil Classic 463211512 from the Home Depot. It rated excellent for low-temperature cooking and grilled up a very good steak, too.

Another great buy: the $250 Brinkmann 810-2545 grill sold at Walmart.

Consumer Reports Rates Top 10 Gas Grills

1. Vermont Castings Signature Series (Scored 85/100) $1,000

2. Char-Broil Red 463250511 (Scored 84/100) $400

3. Weber Genesis E-330 (Scored 80/100) $800

4. Char-Broil Red 463250811 (Scored 80/100) $550

5. Weber Genesis S-330 (Scored 79/100) $950

6. Brinkmann 810-2545 W (Scored 78/100) $250

7. Blue Ember BE50070-584 (Scored 78/100) $900

8. Aussie Vantage Series 67C3 (Scored 76/100) $250

9. Kenmore 03982838 (Scored 76/100) $300

10. Jenn-Air 720-0745A (Scored 75/100) $650