Napoleon
Napoleon Prestige 500
The Napoleon Prestige 500 RSIB is a full stainless 4-burner gas grill with an infrared Sizzle Zone side burner, an infrared rear rotisserie burner, and an included rotisserie kit. It's the step-up-from-Weber recommendation in owner discussions. Note: this model is no longer sold new as of 2026. Its current equivalent is the Napoleon Prestige 500 RSIB (2025 generation, from $2,099).
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Specifications
Features
Pros
- ✓The 1,800°F infrared Sizzle Zone side burner delivers true steakhouse crust that no standard gas burner - including Weber's sear zones - can match
- ✓The infrared rear burner plus included rotisserie kit does restaurant-quality chicken and roasts, a package Weber charges hundreds extra for
- ✓Four main burners with 48,000 BTU heat the 500 sq in main grates evenly, with 760 sq in total including the warming rack
- ✓Full stainless lid, cookbox, and 9.5mm WAVE grates outclass the porcelain-coated steel on similarly priced Genesis models
- ✓Napoleon's President's limited lifetime warranty covers the castings, lid, and cookbox for 15+ years on key components
- ✓Thoughtful touches abound - JETFIRE per-burner ignition, blue LED knobs, interior lid lights, and an enclosed cart
- ✓owner discussions threads regularly recommend it over the Genesis as more grill for the same money once you count the rotisserie
- ✓Night-Light knobs and the integrated ice/marinade drawer in the cart make it a genuine entertaining station
Cons
- ✗At ~$1,800 street it's firmly premium, and the natural gas/propane versions and colors push it higher
- ✗The Sizzle Zone only fits one or two steaks at a time, so searing for a crowd is sequential
- ✗No smart features at all - no WiFi, app, or probes at a price where Weber includes Weber Connect on some models
- ✗Napoleon's US dealer and parts network is thinner than Weber's, so warranty claims can involve shipping waits
- ✗The stainless lid shows heat tint and fingerprints, needing regular polishing to stay showroom-pretty
- ✗Infrared burners are extra components that can crack or clog and cost more to replace than tube burners
- ✗The 500 sq in main area is average - big-batch grillers may want the Prestige 665 instead
- ✗Assembly is long (or costly if dealer-assembled), and at 216 lbs it's not moving far once placed
Owner Insightssummarized from owner discussions
The Prestige 500 is the grill people buy when they have decided the Weber Genesis is not quite enough grill, and the specification comparison owners run is always the same: four burners and 48,000 BTU against three burners and 39,000, an infrared searing side burner Weber does not offer at all, a rotisserie with its own infrared rear burner, and a parts warranty measured in fifteen years. That is a real gap and it is why buyers choose it. The counterargument, made just as consistently, is that a fifteen-year-old Weber feels sturdier in the hand than a new Napoleon, and that nobody is confident this grill will still be here in fifteen years even if the paperwork says it should be.
In use it is fast, hot and good in cold weather. Owners see 700F on the hood gauge, run indirect at a steady 400F with the two left burners lit, and keep cooking through sub-freezing winters. The weakness is evenness: the burners do not reach far enough forward, so the front few inches of the grate run cool, and at least one buyer found only the middle and back would sear properly and returned the grill over it. The other recurring frustration happens before the first cook, because the propane version does not ship with a usable tank adapter and the company will not tell buyers which fitting to use, which sends people to a hardware store to build their own. Longevity reports, against all that, are strong: five years uncovered with heavy weekly use and grates still in good order is a typical report, and one owner's twenty-year-old Napoleon lives outdoors near water and still works.
It suits someone who wants steakhouse searing and rotisserie cooking from a gas grill and will accept a maintenance relationship in exchange. Expect to keep a spare propane tank, expect to clear the rear infrared burner occasionally, and price in that replacement grates cost more than some whole grills. The named alternatives owners weigh are the Weber Genesis for build and support, the Broil King Regal and Baron Pro for similar features at less money with no wind exclusion in the warranty, and a Broilmaster for anyone whose only priority is grate-level searing heat. The Phantom version is a finish choice rather than a cooking one, and the owners who bought it warn that the black textured surface never looks clean again.
What owners like
- +It gets hot and it gets hot fast. Owners report 700F on the hood gauge routinely, and one who replaced an eight-year-old Weber Genesis with the 2025 natural gas version calls it a monster that registers up to 700 degrees. It also holds temperature through winter, with owners cooking at sub-30F outside without trouble.
- +Longevity reports are unusually good. One owner leaves his out all year with no cover, cooks on it eight or nine times a week through summer and two or three times a week through winter, and at five years says the grates and sear plates are still in perfect condition. Another has a twenty-year-old Napoleon sitting uncovered near water that still works.
- +The infrared side burner is the feature buyers cross over from Weber for, and one owner reports using it for eighty percent of his cooking. The illuminated knobs get mentioned constantly as a small thing owners end up loving, since you can see at a glance which burners are lit.
- +The rotisserie package, infrared rear burner included, is the other reason people choose it over a Genesis. Owners weighing the two say the rotisserie and the sear station were what closed the decision, alongside a parts warranty measured in fifteen years rather than three to five.
- +Four burners at 48,000 BTU against a three-burner Genesis at 39,000 is the specification comparison buyers keep coming back to, and owners who run two zones report the two left burners on high sitting steadily around 400F on the right side for indirect cooking.
- +A retailer who sold and delivered both brands in Canada reports far fewer Napoleons coming back as trade-ins than Broil Kings, and Napoleon's own support draws real praise: free replacement regulators, and one owner whose grill arrived with most of its main parts damaged in transit had replacements shipped inside a week.
Common complaints
- −Heat is not even front to back, and this is the most substantial complaint. Owners describe the first three inches of the grate running noticeably cooler because the burners do not extend far enough forward. One buyer found only the middle and back of the grate would sear at all and was returning it, saying a three-burner Genesis ran circles around it.
- −Hooking it up to propane is genuinely difficult. Owners report the box not containing the right adapter, Napoleon declining to specify which fitting is needed, and support responding that a licensed professional should do the install. Owners of the larger built-in models describe the same problem and end up assembling their own fittings from hardware-store parts.
- −It drinks propane when you run it hot. Owners buying the LP version are told to keep a spare tank, and the infrared burners are the thirstiest part of it.
- −The warranty has a wind exclusion and the manual warns against siting the grill in high wind, which owners note Broil King's warranty does not. That matters on an exposed deck.
- −Safety failures show up in the owner threads and they are not trivial. One Prestige 500 caught fire at three months from a faulty valve and the warranty claim was refused. An owner of a smaller Napoleon with the same Sizzle Zone burner had the knob shaft break, leaving the valve stuck open and gas escaping with the tank on.
- −The infrared rear rotisserie burner is a known weak point, with owners chasing uneven heating, cracked ceramic, blocked ports and spider nests in the tube. Sometimes it is a faulty regulator, which Napoleon will replace free, but it is the component most likely to need attention.
- −Consumables are expensive. Replacement grates alone run north of $700, and a Canadian retailer confirms the wear parts like heat plates cost more than Broil King's equivalents, on the argument that they last longer.
- −Build details below the cookbox are not at the same level. Owners report the lower cabinet doors not aligning and popping open, and on the black Phantom finish version the textured surface is close to impossible to clean, with grease spatter that does not come off no matter how long you spend after each cook.
Common Questions
Prestige 500 or a Weber Genesis?
Why is the front of my grate cooler than the back?
What do I need to connect the propane version to a tank?
Is the infrared side burner worth it?
My rear rotisserie burner is heating unevenly. What is wrong?
Is the black Phantom finish worth the extra money?
Compare the Napoleon Prestige 500
This model is no longer sold new. Its current equivalent is the Napoleon Prestige 500 RSIB.
We keep this page for the many still in use and on the used market — specs and honest pros/cons below still apply.
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