Best Grills for Searing (2026)

The most genuinely unusual gas grill in this group: it has two completely separate cookboxes with their own lids — a 500 square inch main box and a 250 square inch second box — so you can run a low indirect roast in one and a hard sear in the other without them fighting each other. Six Dual-Tube burners make 60,000 BTU, the infrared side burner reaches 1,700°F, and a 15,000 BTU rear burner ships with a rotisserie kit and auto-reversing motor. At 270 lbs it is a serious piece of equipment, and the cookbox carries a limited lifetime warranty.

An Arteflame is a solid half-inch carbon steel cooktop ring around an open central fire — a griddle and a fire pit in one, with no lid and no dampers. Heat is controlled by where food sits on the ring: the inner edge sears past 1,000°F, the outer edge holds finished food warm. The base is Corten weathering steel, which is meant to rust to a stable patina and then stop, so it is designed to live outdoors uncovered.

The smallest Arteflame: a 20-inch round CORTEN steel cooktop with an open centre grate over the fire and a flat plancha surface ringing it. You sear over the centre at 1,000°F-plus, then move the meat outward onto the griddle ring to finish, where the temperature falls off with distance from the fire. It is the same one-piece weathering-steel construction and the same cooking geometry as the Classic 40 the catalog already carries, at roughly a third of the price and a quarter of the footprint.

The middle Arteflame: a 30-inch cooktop cut from a single piece of CORTEN weathering steel, with over 700 sq in of surface between the centre searing grate and the surrounding plancha. Four large steaks fit in the centre while vegetables roast in the middle band and bread toasts on the outer edge, all at once. It is the size that fits a normal patio, where the Classic 40 is a landscape feature.

The Founders Legacy 800 is the top of Louisiana Grills' range and the only pellet grill in this catalog built in 304 stainless with a 29 lb hopper. Its Pressurized Cooking System uses an adjustable rear exhaust to hold pressure in a double-lined barrel, and SearTech opens direct flame that the maker rates to 1,000°F — roughly 400°F past what a Traeger or Weber pellet grill will do. A griddle insert and grill light are included rather than sold as accessories. The base 800 is described here; a 1200 sits above it.

Primo is the one American-made ceramic kamado, built in Georgia, and the only major brand with an oval rather than round firebox. The oval shape is the point: a firebox divider splits it lengthwise so one end runs hot and the other indirect, giving true two-zone cooking that a round kamado cannot do without stacking racks. The All-In-One configuration is the grill on a cradle with locking casters, fold-down side tables, heat deflectors, deflector racks and the firebox divider included.

The mid-size Primo, and the one most buyers actually land on. The oval firebox is Primo's whole argument: because the grate is a rounded rectangle rather than a circle, you can bank charcoal on one long end and run a true two-zone fire inside a kamado, which a round Big Green Egg cannot do without a divider accessory. Priced here as the All-In-One package, which is how most dealers sell it — grill head, cradle stand, side shelves, ash tool and grate lifter in one box. The Oval XL 400 above it adds 100 sq in; the Oval JR 200 below it drops 90.

The smallest oval Primo: 210 sq in, 100 lbs, and the same 151–850°F range and two-zone oval firebox as the LG 300. Primo also sells a two-piece GO cradle and base for it, which makes it the largest genuinely portable ceramic kamado on the US market. Priced here as the All-In-One package — head, cradle, shelves and tools.

The Big Green Egg Large is the most popular size of the iconic ceramic kamado cooker, capable of grilling, smoking, roasting, and baking. Big Green Egg is the brand that brought kamado cooking to the American mainstream.

The Big Green Egg XLarge is the crowd-size version of the iconic ceramic kamado, with a 24-inch grate that swallows two packer briskets or four whole chickens side by side. Same thick ceramic and lifetime warranty as the Large - nearly double the cooking area.

The Big Green Egg MiniMax packs the full ceramic kamado experience into a 19.5-inch-tall tabletop cooker that ships with its own carrier. It's the Egg for balconies, tailgates, and campsites - same 750°F ceiling, a quarter of the footprint.

The Kamado Joe Classic III is an 18-inch ceramic kamado loaded with innovations like the 3-tier Divide and Conquer system, SloRoller smoke chamber, and a single-finger Air Lift hinge. It's the feature-rich rival to the Big Green Egg.

The Kamado Joe Joe Jr. is a compact 13.5-inch portable ceramic kamado that brings full kamado versatility to small spaces, balconies, tailgates, and camping. It's the most portable cooker in the Kamado Joe line.

The Kamado Joe Big Joe III is the 24-inch flagship of Kamado Joe's ceramic lineup - everything the Classic III does, scaled up to brisket-and-a-half capacity, with the 3-tier Divide & Conquer rack system, SloRoller smoke chamber, and a heavy-duty rolling cart included.

The smart 3-burner Genesis in Weber's current "W" generation, which replaced the 2022 E-325s generation the existing catalog entry refers to. It carries the same 513 sq in primary grate as the old E-325s but adds a built-in WiFi thermometer with one wired food probe reporting to the Weber Connect app, and a Sear Zone that Weber rates to 750°F. LP as priced; natural gas is $949.